Eater of Lives(SPECTR #4) (3 page)

John stiffened and shoved the other man back.
“Damn it, Will! What the hell?”

Will. The ex. The one who’d moved to
Savannah…and Caleb didn’t actually know anything more, because he
didn’t want to hear about the man John loved before him.

Will looked contrite. “Listen, I know I
should have called first, but hear me out. I’m in town for the
fashion expo this week. I intended to call you from my hotel room
as soon as I got in, see if you wanted to meet up for drinks. But
the hotel screwed up my reservation, and every other place in town
is booked solid for the expo, including the real shitholes. I
thought it would be easier to show up and ask to stay with you
face-to-face than over the phone.”

Caleb’s hand tightened around the iron stair
rail. “And which bed, exactly, were you planning to sleep in?” he
asked, and if his voice contained more of a low growl than it
should have, fine. Maybe it would scare this asshole off.

Will’s head snapped up, and Caleb would have
laughed at his expression if he hadn’t been so damn pissed. “Oh!
I…I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

“No, no, it’s okay,” John said, because of
course he had to be Mr. Nice Guy. “Will Dufrene, this is my
boyfriend Caleb Jansen.”

Boyfriend. Hear that? So just get the hell
out and go back where you came from.

“Nice to meet you, Caleb,” Will said, looking
embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t think.”

Didn’t think what? John would have moved on?
Found someone new? Someone who wouldn’t go kiting off and leave him
behind?

“It’s fine,” Caleb said, sharply enough to
make a lie out of the words. “Will, was it? I think John might have
mentioned you. Once.”

“Um, yeah.” Will turned his attention back to
John. “I should probably go.”

“Don’t be silly,” John said. “You can stay in
the guest bedroom.”

Caleb replayed the words, because surely John
hadn’t just invited his ex-boyfriend to stay with them. In the
condo Will used to live in with John.

Will perked up. “You don’t mind?”

Caleb sure as fuck minded. And what’s more,
Gray did.

“
This mortal will try to take John from
us?”

And shit, his teeth started to burn, and
claws slid out of the tips of his fingers, and he had the sudden,
horrible vision of them vamping out and ripping poor Will to shreds
in some insane fit of jealousy.

No! Shit, no, no, stop!

Hesitation and fear.
“He is not food. But
we do not wish him to be here. He must leave. John is
ours.”

It’s okay, it’s okay. John isn’t going to go
off with him. Not like the incubus. Just…calm down.

“
But you fear he will.”

It’s irrational. We mortals get scared by
things in our own heads, remember?
Because John loved him,
which meant it didn’t really matter if his stupid ex stayed here a
few days. Let Will feel like a third wheel. It would just prove to
him John wasn’t available.

“I won’t be a bother,” Will said. “I’ll be
out late at parties most nights anyway. I thought you might come
with me…?”

“No,” John said.

“Of course not.” Will flashed a bright smile.
“I appreciate it, both of you. Why don’t you let me take you two
out to dinner?”

“We’re eating in tonight,” Caleb snapped.

“But we can set a place for you,” John added.
Why the fuck did he have to be so polite?

“That would be great. It’ll give us a chance
to catch up. Let me grab my luggage.”

“I’ll give you a hand.” John looked up at
Caleb. “Babe, can you move some of your art supplies, make a little
more room in the guest bedroom?”

“Sure,” Caleb forced himself to say.

As Will and John headed outside to the car to
grab his bags, Caleb heard Will say, “Nice tie, John. It looks good
on you.”

Christ.

Caleb shook his head, let go of the iron
railing, and started back up the stairs…then stopped.

The railing had been smooth earlier. Now, a
section looked deformed. Reaching out a trembling hand, he closed
his fingers around the indentations. They fit perfectly.

“Oh shit,” he murmured, and hoped like hell
John didn’t notice.

“Are you okay?” John asked softly, as he and
Caleb undressed for the night.

Dinner had been awkward. Caleb put on a good
face, but John didn’t have to be an empath to know his current
boyfriend wasn’t thrilled. As for his ex…

After Will walked out, John spent a lot of
lonely nights sitting at that very table, eating alone, the action
mechanical. Rote. Maybe if they’d had a slow disintegration…but if
they had, his own problems blinded him to it. Will’s departure
seemed sudden, like the slice of a knife in the dark.

It left him paralyzed. Shell-shocked. Oh,
he’d kept up a good pretense at work and in front of Sean, but
inside a single question kept repeating over and over: “What
happened?”

Will sitting across from him again at the
table they’d picked out together, laughing at John’s jokes, and
spinning stories about the glamorous world of fashion, put him off
balance. They’d lived here together, and having Will back in the
same space brought up a thousand memories: Will teaching him how to
cook, the photos of the two of them hanging on the walls, even
making love in this same bed.

He didn’t regret the breakup. He loved Caleb,
was glad to have been single when they met. But it still felt…odd.
Like old ghosts, the whispers of what might have been, scratching
at his brain.

Caleb shrugged. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Not meeting his eyes, which was a pretty good sign Caleb wasn’t
being entirely truthful.

“I just thought having Will here might be a
little weird for you.” He kept his voice pitched low, not wanting
Will to hear them, considering the guest room sat right across the
hall.

“Why should it be?” Caleb’s voice held an
edge of challenge. “I’m the one who lives here now, right?”

“Yes. I just wanted to make sure you were
okay with it.”

“Sure I am.” Caleb stripped off his t-shirt
and tossed it in the general direction of the hamper. “Now come to
bed and fuck me.”

Unlike John, he didn’t bother to keep his
voice down. John suppressed a sigh. “We’re not alone here tonight,
Caleb.”

“So?” Caleb climbed onto the bed, his loose
hair hanging in a curtain around him. Glancing up at John through
it, he asked, “You going to let it stop you?”

The sight of Caleb on his hands and knees,
pale skin shining through dark hair and a wicked challenge glowing
in his eyes, made John’s dick swell in response. Hard to resist,
especially when Caleb ran his tongue suggestively over his
lips.

“No,” he said, hastily removing his own
shirt, before kicking off his pants and briefs. The chilly March
air felt even colder against desire-flushed skin. “Just a reminder
to keep it down.”

Caleb’s gaze fastened on John’s growing
erection. “Make me, Starkweather.”

Oh hell, yeah. He clambered onto the bed, on
his knees. Grabbing a handful of Caleb’s hair, he tugged Caleb’s
head toward his crotch. Caleb gave him a sly look, tongue darting
out to tease the slit and circle the head. John’s cock jerked and
bobbed in response. “Mmm,” Caleb said loudly. “Is this what you
want? I’m not sure—”

With a frustrated growl, John pushed his hips
forward. Caleb obligingly stopped talking, mouth forming a wet, hot
tunnel around John’s dick. The subtle texture of Caleb’s tongue
slid across the underside of head and shaft. Then he slipped back,
lips brushing over the sensitive tip when he gasped, “Fuck my
mouth.”

It wasn’t an invitation John could turn down.
Gripping Caleb’s long hair, he shoved his cock into Caleb’s waiting
mouth. Caleb let out an enthusiastic moan, even when John felt the
tip of his dick hit the back of Caleb’s throat. Caleb’s tongue
worked him, cheeks hollowing as he sucked hard, and fuck, it was
incredible: hot and wet and raw with eager need.

And beneath it all, the boil of etheric
energy just under Caleb’s skin, like distant lightning to John’s
paranormal senses.

He tried not to think about it, to focus only
on Caleb’s very human heat and moans. He watched his veined shaft
slide in and out between Caleb’s lips, the tumble of Caleb’s long
hair brushing against his thighs, the vision of Caleb’s bare back,
the vertebrae like a delicate chain beneath the skin. He should
have told Caleb to take his jeans off, first; he wanted to see his
lover’s tight ass and lean thighs.

But underneath it all lingered the reminder
of Gray’s presence, a low-level hum which grew louder whenever they
fucked, as if he watched, or participated, or hell, John didn’t
know what. And it really,
really
shouldn’t have been half as
much a turn-on as it was.

The tingling in his balls warned him to back
off if he didn’t want to finish yet. He pulled away from Caleb’s
mouth. “Too good,” he panted.

Caleb gave him a sultry grin with lips
swollen from sucking John’s cock. “I’ve got something better.”

John pushed Caleb onto his side and set to
work on his belt buckle. “I’ll just bet you do.”

He kissed Caleb, before tracing the curve of
one clavicle with his tongue, tasting salt and skin. Pinkish-brown
nipples pebbled under his lips as he sucked hard on one, then the
other. Caleb groaned his appreciation. “Yeah. Harder. Bite it!”

John growled and bit, then slid lower,
catching the zipper of Caleb’s jeans in his teeth and tugging it
down over the bulge of his lover’s erection. He hooked his fingers
in the waistbands of jeans and boxers. Caleb lifted his narrow hips
off the bed to help, but John only peeled them down far enough to
expose the upper curve of Caleb’s cock, nestled in a thatch of
black curls.

John ran his tongue over it, dipping to
either side. “Tease,” Caleb gasped. He tangled one hand loosely in
John’s hair, and used the other to toy with his own nipple, tugging
and rolling it between his fingers.

“You know it.” John inched Caleb’s jeans
down, kissing and biting the skin revealed: the insides of narrow
thighs, the crease of a knee, the long curve of a calf. He loved
the taste of Caleb’s skin, the light scratch of hair against his
mouth.

When he finally tossed the jeans and boxers
in the direction of the hamper, Caleb pounced. Shoving John onto
his back, he sprawled on top, his body all hard planes and bony
angles, cock trailing precome. He kissed John, hungry and deep.

“Want you,” he whispered into John’s ear, a
growl edging the words and making John’s dick ache even more.

“I’m all yours.”

“Better be.” Caleb’s mouth fastened on his
throat, biting and sucking hard enough to leave a mark. Then he let
go and leaned over to dig the lube out of the nightstand
drawer.

“Stay where you are,” Caleb ordered. Slicking
his fingers with lube, he leaned back on one elbow, drawing one
knee up to expose himself. Damn, Caleb was gorgeous, with his
leaking cock flushed dark against his thigh, balls drawn up and ass
just waiting to be fucked. Giving John a sultry look, he slid one
lubed finger in, joined quickly by a second.

John swallowed against the lust tightening
his throat. “Does it feel good?”

“Oh God, yeah.” Caleb’s teeth flashed white
against his lower lip as he worked himself, burying his fingers
deep. “Not as good as you, though. Want you in me so bad.”

“I want to be in you.”

With a final whimper, Caleb pulled his
fingers free. Slicking more lube on his hand, he spread it over
John’s aching cock, thumb circling the velvety head, before sliding
to the base.

Caleb straddled John’s hips, dick jutting out
in front of him. “A little help here?”

John drew up his knees slightly, so Caleb
could lean back and grip his thighs for support. Mouth dry from
anticipation, he grabbed the base of his cock and held it steady
for Caleb to lower himself onto. Caleb’s thighs flexed, the muscles
standing out against the skin as he eased down. The soft pucker
pressed teasingly against the head of John’s dick, then drew back,
only to press down just a bit more.

“Now who’s the tease?” John gasped, trying to
roll his hips up and push in.

Caleb only laughed. “Patience. You’ll get
what you want. Eventually.”

He eased down with agonizing slowness,
wrapping John’s cock in heat and velvet. John settled his hands on
Caleb’s hips, feeling the flex of taut muscle under his fingers. As
soon as he was fully seated, Caleb held still, his eyes sly and
teasing. “Better?”

John gripped his hips harder and bucked under
him. “Yes, fuck, but I’m going to lose my mind if you don’t
move.”

Maybe Caleb took pity on him—or, hopefully,
Caleb had worked himself up just as much and couldn’t take any more
teasing, either. He began to move, a long, rolling thrust of hips,
his fingers gripping John’s thighs for leverage, his back bowing
like a dancer’s. John couldn’t entirely muffle a groan: Caleb’s
tight heat tugged at his cock, and the other man’s balls and dick
slid against his belly, trailing slick need.

“You’re gorgeous,” John panted. Caleb looked
like a fucking vision of heaven, his lips and cock flushed from
desire, his nipples drawn tight against the flat expanse of his
chest, his hair spilling everywhere. Caleb moaned and bent his head
back, the ends of his hair trailing across John’s thighs.

“Fuck!” John gasped, the sensation catching
him off guard, driving him closer to the edge. He grabbed Caleb’s
hips, matching his motion, thrusting up into him. “Touch yourself—I
want you to come all over me.”

Caleb groaned inarticulately and let go with
one hand to tug on his erection. His fingers slicked precome across
the vein-ridged skin, the slit gaping open slightly with each pass,
and it suddenly became all too much. John’s hips snapped up,
driving his cock in deep. Caleb’s trailing hair sent a crackle of
static across his thighs, igniting the boil in his balls to spill
over, a rush of heat and ecstasy that went on and on.