Sam caught his breath, then flopped down on the bed next to Aurelian. "Wow," he said. Aurelian nudged him with his shoulder. "What?"
"Move over. I hate being on the wet spot."
"Oh. Sorry." Sam rolled to the edge of the bed, Aurelian following. "Wow," he said again, turning his head to look at the vampire. He grinned. "That was... wow. I could feel you inside me. Like, I dunno, all of you, in me. And, Jesus, I was so strong, I didn't wanna stop. I didn't HAVE to stop. I could've done that forever."
"Could you." Aurelian reached out, stroked Sam's flushed face.
"Yeah. I could do it again. Like, now. No recovery time."
"Really." Aurelian leaned forward, kissed him. He could faintly taste blood on Sam's lips, or the memory of blood. Sometimes the memory was enough.
"Yeah, really. It was... I don't know what it was." He stretched out his hand, fingers pressed against the cut on Aurelian's chest, which was already closing. "I think I get it, why you wouldn't tell me before. I wanted it so bad, your blood, and... and I never... I never felt so close to someone. It was like we were one person... and that's new, I never had that before. You know what I mean?"
"Yes, I know." Another kiss.
"I thought I was gonna explode."
"You did explode." And again. Sam's fingers splayed out on Aurelian's skin, palm flat, and Aurelian's hand slid behind his head, pulling him close, and they kissed languidly, taking their time, tasting each other, with none of the desperation of before.
Aurelian rolled over, covering Sam's body with his own, and they lay like that a while - shoulder to shoulder, chest to chest, hip to hip, and this time they went slower, Aurelian leading as they moved against each other, kissed, whispered. The buildup was quicker, but smoother, quieter in Sam's head, less urgent but with more actual physical contact, and when his orgasm rippled through him he was only surprised it wasn't... more. He wasn't surprised he'd gotten so hard again so fast, even though intellectually he knew it didn't work that way.
It's the blood, he thought, unintentionally speaking out loud.
"What's the blood?" Aurelian whispered. "How is your hand?"
"My hand?" Sam had forgotten. Aurelian held Sam's right hand with his left, holding it flat so they could see where Sam had cut himself on the glass of the broken picture frame. It seemed like years ago that had happened, but was really only hours. "Oh. That. It doesn't hurt. It looks all healed."
"The healing properties of vampire spit." Now Aurelian grinned. "You're not tired, are you?"
"No, hungry."
"Hungry."
"Uh-huh. All that energy expended, my body needs to refuel."
"Help me change the sheets first."
"Oh, yeah, and I wanna take a shower, I'm all sticky and sweaty." He grinned again, rolled off the bed and into the bathroom.
Fifteen minutes later they were both washed and re-dressed. They stripped the bed, piled the sheets and blankets out in the hallway, found clean linens, remade the bed, and wandered downstairs into the kitchen. Aurelian sat at the table and bemusedly watched as Sam grabbed things out of the fridge and made himself a huge sandwich, which he washed down with an equally huge glass of orange juice.
"Better?" Aurelian asked. Sam nodded around a mouthful of bread. "Do you have room for dessert?" Sam swallowed.
"Thought that was you."
"I meant me."
Why had he worried? All that time, so afraid to mention the blood to Sam, and here Sam seemed to have adjusted remarkably well. Aurelian knew now he could ask and Sam would say yes. He'd just have to be careful not to ask too often.
