Finders, keepers - 3. Prompt 448

”What did he just say?” I thought to myself.

I couldn’t believe my ears and just stared at him. “You did what?!”

From his fidgeting and refusal to meet my eyes, I realized I was perhaps overreacting and being a bit too harsh.

“Just tell me what happened…” I tried to soften my approach to get him to open up.

“The phone rang. I thought it was you…” He snuck a peak at me trying to gauge my reaction. “You wanting something, so I just answered.” He lowered his eyes, looking like he had been hurt by my outburst.

“It’s ok, just tell me who it was and what you said.” I reached out and steered him towards the sofa. We sat down next to each other. He still wouldn’t look at me.

“Levi…” I reached out and stroked his hair. He finally met my eyes again, biting his lower lip. I suddenly had the urge to lean forward and kiss him softly.

“It was someone named Jack.”

I sighed internally. Jack was the biggest gossip of my circle of friends and whatever Levi had told him would be public knowledge by now. It was probably all over facebook or the topic of a group discussion via text messages. To not discourage Levi, I kept my feelings to myself.

“He seemed surprised to hear me answer your phone and asked who I was. I didn’t know what to say, so I sort of said I live here…” When he saw me gearing up to answer him, he quickly added “But I didn’t say anything about… You know… Us…”

Us. That was the big question. What were we? Was there an us? How did you define this relationship? Because I had to admit, feeding someone on a regular basis did constitute a relationship. It was just what kind that wasn’t so clear.

After that third time he had fed from me, we had become so much closer physically. I could hardly stand to be away from him and would count the minutes at work until I could leave again. Becca and Dan were starting to wonder what was up, but of course I couldn’t say anything. I wouldn’t say anything. This thing between us was so new, raw and undefinable I was afraid putting a label on it would ruin it. Whatever it was.

At night we usually curled up on the sofa, sitting as close as possible. More often than not, Levi ended up in my lap, resting his head on my shoulder with me caressing his hair. It was so strange, this need to keep touching him. It calmed me down and no matter how bad a day I’d had, I always felt much better. He also visibly relaxed when we were close. Part of me thought maybe knowing a snack was within reach does that to a vampire.

The thing was though he hadn’t fed from me that much. After waking up and discovering some rather interesting bruises on my neck, we agreed he wouldn’t feed from my neck unless it was the weekend, giving the bruises some time to heal. My attempts to hide those marks made me try to incorporate turtlenecks in my daily wardrobe. This had led to countless jokes from Becca and Dan, who quickly figured out something was up since I wasn’t wearing my usual attire. They couldn’t figure out what, though. Then again, even I didn’t know and I was living it.

Levi biting my arm during sex wasn’t quite as intense as him sucking on my neck, but it got the job done. I was constantly thinking about him naked, us naked and together. I felt like a teenager most of the time, being perpetually horny. Still I thought I was doing him a favor and that our arrangement was one of mutual benefit and satisfaction. He did feed, even if he only took very little. In truth, he didn’t actually need more of my blood so soon, but in the heat of the moment that pull was too strong to ignore.

I guess we both sort of figured that this, whatever it was, was heading somewhere else. We just couldn’t name it, maybe out of fear of breaking this spell. As long as we hid behind the feeding, we could at least pretend there were no feelings involved. I don’t know who we thought we were kidding.

Then a few nights ago, we had followed our usual routine, sitting glued together on the sofa. Me with my hand buried in his hair and him with his face in the crook just below my right ear. His warm breath against me sent tingles down my spine, but these were different tingles. Not the otherworldly tingles I had no control over. These felt homey. Comfortable. But not boring. Far from boring.

Suddenly, I could feel his tongue licking my neck. Soft. Wet. Teasing. It went straight to my cock. I threaded my fingers in his hair a little tighter and tilted my neck to the side to encourage him to continue. My other hand grabbed his legs and pulled them towards me, putting sweet pressure on my slowly filling cock. His mouth traveled up the side of my jaw to meet mine. We kissed, slowly at first, but with growing urgency.

“Make love to me” he whispered against my lips. I pulled my head back and looked at him. There were no fangs visible, no strange feeling of helplessness rushing through my body. Just a deep need to touch, to make him mine.

I had him straddle me, wanting to feel him grow against me. We kept kissing, each kiss getting deeper. My hands were roaming his body, going under his shirt in search of skin. Deciding I’d had enough of that shirt, I pushed his chest backwards, separating us. He looked at me; his cheeks flushed for once, his eyes slightly dazed. I pulled the shirt off him. The sight of him made me grab his hips and grind myself against him. He closed his eyes and groaned.

“I want you in bed.” My voice was thick. He nodded and made to stand up. I held on to him and after a hint of confusion had flickered over his face, he squeezed his knees together on either side of my hips and grabbed on to my shoulders. I put my hands under his ass and stood. I wobbled a bit under the weight, vowing to go to the gym more in the future, but managed to carry him to the bedroom.

I dropped him on the bed. Staring down at him, his flushed chest and disheveled hair, I quickly stripped out of my clothes. He lay there, acting like he didn’t know what to do or where to look. Apparently, when he wasn’t hungry in that way, he was indeed shy.

“Lose the pants.” I decided to take charge. He scrambled to obey, his hands shaking from what I hoped was excitement. “And the rest…” I added when he didn’t move to complete his undressing.

Then there he was. Naked and beautiful before me on the bed. His excitement clearly visible. Obviously, the shaking was not from fear. I could feel my desire for the man in front of me grow. Like another part of me.

“Spread your legs for me.” He hesitantly did as I asked, shyly showing me my ultimate goal for the evening.

Getting up on the bed, I knelt between his legs and nudged the further apart exposing him fully. He tried to close his legs again, but I put my hands on his thighs and stopped him.

“No, I want you open for me.” He relaxed again letting his legs fall open. I could tell this was making him uncomfortable. I caressed his legs to help him get over his shyness. His smooth skin felt amazing under my hands.

Bending over, I started kissing his chest. He reached up and grabbed my head, holding on to me. When I started licking his nipples, he arched up with a gasp. He bent his legs around mine and tried to pull me to his body. I went willingly, needing to feel him sliding against me.

When I raised myself up, he was forced to let go of my head and he growled his displeasure.

“Don’t worry, beautiful. I’m just gonna get some supplies.” I snickered at him and then reached over to the bedside table, getting my lube. “I’m gonna take good care of you…”

That night was so different from all previous nights. Levi was so compliant in my hands. In the end he offered himself to me without hesitation, all shyness gone. We ended up going three rounds, each time getting more and more intense. Feeling him around me, his heat surrounding me as I fucked him almost drove me out of my mind. We fit together so perfectly and there was no need for him to bite me. The ecstasy was there anyway. It was different, but still better than anything I’d ever experienced. I wished that I could be there forever, sliding in and out of him, feeling him constrict around me as he came, feeling myself come deep inside of him, over and over again.

Eventually, we fell asleep close together. We woke up the same way, only now we didn’t really know what this was anymore. He hadn’t been feeding, it was just sex.

No, not just sex, it was amazing sex. But what did he feel about this? He didn’t seem to regret anything, but his shyness prevented him from looking me in the eyes. I myself was too confused to figure out what had just happened. I couldn’t be falling in love, could I? With a creature who fed from me? Those thoughts had plagued me for a few days and now all of a sudden, Jack’s phone call had inadvertently brought things to a head. Or so it felt. I needed to find an answer. What was this?

“But what did he say?” My hand had come to rest softly just below his ear, my fingers curling around his neck.

“He wanted to borrow your squash racquet. Had a game tonight and couldn’t find his. I said you’d be home soon and…”

The doorbell rang. We stared at each other and I could see the question in his eyes. What were we going to say? What could we say? This was too soon. I wasn’t ready! We hardly knew each other and had definitely not had “the talk”. Wasn’t this just for the tingles and jolts? But I couldn’t say that and with Jack at the door and the news probably already out there, I had to say something. A distant cousin perhaps? Former college friend in need of a place to crash?

Looking into Levi’s eyes, seeing the doubt and fear deep in them which he so desperately tried to hide from me, everything was suddenly was clear to me. What was I thinking? Like in a flash of lightning, I just knew. I had my answer.

I turned to the door and opened it. Sure enough there was Jack standing on the outside, all smiles, like he already knew he was in for some grade A gossip.

“Hi, buddy! I don’t know if you heard from your… ehum… houseguest, but I need to borrow your racquet!” He gave me a look meaning he didn’t believe the houseguest story at all, practically wiggling his eyebrows at me.

“Sure, come in!” I stepped back and let him in. Jack eagerly crossed the threshold and immediately stopped inside, when he saw Levi.

Levi seemed to want to disappear somewhere, no doubt feeling guilty at having caused all this. He did his curling in on himself act, but I would have none of that. Not now, not anymore. I took a few steps towards him and put my hand between Levi’s shoulder blades, letting it slide down to the small of his back, pleased to feel a slight shudder go through him as I touched him. He trained his dark eyes on me. Eyes asking the same question that Jack had tacitly asked. Turning to Jack, I simply offered him the truth.

“Jack, this is my boyfriend Levi.”