Chapter 32 #2
We snogged and wrestled our way to his bedroom, leaving a trail of clothing as we went.
With a wild look in his eyes, Edwin dragged me onto the bed with him as he fell backwards.
“Just so you know, I am absolutely compensating for missing James by wanting to shag the second he’s gone, but I’m also utterly fucking desperate for you to bang me into the next century.
Christ, I’ve missed the way you touch me, Trace. Please tell me you feel the same way.”
His expression had a sheen of vulnerability I could see that many others would miss.
I bracketed him on the mattress with my arms either side of his head and my thighs around his, and leaned down to invade his mouth with my tongue until his chest was heaving.
Then I sat back, his erection like a flagpole between us, his pupils massive discs of darkest night as he stared up at me.
“I’m crazy about you, Eddie. I thought you knew, but if you need me to tell you every single day, I will.” I felt a smile stretching my cheeks. “You and James make my world turn.” Now who’s vulnerable?
“I wouldn’t mind if you told me every day.” His fingers drew circles over my hips, before he gripped me tightly and licked his lips. “But right now, I’d be very obliged if you’d make me see stars with that lovely cock of yours.”
I wanted nothing more than to sink into him and plough him until he begged for mercy, but somehow I could tell he didn’t need that, regardless of what came out of his mouth.
So instead, I kissed him again, slowly this time, teasing and exploring, from his pouty lips and up into his hairline, across his blond brows and down to his ears, licking, nibbling, sucking, regretting that his skin wouldn’t bruise for more than a few seconds no matter how hard I pressed and bit.
Apparently, I was the kind of man who had the urge to mark his lover.
Maybe James would one day let me leave an impression on his chest like he’d begged Edwin to do. The thought made me shiver.
Edwin arched and whined underneath me, rutting upwards until I stayed his bucking hips with my arm.
“Let me lead,” I urged him, capturing his attention with a flick of one pale nipple.
He gasped as it pebbled. “See? I’ll get you there.
Be patient.” I stretched across the bed to snag the lube from the drawer.
“You know I’m not good at waiting.”
I grinned. “Oh, I know, which makes all this so much more fun.” I swallowed his cock down as far as I could without choking, wringing a desperate noise from Edwin.
I edged him with my mouth and fingers, pausing and repositioning him every time I knew he was close, until finally he spilled down my throat with a groan.
Only then did I ease his legs over my shoulders and slide my cock into his tight hole, while his dazed blue eyes followed my every thrust. “You’re going to come again for me, aren’t you, darling? ”
He nodded, his focus sharpening at the endearment. “Probably. Fuck, I love what you do to me.”
“I love your vampire refraction time. Makes me feel like some kind of sex god.”
His smile was fond. “You are totally a sex god.” He shuddered as I thrust deep and his eyes flew wide. “Jeez, your cock is magical. I really am gonna come.” He grabbed his hardening dick and pumped it a few times.
I came first, unable to hold back, the visual of Edwin beneath me, open to taking everything I could give, pulling an orgasm from me that encased me from head to toe, leaving me breathless and trembling.
I didn’t realise until my senses returned that Edwin had come too, gluing us together with his cum as I collapsed on top of him.
We didn’t bother cleaning up. I passed out in his arms, his cool limbs around me as I floated into a dream where both Edwin and James told me they loved me and I could finally break free from my lonely prison walls.
When I awoke, I was alone. I pulled on my boxers and found Edwin in the living room, poring over a drawing he was working on.
His artwork seemed to improve with every picture I saw.
His talent was breathtaking, and yet he seemed to see it as no more than a way to fill the coffers.
I wondered if perhaps he’d been told that art wasn’t a suitable use of his time when he was younger.
He certainly seemed prouder of his forgery work.
He tried to usher me back to bed, but everything felt unsettled since James’ departure, so I waved off his fussing, checked on Terrance, and made myself a mug of fruit tea.
When I saw Edwin was once again absorbed in his sketches, I pulled on my work clothes and headed out to see what I could get on with in the garden.
Terrance followed me out. “Why are you not turning on the light Edwin installed for the human child?”
“James is not a child,” I chided him. “He’s a fully grown adult, thank you.
I’m not a pervert. I’m not using the light because I don’t want nosy neighbours complaining it’s too bright, or worse, coming over to moan and catching sight of you.
” I flicked a piece of broken pottery in my familiar’s direction simply to annoy him.
James is very young, my mind unhelpfully supplied.
I hushed the thought. Young or not, neither Edwin nor I had in any way coerced him and I was satisfied with that.
Terrance ignored the pottery shard. “And yet you will not use your powers to create your own perfect lighting.”
I glared at him. “Shut your beak, you…” Words momentarily failed me. “…you varmint,” I finished weakly. “If Edwin were to hear—”
“I’m not a fool. He is inside with the windows fastened.”
“That aside, what the fuck are you saying? You know I can’t.” If only.
Terrance made a weird chirp which I knew meant he was frustrated with me. “You might. But you don’t even try. You should try.”
I glared at him some more and huffed loudly.
Finally, he took the hint, leaving me to snip and trim, and repot a few cuttings that had surpassed even my most optimistic expectations.
I kept working even when Edwin brought me out a glass of lemonade, confessing rather shyly that he hadn’t been sure which of my many fruit teas I might prefer, so he’d opted for the easier decision; we currently only had one variety of cold drink.
I drank it in one long continuous swallow, which had his eyes popping, followed by a suggestion I might be working too hard. I laughed.
“This is what I enjoy the most, getting my hands dirty with my plants. I don’t really consider it work, although of course it is. It makes me happy, Eddie. Drag me inside and sit me at the computer to check orders and invoices and I’ll sulk.”
“You don’t sulk. Do you?” He seemed intrigued. I shrugged.
“I can, especially when faced with technology. I hate it. It hates me right back. That’s why I requested a wired internet connection. I have bad luck with anything wireless.”
“Hmm.” He pondered this as he snagged a broom and swept all my clippings into a neat pile.
“Charley fries electronics, but he’s part Fae.
They’re known for it, aren’t they? Must be due to their non-human body type.
Although James doesn’t seem to have any problem.
Perhaps his Fae blood only gave him his cute ears.
” He leaned on the broom handle and eyed me thoughtfully. “Do you think you have Fae blood?”
I dug my fingers a bit too forcefully into the plant pot in front of me. “James said he could see magical fields as Charley worked on the ice. He’s got more than pointy ears.”
“Oh yes, so he did. So what d’you reckon? D’you think he’s typical of someone mostly human who’s got a dab of Fae blood?”
My shrug this time was more expansive. “I’m no expert on the possible gifts that being mixed race can bring. But seeing as we’re on the subject, you’re descended from mages, aren’t you?”
Edwin became vampire still. “What?”
“Are you seriously telling me you didn’t know?
Your surname is Marsh, for goodness’ sake.
And your tracking powers are way better than average regardless of how good a Boy Scout you might have been before you were turned.
One might say they’re mage diviner level.
Your mother was determined to keep her family name and to pass it on to you, her only child.
From what I’ve heard, you didn’t have it easy, but nobody in her family disowned her as far as I can tell.
They kept their distance, but your uncle sent her money regularly.
Not much, because her family might have been embarrassed by her being a single mother, but they weren’t about to let her, or you, starve.
” I got to my feet when I realised he wasn’t faking the shock on his handsome face. “Is this news to you, Eddie?”
“Uh, yes? How do you know this about my uncle? I didn’t know. Who the hell are you, Trace?”
That was a question I was going to dodge forever unless circumstances changed.
“You know that photograph of the little boy with a woman? The one on the shelf in your bedroom?” He nodded.
“I presume that is you and your mother?” Another nod.
“I accidentally knocked it a couple of weeks ago and the frame flew apart. There was a letter between the photo and the backing.” I could no longer meet his eyes as I confessed, “I might have skimmed the contents.”
Edwin sighed. “You’re a nosy fucker.” I couldn’t disagree; I was.
I am. But then he propped the broom against the hedge and motioned for me to approach.
I did so a little hesitantly, expelling an oof when he roughly tugged me into his embrace.
“I must be a sucker for the rest of you, because I’m not even mad.
A bit stunned, but definitely not mad.” He kissed me, unexpectedly and full-on dirty, his mouth plundering mine until I was breathless with want.
When we pulled apart, his eyes were glassy with lust. But he wasn’t finished with the subject of his past. “I’d never even considered the mage angle.
D’you really think it’s possible? And if so, why didn’t Baxter say something?
She’s the nosiest person I know and likes nothing better than delving into someone’s past for clues. ”
“It probably didn’t seem necessary,” I offered.
“Your talents are amazing no matter where they came from. And you can’t have children to carry on the mage line — if that’s what it is — so perhaps she didn’t think it was worth mentioning.
You’re more than the sum of your genetics. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“No, I’m glad you did.” His brow creased. “Although I’m a bit freaked out to think I might now be in the same general category as that bastard Cormack. And I definitely don’t want to discuss this with James, or not yet.”
“You’re nothing like him!” I protested hotly.
“I don’t think you could be if you tried.
Don’t worry. I won’t breathe a word to James.
It could seriously upset him, and we don’t know anything for sure.
” This time, I kissed him, slowly and thoroughly until I wondered why we were still outside when we could be naked and writhing on the sheets of his bed.
We were thinking along the same lines, so I hurried to slake the dirt off my hands and arms, then once again we were tumbling to the mattress to give vent to our desire.
Lying together some time later, staring at the ceiling, I said, “Did you mean it, about feeding from me?”
A deep groan prefaced Edwin’s throaty, “Absolutely. If you’re still up for that?”
“I am. I’m a bit nervous, but I’d be a liar if I said the thought didn’t excite me.”
He found my hand and held it so tightly I feared for my bones. “Later today, when you’ve rested?”
“Absolutely.” I rolled over and searched his face. “What’s on your mind?”
For the longest moment, he didn’t reply. Then, with a hesitance that worried me, he said, “I’ve been thinking.”
Oh, shit. “About what?”
Another long pause, before, with a crack in his voice that tore at my heart, he said, “The thought of one day losing you is so painful, I’m struggling to even say the words.
Would you…I mean…if it didn’t repulse you…
might you consider drinking my blood sometimes, like James does?
Vampire blood would keep you from ageing almost indefinitely.
I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’m not asking lightly. ”
Oh, Goddess. Now what do I say?