CHAPTER 89: CHAPTER 89: COMPROMISE (1)

The air between them thickened, weighted with a slow-burning tension that made even the faintest movements feel amplified. Victor didn’t pull back; if anything, he leaned in further, the bridge of his nose grazing the line of Elias’s jaw as he inhaled again, deeper this time, like he could commit every thread of Elias’s scent to memory and then burn it into his bones.

Elias let his head tip back against the couch cushions, just enough to catch the faint gleam in those crimson eyes. "You’re doing it again," he murmured.

Victor’s mouth curved faintly against his skin. "Doing what?"

"That thing where you pretend you’re in control of yourself."

The low chuckle that followed was more vibration than sound, resonating where Victor’s chest brushed his. "Who says I’m pretending?" His hand slid higher along Elias’s ribs, fingertips skimming the edge of his shirt as though testing just how far politeness could be stretched before it snapped.

Elias’s breath caught despite himself, though he managed to keep his voice level. "You’re very sure of yourself for someone who nearly fractured my spine the other night."

Victor laughed low and dark, sending shivers through Elias. "You will feel better soon... or..."

"Or?" Elias asked, trying to rearrange his glasses.

"Or I could heal you right now, if you let me mark you."

Elias’s fingers stilled on the bridge of his glasses, the frame hanging half-crooked for a heartbeat before he pushed them properly into place. "Ah," he said slowly, dry as sun-bleached paper. "There it is. The sales pitch."

Victor’s smile sharpened, but he didn’t move back, his breath warm against the curve of Elias’s neck. "Not a pitch. An offer."

"Mm," Elias hummed, tilting his head just enough to meet that unblinking crimson gaze. "An offer that just happens to end with your teeth in my neck and my autonomy hanging by a thread."

"An offer that ends," Victor corrected, his thumb brushing a slow, deliberate circle against Elias’s ribs, "with you pain-free, steady on your feet, and mine in a way no one else would dare challenge."

Elias snorted softly, though the sound was a shade too thin to pass for genuine derision. "And here I thought you enjoyed the challenge."

"I do," Victor said, voice dropping until it threaded through him like heat. "But I enjoy winning more."

Elias held his gaze for a moment longer, measuring the weight of those words against the quiet thrum in his pulse. "You really think dangling relief in front of me is going to make me say yes?"

Victor leaned in just enough for the scrape of his teeth to ghost over Elias’s scent gland, not a bite, but close enough to draw the air from his lungs. "I think you’ve been thinking about it since the moment I offered," he murmured. "And that’s all I need."

Elias’s laugh came short and unguarded, the kind that broke free before he could smooth it into something more sardonic. "You’re not wrong," he admitted, his tone cutting the confession in half, "but it’s far too soon to make that kind of decision."

"Soon?" Victor repeated the word, tasting deliberate in his mouth, as if he were turning it over for weaknesses. His hand slid lower, fingers splaying against Elias’s hip, holding with just enough weight to suggest he could change the definition of soon without warning.

"Yes, soon," Elias said, trying for steady, though his breath betrayed the faintest hitch when Victor’s thumb brushed the edge of his waistband. "I’m not exactly in the habit of making life-altering choices while pinned to expensive furniture."

Victor’s smile was a slow-blooming thing, dangerous for its patience. "Maybe that’s the problem. You’ve never been given the right incentive."

"And you think you qualify?" Elias countered, though the question wavered under the scrape of Victor’s teeth, not quite a bite, but a lingering threat of one, tracing the curve of his scent gland again.

"I don’t think," Victor murmured, voice dropping to something almost too low to catch. "I know. And the longer you make me wait, the more thorough I’ll have to be in proving it."

Elias inhaled slowly, resisting the urge to lean back into him. "You’re testing my boundaries."

Victor’s laugh was quiet and unrepentant, his breath hot against Elias’s skin. "Of course I am. How else would I know where to push?"

"You are unbelievable."

"I’m a God with no patience left that finds the only soul that is compatible with his. Excuse me, I’m pushy before others start to reach for you."

Elias huffed, the sound halfway between disbelief and something far less certain. "That’s not an excuse, that’s a confession."

Victor’s eyes narrowed in faint amusement, his mouth brushing the edge of Elias’s jaw as though the contact was an afterthought when they both knew it wasn’t. "It’s both," he said smoothly, the heat in his tone undercutting the precision of his words. "And I don’t apologize for either."

"You don’t apologize for anything," Elias muttered, though his voice lacked the sharpness it should have had.

Victor’s fingers flexed at his hip, the pressure just shy of possessive restraint. "Not when it comes to you." He dipped his head again, inhaling slowly, the deliberate drag of breath against Elias’s scent making the air between them thicken. "You still don’t see it, do you? How much room you’ve already taken up in me."

Elias’s mouth twitched in spite of himself. "That’s a dramatic way to say you’re obsessed."

Victor’s smile pressed against his skin, sharp and warm all at once. "I am," he admitted, as though the word itself tasted good on his tongue. "And the sooner you accept that, the sooner I can stop pretending to be gentle."

"You were never gentle in the time we’ve known each other."

A low, dark laugh curled out of him, sliding through Elias’s chest like smoke. "That," Victor said, his breath warm against the edge of Elias’s jaw, "was me being gentle. But... we can compromise."

"Compromise?" Elias arched a brow, fighting the shiver that threatened to betray him under the slow, deliberate drag of Victor’s touch.

"Yes," Victor murmured, his tone rich with something that felt far less like concession and far more like bait. "Compromise."