Rosko, Mandy - Night and Day (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) (4 page)

A rush of evil pleasure rose inside him as the implication of his mother’s tears hit him.

The bride was ill. There would be no wedding today. Which also meant there would be no wedding
night
.

Hallelujah, thank the Lord. He didn’t have to fuck his little cousin.

Cedric put his fist to his mouth to cough, the only way he could hide his smile.

His mother squeaked. “You’re not coming down with something, too, are you?”

“You know, I think I might be.” He coughed again to disguise the crazed laugh building within him. He had another day, at least. A week at most, or however long it took for a healthy eighteen-year-old to get over a flu. He wouldn’t be putting a ring on her finger today or his cock inside her tonight. He pointed toward the stone staircase, not too dissimilar from the one at Silus’s mansion. “I’m going up to my room to lie down.”

Cecelia rubbed his back, her delicate, manicured hands scratching him through his jacket. It made him shiver. “You do that, sweetheart. Get some rest. I can’t have you sick for the wedding later.”

He ignored her mothering and passed the guests quickly with his head down, hiding his face should a smile break out on it. There were murmurs of regret and well wishes for himself and his fiancée, which he accepted with a barely there nod, but eventually he was up in his room.

He leaned his back against the locked door and smiled. His muscles twitched with the urge to dance.

He loved Dacielle, he really did, but she was the closest thing he had to a sister. She would survive having the flu, no problem. He, on the other hand, would be traumatized for life if he had to make babies with her.

“You look like you had a good night.”

Cedric jumped as Ben appeared from nowhere, smack in the middle of his bed. He stretched out lazily like he owned the place instead of worked in it.

Cedric laughed and leapt onto the bed with him to punch his arm. “You scared the hell out of me.” He made himself comfortable next to his buddy until they were both on their backs, staring at the flat screen hanging on the opposite wall, which was currently turned off.

“What happened?” Ben asked.

Cedric rubbed his face and sighed a happy sigh. It felt like Christmas times a thousand. “The wedding’s postponed.”

Ben blinked and sat up. “Really? That’s great!” He hesitated. “But, that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

Silus. Of course. Just thinking about him, the way he’d left him, and what they hadn’t finished, suddenly dampened things.

“Ceddy? You okay?”

“Nothing happened.”

A disbelieving laugh bubbled out of his friend. “Bullshit.”

“He drank some of my blood.”

“So?”

Cedric could’ve punched him for real. “What do you mean so? I’m a sun sprite.”

Ben stuck his hands behind his head, leaned back and stared like he didn’t know what the problem was. The damned idiot. And he was supposed to be Cedric’s bodyguard.

“Vampires can’t drink sun sprite blood because of our connections with the sun.”

Finally some semblance of understanding dawned on the other man. Then a little worry came over him. “Is he okay?”

Cedric thought back to Silus’s writhing and moaning form on the carpeted floor of his room. He had to banish the thought quickly before he got himself a hard-on with his best friend lying in bed next to him. “He seemed okay when I left, but it didn’t get very far when he bit me.”

“Where’d he bite you?” Ben twisted his head around to look at Cedric’s neck. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s on my thigh.” His thigh, which now felt strangely good despite the fact that there were twin holes in it.

“I want to see it.” Ben lunged for his leg, but Cedric kicked himself up off the bed.

“I need to see my father.”

All joking left Ben’s eyes.

“I’m not going to tell him where I was.”

“Hope not.”

Right. Because if Cedric let that little ball drop, Ben would be out of a job before he could teleport away from Cyricus’s wrath.

“You’re going to talk about…”

Cedric nodded. “The wedding.” He was going to try and get out of marrying his cousin. He’d thought about what would happen if he did say no, and as scary as the outcome of all those thoughts had been, the image of Dacielle naked and waiting for him was too much.

He used to
babysit
her for God’s sake.

“Good luck, man.”

“Thanks,” Cedric muttered. Then he lost his nerve. He was such a pussy. “You’ll—”

“I’ll stick around for a little while.” Ben made himself comfortable on Cedric’s beige sheets again. This time he reached over and grabbed the remote from Cedric’s nightstand. “Your TV has more channels than mine anyway.”

Cedric left, comforted with the knowledge his friend would still be there when he came back.

Though he’d faked an illness earlier, there were no guests on this floor to see him walking with his head held high, back straight, and no cough in his throat. He considered going to check on Dac first—he might not want to marry her, but she was still his little cousin, and he was concerned—but then he decided against it.

If she was resting, his presence would just disturb her. If she was awake, he would be forced to sit with her and listen to her speak of her eagerness to get married, apologize for the delay her illness caused, and how much fun their honeymoon would be.

Pass.

Dac was a good girl. And like all good girls, she believed in the same traditions as her elders, did what she was told, and thought that becoming a wife was the highest achievement she could attain.

The wing containing his father’s rooms weren’t far from Cedric’s, and he knew his dad could be found in his private office.

Before he knocked, his nose caught the telltale scent of tobacco floating around the room, and the angry slam of a phone hitting his desk. He actually had to take a breath for courage before rapping on the door.

“Come in.”

Cedric did so, but Cyricus did not look happy to see him. Something had definitely pissed him off. “Thought you were sick.”

Cedric shut the door. “Just a cough. How’s Dacielle?”

His father took the cigar from his lips and flicked the grey ashes in the crystal tray beside his ledger. The lines around his mouth from his constant scowling were ugly and deep. “She’ll live, though it’s costing enough money delaying the bands, caterers, and getting hotel rooms for the guests our house can’t fit.”

Ah, so here was the root of the problem. While his father had always been capable of lavishing money around, he actually hated doing it and, in recent years, became more and more vocal about his displeasure.

It was one of the reasons why a marriage between his son and niece would be so beneficial. Dacielle came with a great big happy dowry. Old money was the best kind to a race that loved old values, after all.

Well, Cedric was about to make the problem a helluva lot worse, but he needed to make himself clear.

“Dad, I can’t go through with this.”

His father stopped with the cigar nearly back in his mouth. He put it down carefully, leaving it to smoke itself in the tray, his golden eyes flashing.

A lot of people told Cedric he was the mirror image of his old man back when Cyricus was younger. Cedric hoped he wouldn’t end up looking so mean.

“Son, did you not go out and do your
thing
last night?”

“Kind of, but—”

“And might I remind you that the only reason I allowed your little escapade with some courtesan was so you could get your urges out of your system in time for your coming marriage.”

That’s what Cyricus thought, anyway, that Cedric had found some male professional to scratch his itch last night. If his father ever discovered he’d gone to a vampire’s birthday party instead of a brothel, Cedric would probably find his ass disowned in a heartbeat.

It had been his own private rebellion against his parents for what they were doing to him. That, and the rumors of vamps being good in bed, a rumor he couldn’t confirm either way now.

Still, though it didn’t go anywhere, he was glad he’d gone.

“Father, I don’t love her.”

Cyricus shut his eyes and sighed. “There’s more to marriage than love.” He leaned his elbows on his desk and ran his large hands through shoulder-length, golden hair before folding his fingers together in front of him. “Your mother, myself, and your aunt had this planned since the second they knew your Aunt Sheila was carrying a girl. We made an agreement.”

“And I have to honor it.” Cedric fisted his hands at the unfairness of being forced to keep promises his parents had made. It was disgusting.

His father’s hands clenched in response. “If you wish to keep the honor and nobility of this family intact, then, yes, you will not unkiss the bargain.”

Right, because it would be so horrible if those snobby bastards turned their noses up at Cedric or his parents. He didn’t give a rat’s ass what they all thought. Unfortunately, his parents did, and Cedric cared for his parents.

It was a big deal for all sun sprites when someone made a bargain. That bargain had to be honored, or else the whole family for at least three generations forward and back was shunned as untrustworthy, selfish, and liars in general. Unlike humans, who had eventually started choosing their own partners regardless of parental consent, sun sprites were still very much into the old ways of doing things, and first cousins were open season when it came to choosing a spouse for one’s child.

If Cedric called off the wedding, it would be considered a betrayal of the worst kind against his family. If he broke the promise they had made, he would be labeled as an untrustworthy rogue. People would avoid him like he carried the Black Plague, and his parents, well, as the people who had created such a heathen monster, they would either be pitied much the same way people pitied lepers, or be as shunned as Cedric.

What a position to be put in. Marry a woman and keep your family happy or do the whole be-true-to-yourself thing and damn them all.

The ironic thing was that being gay wasn’t even the issue. Keeping his parents’ promise was.

Cyricus must have sensed Cedric’s inner turmoil, because his voice and eyes softened. “Dacielle is ill. Not severely so, so you can take it as a gift if you wish to be unmarried for a few days more. Otherwise, this discussion is over.”

Cedric forced his finger to uncurl at the dismissal, just as trapped now as he’d been when he first came in here, or so his father thought, anyway. He turned and left the office, Cyricus calling at his back, “And tell your guard to keep better watch over you. I do not like that you arrived home alone.”

Shit. One of the other guards must’ve said something.

Whatever. Didn’t matter anyway because he was done with the whole thing. Last night, even though the events hadn’t come to their preferable conclusion, had shown him that he couldn’t live without the romantic company of another man. And he wasn’t about to marry a woman just to eventually cheat on her. Dacielle deserved better than that.

His father might think this was finished, and his mother might refuse to see it coming, but he was getting out of this marriage. One way or another, even if it killed him.

* * * *

Silus slept fitfully, but when he did, he dreamt of Cedric, on his back on Silus’s bed, spread out, open, and gasping as he fisted his prick in his hand, waiting for him.

Silus would then wake, with perspiration on his body and an erection that required immediate attention. This happened three times during his day’s rest. And all that despite the God-like orgasm just a sip of Cedric’s blood had brought him.

His eyes rolled back merely thinking of it. He’d only gone in for a taste, just a sample of the blood pumping along those perfectly firm thighs. He’d known the instant it touched his tongue there was something different, but he’d attributed it to the immense pleasure he’d been giving his bed partner. Humans were known to taste sharper, better even, during their coupling. But then he’d taken in a little more, and he’d swallowed.

The explosion behind his eyes had panicked him at first. Though he’d never seen the sun, having been born a vampire, he imagined the bright lights blasting behind his retinas were exactly what he’d always feared and admired.

Ridiculous to be sure. Obviously his experience could not be attributed to seeing real sunshine.

But then, could it be so ridiculous? He’d taken the blood of a sun sprite. Legends claimed they were made of sunshine, and better vampires than him had died doing such a thing. Why? Because they’d seen the sun behind their eyes as well and were unable to handle it?

Silus smirked. Those vampires should have held on just a little longer, because when the lights had faded, Silus had been rewarded with the most pleasurable experience in all his hundred years on the planet.

He could not wait to experience it again. With pleasure so great to be had, overlooking the fact that his lover was a sun sprite could prove to be easy indeed.

Silus turned to face his alarm. Though his family, indeed, most vampires in general, followed the old ways, new technologies were always welcome in the home, and the red block letters informed him that he’d slept in. The sun would be down again in an hour.