Lover Mine (Black Dagger Brotherhood #8)(108)

"It's all right." As Blay started walking, he felt Saxton fall in beside him.

When they got to the head of an alley, they paused to let a car hang a louie on Commerce.

"So how are you feeling about all this?"

Blay faced the other male and decided life was too short to pretend he didn't know precisely what the "this" was. "To be honest, I feel strange."

"And not about those charmers back there."

"I lied. I've never been on a date before." This got him a cocked brow and he had to laugh. "Yup, I'm a real player."

Saxton's suave air slipped and behind his eyes, true warmth glowed.

"Well, I'm glad I was your first."

Blay met the guy's stare. "How did you know I was gay?"

"I didn't. I merely hoped."

Blay laughed again. "Well, there you go." After a pause, he put out his palm. "Thank you for tonight."

As Saxton slipped his hand in, a frisson of pure heat flared between

them. "You do realize that dates don't normally end this way. Assuming both parties are interested."

Blay found that he was unable to let go of the male's palm. "Oh . . .

really?"

Saxton nodded. "A kiss is more customary."

Blay focused on the male's lips and abruptly wondered what they

tasted like.

"Come here," Saxton murmured, pulling on their connection, drawing 278

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him into the shelter of the alley.

Blay followed into the darkness, swept up under an erotic spell he had no interest in breaking. When they were in the lee of the buildings, he felt the male's chest come up against his own and then their hips fused.

So he knew precisely how much Saxton was aroused.

And Saxton knew he was the same.

"Tell me something," Saxton whispered. "Have you ever kissed a male before?"

Blay didn't want to think of Qhuinn right now and he shook his head

to clear the image. When that didn't work, and the guy's blue and green eyes lingered, he did the one thing guaranteed to get him to stop thinking of his pyrocant.

He closed the distance between Saxton's mouth and his own.

Qhuinn knew he should have gone right home. After he got

summarily dismissed from Tohr's house, no doubt so that John and Xhex could do a little horizontal conversating, he should have gone back to the mansion and cozied up to some Herradura and minded his own goddamned business.

But nooooo. He'd taken form across the street from the only cigar bar in Caldwell and watched--in the rain like a loser--as Blay and Saxton took up res at a table right in the front window. He'd gotten a whole lot of bird's-eye as his cousin had looked at his best friend with an elegant lust, and then some knuckleheads gave them a hard time and they left their cigars barely smoked and their ports mostly unfinished.

Not wanting to get caught in the shadow game, Qhuinn had

dematerialized into the alley beside the place . . . which quickly turned into a wrong place/wrong time kind of gig.

Saxton's voice drifted over on the chilly breeze. "You do realize that dates don't normally end this way. Assuming both parties are interested."

"Oh . . . really?"

"A kiss is more customary."

Qhuinn felt his fists tighten, and for a split second, he actually thought of stepping out from behind the Dumpster he was standing behind. But to do what? Ride on up into their space and be all red-light, break-it-up-boys?

Well, yeah. Exactly.

"Come here," Saxton murmured.

Shit, the bastard sounded like a sex-phone operator, all husky and mad sexed up. And . . . oh, man, Blay was going with it, following the guy into 279

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the darkness.

There were times when a vampire's incredible sense of hearing was a

real ball-gnasher. And of course . . . it didn't help if you put your head around the corner of the trash heap you were next to so you could have a clear visual shot.

As the two of them came up against each other, Qhuinn's mouth

dropped open. But not because he was shocked and not because he wanted in on the action.

He simply couldn't breathe. It was as if his ribs had frozen along with his heart.

No . . . no, goddamn it, no . . .

"Tell me something," Saxton whispered. "Have you ever kissed a male before?"

Yes, he has, Qhuinn wanted to scream--

Blay shook his head. He actually shook his head.

Qhuinn squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to calm down

enough to dematerialize. As he took form in front of the Brotherhood's mansion, he was shaking like a motherf*cker . . . and briefly considered bending over and fertilizing the bushes with the dinner he'd eaten before leaving with Xhex and John.

A couple of inhales later, he decided it was more appealing to go with plan A and get good and shitfaced. With that in mind, he walked into the vestibule, got let in by Fritz, and headed for the kitchen.

Hell, maybe he'd take it a little further than just a buzz. God knew

Saxton wasn't going to want to stop at a kiss or two in a cold, damp alley, and Blay had looked like he was prepared to finally get what he'd needed all along.

So there was plenty of time to hammer the hooch until he blacked the