As soon as Luca stepped into the hall, Kane reached out and pulled him against his chest, leaning down and capturing his bright red bow lips in a tantalizing kiss. Luca responded by sliding both arms around his waist and up under his jacket. It was sexy as hell and Kane couldn’t get enough of him. By the time he finally separated their mouths, he was panting hard. Luca’s lips were swollen and if he didn’t have to have his tea leaves read, Kane would have dragged him back into his apartment and put his sexy lips to good use. Instead, he stepped back and just stared at him with something akin to complete happiness.
“Wow,” Luca said, reaching up to touch his own lips as he stared at Kane. “I’ve sure as heck missed that.”
Kane smirked. “Me too. Come on. Let’s go to your appointment and then after, I’m going to feed you. I haven’t eaten since morning and I’m starving.”
Luca nodded and turned, locked the door to the apartment, and walked over to him. Kane had the overwhelming urge to pull him to his side and tuck him under his arm but public displays of affection were still out of his comfort zone. He opted to walk beside him out of the building but the urge to take his hand was overwhelming. Oddly enough, it felt weird not to be holding Luca’s hand. They were on a date and if he’d been with a woman, he would have taken her hand. He wasn’t really sure why this felt different. It had taken him this long to admit to himself that this was an actual date. At some point, dating a man would have to get easier.
Right?
At the moment, Kane was going to enjoy their time together. It would make everything much easier if he just accepted his attraction to Luca. No one had questioned him about it so far. Kelly had been encouraging. Jarrett and Thayne had been great at lunch yesterday. Cassidy sure as hell wouldn’t judge him. He was married to a man… which meant that the only concern Kane was having about dating Luca was in his own head. He put that thought aside for examination later. They got into the Charger and Luca gave him directions to a house out in Malibu. At this time of day, the drive would be challenging but Kane enjoyed being with Luca and his amazing energy more than he could imagine. He was so vibrant and alive and so different from him. The very thought that he’d almost thrown all of this away because he was stubborn sometimes took his breath away.
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
After Luca gave Kane directions to Pimporn’s small apartment in Malibu, he sat back in the Charger and relaxed. It was so odd really. Only two days ago, he’d felt hopeless about a future with Kane Delancey. Luca had always believed that the future held many good things for him—a future with challenges to overcome, no doubt, but overall, a future filled with positive things. He didn’t wonder about Kane anymore. Since his return, he’d sensed a different energy in the man. He was still confused about things, but he was working through them at his own pace. Luca was determined to give him the space and time he needed.
When his sister had gotten sick, he was very young. He didn’t remember how she’d been before the infection that damaged part of her brain, leaving her childlike in every way. He’d forgotten his father entirely. Then again, he’d been only three when the man had walked out of the house for the last time. All of Luca’s identity had been formed by the example his mother set for him. Florence Price had worked hard all her life to give both her children every advantage she could after the devastating brain disease and resulting chemotherapy Lucie had undergone to make sure the MRSA was eradicated from her system.
His mother had remained a positive force in Luca’s life, always smiling. When he reached his tenth birthday, Luca’s mother had been forced to rely on him to get Lucie to her doctor’s appointments. Lucie had turned eighteen and was no longer eligible for the “wheels” program that transported sick children to and from appointments to doctors when their mothers were at work. Luca knew how hard it was for his mom to trust him not to get lost on the way to the doctor with his childlike sister in tow. It was a huge responsibility but Luca accepted the challenge when it would have been easy to whine. Taking care of Lucie in that way matured Luca at an early age and in hindsight, he was grateful for it.
At times, Luca felt he lived a charmed life. To him that meant that he had a supportive family and great friends. He had a job he adored and though he had no college education, he had completed an extensive course in his chosen field of diamonds and precious stones, earning his Gemological Institute of America certification. He’d focused on his career. He’d not been lucky in love, but he’d always believed that when his man finally came into his life, he’d recognize him for who he was. Ever since meeting Kane, he’d had the feeling that he was the man he was meant to be with. Luca was also a big believer in signs. When Kane had turned his back on him, Luca had taken that as a sign to move on as much as it hurt.
Knowing that they were in different places in their lives was hard for Luca to accept. He couldn’t deny it hurt like hell when he’d sensed Kane begin pulling away and begin dating girls again. There wasn’t a whole lot Luca could do about it though. All he could do was to sit back and believe that he was taking his road to its logical end. If Kane decided he wanted to be a part of Luca’s destiny, then Luca would embrace the decision. If he didn’t, it would be devastating but at least Luca would know he gave it his all. One of the reasons he was glad that Kane was accompanying him tonight was to help open the man up to the possibility that there was a way to see the path ahead.
“Tell me about reading tea leaves,” Kane said, yanking Luca out of his musings in the car.
“Tasseography. It’s called tasseography,” Luca said, sitting up from where he’d been slumping in the comfortable leather seat of Kane’s big car. The powerful rumble of the car’s large engine always seemed to lull him into an almost hypnotic state as Kane drove it.
“Okay, tell me about tasseography,” Kane said with that signature smirk Luca was so familiar with.
“Well, to every person it’s a different thing. Some practitioners only read their own leaves… or in some cases, coffee grounds. Other practitioners read other people’s. The man we’re going to see has been reading other people’s leaves for many years,” Luca said.
“That cup—the one we saw at the vegetarian restaurant, is that kind of cup always used?” Kane asked. “It had symbols inside.”
Luca smiled, loving the fact that Kane had been paying so much attention. “Not all tasseographers use cups with symbols. In fact, some don’t like them at all. Pimporn doesn’t use those cups. The first time someone comes to him, he asks that they bring a cup which is white inside. It should have a large bowl and be short, not like a mug.” Luca reached into the messenger bag he’d set on the floor of the car between his legs. He pulled out a well-worn cardboard box. He opened it to reveal a simple white china cup with a wide bowl and beautifully hand-painted with a turquoise, red, and white paisley design on the outside. He’d always loved his cup. He held it up and showed it to Kane.
Kane smiled at him. “Why do you bring your own?”
“Pimporn says that no one else should drink from my cup but me. That way, my reading can’t be confused with someone else’s. I bought this cup brand-new about five years ago, when I first began working at Auerbach’s Jewelers.”
“Okay, fair enough.”
Luca smiled. “Everything I’m telling you applies to me alone. Everyone who uses tasseography has different reasons for using it. For me, it helps to keep me centered around my goals. I try to see the future so that I won’t make mistakes. I try to learn from or understand my failures in the past. And, most importantly, I try to see what my present is telling me with more clarity.”
“Do you think you can change your future or do you believe in destiny?” Kane asked.
Luca turned to look at him and smiled. “Pimporn says we are born at the foot of a mountain. Several paths are before us. It’s up to us to choose our own path. Pimporn says that the path we choose is our destiny and our psychic intuitive places us on that path. To me that means our future is det
ermined but the path we take to get there is the one we choose.”
Kane smirked. “Damn, you really believe in this, don’t you?”
Luca nodded emphatically, replacing his box in his messenger bag. “Of course. It’s helped to guide me and keep me centered, like I said.”
“You have candles and crystals in your house,” Kane said with a tiny purse of his lips. “Are you Wiccan or something?”
Luca chuckled. “What do you know about Wiccans?”
“Not much,” Kane said, glancing over at him for a few seconds before letting his twinkling eyes return to the road. “I’ve never met a bad one, though.”
Luca grinned. “Well, I wouldn’t consider myself Wiccan. I believe in positive energy, I believe we shouldn’t damage the earth, sky, or water, and I believe in good though I recognize evil exists. Our recent history with Brandon Moore proves that out.”
Kane turned to him and nodded. “I agree. Go on.”
“Okay, personally, I try to stay focused on positive things, though it’s human to feel defeated and negative sometimes. I combat those feelings not by dwelling on them, but by pushing the negative energy away through meditation. It’s one of the reasons I like yoga.”
Kane chuckled. “Potbelly pig yoga.”
Luca grinned. “Regular yoga too.” He paused and looked out the car window, enjoying the scenery as they drove into Malibu canyon. “As far as organized religions and churches, I don’t belong to any of them. I like to keep all positive doors open and close the negative ones. Many churches feel a certain way about gay men and I don’t need to deal with the homophobes and the way some people look at me.” Luca turned to look at Kane and found him watching. “Do you get what I’m saying?”
Kane nodded to him again and Luca was surprised when he reached across the seat to take his hand and thread their fingers together. He smiled at Luca.
“I not only get that, but I agree with you. My mother and father raised us Catholic and from a very young age, I sought out the positive feelings I got while in church. I didn’t like the confessional. I felt like that part of the church dealt too strongly with the negative things we did. I felt like I was being judged. Sure, there was absolution at the end but after confessional, I never felt the lightness a true believer like my mom felt. I always thought it was because I didn’t feel absolved of my sins. I felt like a liar and a hypocrite when I went out and committed the same ones over and over. After my father died, I couldn’t step into a church without feeling lost. Where my mother felt solace, I felt dread. She encouraged me to talk to the priest about it but I couldn’t. I felt like those thoughts were private.”
Luca stared at him, surprised by his honesty. He wanted to ask Kane about whether he’d ever questioned his sexuality but it was scary to do so. They were both so new to all of this and the last thing Luca wanted to do was say anything to scare Kane off. Kane looked over at him when his silence stretched out.
“What? Did I say something that bothered you?” Kane asked. His brows had drawn together just a little.
“No,” Luca said quickly, shaking his head. “I’m just fascinated by things you say sometimes. I think you’re being very real right now.”
Kane smirked slightly as he watched the road out of the front windshield. “I’m trying not to screw things up again.”
Luca chuckled but he squeezed Kane’s fingers, feeling a wave of devotion roll over him. It felt so good he didn’t want to let go of the feeling. Kane glanced over when he didn’t say anything.
“I see an accident in our future if you don’t keep your eyes on the road,” Luca said with a laugh.
Kane grinned and returned his eyes to the road. “You didn’t reply to what I said.”
“You haven’t screwed anything up and like I said, I’m going to remain positive in this like everything else in my life, Delancey.”
Kane chuckled and they drove the rest of the way in silence, holding hands like a couple of teenagers.
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
Pimporn’s small apartment building was in the Malibu hills. From the street, it looked like the Boston row houses Kane remembered from his childhood. It was narrow where it fronted the street but went deep down to the back of the lot. They arrived right at sunset and Luca led Kane up to the wrought iron gate on the side of the two-story building. There appeared to be four units upstairs and four downstairs. As Luca reached up to unlock the gate, Kane noticed designs were twisted into a series of shapes which he recognized as zodiac symbols. They were soldered onto plates which were then arranged in a twelve-grid pattern, three across and four down, making up the gate itself. The whole thing had been painted a matte black so if one weren’t looking closely at the design, they wouldn’t necessarily notice the symbols.
“That’s an interesting gate,” Kane remarked as they stepped through the door onto a small path that seemed to lead up a sidewalk that ran alongside the four apartments below. There were four separate sets of stone stairs that led to the four units above.
“The entire building is inhabited by people with psychic gifts of one sort or another. Many of the residents practice more than one concentration,” Luca said as they walked to the end of the long building. “The land here is felt to be sacred.”
“Huh,” Kane said.
Luca glanced at him as they walked, seeming to examine his face for any hint of skepticism. He tried his best to blank his face of all emotion. He wasn’t about to screw up the special connection he’d been sensing between them all evening. He knew how seriously Luca took tasseography so he decided he’d do his best to understand it.
“Just promise you’ll remain open to the possibilities, okay, Kane?”
Luca’s expression was filled with so much hope, Kane couldn’t refuse him anything. He smiled and hooked an arm around his neck drawing him close as they stopped in front of the last apartment in the building. He leaned down and kissed his sweet mouth, smiling at him as he pulled back.
“I promise, baby.”
The smile he got back was all it took to make Kane feel like he was the most important man in the world. It was moments like these that he had missed over the weeks that they’d been separated. Luca was such a kind man and Kane was finding out just how easy it was to make him happy. If it was this effortless, Kane was going to make sure that he’d do it every day. Luca smiled back and walked around the stairs to the ground floor apartment. He knocked on the door and after a few seconds, it opened. A small man stood in the doorway. He was older, several inches shorter than Luca, and Asian. He placed the palms of both hands together and bowed his head over them.
“Namaste, Luca.”
“Namaste, Pimporn. This is my friend, Kane,” Luca said, repeating the hand gesture and head bow.
The man craned his head up to look at Kane and then inclined his head in greeting.
“Namaste, Kane.”
“Thank you,” Kane said, stepping past the man as he moved to the side so that they could pass into the interior of the apartment, lit with candles and smelling of incense. Luca stopped in the tiled entry and squatted, pulling off his shoes which had white socks beneath. It was the first time Kane had seen Luca wearing socks. The man was also in his stockinged feet so Kane figured no shoes was the proper etiquette in this house. He squatted and did as Luca did, slipping off his biker boots and setting them to the side before following the two men into the apartment.
Right away, Kane liked the feel of the place. It was clean and nearly devoid of furnishings. A small, low square table sat on the floor in the middle of the room and there were long floor pillows on all four sides. No other furnishings cluttered the room but there was a small waterfall in one corner. The sound of tinkling water was soothing. Pimporn held out a hand and directed them to the table but Luca stopped him.
“Pimporn, this is the first time my friend has been to a tasseographer. Would it be okay if he watched you brew the tea?”
“Of course, Luca.” Pimporn looked up
at Kane. “Do you have a cup?”
“No. I’m only here as Luca’s guest,” Kane replied.
“Pimporn will read your leaves if you want him to,” Luca offered. “Let me get you a cup.”
“I don’t know,” Kane said, frowning slightly. “This is your thing.”
“I want you to have a cup, Kane,” Luca replied with a smile. It was the second time that day that Kane had spotted that look of devotion in Luca’s eyes. It made him want to smile more than he thought possible. He gave in and grinned.
“Fine.” Kane watched as Pimporn smiled. Wrinkles creased the man’s smooth skin. Luca took Kane by the hand and pulled him over to a shelf where several boxes were stacked in a row.
“Reach out and choose one,” Luca said.
All the boxes looked the same but Kane did as he was asked and picked one up from the first row, turning and handing it to Pimporn. The man took the box and padded off to the kitchen on stockinged feet as they followed. He set the box down and opened it, withdrawing a cup similar to Luca’s—plain white on the inside with a bowl shape. The outside of the cup was a deep red, not unlike the one they’d seen in the shop at the vegetarian restaurant. It had a matching saucer of the same red. They were decorated with small blue and white birds which contrasted beautifully with the background. Kane realized it had to be hand painted.
“Oh, nice choice,” Luca said as Pimporn moved to the stove, lifting a kettle and turning to fill it with water from the kitchen faucet.
“Thank you, considering I didn’t see what it looked like before he opened it,” Kane said with a smirk.
“You are skeptical,” Pimporn said, turning to face Kane after putting the kettle onto the stove to heat. The man said the words with no malice, only in a matter of fact fashion that Kane liked. There was something very calming about the environment in the apartment. He couldn’t put his finger on it and he wondered whether Luca would attribute it to the apartment having a calming energy.
Play With Me Page 14
