And had to bite back the sigh that threatened to escape at the sight of Harry standing on the porch, muscled body covered in a soft, black cotton t-shirt and black jeans that were molded to his strong thighs. "Hi." Orlando leaned against the doorframe, eyes roaming over Harry's body. "Nice outfit." Harry's laugh boomed out as he studied Orlando through amused eyes. "Well, I guess it's true that we're alike," he said, walking up the last step. He leaned in, breath soft against Orlando's cheek, and the heat radiating from Harry's body sent shocks spiraling down his spine. "Missed you," Harry whispered, lips just scant inches from Orlando's. "Missed you, too," Orlando breathed as he leaned closer, covering the distance separating them to touch his lips to Harry's, one hand resting lightly against his chest. With a soft growl, Harry slid his tongue between open lips, pressed Orlando against the door with his body. Orlando was surrounded by heat, enveloped in it, drowning in Harry's kiss, helpless to do more than respond, sucking on Harry's tongue with abandon, hands curling in Harry's shirt, slanting his mouth to accept more, to take more. Orlando blinked, dazed, when Harry finally lifted his head. It took several minutes for him to remember how to speak, to even remember that he was capable of speech. Then he smiled, slowly uncurled his fingers from Harry's shirt. "Wow. Maybe you should go away more often if that's what I can expect when you get home." Harry smiled, showing the tips of white fangs. "I'd rather stay here and get the practice in, actually. Shall we?" Orlando nodded, hesitated for a brief moment before sliding his hand down Harry's arm to lace their fingers together. "Lead on. I'm yours for the evening." "Tempting thought." Harry led him down the steps, stopped in front of a vintage FatBoy. "Tempting and true." Orlando grinned and then looked at the bike, his eyes widening. "Nice." "Yeah, it is, isn't it?" The pride was evident in Harry's voice as he ran the tips of his fingers along the polished tank. "Restoring old Harleys is a bit of a hobby of mine. Here." He thrust a helmet in Orlando's hands. "I'd like to see the other bikes you have some day." "Maybe next time." Harry smiled as he put on his own helmet, straddled the bike. The throaty purr of the engine cut through the air seconds later. "Climb on." Orlando promptly settled himself behind Harry. Without hesitation, he slid forward a little and wrapped his arms around Harry's waist, chest snug against Harry's back. Harry waited until Orlando was properly settled before rumbling out of the twisting drive, handling the turns with practiced ease. The night air rushed along Orlando's skin as they sped down the road, plastered his shirt to his body. He smiled, hugged Harry even tighter. The night, the darkness, the bike, Harry...all of it was pretty close to perfect. If only...no. He wasn't going to start thinking about it, wasn't going to risk getting upset. "Doing alright back there?!" "Wonderfully." Orlando grinned, unable to help himself. "So where are we going?" "It's a surprise." "Ah...mysterious. I like that." He splayed his hands across Harry's stomach, enjoyed the feel of the muscles beneath his fingers. The ride was enjoyable, reckless, and over too soon. Orlando loved the wind racing over him, the rumble of the bike beneath him, the feel of Harry's body under his hands. He stretched when Harry finally stopped the bike, looked at the church in front of them in puzzlement. He didn't recognize the neighborhood. "A church?" He handed his helmet to Harry, gave the vampire a confused look. "This is the last place I would have expected." Harry simply smiled. "Come on." He grabbed Orlando's hand, tugged him to a small door, opened it with a key. Orlando followed as Harry led him down a small flight of steps, through another door, and into a cavern filled with parchments and books and manuscripts. Orlando froze. His eyes widened until they were nearly round, his mouth fell open, and he stared. This place made Harry's library look neat and well organized. And the more things he saw, the more Orlando's fingers itched to pick up something -- anything -- and start to read. "This is...wow." "Pretty awful, isn't it? I do some archiving for them in my spare time. The church inherited this guy's entire collection...and if you think my library is a mess..." He gestured to the stacks. "I know it's not much of a first date, but I thought you might want to help me. We could do something else if you want..." "Awful?" Orlando whirled to face Harry, his eyes sparkling. "This is wonderful! I could spend a year in here and still not get tired of it." He wrapped his arms around Harry's neck and proceeded to cover his face in small kisses. "Thank you." Harry kissed him back for a minute, then pulled away, smiling. "None of that. I'm probably already going to hell one day, I don't need sex in a church to add to my sins." He led him to the desk in the middle of the room, set Orlando on his lap, and gestured to the neat pile of papers there. "We'll start with those." "What are they?" Orlando picked up the papers, thumbing through them as he settled back against Harry's chest. "Latin dribble from a 16th century monk about astronomy." Harry pulled him closer, wrapped strong arms around him as he started going through the tallest stack of papers. "Tell me about yourself." Orlando paused, then lowered the papers to his lap. "What would you like to know? My life would probably bore you." "Highly doubtful." Harry placed a small kiss on Orlando's nose, went back to perusing the papers. "You've managed to capture the interest of two vampires, and I can tell you right now neither Karl or I are easily impressed. So talk." Orlando heard the slight catch in Harry's voice when Harry mentioned Karl, but ignored it for the moment. "Catching Karl's interest was easy. I just had to dance for him." Orlando laughed quietly, studied the top paper on the stack he was holding. "But there really isn't much to know about me. I'm 25, obviously crazy, lived here for seven years, born and raised in England." "Obviously crazy how?" "I tend to do things that put myself at risk without really thinking about them. Stuff like bungee jumping, skydiving, crawling into limos with vampires I've just met. You know, the usual." "The usual, huh?" Harry asked, and Orlando could feel his smile. "Why us, anyway? Why vampires?" "Because I've always been fascinated." Orlando's shifted restlessly in Harry's lap. "The whole...I don't know. Lifestyle, I guess, has always intrigued me. The darkness and beauty, the fangs...all of it. I can't really explain it." "I'll never understand the fascination," Harry answered, sighing slightly. "Something wrong? You're shifting around an awful lot." "Sorry. I'm just not used to sitting still -- drives Karl nuts that I can't." Orlando felt the tension race through Harry's body, but his voice was gentle enough as he pushed Orlando off of him. "Go explore then. It's why we're here." Orlando flashed Harry a relieved look and leaned down to give him a swift kiss. "Thanks." He bounced off, trying to figure out where to start. He kept one eye on Harry as he stopped by a stack of books. Lifting the top one, he opened the cover and slowly began to turn pages. "This stuff is fascinating." Harry's snort was one of contempt. "Most of it's shit. Take this, for instance," he pointed, "pure crap. Stars are not warnings from God. When did you know you were gay?" Orlando paused, caught off guard by the question. He recovered quickly, setting the book back down and moving on to another stack. "What makes you think I'm gay? I could be bi." Harry lifted his head, pinned Orlando with knowing eyes. "I know bi, little one, and you're not it." "Alright, fine, I'm not bi." Orlando gave Harry a charming smile. "I was 16." "What happened?" "Went to a party with a couple friends and ended up in the bathroom with the guy from down the street." Orlando lifted a book from another stack, studied it. "And?" "You want details?" Orlando bit his tongue the second the words left his mouth. Too late to call them back now. Sooner or later, he decided he was going to learn to think before he spoke Harry's grin played across full lips, and it was so much like Karl's... "Yes." Orlando rolled his eyes and laughed. "I should have known." He set the books back down. "He started kissing me and next thing I knew, he was on his knees with my dick in his mouth. It was a downhill slide from there." "That bad, huh?" Harry joked, spreading the papers on the desk. "Actually it was pretty amazing." Orlando gave Harry a cheeky grin and resumed his meanderings through the clutter. "So, one blowjob and you're gay?" Harry sounded puzzled again. Orlando wondered why he was so interested. "No, it was a little more involved than that. It was how I felt about it and the things that happened over the next few months. I'd gotten blowjobs from girls before, but none of them felt...right, I guess." He shrugged, aware he was blushing. "And girls didn't...well, it took a long time for me to get aroused with a girl. With him, and with other guys afterwards, it didn't take nearly as long. Girls just didn't do anything for me." He tilted his head, studied Harry. "Why so curious?" "Just something Vig and I have talked about a few times." Harry gave Orlando a small, strained smile, turned back to the papers on the desk, pushing his hair back from his head with impatient fingers. "You're the..." He paused for such a long time that Orlando was sure he wasn't going to finish the sentence, and was surprised when Harry did, rumbly voice faint. "You're the only other man I've ever been with." The book Orlando had just picked up fell from his fingers, landing on the floor with a loud bang. He stared at Harry with wide eyes. "Are you serious?" His voice was low, breathless. "I'm flattered." "Yeah, well, you should be," Harry stated, not looking up from the desk, body vibrating with tension. "Over 800 years of denial thrown out the goddamn window. I've always thought it was Karl." "I see." Orlando moved through the stacks, knelt by the chair. Both of his hands took one of Harry's, lifted it to his lips for a soft kiss. "Being bi is nothing to be ashamed of." "It is in my world." Harry reached out, tugged a stray curl on his forehead. "It was easier to convince myself that it was a...Karl thing rather than an orientation thing." "Here and now, in this time and place...it's accepted." Orlando smiled, tilted his face up for a kiss. "And it can't be just a Karl thing if you're attracted to me as well." He suddenly looked a little unsure. "You are attracted to me...aren't you?" Orlando felt, rather than saw, Harry's smile as lips claimed his in a rather fierce, brief kiss. "No, I'm prone to sucking just any man's dick." Orlando blushed fiery red, but that didn't stop the grin that crossed his face. "So is that how you got so good? Lots of practice?" Harry's smile this time looked sad. "Yeah, lots of practice." "Nah, I think you're just a natural at it," Orlando murmured. He didn't want Harry to look sad. One hand lifted and a finger gently traced Harry's bottom lip. "Anything else you'd like to know?" "I'm sure I can think of a few things," Harry replied, nipping at the tip of Orlando's finger. "How about you? Got any burning questions?" Orlando smiled and continued tracing Harry's mouth with his finger. "Why does the idea of being bi bother you so much?" Harry pulled Orlando back up onto his lap, settled him across strong thighs. "You know how old I am, yes?" "Roughly." "857." Orlando looked at Harry, calmly waiting for Harry to continue. When he didn't immediately, Orlando tried to smile. "Karl's older, and he doesn't have a problem with it." "Karl's never been mortal," Harry answered, his voice low. "Anyway, back when I was mortal...growing up...I had a very religious upbringing. Which isn't surprising if you know anything about history." Harry leaned back in the chair, brought Orlando with him. "And I was every inch the hardened, masculine warrior, every inch my father's son. It never even occurred to me to look twice at men until Karl. He shattered a lot of illusions I had about myself." The last words were said softly. Orlando looked down at his hands in his lap. "And you've always thought that Karl was some sort of weird exception because he's a vampire?" "Something like that, yeah. I would look at other men, and they never interested me." "Well..." Orlando peeped at Harry through his lashes. "Maybe you just needed someone else to come along who can love you like Karl does." "One Karl in my life is quite enough, thanks." Harry bent his head, teeth nibbling the top of Orlando's ear. "Hungry?" Orlando shivered. "Starving." "Come on, then." Onto Part Twenty-One
|