Page 22 of Missing Piece
Okay. Subject change. Keep going.“So how often do we do this?” Adam asked, rubbing the spot on his neck where he had been bitten last.
“In general, we need to feed every two weeks or so, but we can go longer with varying degrees of temporary insanity the longer we go,” Vincent said. He pulled Adam’s hand away from his neck, glancing down to the mark he left there.
“Temporary insanity?”
“It’s just the best way to describe it.” Vincent shrugged and shifted so he was facing Adam.
The same warmth he felt when Vincent kissed him curled low in his belly, settling there like a cat that was determined to overstay its welcome. He wanted to believe it was some sick part of his brain that liked being looked at like he was simultaneously a chunk of meat and a cool glass of water. Probably from being locked in that damn room with nothing but endless levels of Candy Crush and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
He wanted to close his eyes. There was something piercing about the gaze, invasive and digging too deep as though Vincent had cracked open his skull and was poking around at the parts that hadn’t melted away from years of abusing painkillers.
Vincent moved closer. It was slow, barely noticeable, but itwas happening. The flutter in Adam’s stomach lurched first, then settled into warmth again. He tensed, licking his lips as his mouth went dry. Was Vincent going to kiss him again? He didn’t want to get kissed again.
Liar.
“I like to feed every six days, just enough each time. It causes less stress on the heart,” Vincent muttered, as though he were saying the words to Adam’s lips. He stroked Adam’s face, gently pushing his head to the side as he exposed his neck.
Adam wasn’t familiar with the emotions that wracked him as Vincent moved past his lips. It was like a ball of relief and disappointment pulsing in that spot where the curling warmth had settled. He was glad that he hadn’t been kissed again, right? He couldn’t find the words even in his own mind for it. He didn’t want Vincent to kiss him, right?
“Right here,” Vincent said against his neck, his soft lips brushing against the skin.
Adam tensed even more, his arms clamped to his sides, feeling as if he were turning to stone. Vincent’s breath on his skin, the smell of some kind of shampoo with cedar invading his nostrils in a way that made him want to lean forward and bury his face in the blond’s hair. He stared straight ahead, his entire body braced for pain as that warmth in him began to whip into a frenzy, spreading down into his groin and reawakening the vestiges of his libido that had been stolen by sobriety.
This is just because he is close and I’m lonely. I’m not actually interested in him. It’s survival,Adam told himself as he felt himself harden beneath the blanket. “Just get it over with,” he said through clenched teeth. If he unclenched his jaw, histeeth would begin to chatter.
From the cold, of course. Nothing else.
“Why rush things?” Vincent asked as his lips trailed up Adam’s neck until they settled against his ear.
Adam swallowed hard, strangling a groan that tried to escape as Vincent’s breath hit his ear. The bastard must have taken note of his reaction to having his ears messed with during their last encounter, because he was lingering there, barely touching him with his lips, just breathing.
“You’re not going to fight me this time?” Vincent whispered, his thumb swiping over Adam’s lower lip.
Adam ignored the urge to bite him, thankful that he had clenched his jaw hard enough that he was certain his old fillings had turned into diamonds. “Just do it already,” he managed.
“As you wish.”
It burned. The first few seconds burned like fire under his skin, spreading from the nape of his neck and down his chest. Adam squeezed his eyes shut, fighting every instinct in his body that screamed at him to run away from the pain and electrified the nerve endings in his arms to punch the vampire. He kept his throat tight, his tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth as the burning shifted from pain to something weirdly pleasant. Like the euphoric soreness after a workout.
The feeling of Vincent suckling at his neck, the coolness of his tongue running over his skin was making the rest of him heat up. Too much. His cock throbbed, his face burned, and the groan of pain he thought he was holding back had definitely turned into something else.
God dammit, I’m getting turned on.He grabbed Vincent’sshoulder. “Enough,” he choked out.
Vincent slapped his hand over Adam’s mouth, holding him in place and silencing him at the same time.
Fuck this.Adam shook his head back and forth to loosen Vincent’s pressure on his face enough for him to bite down on his hand. Hard. As hard as he could bite down before the groan he was trying to kill escaped his throat. His face grew even hotter, hoping that Vincent was too preoccupied with drinking that he hadn’t heard it.
Instead, Vincent’s shoulders shook, huffing out a laugh against the skin of Adam’s neck.
Adam dug his nails into Vincent’s shoulder. “Enough,” he tried to say again, his teeth still embedded in Vincent’s hand.
“It’s impolite to speak with your mouth full,” Vincent said as he pulled back. He paused, moving back to the wound to lap as blood trickled from it. When his face came back into view, he had a content look on his face, licking the remnants of Adam’s blood from his lower lip. “You can let go now.”
Adam released Vincent’s hand, blood running down his chin as Vincent pulled his hand away. As soon as he wiped the blood away with the blanket, his stomach dropped. Fuck. That definitely broke a rule. He swallowed, noting the taste of metal on his tongue as he stared into Vincent’s half-lidded eyes, his pupils dilated in a way that made him even less human.
Vincent licked his own blood from his hand with a smile, not breaking eye contact. The sight of the way his tongue cleaned his hand reminded Adam of something he had seen in porn, not in real life. His dick pulsed again, betraying the horror of the situation and flooding his mind with ideas that needed to stay buried deep in his subconscious.
“That’s twice now you’ve made me bleed,” Vincent laughed as he leaned back against the bench. He wrapped an arm over Adam’s shoulders, rubbing his hand over the top of his arm a few times as though he were trying to warm him up. “Best not to mention it to anyone. I have a reputation to maintain.”
