Hayden shook his head. “Connected,” he reminded him.

Stafford didn’t appear impressed.

Jasmine reached out for the other man. “Rest with us, sir?” she asked.

“Vampires do not require to rest in this manner,” he said coldly, even though Hayden could already see the other man was looking at the way they were wrapped around each other and working out where he would fit into such an arrangement.

“Rest with us anyway,” she asked. “Please, sir?”

Stafford looked unenthusiastically at Hayden, but he moved a little closer across the bed, seemingly willing to humour Jas, regardless of his presence. Resting his head on the pillow in front of her, he stroked her cheek and pressed a delicate kiss against her lips.

“It won’t be much longer,” he reassured her. “I won’t let him keep you connected like this all night.”

“She’s happy where she is,” Hayden told him, a note of growl making its way into his voice.

Jasmine smiled and turned her head so it was clear she was addressing them both. “I’m fine, sir.”

She certainly sounded fine, all tired and content with her world.

Stafford nodded his understanding.

Hayden murmured his agreement too, and snuggled closer to her as his erection began to slowly soften inside her.

Hayden lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. The more he tried to ignore it, the more impossible it became. Jas was curled in close to his side, which was very right, and just as it should be. Stafford had migrated toward the other side of the bed, which wasn’t really proper pack behaviour, but which was fine with Hayden right then.

Taking a deep breath, the wolf smelt all of their pleasure mingled in the air above the bed. Jasmine smelt like him now. Stafford ’s scent was still there, but it had faded away when he put his scent over it. Jasmine was his. She smelt like her alpha male.

The only problem was Stafford. He smelt like Stafford, which was to be expected and tolerated, but his cock still smelt like Jasmine’s pleasure. There was no use trying to ignore it. The vampire smelling like Jasmine’s scent was wrong-it made it smell like her pleasure only came from the other man. Carefully moving out of Jasmine’s sleepy embrace, Hayden negotiated his way past her slumbering form.

Stafford moved his arm in his sleep, allowing the handcuffs to guide where he rested his arm as Hayden made his way closer to him.

Sitting on the bed, in the gap between Jasmine’s body and Stafford ’s side, he leaned over and slowly began to wash Jasmine’s scent off the vampire’s body.

Stafford shifted in his sleep. He rocked his hips as a hot, moist tongue caressed his shaft. He blinked his eyes open and stared at the ceiling. What he’d assumed was an amazingly realistic dream became an obvious reality and the tongue didn’t leave him for a moment.

Jasmine…

Stafford smiled to himself. He let her carry on for a few more minutes before he was willing to admit he was awake. Lifting his head and looked down his body.

Suddenly wide awake, Stafford scrambled back on the bed, jerking away from the mouth hovering over his cock. “What the-“

“Hush,” Hayden whispered reproachfully. “You’ll wake Jas.”

Stafford stared wide eyed down the bed. He looked at Jasmine still sleeping next to them. She stirred, reaching out across the bed for the warmth of another body and failing to find one, but she didn’t wake up.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Stafford hissed as quietly as his anger would allow, pulling the blanket he’d cast aside during the night back over his body and almost up to his chin.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Hayden said.

Stafford opened his mouth. He closed his mouth. He really couldn’t think of anything to say to that. He ran a hand through his hair, putting the strands into some sort of order. He tugged the blanket even further up his body and cast a very suspicious glare at the werewolf. “And what? Fellatio is a traditional werewolf cure for insomnia?” he demanded.

Hayden tilted his head on the side. “What’s that?”

“What?” Damn, the man didn’t even have a vocabulary! “Fellatio-it means sucking another man’s cock.”

“I wasn’t sucking, I was licking,” Hayden corrected mildly.

“You should wait for an invitation before you do either!” Stafford snapped.

“You were sleeping.”

“And that gives you the right to do whatever you want?” Stafford demanded.

Hayden shrugged. “I didn’t think you would mind.”

“Well, I do!” He looked across to Jasmine as he realised his voice was getting louder again.

Hayden tilted his head on the side. “Why?” He genuinely seemed curious.

“Because I’m not bloody well gay!” Stafford snapped.

Hayden looked more confused than ever by the declaration. Stafford studied the werewolf. He really didn’t seem to understand why he was pissed off with him.

Stafford took a deep breath and tried to think rationally. “Not all men like having sex with other men,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with it if a guy happens to like other guys, but I don’t. I only like women. Understand?”

Hayden blinked at him. “We weren’t having sex.”

“You were licking my cock,” Stafford pointed out as patiently as he could.

“Your cock still smelled like Jasmine,” Hayden offered in explanation.

Stafford tried to follow the logic. “And you were attracted to her scent?”

“I couldn’t sleep when you still smelt like her.”

Bizarre though it was, Stafford found himself doing his very best to follow the other man’s logic. “Doesn’t she smell like me anyway?”

Hayden shook his head. “She smells like me now.”

Stafford looked across at her.

“You picked to go first,” Hayden reminded him, as if he believed Stafford had any reason to regret that.

Stafford tried to look at the situation from the werewolf’s point of view. “That’s why you were willing to wait, so you would be the last man to put his scent on her?”

Hayden nodded.

Stafford ran a hand through his hair again. Hayden’s messy blond mop was sticking up in all directions. Some stupid part of him wanted to reach out and put the other man’s hair into some sort of order, but he resisted that temptation.

“For the rest of the night,” Stafford said. “You don’t do anything unless I specifically give you my permission.” He decided not to point out that would happen around about the same time the devil started building snowmen.

Hayden nodded. “Okay.”

Stafford echoed the gesture. “And you don’t do anything, anything at all,” he stressed, “when I’m asleep.”

Hayden nodded again. He seemed to understand the situation.

Stafford looked at Jasmine, still somehow sleeping soundly through the whole thing. “Neither of us will mention this incident to Jasmine.”

“Why not?” Hayden asked. “It’s wrong to keep secrets from other members of the pack.”

“Because… it will only confuse matters,” Stafford said. It would make it far harder for him to implement the plans he had for Jasmine and himself in the future if she got the idea that he was gay into her head.

“You don’t think she would like me licking you?”

“I don’t know,” Stafford said. “And I don’t particularly care. We are not telling her.”

Hayden tilted his head on the side in that funny way he had which always seemed to indicate he was thinking. “Okay.”

“Right,” Stafford said. “Now, go back to your side of the bed. Go back to sleep.”

Hayden nodded, calmly enough.

Stafford cautiously lay back down on his side of the bed. As Hayden moved back onto the other side of Jasmine, Stafford placed his hand on the pillow above Jasmine’s head. It wasn’t exactly comfortable to sleep with his arm stretched out to accommodate the handcuffs, but it was a damn sight better than having Hayden on his side of the bed with him-especially if the guy couldn’t keep his tongue, or any other part of his body, to himself while he was asleep.