A Shadow of Wings (4 page)

“Got an extra toothbrush? My mouth tastes like beer and blood.”

“Yes, of course.” Cam pulled open a drawer to Dylan’s left. Dylan didn’t move, which meant Cam had to nudge the drawer into his thigh. Cam bit his lower lip, and his breathing seemed to be coming short. He handed Dylan the toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste.

While his savior stood by, Dylan brushed vigorously, gargled, spat, wiped his mouth on his shirt. Uh, much, much better. Hovering by his elbow, Cam handed him the towel to use instead. Was he going to stand there while he showered too? Would Dylan mind if he did? Why, not at all. He pulled up his lip and peered at the chipped tooth in the mirror. It didn’t look as bad as it felt with his tongue, but wasn’t that always the way with teeth?

“You’re…” Cam had to clear his throat to continue. “You’re going to have a bruise on your back. They kicked you pretty hard.”

Dylan twisted around, not too subtly in a way that would flex his muscles, and got a shot of pain for his effort. The twist pinched his sore ribs, but nothing felt busted. “Eh, it’s not so bad. Good thing you came along when you did, Jackie Chan.” He grinned, and Cam honest-to-God blushed. A
modest
ninja virgin. How sheltered could a guy be?

Too sheltered to be corrupted for favors. Staring at him, Dylan knew he couldn’t carry through with his plan. He couldn’t use sex to get Cam to feed him, house him… He took a step forward, intending to nudge Cam back into the bedroom so he could shut the door. And then he spied the bed. The big, fluffy, comfortable bed. Plenty big enough for two. Dylan slept now in an old sleeping bag on a cheap air mattress. A shudder racked his aching body, reminding him what a night in that bed could do for him. 

And there Cam stood, dark eyes big and brown and vulnerable and needy. And downcast. Nearly submissive in a way that made Dylan’s blood heat. The key to Dylan’s comfort. 

What was one night? Just one night. 

Of course, nice guy that he was, Cam would probably let him sleep in the bed if Dylan just asked. But Dylan sensed, with that same instinct he had with animals, that Cam had a need. He hurt deep inside. The way he jumped and shuffled, like a whipped puppy. It wasn’t right. Okay, so Dylan couldn’t quite convince himself he deserved sainthood, but maybe he had something to offer Cam. 

He paused a couple inches from his host, who stared at Dylan’s feet, as seemed to be his usual. “Cam,” Dylan murmured.

“Mm-hm.” Cam’s gaze rose as far as Dylan’s throat. 

Gently, slowly, Dylan trailed the back of one finger up Cam’s chest to his chin and nudged Cam’s face up. “Why don’t you look at me when I talk to you?” He kept his voice low and soothing, as if he was calming a frightened pup.

Cam’s black eyebrows came down. He tried to pull away, but with no effort at all, Dylan stilled him by putting his fingers alongside his jaw. 

“Are you shy? I won’t hurt you.”

“I…I know that. It’s just…my eyes…are weird. Some people don’t like them.”

Tipping his head down, he tried to catch Cam’s gaze. “I think they’re beautiful.”

He felt Cam flinch against his fingertips. For fuck’s sake, maybe this kid
had
been abused. Dylan’s chest constricted, and a whole other part of his psyche kicked into gear. An angry, defensive part. If there was one thing Dylan couldn’t fucking stand, it was abuse. 

He stroked the backs of his fingers over Cam’s cheek and down the side of his throat. Cam’s pulse raced there. For the first time, Dylan noticed a thick gold chain hanging around Cam’s neck, hidden by his T-shirt. “How old are you?” he asked.

“Twenty-one.”

“Let me see your eyes.” He opened his hand and brushed his fingers over Cam’s chest.

Cam swallowed visibly, his Adam’s apple bobbing. His mouth tightened and twisted, and he shook his head. 

Dylan’s heart beat heavily, almost in sympathy to Cam’s racing one, and he edged closer still, never stopping his stroking, raising his fingers to touch Cam’s cheek again. “Close ’em, then. I want to see your face.”

Cam did with a sigh. What had happened to this kid? Dylan knew loneliness when he saw it, the way he knew his own face when he saw it reflected back at him. He brushed the soft hair from Cam’s forehead, then leaned forward and pressed his lips just above Cam’s right eyebrow.

Cam trembled. Dylan pressed his fingers to his eyelids. “Shh. Keep your eyes closed.”

A little whimper escaped Cam’s throat. Dylan wanted to whimper too. His dick was like iron, the head pushing at the waist of his low-hanging jeans. His hips gave a jerk, his dick aching in sympathy with Cam’s, which looked wicked hard beneath his jeans. Cam’s eyelashes fluttered against Dylan’s fingertips. He removed his fingers and replaced them with his lips, a butterfly kiss to Cam’s right eyelid first, then his left, using a tiny bit of tongue, wetting those fluttering lashes.

Cam’s lips parted. His breath came fast. 

“Is this okay?” Dylan moved his head down to whisper the words into Cam’s ear. He drew his scratchy cheek over Cam’s smooth one and was rewarded when Cam leaned into him.

“Yeah,” Cam breathed, a world of want in that one little word.

Dylan put his fingertips back on Cam’s eyelids, felt his eyes moving beneath as if Cam were deep in a dream. He drifted his fingertips down Cam’s cheeks, like tears, over his lips, following with his own lips, tasting the hot, rapid breath. Cam trembled all over just at the touch of Dylan’s mouth brushing over his. 

“Is that all right?” Dylan murmured. Oh fuck, if they didn’t move faster, he’d fucking come in his pants. But he wouldn’t go faster. Cam needed seducing.

“Mmm,” Cam managed. He pulled his hands, finally, out from under his armpits and, eyes still closed, tentatively reached for Dylan. Dylan took his hands and put them on his waist. 

“It’s okay. You can touch.” The feel of Cam’s cool, shy hands on his bare skin was possibly the most erotic thing Dylan had ever experienced. Blind by Dylan’s command, Cam traced his hands along the sides of Dylan’s body, slid over his belly, pushed up his chest, to his face. His fingertips lingered on Dylan’s lips. So shy. So sweet. Who was doing the seducing here? Dylan could melt into those hands. He kissed the fingertips, slipped his tongue over them.

“K-kiss me again,” Cam whispered.

Dylan reached up and gently grasped Cam’s hands, then leaned in and kissed him. Cam didn’t respond much, not at first. His lips parted, and he just sort of…breathed Dylan in, then let him play. Dylan ran the tip of his tongue over Cam’s lower lip, tasting beer and inexperience, then sucked on it a little. Cam’s fingers flexed and tightened, interlaced with Dylan’s. Then Cam tilted his head, and Dylan slipped his tongue into his mouth.

Cam leaned into him with a groan starting low in his chest. Without his hands, all Cam could do was focus on kissing, which was what Dylan intended. Dylan put everything into that kiss, making it sweet, seductive, slow, just enough sloppy-wet to get Cam thinking about other sloppy-wet things they could do together. 

With a sharp inward gasp, Cam drew back and opened his eyes. They were gorgeous, bleary, glazed with lust, just the way Dylan liked ’em. He couldn’t help a smug little grin. “Beautiful,” Dylan murmured.

That seemed to remind Cam about his weird personal no-looking rule, and he tried to duck away, but with their twined hands, Dylan caught him under the chin. “It’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with your eyes.”

“They don’t…” He swallowed hard. “They don’t frighten you?”

Surprised, Dylan blinked and looked into them. They seemed like perfectly serviceable, pretty green-brown eyes, shot through with gold, fringed with long dark lashes. The gold had a nice glow to it, like fireflies flirting in summer bushes, and the green was lush as late July grass. Like the kind he’d lie down in when he was a kid. Thick and cool, welcoming, safe to sleep in. And the gold was like sunlight glittering on the surface of a pond.

“Dylan?” Cam gave their linked hands a shake, and Dylan snapped to.

Dylan’s entire body tingled as if his nerves had started to fall asleep. “Wow. Okay, maybe there is something special about your eyes.”

Frowning, Cam dropped his chin immediately. Dylan released one of his hands and cupped his cheek. “I said
special
. Not scary. Why, what happened to you? Who told you your eyes were freaky?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m…just different.”

“We’re all different. You know that saying, you are unique, just like everyone else.” He put a smile in his voice and was glad when Cam shyly met his gaze again. “I like your eyes. I like your mouth. I want it again.” He pressed their bodies together with a low hum. “Give it to me, okay?”

Cam drew his lower lip between his teeth and stared at Dylan’s mouth with that ravenous intensity. “Yeah. Okay. That would be good.” He sighed out the words, and Dylan could tell his horniness was winning out over his shyness. Good. Dylan toed out of his boots. 

Without taking off his jeans—yet—he leaned back against the counter. Cam kept licking his lower lip, like he was sucking the taste of Dylan’s toothpaste off it. Dylan reached out and ran his fingers just underneath the hem of Cam’s T-shirt. His skin felt feverish. “I want to touch you. Do you want that too?”

“Yeah.”

“You want to touch me?”

Cam nodded, his fingers flexing as if he couldn’t wait. 

“Take off your shirt.”

In one smooth movement, Cam did, revealing a nearly smooth chest even nicer than Dylan had imagined. Just a few hairs around tight nipples and a dark happy trail leading to that promising dick of steel. And that thick gold chain ringing his neck. Like a collar. 

They stood inches from each other, not touching, but the air around them burned. Dylan could smell sweat—his own, Cam’s, the scent of desire. “You ever done this before?” he asked in a low voice.

“No,” Cam answered so quickly Dylan knew it to be the truth. Seriously… He almost asked again how old Cam was, but he didn’t want to hurt his feelings. As if reading his mind, Cam flicked his gaze up and said, “I wasn’t raised around here. I was…sort of isolated.”

“No wonder you’re so sweet,” Dylan said, smiling to let him know it was all right. It was all okay; everything would be fine. He thought those words while he reached out and feathered his fingertips from Cam’s collarbone across his chest, over one nipple, down to the opposite hip. “Come here and kiss me,” he said.

Cam didn’t know how to kiss. He’d dreamed about it, sure, watched his fair share of porn on the Internet when he knew Tash wouldn’t be around, but he worried about being awkward, bumping teeth, doing something wrong. He knew how to do so many things. How to hunt. How to fight. How to turn from a man into a monster. But this simple act was beyond his ken. He had to lean down to match his lips to Dylan’s, since the other man canted back against the counter, and Cam felt own his heartbeat in his throat, he was so nervous.

Then Dylan cupped his face between his big warm palms and whispered against his mouth, “Relax.” He rubbed his open mouth against Cam’s open mouth, breath to breath, nose to nose, then gently took Cam’s lower lip between his teeth, biting a little. That sensation sparked nerve endings down Cam’s spine. Mm, so good. Dylan’s tongue soothed over it, and Cam tightened his fingers around Dylan’s waist before he fell completely into him. Even in his dreams, he hadn’t imagined that people kissed like this. Human kisses. Human warmth. Human lust.

He tried to mirror what Dylan had done, putting his tongue in the other man’s mouth, letting it slide around with Dylan’s, and oh, what that did to his insides, to his cock. An inch closer and yeah, there, he pressed it against Dylan’s thigh, Cam’s feet bracing either side of Dylan’s left leg. Good but not enough, not nearly enough. 

Then Dylan slid his arms around him, ran his hands down to grasp Cam’s butt, and pulled him tighter against him. Dylan drew Cam’s tongue deeper into his mouth and sucked on it, a sensation that, coupled with the pressure on his dick, tossed Cam’s brain like a salad. He heard panted moaning and realized dimly it was coming from him. 

And while he knew Dylan couldn’t see them, Cam could see the wings of his soul, oily dark, veined with light, shuddering around Dylan’s body, embracing him.

He pulled back, sick and cold to his gut.
This
was why he’d been warned off humans. It was wrong, twisted. But Dylan caught him again, one hand sliding around the back of his neck. “Hey, don’t go. Don’t be afraid.” His voice stilled Cam’s wings, and they lost some of their solidity. “I only want to make you feel good, baby.” He reached and cupped Cam’s cock through his jeans, squeezed, just like that. Cam’s toes curled inside his sneakers, and he clenched his ass cheeks together against the too-good sensation. 

“Oh God…” Cam groaned.

“Yeah, that’s sweet, ain’t it. I know what you need.” Dylan had beautiful eyes too, bright blue, and now they glittered with secret knowledge. Cam believed to his bones that Dylan knew exactly what he needed and precisely how to give it to him. He wanted to tell Dylan he shouldn’t do this, that Cam was different. But, on the other hand, in this form, he was human…enough. 

He felt Dylan’s hand nudging his face up again and realized he’d squeezed his eyes shut and had turned away unconsciously in shame of what he was. When Dylan tunneled his fingers into Cam’s hair and kissed his jaw, then his throat, then lightly bit where his neck and shoulder met, sending shivers cascading down Cam’s spine, Cam’s mind blanked. The shame dissolved, leaving only hot need behind. 

Feeling bold, he rubbed Dylan’s erection through the worn fabric of his jeans. Cam’s beast reared its head, snarling with indignation that this man should be dressed in rags. Cam struggled to ignore it. What did these feelings mean? He tried hard to banish the instinct and concentrated on the way Dylan’s eyes slid half-closed when Cam palmed his cock from the base to the head, which was peeking over the top of the low-hanging waistband, damp and red. 

Oh God, yes, Cam just wanted to be human now. With this man. 

“Mm,” Cam murmured as he nudged down the lose waist of Dylan’s jeans, exposing more of the fat cockhead. Dylan wanted him too. It felt good to be wanted. A shiny drop of cum sat at the tip of Dylan’s cock, and Cam rubbed his thumb through it.