Vigil (5 page)

help the rush of emotions, the hard beating of his heart at the

thought of seeing Donte again. The awareness that—at any

moment—he could turn a corner and see Donte’s much-loved

face quickened his footsteps and compressed his chest with tense

anticipation. Adin truly hoped Donte was past his lengthy period

of melancholy, because he wanted nothing more than to play.

Vigil
27

“Damn you,” he said aloud, “come out, come out, wherever

you are.” He turned another corner and headed down an alley on

his way to the hotel. His skin hummed with keen urgency, and he

could hear the whisper of Donte’s many languages in his head.

Adin knew enough to recognize Donte’s playful stalking when he

felt it. “I can feel you. I know you’re here.”

Adin passed a fire escape under which a faint puff of smoke

curled away from a recessed doorway, redolent with the scent of

Donte’s expensive cigars.

A tiny flare of light from a rather unusual, nearly original

Zippo lighter caught Adin’s attention, limning Donte’s face, then

going out.

Like fucking Harry Lime, there, a briefly lit face in the

darkness, and gone again.

“Hello, my lover.” Adin went into the sinister shadows to be

with Donte, moving with grace into his arms to swap smoke and

spit and find skin. Sensation prickled all along the surface of his

body when they touched.

“Adin,” Donte sighed when their bodies met. He cupped

Adin’s face in his hands and studied him. “
Più amato
.”

“I’ve missed you,” Adin said between kisses. “Missed us.”

“Me too.” Donte tossed his cigar to the ground and reached

both hands down the back of Adin’s pants. “Leather,
caro
? You’re

dressed like a boy harlot. I have to admit, it has its charm.”

“Mmhmm.” Adin pulled Donte’s shirt from his trousers. He

wondered if all vampires had such marvelous tailors, he had only

to breathe in Donte’s scent and crush the fabric in his fingers to

feel a surge of erotic excitement deep within him.

“Turn,” he told Donte, uncharacteristically brusque.

“Adin…” Donte resisted, but Adin gritted his teeth and

clutched Donte’s jacket, spinning him so his face was pressed

against the wall. He wasn’t thinking too clearly when reached

around to unbuckle Donte’s belt and undo his zipper. He found

the tops of Donte’s hips and slid downward to press into the

28 Z.A. Maxfield

hollows of his pelvis on either side of his cock. Adin dipped

his hands lower, cupping Donte’s balls and cradling his dick as it

thickened and firmed in his palm. Donte protested only slightly

when his trousers hit the ground.

“Adin, surely—”

“Shh…” Adin used his upper body to push Donte’s into the

wall even as he nudged Donte’s legs apart as far as they would

go, trapped as they were. “Be my man, Donte.” He unzipped his

leather pants, and his cock dropped hard and heavy against the

skin of Donte’s ass.

“A—”

“My man and nothing more, right now,” Adin told him. “I

need you, lover.”

Donte’s muscles relaxed beneath his fingers. “All right.”

“Oh, shit.” Adin reached around and stroked Donte’s uncut

cock erect. “I want you so much. I dream about it every night.

Tasting you. Filling you. Lying beneath you as you devour me.

Only when I started looking for you, when I realized you were

out here somewhere on the street waiting for me, I wanted so

much more… I wanted—”

“To hunt me,” Donte finished.

Adin jabbed his cock into the cleft of Donte’s ass. He hissed,

“Yes. And I’ve caught you, so you’re mine.” Adin used glistening

drops of precome from Donte’s cock to tease at Donte’s hole,

but it wasn’t enough. “Shit. We need lube lover. I don’t want to

hurt you.”

Donte held his hand up to what little light there was and tore

his palm with an incisor. Blood dripped, viscous and thick, from

the wound. “Spit on that.”

Adin did as he was told. When Donte reached back and

took hold of his cock, the sensation was exquisite. He squeezed

through spit and blood, warm and nearly pulsing with life inside

the tightness of a thick, cool hand. Adin drew in a shuddering

breath and nearly blew right there. Donte played with fire by

Vigil
29

thumbing the slit of Adin’s cock firmly but eased before Adin’s

balls drew up. Donte pressed his hips backward while he pumped

Adin’s cock a few more times.

“Pay attention,” Donte teased when Adin momentarily lost

focus. Adin wrapped an arm around Donte’s neck and surged

against him, inching his way into Donte’s tight channel.

“Ah. So good,” Adin moaned when he’d pushed his way in to

the hilt and pressed his face into Donte’s back, breathing in the

scent of him. He could feel Donte all around him as he began to

glide and clutched a muscled shoulder for purchase.

Adin wanted flesh beneath his fingers—not fabric—so he

kept his dick in motion even as he helped Donte buck off one

side of his coat. Together they unbuttoned and slipped his shirt

off. As soon as Adin found skin he tasted Donte and teased him

with teeth and tongue, nibbling and sucking up marks on his pale

skin.

“Adin…” Donte dropped his head back. “You’re burning me

up.”

“Touch yourself.” Adin held on and drove into Donte.

A+nticipation heightened when Donte shifted to get his hand

on his dick. Adin felt the change in Donte’s muscles as he stroked

himself, felt him tense in satisfaction when he gave himself a

particularly pleasurable pull.

Sweat dripped into Adin’s eyes, stinging as he buried his face

in the thick, dark hair at the nape of Donte’s neck. His heart

thundered in his chest, and even knowing Donte’s heart would

never beat for him in answer, he nearly sobbed with relief each

time he sank into Donte’s cool body. Adin wanted to obliterate

the awkward distance that grew so often between them. He

pressed his cheek to Donte’s back, knowing he shoved him

uncomfortably against the bricks on the wall beneath the fire

escape, but unable to find the will to let him loose. He pumped

frantically, flying toward his release, ready to come apart at the

slightest sign or pressure.

Donte’s legs stiffened, and he groaned. His body clenched

30 Z.A. Maxfield

around Adin’s cock. Adin caught the rich, bittersweet scent of

Donte’s come as it splattered against the wall, then sank his teeth

into the meaty muscle where Donte’s shoulder met his neck. His

legs nearly gave out as his climax hit him hard and he soared,

hands skimming over the hills and valleys of Donte’s trembling

frame, every molecule that touched Donte’s skin striking and

dancing, sending sensation rippling back through him like a stone

skipped in a pond.

Adin collapsed against Donte, who sank, sliding to his knees

on the dirty street. Adin draped himself over Donte’s back,

wrapping arms so tightly around his neck that if Donte had been

an ordinary mortal, he’d have died from lack of oxygen.

Where he still had hold of Donte with his teeth, he tasted

sweat and salt.

Maybe surprise.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” Donte gasped out as he

tried to extricate himself and lunge for his clothes.

“Are you complaining?” Adin slid his hands down Donte’s

chest and smoothed come across his belly.

Donte dragged his shirt and jacket on and stood to pull up his

trousers. “Not really. No.”

Adin heard a smile in Donte’s voice. He hung on to some

part of Donte as long as he could, but finally let go and fell back

to the street with a thud. “I claim what’s mine, vampire,” he said

imperiously. “By the power of Count Chocula…and by the gods

of breakfast cereal everywhere.”

“You’re unhinged.”

“Shut up. I’ve had a helluva day.” Adin sighed again, tucking

his cock into his trousers, then zipping up his fly. “That was epic.

We should do that all the damned time. As soon as I get the

feeling back in my legs I’ll run and you can fuck me if you catch

me.”

When Donte had his pants done but his belt still dangled

he reached down and hoisted Adin up, then wrapped his arms

Vigil
31

firmly around him.

“
Pazzo
.” Donte kissed him gently, nearly reverently. Adin

locked his arms around Donte and pushed so they fell back

against the wall again with a
thud
. Out of any human man a burst

of air would have escaped, and Adin missed it a little so he voiced

it.

“Ooooomph,” he sang out, ignoring the shushing Donte was

doing in his ear.

“Have you been drinking?”

“I had a glass or two of wine,” Adin admitted.

“With Santos,” hissed Donte.

“Yep.” Adin stepped back and began to pull Donte along

toward his hotel, even as he tried to do up his zipper one-handed.

“Your immortal enemy.”

“Shh,” Donte chided. “It’s late.”

“
To the last, I grapple with thee;
” Adin intoned, giving it all the

Moby and a little more of the Dick than it absolutely called for.

“
From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee; For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at

thee.
”

Adin noticed Donte tried to hide a smile. “Come along,

Melville. It would be better if you could make less noise and more

sense. I thought you might have had enough of the gendarmes

for one day.”

“Oh.” Adin slowed his steps. “You heard about that, did

you?”

“Yes. Explain.”

Adin sighed. “Come along my lover, I will tell all once we

reach the hotel. It’s this way.”

When they reached the street where Adin’s hotel was located,

Donte took Adin’s elbow and pulled him into the shadows to

help him fix his clothing. Adin returned the favor, running his

hands over Donte’s shoulders and smoothing the wrinkles from

his jacket as well as he could. He couldn’t stop himself from

32 Z.A. Maxfield

pulling Donte in for a kiss as he cinched his tie into place.

“It’s good to see you,” Adin said, hoping Donte could read

the truth of his love in his eyes.

Donte stroked a finger over the bruise on Adin’s forehead

and pressed a kiss tenderly over it. Guilt surged as Adin recalled

Santos licking that very spot.

“If I had a beating heart, it would stop whenever I look at

you, più amato. You are my life. You know that, right?”

Adin softened considerably. “Yes.” Adin kissed Donte’s hand

and led him into the lobby of his hotel. “My monster.” He didn’t

much care for the look he got from Monsieur Villiers, but when

all was said and done, it was an honest mistake. Arguably he’d had

plenty of men in his hotel room already.

“Why on earth did the clerk look at us like that?” Donte asked

once they were alone in the elevator.

“Why indeed,” Adin murmured.

Adin wasn’t surprised when—after he invited Donte into his

room—he discovered that nothing was there. Not Bran. Not

Boaz. Not his luggage or personal effects. He sat down on the

bed with a sigh and scrubbed his hands through his hair, now

just tacky from the gel and product he’d used to style it in what

seemed like days before. He stood without saying anything and

made his way to the ensuite bathroom.

“Don’t bother trying to lock the door,” Adin told Donte.

“Santos broke it down.”

Donte flipped idly through the television channels while Adin

scrubbed his face clean of makeup. When Adin returned, Donte

opened his arms and enfolded him in an embrace that said as

much about the longing Donte had been feeling for him as it did

about their present circumstances.

“My things are gone,” Adin told him.

“Outwitted by Santos again, were we?” Donte murmured

into Adin’s hair.

“I don’t think so. No.” Donte shot him a look but said nothing.

“Santos invited me to stay at his home. Call Boaz and ask him if

you don’t believe me.”

Donte’s brows knit together. “Oh, I believe you.”

Adin straddled Donte and rested his head on his shoulder. “I

believe Santos was legitimately offering me a safe place to stay.

How much do you know about what happened today?”

“I know you did an extremely foolish thing, going to meet

Harwiche in a cemetery.”

Adin froze. “How did you know about that?” He jumped to

his feet. “You’re having me
followed
?”

“Caro—“

“So what, you have me watched when I leave the hotel, you

34 Z.A. Maxfield

have Boaz on speed dial to get me out of trouble, and you race

here like a biblical angel when you perceive I’m in danger?”

“Yes.” Donte turned cold eyes toward him. “What of it?”

“You act like my mother!”

“I do nothing of the sort,” Donte growled.

“Well, no actually, you’re right.
She
had faith in me.”