Of Cupid and Love and Vampires and Blog Hopping

So today is that special day, that Hallmark-inspired occasion which makes saps of us all, and sends us running to purchase greeting cards, chocolates and cute Teddies holding hearts! A day for expressing your love for that special someone in your life! Well, I have no SO at the moment, but I have something better - a blog and readers! So today I'm going to express my love by participating in not one, but two blog hops! Yes, you heard correctly - two blog hops! One is a Valentine's Day hop, the other is about vampires, another love of mine. So please stay for both, you won't be sorry!

The Swept Away Valentine's Blog Hop is another Drea Becraft production! This blog hop has tons of talented authors, just dying for you to stop in and see what they have to offer. You can go here for the complete list.

Love. It makes the world go round, right? It's a damn powerful emotion, something that connects us all. I'm going to make a separate post for the Vampire Hop, so that way I'll know which one you really want to be a part of.

To find out how to win, go to the end of my post, and the details will be there!

For my Valentine's Day first day of the hop offering, I give you the flash fiction I posted yesterday. It is something new that I plan to expand. I hope you like it!

This story has a working title of Sebastian Laguerre. I'm going to post the inspiration pic for this piece too, just so you can see what I saw. Enjoy!

       Sebastian LaGuerre

Someone had the worst timing in the world.

And judging by the jangled lyre sounds emanating from his smartphone, it was his distant cousin and bandmate. When Sebastian caught up with Orpheus, he was going to have to hurt him.

“Who’s that, baby?” The voice was muffled, its owner’s face buried in the thick pillows of the hotel’s double bed. Sebastian couldn’t remember his name—that was inconsequential; an unimportant detail, nothing to clutter his mind with. But whoever he was, he had a very delicious ass, one that Sebastian was thoroughly enjoying plowing. At least until the moment had been so rudely interrupted.

“Fuck me,” he muttered under his breath, before deigning to reply to the question. “Someone. I won’t be long. Just lie there.” He pulled out, irritably, and slid off the other man, wrapping the sheet about him, ignoring the shiver his action produced. He grabbed the phone and stalked into the bathroom, firmly shutting the door behind him before answering.

“This better be damn good. I was busy—”

“I can only imagine.” A throaty chuckle from the other end of the line.

“Why don’t you find Cupid and torture him if you’re bored?” Sebastian searched his image in the mirror. The lighting was harsher than he might like, but he still looked damn good. That was one of the benefits of being a demigod. Maybe he hadn’t gotten the looks that some of them had, particularly the bastard offspring of Aphrodite, his own father’s consort. But Sebastian was certainly beautiful in his own right and he knew it.

He pushed back unruly locks of curly black hair that came just to the nape of his neck. Twisting his head for a better view, he decided to let it grow out a little more. The trace of sexy stubble that he maintained above his full carmine lips and along his jaw was pleasing to him—he’d keep that as it was.  His cool grey eyes were carefully lined in black. A perfect vision of loveliness. He blew a kiss at his reflection and smiled.

“Stop admiring yourself.” Orpheus laughed again. Sebastian scowled at the phone and turned from the mirror. “You know I can’t do that. The man’s busy, or have you forgotten what today is?”

It wasn’t so much that Sebastian had forgotten, he simply didn’t care. He found Cupid to be annoying, for the most part. Going on and on about love all the damn time. Like it really existed. Like it really mattered. As if it wasn’t anything more than hormonal urges that produced a vast mass hysteria. A hypnosis that muddled the brain and threw it into a tailspin from which it seldom recovered. It ruined lives, and made fools of normally intelligent men. The only useful byproduct was that it was also responsible for a great deal of violence, and had launched many a war.

Sebastian Laguerre loved no one but himself.

And thank the gods he was beyond Valentine’s Day.

 “Go bother my brothers, why don’t you? I’m busy,” Sebastian repeated. Okay, technically Phobos and Deimos were half-brothers, but whatever.

“You’re the only one that likes to hang with them,” Orpheus pointed out. “Normal people avoid them.”

“Are you saying I’m not normal?”

“You’re you and I love you for who you are, Sebby.”

“Zeus’s beard, don’t call me that. I’m going. Go fuck yourself. Literally.” He clicked off the phone without waiting for the smart reply he knew was imminent and exited the bathroom. He let the sheet fall away from him as he wound his sinuous way back toward the bed; it trailed behind him until he stepped from it. Dropping onto all fours, he crawled across the bed.

“I’m back,” he purred in a sultry voice. The other man shivered in anticipation, lifting his head at Sebastian’s return, although he was well trained enough that he did not turn to look. “Miss me, love?”

“Mmm, yes, I did. Missed your cock up my ass. So much…”

“Of course you did.” Sebastian wore a very self-satisfied smirk. “Roll over, pet.”

“Is it time, then?”

“Mmmhmmm.”

He had a nice body, Sebastian admitted. Darryl? David? Dan? Something with a D, he was fairly sure. He was young, early twenties. Young and eager to please. And so far, he’d done a decent job of it. But, alas, all good things must come to an end. Sebastian wasn’t going to let that stop him from enjoying himself thoroughly.

He positioned himself between the boy’s legs—Dirk? Devin?—and took himself in hand, pumping his cock a few times. Orpheus’ ill-timed interruption had brought it down slightly, but a little well-applied pressure restored its former tumescent state.

“Now where were we?”

“About to reach glory,” the innocent supplied.

“Ah yes, just so.” He thrust inside of that tight channel in one hard stroke, producing a gasp of pure pleasure. Hot velvet surrounded his cock, a sensation heightened by the tightness of this boy’s muscles that clung so deliciously. “Touch yourself,” he instructed and the boy obeyed, grasping his cock and pumping.

“Not too fast,” Sebastian cautioned. “And don’t close your eyes. I want to see.”

The lids fluttered open again. Sebastian drove into him again, over and over, watching for the right moment. He’d know it by the boy’s responses. He’d see it in his eyes. He’d laid his instrument within reach; when he was ready he picked it up, looped the silk necktie about the boy’s neck and began to tighten it slowly, slowly…

Sebastian could see the play of emotions in the boy’s blue eyes as he spun into euphoria, until his orgasm was inevitable, and Sebastian had wrung out all that he could. As the boy came, he tightened the tie completely, until all breathing ceased.

* * * *

The body was discovered in front of a café near the Eiffel Tower, the heart in a small box beside it, along with a note—Happy Valentine’s Day, Inspector.

For The Swept Away Blog Hop, I'd like to give away one of my books to two readers. All you have to do is comment, and tell me what you would personally consider the ultimate Valentine's Day - how would you spend the day, with whom, and what would you like as a gift. Don't forget to leave your email address so I can contact you!  Enjoy the rest of the Blog Hop!