“I said I have a beating heart and blood pumping in my cock. I’m not dead!” Shadow pushed back the hair that had fallen to his face on the way here.
Gray’s expression didn’t change. “Only for a moment in time. After that, you’ll be back in the ground,” he said and left the staircase.
Shadow bared his teeth but went in after him. He didn’t need to be reminded of the shortness of the time ahead, because he’d felt life trickling out of him as he fed the tree. If he only had weeks to spend with Gray, he would do all the things humans did. He would connect with Gray the way he’d seen done in the red room, because there was nothing in this world he craved more. Gray’s words meant nothing to him. Shadow would much rather let their bodies communicate.
Behind the door was a simple space kept in whites, grays, and blacks, without decorations or frills. It was where Shadow had first stood on his own, before he received a body and fully became his own person.
Gray tossed off his boots and padded across the floor, to a large closet. “I’ll get you some pillows and blankets for the night.”
Shadow didn’t want blankets. He was cold inside and out, and what he wanted was Gray’s skin next to his, their bodies merging into one in that primal rhythm he needed to experience. Just the way Beast had ink under his skin, Shadow wanted Gray under his.
He approached the man who was driving him wild, and grabbed him from behind. Gray’s shoulders instantly turned wooden, but Shadow picked him up and dragged him toward the bed.
“Put me down, you idiot,” Gray shouted, banging his heel against Shadow’s knee. As he shook his head, his silvery ponytail repeatedly smacked Shadow’s face, dusting him in particles of the scent that made his chest burn and his cock stiffen.
“No,” Shadow said tightly, holding on despite the sharp pain in his leg. His mind was on a different track at this point and wouldn’t be derailed by something so minor. He shoved Gray onto the bed and wouldn’t let him squirm away, with a hand pressed firmly between the slender shoulder-blades. It was as if his head emptied, leaving only the need for Gray’s body to suck his in.
Gray’s eyes flashed with anger, but Shadow spotted the movement of Gray’s hand just in time to stop him from using the knife he’d grabbed. With a low growl, Shadow slapped Gray’s hand so hard the blade clattered to the floor. He wouldn’t be wasting time on this game.
Gray turned under him like an eel, but Shadow was quick to grab his wrist and pin him to the bed with his body weight. The movement ended up with his cock pressing against Gray’s thigh, and bliss exploded in his brain like the brightest of fireworks.
Gray let out a choked sound, twisting his body and blindly kicking at Shadow, even though he had no chance to win this fight with just one arm. Shadow knew that all would be well once they connected, and if Gray couldn’t see that yet, then so be it, even if the erratic twitching of the wide hazel eyes staring back at him was making his insides shrink.
How could Gray not see this was what they were made for?
“Let go. This isn’t a game, you dumb fuck,” Gray said through his teeth, dragging himself up the bed with the stump. His breath was like the sound of a broken ventilator—rough and uneven, and despite the heat exuded by his body, his face lost its color, as if his blood had drained elsewhere.
"I don't care if I'm dead! I want this!" Shadow was surprised how much of a struggle it was to hold down someone so much smaller. Gray kept moving, shifting, and kicking, as if he truly didn’t understand that connecting with Shadow would make him so much happier. So Shadow was cold, and maybe touching him wasn’t all that pleasant yet, but it was Gray’s fault he was cold, and if they touched, they’d both be warmer. Hadn’t Shadow suffered enough tonight?
He finally managed to push up Gray’s T-shirt, desperate to reach the warm flesh.
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” Gray growled, arching away from Shadow, as if touching him were a despicable act. “Let go now!”
But Shadow ignored the threats, focused only on the searing heat radiating to his face from the uncovered flesh. Muscles were a tight bundle under Gray’s skin, hard as stones when he leaned down and licked the fresh salt off Gray’s navel.
“No! Shadow… you can’t do that! I’m serious.”
Words meant nothing when the taste on Shadow’s tongue made his insides flutter in excitement. He hadn’t even noticed when he started rocking his hips between Gray’s legs, his mind fizzling in the heat of pleasure. But he only had two hands, and if he wanted to connect his body to Gray’s, their clothes were in the way.