Phoenix Found (Brothers of Fire #5)

Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

“I was told you needed to see me?” Perrin closed the door. His gaze danced over the room as if taking everything in.

Oliver stood and walked around the rather large and fancy desk, his fingers trailing over the surface. “I have a list of things that need your immediate attention.”

“I also have a list of things that need attention.” Perrin pulled a notepad out of the pocket of his pants.

Oliver grabbed his hand. “I need your immediate attention.”

He leaned in and placed his other hand on Perrin’s shoulder before kissing him. He’d been wanting to do that all day, but the security guards had been too watchful to do anything in the four-wheel-drive on the way to the estate. And then there’d been other things to do and people to speak with. These were a few moments they could steal.

Perrin gripped Oliver’s hip and pulled him close until there was no gap between their bodies. The kiss was hard and hot and hungry as if Perrin had also been waiting all day…and all night .

Last night, Oliver had been so tempted to shift, to hell with the consequences, and fly to Perrin’s room. But he could easily imagine the trouble he’d be in for shifting to visit his lover…there was probably a rule against that, and it was probably for his own safety.

Perrin rocked against him, the hard length of his dick rubbing against Oliver’s belly.

“You taste so good.” His words were little more than a growl.

And it should’ve been a compliment, but there was an edge in them that made Oliver draw back. Perrin’s eyes were pale, and they glittered like opals.

As if realizing he’d gone too far, Perrin closed his eyes. “Sorry, I’m quite hungry.”

“Do you want a snack?”

Perrin gave a low laugh. “Yes, but I don’t want to scare you.” His fingers tangled in the braid as he pulled Oliver in for another kiss, one that was deep enough to steal his breath and make his dick twitch with need.

He wasn’t scared, he was aroused. Perrin’s hunger and need for him was intoxicating. “You don’t scare me.”

“You’ve never seen a ghoul.”

“Show me,” Oliver whispered.

That request was too much because Perrin released him. “No. That’s like asking a shifter if you can watch them shift…it’s personal and often unsettling.”

“I watched Dalmon shift…and it is deeply unsettling to not have a physical body…worse growing back. It’s all new and painful for a few seconds.” He placed his hand on Perrin’s cheek. “You’re still you, no matter what you look like.”

Perrin gave him a pained smile. “I want to believe that.”

“Then why don’t you?”

“Because other people?— ”

“You may have noticed I’m not other people. I’m the delicate phoenix who might break and need to be egged. The royal who has no idea what he’s doing. The man who desperately wants to get to know his boyfriend better, all of him, now before I cum in my pants like the inexperienced virgin I am.”

“I’m one hundred percent sure that you can’t call yourself a virgin after fucking my mouth.”

Oliver’s cheeks burned. He was never going to be able to use his bathtub without thinking about that. “Fine, that doesn’t change how much I want you. Now.”

Perrin groaned, his eyes pale.

“Last night…” He hadn’t expected it, and he hadn’t been able to stop himself either. But then after, with the cum clinging to his fingers and going cold on his skin, he hadn’t known what to do other than turn off the screen and resist the urge to shift and burn his way through the window into Perrin’s room, assuming he could melt the glass. “I’m hot.”

Perrin kissed him. “You are.”

“My blood. I don’t want to have an unexpected shift or to accidentally burn down my house.”

Perrin narrowed his eyes. “Are you using magic to convince me to get you naked?”

Oliver lifted his eyebrows, not sure if Perrin was annoyed…he’d ever seen him annoyed? “Is it working?”

“Right now, I’m barely holding onto any kind of resistance. Which also means I’m close to stretching my skin.” He swore in what Oliver assumed was French, and his grip on Oliver’s hip tightened. “I want to lick the sweat off your skin and suck you dry.”

He licked Oliver’s cheek to prove the point. His fingers slid beneath Oliver’s shirt and skimmed over his stomach. Oliver shivered from Perrin’s cool touch, but his blood heated. “Then do it. ”

Perrin’s skin rippled.

“I don’t understand the problem?—”

Perrin growled. “No, you don’t. If you were on fire, would you be warning me to stay back?”

“Yes?” Because he didn’t want to burn him. That was different from revealing his ghoul-hunting form, wasn’t it? “You cool the fire on my skin…while making me hotter.” He didn’t know how else to explain it.

Perrin closed his eyes, when he spoke his voice was rough. “Give me a five-minute head start, then come to your room.”

“Not here?”

Perrin released him. “No.”