Free Blood Entangled by Amber Belldene

to hear? Like, don’t ever forget I’m your motherfucking savior. “Yeah, well, when I decide I give a shit about being alive, you can tell me why you bothered. In the meantime, lay down and give me your goddamn vein.”
    Not entirely true—last week he’d had a death wish, but he was over it. Even with all his problems, Pedro preferred to be alive. Although he wasn’t going to go thanking Lucas for keeping him that way.
    Lucas climbed onto the bed, following Pedro’s orders without the slightest whiff of obedience. Nice trick—pretty much the same way Pedro responded to Andre’s gruffness. Andre would give Pedro instructions to do precisely what he was already doing, so Pedro would just go about his business, subtly reminding Andre he was his own man all the while.
    Message received—don’t be a jerk—Lucas wanted to help. Pedro chuckled, shaking his head. But still, he couldn’t find his footing, couldn’t decide whether Lucas was his friend or enemy.
    Lucas lay down, the slight angle of his head a clear invitation. Pedro knelt next to him. He would be a goner if he lay down alongside the other man. Up close, Lucas’s scent hit him differently. His smell had cloyed and taunted, lingering in rooms where Lucas had been. But now it was the real, male smell of skin and soap, sweat and breath. And his distinctive Hunter scent was so much more delicious for all the ways it blended with Lucas’s own human essence.
    By pressing Lucas’s shoulder lower, he exposed more of his succulent neck. The skin stretched across tendons, and his pulse fluttered. A pulse under skin was such a delicate thing, like the wings of a hummingbird. Pedro couldn’t help it, he groaned. His fangs—reticent at the necks of several other humans—were out in a flash. His mouth watered and he tongued the pulse point under Lucas’s jaw. At the contact, Lucas let out his own throaty sigh.
    Damn, it was intense, and they were just getting started.
    He slid his teeth into Lucas’s neck and took a long pull of the blood he’d been jonesing for. Almost instantly, his skin softened and loosened, but the cold ache in his bones and the cramp in his gut held fast. He lost all sense of time. There was only Lucas’s warm metallic blood filling his stomach, swallow by swallow. There was only the smell, the taste, of Lucas in his mouth.
    Finally, Pedro grew warm.
    Tingling energy spread from his belly outward, into his hands, his feet, and yes, his cock. Kneeling was good—it meant Lucas couldn’t feel his hard-on.
    Nearly sated, he became aware of Lucas’s shallow breaths. Lucas arched up, creating as much contact as possible; they were almost chest to chest. He dug his fingers into Pedro’s shoulder and gasped.
    Oh yeah, Lucas was definitely rolling.
    Pedro slowed down his swallows on his neck, but he wasn’t ready to break the connection. Maybe it was the other lingering craving, deeper and lower in his belly. He wanted power over Lucas, to show him he wasn’t weak, he was a man—no, more than a man. He was a super-strong badass vampire.
    He pulled blood from the open vein and ran his tongue along the tendon his teeth had latched onto. Lucas shivered. Without warning, he lifted Pedro’s hand, and shoved it against his rigid cock, wrapping Pedro’s hand around him and thrusting.
    Pedro gripped him and took another pull of blood.
    Lucas raised his head and bit onto Pedro’s shoulder. He must want something in his mouth. Pedro had seen that oral arousal when Andre fed—the household women bit their lower lip, or sucked their fingers.
    I could give him something better to—
    No. Time to stop.
    He licked Lucas’s neck, sealing the punctures. The flesh wriggled, knitting back together under his tongue. Man, that was cool .
    Lucas thrust again. He threw back his head, his neck straining as he pumped his hips.
    Pedro wanted him to beg. “Tell me what you want.” He worked Lucas through his jeans, demanding an answer.
    Lucas’s golden eyes