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Rei seized his lips in a soft kiss that stopped his excuses and moved them into the realm of action. He’d waited decades for this moment, and he wasn’t about to let it slip through his fingers. Yichen froze for a heartbeat and then surprised him by wrapping his arms around his body and rolling onto his side so they could press even closer together.
A moan slipped from Rei as he lost himself in the kiss. Tender flesh brushing and tugging with each kiss. Yichen’s cool, silken hair slipping to caress Rei’s cheek while fingers dug into his back, pulling him in so tight. By the gods, this man could kiss. He would never have guessed it with all of his scowls. His Yiyi was melting him so that he was nothing more than a puddle of need in his arms.
Yichen broke off the kiss and rubbed the tip of his nose along the side of Rei’s. “You need to stop,” he mumbled.
“I don’t know. We’re really good at this,” Rei teased, trying to angle his mouth to capture Yichen’s for another kiss.
“You need to stop scaring me,” Yichen elaborated as he continued to dodge. “It’s like you’re determined to give me a heart attack.”
Smiling, Rei lifted a hand to run his fingers through Yichen’s loose hair, pushing it from his face. “I don’t think vampires can have heart attacks.”
“And yet you keep trying.” At least Yichen punctuated that grumble with another small kiss. Each one was making Rei more and more malleable.
“Okay, no more scaring,” he promised when Yichen drew his mouth away and Rei gave chase. “I promise to be a good little elf. No more standing on the roof of the car while it’s moving. No more getting body parts chopped off. No more—”
This time it was Yichen who silenced his words with a hard kiss. The tip of Yichen’s tongue slid along the seam of his lips and Rei parted them with a groan of pleasure. Yes, anything Yiyi wanted, he was going to get. The man was an evil fucking genius and right now, every kiss was stamping his ownership of Rei deeper and deeper.
But the kiss was too short. Yichen had barely let his tongue slip into his mouth before he was pulling away.
“Just be safe. Please,” he mumbled.
Rei’s eyes flicked open, and he found Yichen’s head was resting on his pillow, his eyes closed so that his thick black eyelashes lay like dark fans on his pale cheeks. His breathing evened out as he drifted toward sleep. Had the poor vampire been unable to sleep until Rei awakened from his restorative rest?
Tilting his head up, Rei pressed a kiss to Yichen’s temple, then another to his forehead. “I’ll stay safe. Get some sleep, Yiyi.”
“Mn,” he grunted, his hold on Rei loosening. “Get a shower. You have leaves in your hair.”
Yichen might have had a point. He was sweaty from the nightclub and dirty from the fight on the road. And there were things clinging to him after lying in the small garden for several hours. Meanwhile, his vampire smelled of soap, subtle spices, and sleep.
He slipped out of Yichen’s arms and shifted his position so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed. He spread the covers over him and brushed some strands of hair from his face, making sure Yichen was as comfortable as he could be. A thousand questions buzzed in his brain, demanding answers, but right now, none of them seemed important. The same sense of calm that had drifted over him when he’d first wandered through the halls of this home found him again. All the worries about his place in tomorrow and forever clumped together in the back of his mind. He had right now.
He sank into the decadent privilege of watching the only man he’d ever loved sleep. Decades had passed with him pining for Yichen, his heart yearning for a taste of warmth and compassion from him. The stupid thing would flip and race at the tiniest of smiles or a small touch each time Yichen was worried about him.
Maybe that was why he took all the risks he did. It was the one way he could soak in the little touches and moments of concern from the vampire. Most of the time, though, Yichen was shouting his concern in Rei’s face and cursing his recklessness.
Not healthy. Fuck, he never claimed to be in his right mind. His father had wanted to kill him since birth, and his mother had joined in on the fun when he reached his teenage years. During his time in the fae realm, sycophants and psychopaths surrounded him constantly, jockeying for favor from the royal family. That meant a constant barrage of plots and schemes.
No one could be trusted.
No one except for his Yiyi.
The vampire had been up front from the very beginning. He’d wanted one thing—to go home to his clan. That had meant surviving the gauntlet of killers who lurked in every shadow.
Yichen had been given the chance to turn on Rei to save his own skin, but he stood by him, protected him, risked his own life. Why? Because Rei had dared to protect him. Had argued with his father to release the vampire. Had given him a tiny sip of blood to ease his suffering.
The blood bond forged between them wasn’t just Yichen’s dependence on his blood, but it was also based on the blood they’d spilled for each other.
Swallowing a sigh, he slipped out of the room. He moved to his own, where he showered away the previous night. When he closed his eyes, he could see those beasts with eyes glowing like fiery embers as they chased them. His father wouldn’t risk sending out the Black Dogs for a simple incursion. They required a lot of magic on his father’s part to control. Otherwise, they would have attacked anything or anyone they ran across on the road.
Throw in the will-o-wisps, which didn’t like following anyone’s direction, and this was quite the tantrum on his father’s part. Could he have lost some face after Chen cut off his arm? Was the Silver Court questioning his strength?
Even better, was his mother driving him to be so reckless with his magic?
The marriage of Ash and Belladonna was not a love match. It was a constant struggle for power—in terms of magical power and control of court supporters. If King Ash was weakened, the fae army could switch sides and follow the queen. Not that it would give Rei any kind of advantage. As far as he knew, his mother was as excited about this scheme to take over the human realm as his father was.
They needed a plan. Something that would allow them to take out either King Ash or Queen Belladonna. Eliminating both at once would be ideal, but without a sizable army, that wasn’t feasible.
As much as he wanted to stand there under the hot spray of water, pondering the slow, painful deaths of his parents, he was eager to check in on Yichen one last time. Just to make sure he was sleeping. And maybe steal a small kiss.
