“Are you okay?” Blay said softly. “Really okay.”
Saxton stared into his coffee. “I find it difficult to fathom humanity sometimes, I truly do. Not just in that race, but our own.”
“I’m sorry. About last night.”
“Well, it got you in my bed, didn’t it.” Saxton smiled as much as he could, given that half of his mouth was distorted. “Not exactly the route I had planned to take to get you here... but it is lovely looking at you in the candlelight. You have the body of a soldier, but the face of an earnest scholar. The combination is... intoxicating.”
Blay finished what was in his cup on a oner and nearly choked. Or maybe that was less what he was drinking and more what he was hearing. “Do you need a refill on the coffee?”
“Not right now, thank you. It was perfectly made, by the way, and that was also an excellent, if obvious, deflection.”
Saxton put his cup and saucer on his ormolu bed stand and resettled himself with a groan. To keep himself from staring at the guy, Blay put his cup on the blanket chest below and let his eyes wander around. Upstairs was all Victorian Empire, with heavy mahogany furniture and Oriental rugs and gorgeous, lush colors—which he’d learned during his excursions to the kitchen. The understated and proper and reserved got left at the cellar door, however. Down here it was all straight-up boudoir, everything French, with curving marble-topped tables and dressers and formal needlepoint rugs. Lot of satin and... black-and-white pencil drawings of gorgeous males reclining very much in the same way Saxton was.
Only without the robe.
“Do you like my etchings,” Saxton drawled.
Blay had to crack up. “What a line.”
“I use it sometimes. I’m not going to lie.”
Abruptly, Blay had an image of the male naked and making love on this very bed, his flesh twisting and turning with another’s.
Surreptitiously checking his watch, he realized he had another seven hours here and he wasn’t sure whether he wanted them to pass at a crawl or in a blink.
Saxton closed his lids and didn’t so much sigh as shudder.
“When was the last time you fed?” Blay asked.
Those heavy lids lifted and bright gray flashed. “Are you volunteering?”
“I meant from a female.”
Saxton grimaced as he rearranged himself on the pillows. “A while. But I’m fine.”
“Your face looks like a chessboard.”
“You say the
“I’m serious, Saxton. You won’t show me what’s going on under that robe, but if your face is any indication, you’re hurting in other places.”
All he got back was an
“Now who’s deflecting.”
There was a long pause. “Saxton, I’m going to get you someone to feed from.”
“You keep females in your back pocket?”
“Mind if I use your phone again?”
“Suit yourself.”
Blay got up and went into the bathroom, preferring a little privacy because he had no clue how this was going to go.
“You could use the one right here,” Saxton called out as he shut the door.
Blay came back out ten minutes later.
“I didn’t know eHarmony worked that quickly,” Saxton murmured, his eyes remaining shut.
“I have connections.”
“Yes, you do.”
“We’re going to be picked up here at nightfall.”
That raised the blinds on those eyes. “By whom? And where are we off to?”
“We’re going to take care of you.”
Saxton drew in a breath and exhaled on a wheeze. “Coming to the rescue again, Blaylock?”
“Call it a compulsion.” On that note, he went over to a chaise longue and lay on it. Pulling a luscious fur throw over his legs, he blew out the candle next to himself and got comfortable.
“Blaylock?”
God, that voice. So low and quiet in the dim light.
“Yes.”
“You’re turning me into a poor host.” There was a slight hitch of breath. “That chaise is no place for you to sleep.”
“I’ll be fine.”
There was a silence. “You won’t be cheating on him if you join me in bed. I’m in no condition to take advantage of your virtue, and even if I were, I respect you enough not to put you in an awkward position. Besides, I could use the body heat—I can’t seem to get warm enough.”
Blay wished like hell he had a cigarette. “I wouldn’t be cheating on him even if... something happened between you and me. There’s nothing there. Friends, just friends.”
Which was the reason this situation with Saxton was so damned weird. Blay was used to being in front of that closed door, the one that kept him out and away from what he wanted. Saxton, however, offered an archway, something he could walk through easily... and the room on the other side was gorgeous.
Blay held out for about a minute and a half. Then, feeling as if he were moving in slow motion, he shifted the white fur to the side and stood up.
As he crossed the room, Saxton made space for him, lifting up the sheets and duvet. Blay hesitated.
“I don’t bite,” Saxton whispered darkly. “Unless you ask.”
Blay slipped in between all that satin... and got an immediate idea why silk bathrobes were the way to go. Smooth, so smooth.
Something more
Saxton turned on his side to face Blay, but then moaned... in pain. “Damn it.”
As the male eased over onto his back again, Blay found himself following and putting his arm over Saxton’s head. When the male leaned upward, Blay made a pillow of his biceps and Saxton took full advantage, nestling in.
The candles extinguished one by one except for the votive in the bathroom.
Saxton shivered and Blay moved closer, only to frown.
“God, you are cold.” Drawing the male into his arms, he held Saxton and willed his body heat into the guy.
They lay together for the longest time... and Blay found himself stroking that thick, blond, perfect hair. It felt good... soft, springy at the ends.
Smelled like spices.
“That feels divine,” Saxton murmured.
Blay closed his eyes and breathed deep. “I agree.”
FIFTY
“What the hell are you two doing here?” Xhex hissed as she lowered her dagger.
Trez’s expression gave her a big-ass helping of
Characteristically, iAm stayed quiet at his brother’s side; he just nodded and crossed his arms over his chest, doing an excellent impression of an oak tree that was going nowhere. And as the twin Shadows stared down at her, they were shielding themselves, revealing their bodies and voices only to her.
