The Problem Client

by K P Maxwell

  “Is there something wrong?” Damien asks, in a too-polite tone, that damn mask dropping onto his face again like it belongs there. Ty shakes his head, trying to push his worry aside.

  “Sorry,” he admits. “Just got reminded of something.” The plates on the table are empty, and now is as good of a time as any. He looks around for the waitress, catching her eye, and she nods politely, heading towards their table again.

  “Do you want to come back to my place?” he asks Damien, and Damien looks up at him, surprised at the question. He doesn’t answer for a moment, and Ty just hands his credit card to the waitress without waiting for the bill.

  “Just –” Ty says, sighing. “I want to talk somewhere private,” he says, feeling nervous about this all of a sudden.

  Damien nods though. “Okay,” he says, and he drags the vowel out with hesitation, but then he shrugs. “Don’t try anything weird though. I’ll call Eli on you.”

  Ty laughs out loud at that. “Eli, eh?” he says, feeling relieved that Damien agreed. “Eli's good people.”

  Damien smiles at that, and Ty hopes Damien won’t be too freaked out by what he has to tell him when they get to his place.

  Ty’s apartment is gorgeous, but there’s nearly nothing in it. It looks like something straight out of a catalog, and Damien has to wonder if it is. Perhaps Ty just ordered pieces that looked like they would all fit together. Judging by the price he was willing to pay for the exclusive contract with Damien, money is no object to this man.

  “Do you even live here?” Damien asks, kicking his shoes off in the entryway, and Ty shrugs.

  “Don’t spend much time here, I guess,” Ty says, settings his keys down.

  Ty’s been acting weird since the end of their date. Although technically, Damien thinks, this is just a continuation of the date. It probably wasn’t the best idea to go home with Ty, when he really does barely know the man, but there’s something deep within Damien that believes, unflinchingly that Ty would never hurt him. And his logical side tells him that Melanie would have warned him off strongly if she thought Ty was actually dangerous.

  Come to think of it… Melanie had warned him, somewhat, but it seemed like a different sort of warning. Like she was afraid of emotional consequences, not physical danger.

  “Listen, if we’re going to continue this –” Ty says, suddenly, drawing Damien’s attention away from the details of the apartment and back to the man himself. “There’s something I have to tell you.” Ty rubs the back of his head like he’s embarrassed about whatever it is, and Damien has a bizarre thought, suddenly, that surely Ty’s not married or something like that.

  “Yes?” Damien asks, and he can’t help the chill in his voice. He feels himself withdrawing already. He should have known there would be something.

  Ty looks panicked, momentarily, and the expression that crosses his face reminds him of Kaz, actually. When Kaz –

  “I’m –” Ty hesitates, his words cutting through Damien’s train of thought. “I’m a wolf,” he says.

  Damien stares at Ty for a moment, just blinking, feeling a weird sense of déjà vu. A wolf shifter, then. And not a cat. So not quite like Kaz, but –

  “What like a werewolf?” Damien asks, when he puts the thoughts together, his voice rising a bit higher than he intends it to. He thinks of all of the times he’s let Ty bite him. He can’t recall if Ty’s ever broken skin. “Is it contagious?”

  It startles a laugh out of Ty. “No, no,” he says, raising his hands. “Not contagious, and I’m not a werewolf. I’m just a regular shifter.”

  “Okaaay,” Damien says, drawing out the vowel. Several thoughts bombard his mind all at once, but the overwhelming feeling is that it makes so much sense on so many levels.

  “I have questions,” Damien says, and Ty nods.

  “Go for it,” he says.

  “So… do you have a pack?” he asks. “Are you the alpha?” Ty gives him a level glance.

  “You are, aren’t you?” Damien breathes, and Ty looks uncomfortable.

  “You’re overthinking this,” Ty says. “It’s not like the way it is in movies. It’s more like… I’m just a leader. In the shifter community.”

  Damien looks at him skeptically. “So, you’re the alpha of the pack.”

  Ty sighs, a bone-deep weary noise. “If you must put it that way, yes,” he says.

  Damien’s eyes widen. “Really!” he breathes. Perhaps this is why Melanie kept making vague warnings about Ty. Surely she knows.

  “So this is why you’re always sniffing me,” Damien says, gleeful. “Am I your mate?”

  Ty grabs him around the waist, growling, and it sends sparks up Damien’s spine.

  “And that noise!” Damien says, already distracted from his original line of questioning. “I’ve always wondered. It sounds real.” He brushes his palms against Ty’s chest through his shirt, feeling the place where the low noise comes from.

  “It is,” Ty says gruffly. “Although I’m sure it sounds different when I’m in wolf form.”

  Damien shivers. He thinks he’d like to see that sometime, but perhaps not tonight. He thinks somehow it will be very different from seeing Kaz in cat form. Ty’s body is so warm, too, he thinks. He’s not sure if Kaz is. He has a vague recollection of Kaz’s body heat after drinks with Eli the other night, but everything’s a bit fuzzy on that account.

  “Ty the werewolf,” he teases. His hands slide down Ty’s sides, and then back around to his back, to feel the muscles there. “That doesn’t really have a good ring to it, does it?”

  “Ugh, you’re terrible,” Ty says, pressing Damien even closer to him. “I just said I’m not a werewolf.”

  Damien smiles brightly at him. “You love my personality,” he says, and Ty reaches up to ruffle his hair, messing it up on purpose, Damien’s sure. Damien squeaks.

  “Melanie knows, right?” Damien asks, and Ty nods.

  “Yeah, she can tell,” he says, and Damien’s heard Kaz say that before.

  “And Kaz?” Damien asks, but Ty frowns at the name.

  “Is that one of the new guys?” he asks, and Damien nods.

  “You haven’t met him?” Damien asks, and Ty shakes his head.

  “Nah, I guess not,” Ty says, and Damien supposes that’s true. Liam and Sebastian have both seen Ty and know that Ty is Damien’s client, but Kaz hasn’t met the other man yet.

  “Kaz is a shifter, too,” Damien says, and Ty’s eyes narrow. The muscles in his back tense under Damien’s fingers in an interesting way.

  “A house cat,” Damien clarifies, watching for Ty’s reaction.

  “Ah,” Ty says, and he seems to relax a bit at that. “No wonder everything smelled like cat at the café.” He lets the topic drop otherwise, still holding Damien close. Damien wonders if he hadn’t met Kaz if he would have taken the news of Ty being a wolf shifter differently.

  “You have off tomorrow right?” Ty asks eventually, and Damien nods. He always has Sundays off, since the café is closed. Sometimes they do inventory or other things like that, but it’s a more casual affair, and Melanie generally doesn’t expect them to do anything specific. Damien usually just does some kind of work around the café out of lack of anything better to do.

  “Do you want to –” Ty says, and then looks away, almost as if he’s shy about asking the question. Ty’s never shy about anything, so Damien’s instantly intrigued.

  “Stay here tonight?” Ty asks, and it’s just a continuation of his last thought, but it sounds more like a command than a question, and Damien laughs.

  “Okay,” he says, in reply. “But I didn’t bring anything.”

  Ty grins, smile huge. “Well don’t worry about wearing clothes on my account,” he says, and Damien laughs.

  Damien texts Mel and Kaz to let them know. This is the first time in a long time that he’s been away from the Café for any period of time, and it feels odd. But in a good way. Even with the whole wolf shifter thing, he thinks maybe all of this i
s going better than he could have possibly hoped.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Damien spends most of Sunday morning and part of the afternoon at Ty’s. Ty is utterly charming. He makes Damien an omelet for breakfast, and Damien is pleased at the gesture as well as the fact that Ty can cook at all. They get sandwiches for lunch at a small café next to Ty’s building. It’s nice to be out in the world with Ty, walking at his side. He feels right in a way that he’s not sure he’s ever felt before. There’s something almost enthralling about Ty’s presence, he thinks, and he can’t pinpoint what it is, but he also doesn’t think about it too hard.

  As first dates go, it’s hands-down the best one Damien’s ever had. Damien keeps waiting for the whole wolf shifter announcement to make a difference in the way he views Ty, but it never does. Instead, it feels like it did with Kaz, where it’s surprising, but mostly just adds an extra element of understanding to some of their interactions. Like the sniffing thing.

  “You seriously smell amazing,” Ty tells him, as they are getting ready to head back to the café. Damien already has his coat on, but Ty came up behind him and wrapped his arms around Damien’s waist, catching him off-guard.

  Ty is breathing in Damien’s scent again, nuzzling against Damien’s neck in a way that’s incredibly distracting. “From that first day,” Ty says, his breath warm on Damien’s neck. “I knew I had to have you.”

  Damien laughs, turning around to face the other man. He wonders about that. He half-jokingly asked Ty about the mates thing last night, but he’s still curious about it. Is that a thing? It somehow feels too embarrassing to ask again in the light of day, so he just shakes his head at Ty, smiling, and then presses a kiss to his jawline. If they get too distracted, he’s never going to make it back to the café today.

  Maybe he can bring himself to ask Kaz. Or Eli. Or, honestly, he could just look it up online, but he feels like somehow the results he’d get from that kind of search are going to be more than he’s really looking for.

  Ty drives him back to the café in the late afternoon. Damien wants to make sure everything is set up and ready to go for tomorrow. This is the first Sunday he’s ever spent most of the day away from the café, other than times in the past when he ran errands for Melanie.

  He manages to sneak in the side entrance and up the elevator without any trouble. He took a shower at Ty’s, but he’s still wearing the same clothes from dinner on Saturday night. Unfortunately, Kaz is hanging out in the living area on the second floor, and smirks knowingly at him when Damien opens the door.

  “And he returns!” Kaz says, grinning and immediately jumping off of his place on the couch. Damien’s thankful that at least Jake isn’t there as well. Or Sebastian.

  “You have a good time with the boyfriend?” Kaz asks, putting way too much emphasis on the word boyfriend. Damien rolls his eyes.

  “I don’t think it’s quite to that level yet,” he says, coolly, but he can’t hold the serious persona for long before he’s grinning. Kaz grins back at him.

  “Soooo, details,” Kaz says, flopping back down onto the couch. Damien sits next to him and shrugs.

  “I dunno,” he says. “It was just a date. A really good date. We still don’t know much about each other, so there was a lot of talking..”

  Kaz nods, “That makes sense. You’ve spent most of your time together with a very specific purpose in mind.” He waggles his eyebrows at this, and Damien can’t help but laugh in response.

  “He did tell me something surprising,” Damien says, and Kaz looks immediately interested.

  “Well?” Kaz asks, and Damien pauses. He doesn’t see what it would hurt to tell Kaz. If Kaz ever meets Ty, he would be able to tell right away anyways.

  “He’s a shifter, too,” Damien says finally.

  Kaz’s eyes grow wide. “Oh yeah? What kind?” He seems excited about the idea.

  “A wolf!” Damien, says, and Kaz looks thoughtful for a moment.

  “That explains it,” Kaz says, snapping his fingers.

  “Explains what?” Damien asks, not following at all.

  “Why you always smell terrible after your sessions with him,” Kaz laughs. “I mean, even now. I’m sure you showered, but you smell like dog.”

  Damien feels mortified, his face heating. “Really?” He can’t smell anything, but Kaz has sharper senses than he does.

  Kaz laughs more. “Nah, bro. It’s okay. It’s not that bad.” He waves a hand at Damien. “No one else would have noticed it. Canine shifters just have a particular smell to us cat shifters,” he says shrugging. “If I would have met him in person, I could have told you immediately that he was one.”

  Damien nods. “That makes sense,” he says.

  “So he’s a wolf, huh?” Kaz asks. “You going to tell us his name now that you’re dating?”

  “Wait, I never told you?” Damien does a double take.

  “It’s fine,” Kaz shrugs. “It’s not like you have to say or anything.”

  Damien shakes his head. “No, it’s not like that at all. I want you to meet him. His name’s Ty.”

  Kaz eyes widen. “Wait a second,” he says. “Please don’t tell me you’re talking about Tyler Balducci.”

  Damien nods, puzzled at the reaction. “Well, yeah,” he says. “Actually that’s exactly who. How did you know?”

  Kaz backs up a step. “Balducci has been your client this entire time?” He waves his hands. “No way, bro. You’ve got to be shitting me.”

  Damien laughs but it’s a half-confused thing. “I mean, I’m really not. You can meet him...”

  Kaz whistles lowly, giving Damien an appreciative look. Damien feels his face heat again. This whole conversation is turning out to be way more embarrassing than anticipated.

  “Dude, did you know you’re dating one of top wolves in Portland?” Kaz asks, obviously impressed. “Really, one of the top shifters. Even some of the other big mammals are scared of that guy.”

  Damien feels uncertain. “I mean, Ty told me about that. Sort of. At least that he was one of the leaders in the community. I guess I didn’t really realize what it meant.”

  “Damien, your boyfriend is a big. Fucking. Deal. Like, look at it this way. You might as well be dating a mafia don or something,” Kaz says. “Or some sort of royalty.”

  Damien’s sure that can’t be true. Surely Kaz is exaggerating. He laughs it off. “No way, that’s too much,” he says.

  “Ask Liam,” Kaz says suddenly.

  “What? Liam?” Damien asks, and Kaz gives him a mysterious look.

  “Yeah, ask him,” Kaz presses.

  Damien doesn’t know what the barista would have anything to do with Ty, but he has a vague recollection of Liam’s eyes widening with surprise when he saw Ty barge into the café looking for Damien a few weeks ago. That’s your client, he had said. Damien meant to ask him about it. Wondered what he meant by it, but never got around to it. He had a few… other things to think about that day, of course.

  Damien nods, his thoughts wandering, and Kaz slaps him on the back.

  “Well, whatever, man. Major congrats though,” Kaz says. “You’re like, some kind of princess now.”

  Damien splutters at that, thinking of his earlier question. About mates. He doesn’t think he can handle any further embarrassment today, though, so he decides to save that for another conversation.

  “Did you recognize my client? The one that came to the café the other day?” Damien asks Liam later that day. Liam frowns at him, and the expression looks strange on his face.

  “Yeah,” he says. “But, why?”

  “Well,” Damien says, “I’m dating him now.” Simple as that. Get it out in the open. He’s not expecting Liam’s response.

  Liam nearly chokes on the coffee he’s drinking, “You’re what?”

  “I’m… dating him?” Damien says uncertainly.

  “You’re dating Tyler Balducci?” Liam half shrieks, and Damien really wishes people would stop reacting like this.r />
  “Well, sort of, yeah,” Damien says. “I mean, yesterday was our first date…”

  “Damien…” Liam says, shaking his head. “You do know what he is, don’t you?”

  Damien nods, starting to feel a little angry about all of this. “Yeah, of course I do. I mean – it’s not like he’s killed someone or something.”

  Liam looks a little pale.

  “Has he?” Damien asks.

  Liam shakes his head frantically. “No,” he says. “I don’t think so, at least.”

  “But I wouldn’t put it past him,” he mutters, almost as if to himself.

  Damien frowns, “What do you mean?”

  Liam shrugs. “The guy’s scary, Damien,” he says, and Damien’s never really thought so, but he can see how Ty might give that impression to some people.

  “How do you even know about any of this?” Damien asks, and Liam’s eyes shift to the side. He frowns.

  “I’ve know him for a while. Well, not that he was your client,” Liam hedges, but Damien thinks there’s something else going on.

  “You’re…” Damien’s not sure how to voice the question. “Are you one, too?” It’s half of a whisper. “A shifter?”

  Liam’s mouth twists into something incredibly unhappy at that. “Sort of,” he says, and he waves a hand. “I can’t actually shift, and I can’t usually tell when other people are shifters. So, effectively, no. But it’s complicated, and I don’t want to talk about it. ”

  Damien stares at Liam as if he’s never met the other man before.

  “What?” Liam says, looking hurt. “It’s not – it’s not something I like to talk about.”

  Damien nods, “I’m sorry,” he says. “I shouldn’t pry.” And he really is sorry, but he’s also curious, too. Liam is a shifter who can’t… shift? That doesn’t make much sense.