“I think that’s best.”
After lots of apologies from the very confused manager, he’d kindly agreed to comp their meal. Julian thanked him and slipped two twenty dollar bills to their server. After all, it wasn’t the kid’s fault Julian’s date was a prick. Harris insisted on walking him home, and Julian agreed, simply so he wouldn’t have to spend another ten minutes arguing with the guy.
So, they walked back to Central Park in an uncomfortable silence. Harris didn’t try to hold his hand, and he kept at least two feet between them at all times. As they approached the entrance to the Conservatory Garden, Julian stopped to face his date. “I’m just a couple of blocks that way. I think I can make it on my own from here.”
“I’m in the opposite direction, so that’s fine. We should do this again sometime.”
Julian blinked stupidly. He didn’t think he’d met anyone so completely delusional before. “Right, well, I’ll call you.” Trying to make his escape before Harris realized they hadn’t exchanged phone numbers, Julian gave a little wave and turned toward home.
He only made it two steps before a firm grip on his arm jerked him to a stop and spun him around, though. “No goodnight kiss?” Harris laughed, but the humor didn’t quite reach his eyes as he locked his arm around Julian’s waist and leaned closer. “You might like it.”
* * * *
When he’d gone to find Julian in the gardens, Ridley had only wanted to talk to him, maybe try to convince him to cancel his date. Unfortunately, he’d been delayed, and by the time he’d arrived, Julian had already met the vampire. So, he’d panicked. Shifting into a dragon the size of a Pekingese had made it easy for him to slip into the hedges and out of sight.
Once he’d realized Julian’s date was a vampire—not to mention a raging douchenozzle—he’d only wanted to keep an eye on Julian to make sure nothing happened to him. At no point had he intended to interfere with the date, but of course, his jealousy had gotten the better of him. His embarrassingly small size had been ideal for following Julian around the city undetected, but now, he needed a form a bit more intimidating.
Crawling out from beneath the bushes, he shuddered and hissed as the change washed over him, transforming him back to his usual six-three height. As the vampire made another attempt to coerce Julian into a kiss, Ridley grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and jerked him sideways into the iron bars of the gate. Stark naked and uncaring, Ridley pinned him there with a hand around his throat, squeezing just hard enough to make Harris’s eyes water.
“Right then, terribly sorry, mate, but date’s over. I don’t care where you go, but make sure I never see you again.”
Harris didn’t even glance in Julian’s direction, seemingly unconcerned that a large, naked man might try to do him harm. At least self-preservation hadn’t abandoned him, though, because he nodded as much as Ridley’s constricting hand would allow. Once freed, he disappeared down the sidewalk and around the corner, never once looking back or showing any fear that Ridley might turn on Julian.
“Wanker.”
“Ridley!” Grabbing him by the waist, Julian pushed him into the shadowy alcove created by the hedges on either side of the entrance to the Conservatory Garden. “You do realize you’re butt naked in the middle of Fifth Avenue, right?”
“Technically, love, I’m not on the street.”
“Yes, well, argue your technicalities to the police.” With his hands still on Ridley’s hips, Julian pressed closer to him, continuously glancing up and down the sidewalk for passing strangers. “Where are your clothes?”
Ridley tilted his head to the side, cursing when his temple connected with the gate. “In there.”
“Fine,” Julian huffed. “You know, I should just leave you here.”
“You should be mad at me, too.” Throwing Julian’s words from the restaurant back at him, Ridley grinned and dipped his head, bringing his lips a breath away from Julian’s. “Would you believe me if I told you I’m sorry?”
“Not even if you meant it,” Julian answered distractedly as he pulled away from Ridley and turned his back to him. “Okay, shift back.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. It’s the only way we’re going to get you home without being arrested.” Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, he pretended to tap at the screen, making him look more suspicious than if he’d just been standing there doing nothing. “Go on,” he demanded over his shoulder. “I’m freezing my bits off out here.”
Knowing how much trouble he’d caused for Julian, Ridley didn’t argue. He foresaw a lot of ass-kissing in his future, so he might as well start by being cooperative. It took a little longer to complete the transformation this time, but a few minutes later, he stretched his long, scaly neck out and nipped at the leg of Julian’s dress pants.
Unwinding his scarf from around his neck, Julian knelt beside him with a curious expression. “You’re so little,” he said with a dopey grin as though Ridley was a puppy instead of a dragon.
So, Ridley pushed up on his hind legs, leaned closer, and bit Julian on the finger. Serves you right, brat.
“Hey!” Julian jerked his hand back, but he was still grinning like an idiot. “What? You’re adorable,” he cooed.
Ridley bit him again, not hard enough to draw blood, but with enough force to make him yelp. Once he could talk again, they were going to have a long discussion about what constituted as cute and adorable. Ridley, as far as he was concerned, didn’t fit into the category.
“Okay, fine, fine. Let’s go.”
Much to Ridley’s humiliation, Julian swaddled him in the scarf and picked him up from the ground, cradling him in his arms like a newborn baby. Great gods, he was never going to live this down. He just hoped Bridget had gone home for the day.
Julian kept up a constant stream of babbling all the way to the bookstore, and he even sang Ridley a lullaby. I’m going to bite him again. At the front doors, Julian paused just long enough for an elderly lady to approach them and ask to see his “bundle of joy.”
“Uh, sorry,” Julian hedged. “He, uh, has syphilis.” Then he darted into the store, speed walking to the storage room at the back away from the windows. “Here we are.” Instead of unwrapping Ridley from the scarf first, he set him on the floor and then tried to untangle him, which only succeeded in pulling Ridley’s feet out from under him so that he crashed to the floor on his head. “Oops,” Julian mumbled, though he looked anything but apologetic. “Change back. We need to talk.”
More than one man had been struck down by fear from those four little words, and Ridley was no exception. Exhausted from the multiple shifts within such a short timeframe, it took him nearly ten minutes to complete the change this time. As soon as the shift was complete, though, he knelt on the floor and stared up at the elf while his heart hammered against his ribs. “I can explain.”
Chapter Six
Julian wished he could be mad, but as it stood, he had to bite down on his tongue to keep from smiling. He’d been on bad dates before, but never anything so ridiculous as the one he’d just endured. Harris Hastings was a self-absorbed moron, but Julian had dealt with men like that in the past. This was the first time he’d ever had to contend with a jealous not-lover, though.
“Okay, explain.”
“I…” Still kneeling on the cold, wooden floor, Ridley trailed off and pressed his lips together in a frown. “Well, I don’t rightly have an explanation, as it were. You can do better than that jerkoff, Julian.”
Pulling the frozen rose from the breast pocket of his coat, Julian held it up and arched both eyebrows. “Like you?”
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes.”
“You are an idiot, Ridley Dragos.” Placing the flower on top of a stack of boxes, Julian lowered himself to the floor in front of Ridley and took both of his hands. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I believe you nailed it on the head, love.” He brought Julian’s hands to his lips and kissed both set
s of knuckles. “I’m a bloody idiot, and frankly, you terrify me.”
“I terrify you?” Julian couldn’t scare away a church mouse. “Cheese and crackers, Ridley, how on earth can I scare you?”
“Not you, Julian, just what I feel when I’m around you. I’ve lived a long time, love, but I’ve never been in love before. You made it so easy, though, as simple as breathing, and by the time I realized what was happening, I was already in too deep. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t handle it well.”
“You didn’t handle it well,” Julian repeated in a quiet mumble. “You ran, Ridley. You got scared, and you ran. Then, instead of just telling me how you feel, you followed me tonight and tormented my date.”
“You didn’t seem to mind.”
Julian snorted. “That’s beside the point.” Okay, it had been pretty funny, but he needed Ridley to focus. “How do I know you’re not going to push me away and go—” His eyes widened, and he squeezed Ridley’s hands until his knuckles turned white. “You said you love me.”
Chuckling nervously, Ridley rose to his feet, pulling Julian with him. “You caught that, did you?” He threaded his fingers through his hair and blew out a long breath while he bobbed his head. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. You just sort of snuck up on me, to be honest. Thinking back on it, though, I’m pretty sure I’ve loved you from the start.” His smile returned, and he stepped forward to wind his arm around Julian’s waist, pulling him closer until their chests pressed together. “Like I said, love, you make it easy. Well, say something,” he added when Julian continued to stare at him.
Moisture pooled in his eyes, and a lump formed in his throat, making it impossible to convey all the things he wanted to say. Words were overrated anyway. Jumping into Ridley’s arms, he locked his legs around the man’s hips and slanted their mouths together, pouring every ounce of emotion he felt into the kiss.
“We talk too much,” he mumbled against Ridley’s lips. “No more talking.”
Turning abruptly, Ridley pinned him against the wall, attacking his mouth in hungry, desperate kisses as he pawed at Julian’s clothing. His coat disappeared first, followed by his dress shirt, and Julian laughed when the entire row of buttons popped off and bounced across the floor. He toed his shoes off behind Ridley’s back, and though it took a little more work to get his slacks off, Ridley managed without setting him back on his feet.
By the time the last scrap of clothing hit the floor, Julian’s cock throbbed, jutting out from his nest of blond curls and begging for attention. His hole clenched and relaxed, greedy and aching, desperate to be filled. A slow burn started in his stomach and spread throughout his body, engulfing him in flames of desire that only Ridley could soothe.
The brick wall dug into his back and scraped across his skin, but Julian barely noticed. Reaching between their flushed bodies, he wrapped his fingers around Ridley’s cock, groaning into his lover’s mouth when the flesh pulsed against his palm. “Need you,” he breathed, arching his neck to give Ridley more room to nibble down his throat.
A moment later, the distinctive click of a bottle cap drew Julian’s attention, and he pulled away from Ridley with a frown. “You keep lube in the storage room?”
“Do you really want to discuss this now?”
“I’m just saying. It seems like an odd place to keep lube. Do you have a lot of rendezvous in here?” His jealousy piqued, Julian slapped his hand against the man’s chest to hold him back when Ridley tried to kiss him again. “Answer the question.”
“It’s vitamin E oil,” Ridley answered in a mixture of amusement and frustration. “I use it on the old leather-bound books to keep them from cracking.”
“Oh.” Satisfied with the answer, he threw his arms around Ridley’s neck and jerked him closer as he laughed. “You may proceed.”
Ridley rolled his eyes, but he didn’t waste breath with a witty comeback. Slanting their mouths together once more, he pushed two slick fingers into Julian’s channel without preliminaries, pumping hard and fast as he stretched the tight ring of muscles. The burn radiated from his balls to the tip of his cock, and Julian moaned as unrivaled pleasure engulfed him.
Raking his fingers down Ridley’s back, he gritted his teeth together and dropped his head back against the wall, riding on a wave of desire that threatened to pull him under. Soft lips trailed along the curve of his neck and around the shell of his ear, pulling more ragged moans from him that reverberated around the dark room.
Without warning, Ridley’s fingers turned frigid, like twin icicles plunging into Julian’s heated channel and stealing the breath from his lungs. The new sensation tipped the scales, causing his balls to roll and his dick to harden to the point of pain. As Julian teetered precariously on the pinnacle of release, he fisted his hand in Ridley’s hair and pulled hard, jerking his lover’s head back on his shoulders.
“Stop teasing,” he growled, so overcome by lust he barely recognized his own voice.
The icy fingers disappeared, replaced immediately by the flared crown of Ridley’s cock. There was no gentle build up this time, no tortuously slow tempo to drive him mad. Surging forward, Ridley seated himself in one thrust, pausing for only a second to groan against Julian’s temple. Once he seemed to have his composure, he began an unrelenting pace, pistoning his hips hard and fast as he pounded Julian into the wall.
Perspiration dampened Ridley’s skin, and the fine sheen of sweat glinted in the single overhead light. Though bombarded by sensations, Julian couldn’t stop staring. He’d always found Ridley gorgeous, but in that moment, free of any constraints, he appeared almost ethereal, too stunning for this world or any other. He could have chosen anyone, taken anyone he’d wanted to his bed, but he’d chosen Julian.
The thought finally snapped Julian’s self-control, flooding him with warmth and tipping him headlong into orgasm. Holding tightly to his lover, he rested his forehead against Ridley’s and closed his eyes, moaning as his world tilted on his axis and sticky seed jetted from his cock to paint his stomach and chest. With a deep sigh and a shuddering groan, Ridley dug his fingers into the back of Julian’s thighs as he pumped through his own climax, filling Julian’s depths with his heated release.
Though sated, they remained locked together for a long while, kissing and caressing while mumbling sweet, nonsensical words to each other. “Is this the part where you tell me it didn’t mean anything and it was all a mistake?”
“No, love, not this time.” Ridley brushed a stray lock of hair back from Julian’s face and whispered a kiss over his brow. “Not ever again. You’re mine now, Julian.”
“Mmm, I’ll hold you to it.” Glancing down at the drying cum on his stomach, Julian snorted and shook his head. “I need a shower.”
Ridley smirked as he turned to carry Julian up the stairs to his apartment. “Oh, love, I’m not nearly finished with you.”
* * * *
Narrow rays of sunlight spilled into the room through the thin curtains by the time Ridley pried his eyes open the next morning. Shifting so many times in one night and trying to keep up with Julian’s bedroom acrobatics had left him truly exhausted, but emotionally, he felt invincible—until he rolled over and found Julian’s side of the bed cold and empty.
“Fuck,” he groaned. He’d known it would take more than a declaration of love and one night of sweaty sex to convince Julian he was in this for the long haul. Still, he hadn’t expected to wake up alone.
Climbing out of bed, he made quick work of his morning routine. Showered, shaved, and dressed, he jogged down the stairs to the storeroom, determined to find Julian and make him listen. Granted, Ridley didn’t know what more he could say, but he’d wasted enough time playing the fool. He needed Julian in his life, and he’d do whatever it took to prove it.
“There you go. I think that’ll keep you busy for a while, but when you’re ready, come back and see us. Have a great day.”
Ridley stopped at the end of the aisle near the New Releases display, a contented
smile stretching his lips as he watched Julian stack books and organize the clutter at the front counter. “I don’t remember putting you on the payroll.”
With a brilliant smile that melted Ridley’s heart, Julian looked up from his task and shrugged. “Well, you should. This place is a mess.” Hurdling the counter, he bounded over to Ridley, bouncing up on his toes to kiss his cheek. “Did you sleep well?”
“Like the dead,” Ridley confirmed. “What time is it?” In his hurry to find Julian, he hadn’t even looked at the clock.
“Almost noon.”
“What?” Damn, he couldn’t believe he’d been so irresponsible. “You should have woke me.”
“Relax, sweetheart.” Julian laughed as he smoothed the wrinkles from Ridley’s shirt. “I have it under control, and Bridget was a big help. You needed the rest.”
“That she-devil never helps anyone. She exists merely to punish me for some perceived wrongdoing in another life.” He didn’t bother to keep his voice down as he spoke, so when Bridget came stomping into the main room, he greeted her with a bright smile. “Hello there, pet. Nice weather we’re having.”
“Yes, cloudy with a chance of assholes, just how I like my day.”
Julian turned away and coughed, but not before Ridley saw the smile that stretched across his face. “You two fight like siblings,” he said when he’d gotten control of himself.
“He started it,” Bridget accused, jabbing her finger at Ridley’s face. “You hear how he talks about me. These are horrid working conditions. I demand a raise.”
“Or I could sack you,” Ridley countered, knowing full well he’d never fire the girl. She might drive him insane and make him want to pull his hair out, but he’d grown rather fond of her quirky nature.
“You could.” She grinned back, all sugary sweet with the barest hint of mischief. “Bet you won’t.”
“Okay,” Julian said loudly, stepping between them as he interrupted. “You two play nice before I put you in the time out corner.” He shooed Bridget away, laughing when she stuck her tongue out as she flounced back to her station. “She’s something else, huh?”
Letters to Julian (A Cupid Inc Novella) Page 6
