Alasdair.
Not knowing if his presence would be detected or not, Leo crept closer, careful not to make a sound. Then, as he rounded the last column, he saw them.
Alasdair was pressed up against the end pillar. Nobody was with him, but he had his eyes closed and a hand rubbing his erection. It must have felt amazing too, because he was rocking into his palm as if he hadn't fucked for days.
Leo's own cock throbbed at the sight. Alasdair was as sexy dressed in a toga as he was in modern-day clothes. The only difference: his long hair, which was tied back now, showing off his spectacular face as the moon shone down and seemed to illuminate him.
Fuck this, Leo thought as he pressed his hand against his stiff length. As if he wasn't going to get achingly hard watching Alasdair masturbate only a few feet away from him.
But then the air shifted and practically hummed. Leo had felt this once before. This vibration of power that had only been present when Vasilios had been near—and aroused.
Leo kept his eyes on Alasdair as the hand he had been using to stroke himself was yanked away and pinned to his side. Leo swallowed, his eyes focused on what was happening, when Vasilios’s voice sounded again.
“I have been waiting for you for some time, Alasdair Kyriako ú s, son of Lapidos. Ise poli omorfos. A man worthy of my attention, if ever I saw one.”
Leo squeezed his own cock at the words of praise. What must it have felt like to be worshiped so openly as Alasdair clearly was in that moment? He figured pretty damn good if his bucking hips were any kind of indication.
Then Alasdair demanded, "Show yourself."
Leo stared at the shameless picture Alasdair made while waiting for whomever was speaking to appear. Dying for some kind of release, Leo unbuttoned his jeans and slipped his hand inside. He was so fucking aroused by what he was seeing that he needed to do something to either get off or hold back the impending orgasm.
"I desire your presence," Alasdair panted, and when his eyes closed, his long lashes swept over his cheeks, which made Leo’s choice of fucking his fist or holding his climax off real easy. He started to fuck his fist.
“Understand, agóri. Once you really see me, you can never unsee me. You will be of my blood. Your life—tied to mine.”
This was it.
That moment of passion, of desire so intense that Alasdair's mind was completely overtaken with arousal. The moment Vasilios had him.
Leo knew it, and so did the male vampire. He had Alasdair exactly where he wanted him. It was in the desperate cry falling from those delectable lips and the rawness of Alasdair’s movements as he jerked his hips forward. And when Alasdair begged once again, a figure appeared.
Even with his back to him, Leo knew it was Alasdair's vampire by the power rattling the marble walls surrounding them. With the confident way he held himself and the short cut of his hair, it wasn’t hard to make the connection. He hadn't done much to change his appearance in all his years, and neither, for that matter, had the sexy man he was pleasuring.
They were magnificent together, just as they had been in Vasilios’s bed, and as Leo continued to watch, his feet moved him closer as if he were on autopilot. When he was finally standing beside the two of them, close enough that he could see Vasilios run his tongue along Alasdair's ear, Vasilios said, “Then open your eyes.”
Alasdair's eyes opened, the stunning shade the same then as it was now. They even seemed to glow, but that wasn't from any supernatural reason—merely from desire. Then those sinful lips Leo had felt against his own moved and Alasdair pledged a vow.
"I am yours."
"Forever?" Vasilios asked as he raised his head, and the covetous expression in his eyes solidified their undeniable bond.
Leo hadn’t understood until that moment exactly how deep their connection ran.
He knew what Alasdair's response would be, but as he opened his mouth to tell Vasilios, the channel changed.
Present Day—Elias’s Office
“I THOUGHT I would be disgusted by your kind.”
As Elias continued to inspect her, Isadora felt a pain in her gut, like his words were a knife stabbing her. Ever since she had flashed her canines at him like a spitting hellcat, he’d been studying her like a lab rat.
“I knew what I was looking for, was told I would feel it. So I assumed I would be repelled. How wrong was I?”
She didn’t dare take her eyes off him when he raised a hand as if he were about to touch her, but at the last minute, he took a step back.
“Nothing to say, Isadora? That’s unlike you. You never used to hold back.”
“And you used to be a gentleman.”
His laughter was full of disdain. “Yes, I suppose I was, wasn’t I? But I didn’t know who I was back then. And I certainly didn’t know what you are.” He slid his hands into his pockets, and Isadora cursed herself for noticing that he was as handsome as ever with his dark hair and odd-colored eyes. “Did you?”
The pain radiating up her arms made her clench her fists together as she fought against it. “Did I know what? About my being a vampire? Or are we still discussing my chatty tendencies?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” he bit out. “Did you know who I was when I pursued you?”
“Why should I tell you?” she challenged. “You have me tied to a chair, Elias. And you are watching me suffer. Excuse me if I don’t feel like indulging you.”
He shook his head, her ruse of innocence not winning him over. “Don’t act like I wouldn’t be dead on the floor if you were free. You’re merely upset that I did it first. Don’t make me hurt you.”
“You already have.”
She thought his face softened slightly but then he spun away from her. Easier to punish someone if you aren’t looking at them. She knew that firsthand.
“Did you know who I was?” he asked again.
She glared at his broad shoulders, which were encased in his tailored jacket, and felt a strange sense of longing claw at her anger. “I had no idea. And I still don’t. Not really.”
He looked over his shoulder, disbelief in his eyes.
“Why would I lie? You talk as if I’m holding you at my mercy. But look at us, Elias. There are no shackles on you. If you want to end this, end it! You are your own master, and right now, it appears you are mine. But don’t expect me to soothe your wounded pride.”
He turned around and stormed over to her. Then he leaned down and touched his nose to hers. “And if I let you go? Then what?”
She swallowed, and the ache in her arms was almost outdone by the dry scratch of her throat. But there was no stopping years of instincts. “Then I will kill you.”