Satisfaction Guaranteed

by Samantha M. Derr

  Carter opened the second door and Denton followed him through. He kept his focus on looking at his surroundings, because if he didn't he would have run upstairs to Orion's side in an instant. Orion needed space and his pack to heal, not a vampire hovering over him. Denton could wait—he had to for Orion's sake no matter how much his beating heart wished otherwise.

  The room they entered was a generic sitting room. There were large couches and an equally large TV. The floor was bare plywood, but padding and a roll of carpet were tucked off to the side. An arched doorway led into a minimal kitchen with a large fridge, a stove, and a microwave. Denton didn't comment because if he was to be spending time with Orion, who had to eat, the kitchen was necessary.

  "That door there is the bedroom," Carter finished explaining with a pointed finger at a closed door across the sitting room. "I'll let you relax. If you like living here, we can arrange for all of your belongings from your current apartment to be brought here too."

  "Thank you," Denton said politely. Carter left and Denton stood in the middle of the sitting room for a few long moments, just staring around himself in awe. They had built this room just for him. He could smell damp cement where the basement windows were recently bricked up and the carpet was obviously brand new.

  They had built Denton a new home solely because he was Orion's mate. They loved Orion that much, and they were willing to put a high level of trust in Denton by inviting him to live in their home too. It was a novel experience for Denton, one he appreciated to no bounds. He had never been part of a family before and he was greatly anticipating learning and experiencing everything that meant. He was scared too, because if Orion's family didn't like him then their relationship would start off with terrible drama, but Denton hoped for the best.

  He walked across the sitting room, noting that the couches were overstuffed and very comfortable looking. His own couch would look sad next to them, but his coffee table might fit in nicely. The bedroom door opened smoothly under his hand. The carpet was down in the room: a deep shag that Denton really liked. An extra-long twin bed was tucked into one corner, but that was the only furniture present. Luckily, Denton had a full set of furniture at his apartment that he could bring over. The room was larger than his whole apartment, and he wasn't even counting the bathroom to the left. It was absolutely marvelous.

  The fridge was fully stocked. Denton settled down onto the couch with a blood bag and a straw. He would watch some mindless TV until bed to help keep his mind off of Orion injured a few floors up. The next night at dusk, he would accept Alpha Carter's generous offer and check on Orion, who probably needed space to recuperate and come to terms with having a mate. Denton should probably also make some calls to find out how Marla and Fred were doing, but Orion came first.

  When he felt dawn approaching, Denton cleaned up dinner, got in a quick shower, and climbed into the unfamiliar bed. He was just drifting off, the rays of the hidden sun calling him back to the realm of death, when he heard a door creak open.

  Orion's scent wafted ahead as the bedroom door soon slid open too and Orion stepped into Denton's bedroom.

  "Can I stay here?" Orion asked shyly, a slight blush staining his cheeks.

  Denton smiled, showing his fangs, but not caring. "Of course." He lifted a corner of the blankets, and Orion hurried over to climb in. Denton drifted off to sleep with his mate in his arms and his heart beating steadily. It was nice.

  DELIVER ME

  J.D. Walker

  "Hey, Manny!" I yelled, trying to get my boss' attention.

  "What? Why ain't you gone yet?" he barked.

  "What's the address for the delivery, man? I ain't got all night."

  "Are you stupid or something? It's taped to the damn box. What's up, genius? Can't read?" As if he had a Ph.D.

  "No, sir, it's not on the box. You forgot to do it again, for, like the third time tonight." Without an apology, Manny 'the man' Collins wrote the address on a piece of paper, balled it up and threw it at me before going back to the kitchen.

  "Get your ass in gear, Danny. You got ten minutes to get this to the customer or it's free. That's happened to you twice already, dude. One more time, and you're fired."

  "What the fuck, Manny? It's not my fault for being late, goddamnit. You always wait until the last minute to give me the frickin' order!"

  "Nine minutes, Danny!" he yelled. God, it was so unfair.

  I was tired and ready to go off shift, but, lucky me, I'd caught a delivery. Numb nuts really had it in for me, too. Didn't know why, unless it was because I refused the not-so-subtle come on he'd tried on me when I first started working for him. As if I could sleep with someone who only showered once a week. Maybe he was just a miserable, delusional human being.

  Looking at the delivery address, I sighed with relief when I saw it was near my apartment in Edgewood. I looked at my watch. Eight minutes to go. I quickly paid the cashier for the order and then clocked out. This way, I wouldn't have to return to the pizza parlor after the delivery.

  Time to use the shortcuts. My 1998 Toyota Corolla had a lot of miles on her, but Bessie was a good girl. I hopped in and used every trick in the book, including some close calls on traffic lights and stop signs to get to the address with one minute to spare. I knocked on the door, heart pounding and a little sweaty since the air didn't work in my car.

  When the door opened, I gave a tired smile to the teenage girl on the doorstep.

  "Delivery. One large pizza, with everything." I quoted the price. She asked me to wait a moment and shut the door. I didn't like my boss or most of my co-workers, but this was my job, and I was determined to do it well and be polite, every time, even when they were mean to me. It wasn't like I planned on doing this for the rest of my life, but the least I could do was give it my best shot.

  "Here you go." She handed me the total, with a five dollar tip. I thanked her, handed over the food and wished her a nice evening.

  Now that the night was over, I could go home and shower away the job and get some sleep. I had a class in the morning.

  Five minutes later, I entered my one bedroom apartment. It was sweltering out there as only Atlanta could be in July. I had the air on at sixty three degrees and it felt damn good. I stripped and hit the shower, the water on cold just to keep me awake long enough to clean up, brush my teeth, and then hit the sack.

  When I finally got into bed, the clock on the nightstand said midnight. I sighed, knowing I would have to be up in five hours to grade the freshman papers for College Algebra. There were no bright bulbs in my summer class. Maybe it was the heat.

  The alarm went off five minutes later, it seemed, and I slammed my hand on the buzzer, groaning into my pillow at the thought of another day in paradise. Ten minutes later I was out of bed, bladder empty and coffee in hand, ready to grade twenty assignments. I had two hours to get it done before I needed to get ready to teach my first class of the day at nine o' clock. Daniel Carter, you can do this.

  I worked as a graduate assistant for the Math Department at Georgia State, which helped pay the tuition for my Master's Degree. Unfortunately, the partial scholarship and the assistantship didn't pay all the bills, hence the delivery job.

  Grumbling as I wrote a D minus grade on one of the papers, I thought of the one bright spot in all this drudgery. Julius Tanner, another graduate assistant in the department, and a friend, was my eye-candy to the stars. Brilliant and confident, he was going for his Ph.D. in Statistics. He had dark chocolate skin, hair shaved closely to his scalp, and eyes that were a rich, sultry brown. Julius had a beautiful smile. Tall, too, at six foot three. So manly.

  He reminded me of Tyson Beckford. The students, male and female, fawned all over him, and the professors treated him like the second coming of Pythagoras. He probably found it all amusing, most of time, but he seemed to take it all in stride. Being able to see him during the day gave me a reason to keep going because honestly, sometimes I was just too tired to care.

  I finally finishe
d grading at seven thirty, which gave me enough time to make some eggs, shower and jump into Bessie. It didn't take five minutes before sweat was beading on my forehead as I drove along the busy streets. I always had to carry a change of clothes with me in the summer months since I would sweat through everything by the time I got to the campus. I just didn't have the money to fix the air right now.

  Once I parked the car in the faculty lot, I grabbed the papers, my messenger bag and clothes and ran into the building. I walked briskly to the bathroom, where I changed from my T-shirt and jeans shorts into a white button-down shirt and brown slacks. I left the shirt hanging open as I splashed water on my face. In the mirror above the sink, my brown eyes looked tired and my skin was blotchy, not an attractive look on someone who was already rail thin, average looking, and five foot eight. At least my chest and arms had a little definition. That was something.

  I kept my boring brown hair buzzed short, so nothing to fix there. I took some of the paper towels from the dispenser and wiped the sweat away from my chest. I buttoned my shirt, tucked it into my pants, and grabbed everything to leave the room. As I opened the door, I almost bumped into Julius.

  "Sorry, man," he said.

  "No problem," I replied, and felt a little weak in the knees when he smiled as he walked by me.

  I must have looked at him funny, though, because he stopped to ask, "Hey, you okay, man?" Crap.

  Hopefully, I wasn't drooling like an idiot when I replied, "Yeah, I'm fine. See you later." I left the room like my ass was on fire.

  Julius taught the third year math students, and his classes were always right after mine. He would arrive at the lecture hall as I was leaving, give me that boner-inducing smile, and hold the door open for me. Such a gentleman! He was way out of my league, though. I knew that for sure. He came from money, and I didn't. Plus, there was the fact that I didn't even know if he was gay. The LGBT community thrived at the university, but any gay faculty members kept things pretty discreet.

  Some of the other graduate assistants had tried to get to first base with Julian, but none of them had succeeded so far, male or female. So no one, especially me, damn it, knew which way he swung, literally or figuratively. Oh well. I walked to my first class of the day, lackluster grades in hand while I wished for the moon.

  My last class ended at two o'clock in the afternoon, which gave me a couple of hours to do some work on my thesis before I needed to get home and change for my delivery shift at five o'clock. Oh joy.

  I made my way to the library and found a good spot to setup. I put on my headphones and listened to Vivaldi while I did some research. It wasn't that busy since most students were off for the summer, so I had an entire table to myself to spread out. Half an hour later, I looked up to see Julius Tanner coming towards me with an intent look on his face. Uh-oh.

  When he reached my table, I removed the headphones. "Hey Julius. What's up? Don't you have a class right now?" I asked.

  "I do, usually, but something came up." Taking a deep breath, he continued. "Can I ask you a favor? I have to go out of town for a few days, and I need someone to go by my house and feed my fish and check on my dog. Would you mind? I hate to ask, but this is sort of sudden and I don't have time to—"

  I cut him off. "It's okay, Julius. I'd be happy to help out. Just give me some instructions and maybe the key to your place? We should exchange cell phone numbers, too, so we can contact each other as needed. That work?"

  Julius agreed and we added each other's numbers to our phones. I thought of something else.

  "Hey, how about we go right now to your place so you can take off as soon as possible? I have to go work at my delivery job in a couple of hours but I have a little time right now."

  Julius looked at me like I was from another planet. "Wait… what? You work two jobs and you go to school?"

  "Technically it's three jobs, since I tutor middle school kids from time to time on weekends, but so what? We can't all be born with a silver spoon in our mouths, you know." I always got a little defensive about how hard I had to work to make ends meet, but I immediately felt bad when I saw the expression on Julius' face.

  I sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I get a little touchy sometimes. Take my word for it. It's not easy, it's not fun, but it's necessary for what I want to do in the future, even if my night-time boss is a first class ass-wipe who thinks he's Einstein reincarnated." Julius gave a surprised crack of laughter. I felt better.

  "Let's go, man. Lead the way." I grabbed my notes, put away my mp3 player in my messenger bag and followed Julius out of the building. Did I mention the man was fine? That ass could bounce quarters and no amount of tailoring could downplay its round firmness. His shoulders were broad and he had a narrow waist and long legs. I must have made a noise because Julius turned his head to ask if I'd said something. I shook my head in reply. I needed to get a grip—preferably of his very fine rear end.

  Julius led the way to his 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe. I told him that I would be right behind him and walked to my ancient Bessie and unlocked the door to get in. I drove behind Julius for ten minutes to the Virginia-Highlands area of Atlanta and turned onto Virginia Avenue, parking behind him a minute later in front of a two-story renovated brick townhome. All I could think was, Wow. Must be nice.

  We climbed the steps in front of the house and he unlocked the front door. The most adorable pug I'd ever seen launched himself at us and barked, tongue hanging out and little tail wagging as he begged for attention. I heard Julius laugh as he picked up the dog and subjected himself to facial licks and just plain doggy love. I wanted to be that pug so badly right then.

  Tucking the dog under his arm, Julius ushered me inside and shut the door behind me. He led the way through the living room—what I could see of it was amazing—and then upstairs to where the fish tank was located. It was huge, almost covering one wall. The variety of fish defied my imagination. I had never seen so many, except at the Aquarium downtown.

  "Wow, that's so cool!" I was gushing, but I couldn't help it. Julius smiled and thanked me, then explained what I would need to do and how often. It wasn't hard, but the trick would be how to fit it around my work schedules.

  "What about the dog?" I asked. The pug, apparently knowing he was the subject of attention, wriggled in Julius' arms. When Julius put him down on the floor, he scampered out of the room in search of other adventures.

  "Mr. Wrinkles needs to be walked and fed twice a day. His food is in the kitchen, and I'll show you where his stuff is on our way out. He's easy to care for, and he has lots of toys to play with so he doesn't chew on my shoes when I'm gone for a couple of days."

  "Good idea," I said. Mr. Wrinkles was such a cute name. Looks like someone likes to spoil his pets. I wonder what he would do for a lover? I pictured myself in a bathtub, with Julius washing my chest, my back to him as one of his hands slid down to take my cock in hand… Caught up in my fantasies, I didn't realize until I heard footsteps on the staircase that Julius had left and was talking as though I was right behind him. I rushed from the room to catch up.

  "…so look under the sink for the bowls and the dog chow," he was saying.

  "Okay, yeah sure," I replied, hoping I hadn't missed anything vital. Near the front door was a small table where keys and other items were kept in a bowl. Julius removed one of the keys and gave it to me.

  "Use this to get in. I'll get it back from you when I see you again. I really appreciate this, Daniel. I should be back by the weekend, okay?"

  "No problem. Happy to help out. Just text me when you return." Inside I swooned because hearing my name in Julius' deep voice was a serious turn-on.

  "Oh, and I'm really sorry about my comment earlier. I didn't mean to come across like an ass." Julius was earnest.

  "Don't worry about it," I replied. "I sometimes overreact. Consider it forgotten."

  I looked at my watch. "Okay, it's four o'clock and I have to be at my next job in an hour. Have a safe trip, and I hope that whatever you have
to deal with works out okay."

  Julius thanked me and let me out of the house. I jogged down the steps to my car, feeling as though eyes were following me. I looked over my shoulder and saw him standing at one of the windows in the living room downstairs, staring at me with Mr. Wrinkles in his arms. I waved, got into my car and drove like a bat of out hell to get to my apartment and change for my job. I'd have to do a little work in the morning on my thesis to stay on track, but it would be manageable.

  Manny was in fine form all evening, yelling at everybody and calling us names. Business as usual. Around ten o'clock, I returned to the shop from a hellish delivery. What was it about college kids who thought they were God's gift to humanity? Oh, and mommy and daddy could pay their way and they got to live off campus in swank digs. Did that mean the rest of us plebes got to be treated like shit? And then there was the dollar tip the snot-nosed little zit-covered freshman threw at me, before he slammed the door in my face. I was at the end of my rope. I didn't hate rich people, necessarily. Just the ones who thought they were entitled. That shit just chapped my ass.

  "Danny boy!" Manny liked to think he was a comedian. I gritted my teeth and waited on his majesty's edict. "You got a delivery to the United Way building. Some kinda office party. They need these babies, fast! Shake that ass, boy." He'd like that, wouldn't he? Hell to the no.

  "I'm on it." Bessie and I zipped over to Hurt Street. I told the bored-looking security guard at the front desk that I had a delivery. He dialed a number and relayed the message, then went back to reading his newspaper. I guess I didn't look like much of a threat to him.

  An attractive blond-haired woman came towards me from the elevator. I told her the amount and she gave me cash, with a ten dollar tip. I thanked her and offered to carry the pizzas up to the office, but she politely declined and asked the security guard, who was now all-attention, to help her with the order. I wondered if she was his boss, though it didn't really matter to me. I said goodnight and headed back to Bessie.