Chapter 15
Fifteen
Aniggling of anxiety crawled across Philippe’s flesh as he stepped out of the elevator and into Rafe’s penthouse later that night.
It wasn’t so much the idea of being trapped with Rafe during the daylight hours, but that he was willingly trapping himself in a place that was one wall of windows after another, offering him up to unbroken sunlight.
Self-preservation was screaming at him to turn around and go home, but he silently repeated to himself that Rafe spent each day in this place, and he was perfectly safe.
He wanted to see what happened in Rafe’s unique home to keep him protected from the murderous rays of the sun.
And he wanted to spend the day wrapped in Rafe’s arms.
After everything that had happened, after years of giving all of himself to others, he wanted to claim this one moment. Even if this was the only time they ever had, he wanted this for himself.
“You look worried.” Rafe’s low, seductive voice drifted out of the deep shadows to greet him.
Philippe stopped and searched the living room to find Rafe standing in the open doorway from the balcony.
He was wearing a pair of soft sleep pants.
His normally wild black hair was wet and slicked back as if he’d just recently showered.
There was something wonderfully predatory about the man.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that Philippe had willingly stepped into his lair.
“Don’t get me wrong. I love your home. It is only that you seem to have an abundance of windows, and exposure to sunlight tends to be quite unhealthy for me.”
Rafe’s face was a deep shadow, and Philippe was hoping that Rafe was smiling at his playful teasing. He wanted to remove the fatigue from his voice. Philippe’s problems weren’t the only ones plaguing Rafe. He had his own people, his own family to worry about.
“Is it not enough that I plan to cover your body with mine?”
Philippe laughed softly and took another step into the penthouse. “Oh, that sounds quite pleasurable, but I have no desire to see you come to harm just to keep me safe. Do you have any other options?”
Rafe moved inside and slide the door shut behind him, cutting off the sound of the wind so that they were now enveloped in silence. “Then I guess we will have to make do with the shades that slide down over the windows, blocking out the sunlight.”
“That’s enough?” Honest curiosity tinged his voice.
“Yes, but if you’d feel more secure, there are also metal shutters as a backup.
” Rafe walked far enough into the room for his face to be illuminated by lamplight.
The vampire was his usual devilishly handsome self, but he was also tired.
It was hard to pinpoint exactly what gave away his fatigue.
Maybe the few lines along his forehead or the way the playful smirk on his lips failed to light his beautiful blue eyes.
The subtle slump of his broad shoulders.
Philippe wanted to do more than give Rafe pleasure.
He wanted to pull away that cloak of exhaustion for just a little while.
For both of them. Philippe’s life had not gone how he’d thought it would—as a human or a vampire.
He took on the responsibility of caring for others who’d been hurt, but that had meant pushing down his own desires and hopes for too many years.
Tonight, he wanted to reach for something that would just be for himself. Didn’t he deserve at least that after all this time?
Closing the distance between him and Rafe, Philippe stood for a moment, looking at the creature before him. There was such an arrogant grace to him, as if he was fully aware of the fact that he’d been put on the earth to be worshiped for his physical beauty.
But that arrogance was just a protective shell to safeguard the tenderness and insecurity hidden within.
Rafe was a creature who treasured his freedom and loved so very deeply.
He loved his brothers. He loved the trio of vampires he’d claimed as his own.
And by some surprising grace of God, he loved Philippe.
Rafe had earned their love and devotion in return.
He laughed and called himself the reckless Varik.
He continually disparaged his lifestyle and mocked himself, making all his life to seem a giant joke.
But Philippe saw the truth. Rafe held the world at a safe distance, always standing a little bit apart, as if waiting for someone he loved to turn on him. Like his mother had.
Philippe wanted to prove that expectation wrong.
Reaching out, he slowly slid his hand along Rafe’s stomach, loving the way the muscles jumped and flexed at his touch. “Did you know that I missed you?”
The smirk still on Rafe’s lips turned into a true smile. “In the two, maybe three hours that we were parted.”
“Oh, I think it takes far less time than that for me to start missing you.” Philippe curled his fingers around Rafe’s hip, as if trying to hold him in place while he slid his other hand up the vampire’s chest. He wanted to map every inch of Rafe’s body like an ancient explorer in search of lost treasure.
He wanted to uncover all Rafe’s secrets, but slowly, over long centuries.
Beneath his fingers, Rafe’s heart beat out a steady tattoo like an unknown code that Philippe couldn’t yet decipher. But soon. He’d learn everything soon.
“And what is it you miss?”
“You mean like your witty mind and loving heart?”
“I was thinking more like my haunting eyes and talented mouth.”
Philippe pursed his lips together and tilted his head to one side as if thinking over Rafe’s suggestion, but it was more to keep the laughter from bubbling out.
“You do have a very talented mouth that I’ve enjoyed since the first moment we met.
But I was thinking more about how I missed your thoughtfulness and concern for others. ”
“There are also my incredibly nimble fingers,” Rafe suggested. He reached up one hand and said fingers danced along Philippe’s jaw in a breath-stealing caress that had Philippe’s eyes fluttering shut. “All those years of playing the violin have made them quite quick and agile.”
“Definitely,” Philippe whispered, trying to gather his thoughts back together like plucking leaves out of a playful breeze. “But there’s also your courage and incredible will.”
“I believe you’re mislabeling my stubbornness, but I’ll accept it.” There was laughter in Rafe’s voice where there hadn’t been just moments ago, and Philippe took that as progress.
The fingers touching his jaw moved to wrap around the hand Philippe had left over Rafe’s heart. He slid their hands down between them, stopping only when Philippe was holding Rafe’s semi-hard cock. “I think you are overlooking my most enticing asset.”
A small gasp left Philippe, and his own heart sped up while blood rushed to his dick.
He massaged Rafe through his thin sleep pants, his fingers moving along the thick shaft and over the head pressing against the soft material.
Rafe hissed and his hips punched forward, his body seeking more friction.
Philippe hummed a little, increasing the pressure on Rafe’s cock as he stroked him. “Again, it is something I have missed, but I don’t think it is nearly the most important thing that I’ve missed.”
Rafe growled. “Stop teasing me, my sweet clan leader.”
“I think there is only one way for me to show you all that I’ve missed.”
One hand clamped down on Philippe’s shoulder and Rafe thrust into Philippe’s grasp, his long body trembling slightly. “And what’s that?” Rafe panted, his voice shaky.
“I take you to bed and make love to you until you understand that there isn’t a single thing about you I don’t miss when we’re not together.”
“Yes!” Rafe cried out before slamming their lips together.
Philippe removed his hand from Rafe’s dick so that he could wrap his arms around his lover, holding him tightly to his own body.
The fingers of his right hand were splayed across the warm skin of Rafe’s back while he shoved his other hand inside his loose sleep pants to dig his fingers into one muscular ass cheek.
Tongues slid against one another, and Philippe swallowed down each of Rafe’s hungry moans.
The fire they’d been slowly stoking blazed out of control, consuming them both.
No one had ever made Philippe feel more alive, more desired than Rafe.
The world fell away when they were together and there was only their broken breath, acres of warm skin, and the electric need sparking along each nerve ending, building to an explosion that would finally fuse them together forever.
There would no longer be a Rafe without Philippe, and Philippe would no longer have to live a day without Rafe.
“Please, mon ange,” Rafe begged. He pulled away just enough to speak, but their lips brushed with each panted word. “I need you.”
Philippe captured Rafe’s bottom lip between his teeth and gently tugged. He rocked his hips against Rafe’s, rubbing their cocks alongside each other until he wrung another moan out. “You shall have me. All of me. Any way you wish.”
“Inside me. Own me. Make me forget.”
Philippe smiled beside Rafe’s jaw, loving every desperate, hungry word. “Never forget. I’ll just make sure I’m the only thing you can think about.”
Rafe captured his mouth again in a draining kiss, but Philippe broke it off quickly, not wanting to get lost in another kiss when he could have Rafe stretched out naked on the rumpled sheets.
“The bedroom,” Philippe gritted out when his body was craving for him to just pin the nightclub owner against the wall.