Elijah’s heart fluttered in his chest until she sobered. “He doesn’t process the little emotions he has the same way as most people. He can be… obsessive. When he’s decided something belongs to him, it is almost impossible to get him to disengage. If somebody tries to hurt that thing or take that thing from him, he will fight back… possibly with violence.”
Elijah stared at her, waiting for her to continue. “What’s the bad part?”
She shook her head. “I’m sure it all sounds very romantic. I may have thought the same thing at your age, but what if you decide you want out of the relationship? What if one of your screaming fans gets overzealous? What if somebody rear-ends you? It doesn’t have to be intentional. It doesn’t have to be even a large slight. My son will respond to these things with the same impulse. Protect what’s his by any means necessary.” She gave him a pitying look. “Being the object of my son’s affections is a huge responsibility.”
Elijah shook his head, refusing to believe that Shep would just snap over any little thing. If that were the case, he would have skinned Lucifer and wore her as a pair of pants. “I’m not afraid of him.”
She did that staring thing and once more Elijah was shaken by how much she looked like Shep. After a moment, she stood straight and shrugged. “Okay, I can see there’s no changing your mind about this. But I think we should all have a talk, just the three of us. Not tonight. Tomorrow, when the house is quiet.”
Elijah felt a shock of adrenaline run through him. “A talk?”
“Yes. A nice… long… chat.” She gave him a smile that chilled him to his core. “About everything.”
“Okay,” he managed.
Once more, she grinned. “Great. Grab a bowl. Dinner’s ready.”
Elijah suddenly had very little appetite.
Something was wrong. At dinner, Elijah regaled Shep’s family with stories about his movie roles and delighted his nephews by promising them autographs of their favorite celebrities. But in the quiet moments, when the others were caught up in their own stories, Elijah seemed uneasy, throwing worried glances towards Shep and his mother. Had she said something to upset Elijah?
Once dinner ended, and they’d cleaned the kitchen, Shep’s mother led them to the guest house just steps away. “You’re both adults, I figured you could use your… privacy.” She looked to Elijah, who seemed to pale beneath his tan. “There are two bedrooms, should you need them.”
Before either of them could say a word, she was already walking away. Elijah gave Shep another odd look and then he headed toward the room with the king-size bed. He opened his overnight bag grabbing clothes to sleep in. “I’m gonna take a shower.”
Shep watched him walk into the bathroom and shut the door before he sat on the edge of the bed. What could have happened between the plane and now that had the boy so upset? He could hear the water running, knew he should have waited or knocked, but he didn’t. He turned the knob and entered. Steam hung heavy in the room, fogging the mirror, saturating Shep’s t-shirt and jeans until they felt heavy and damp. “Did my mom say something to upset you?” Shep asked the curtain.
Elijah yelped and then stuck his head around the curtain, glaring at Shep. “Jesus. Are you trying to give me a fucking heart attack?”
Shep closed the toilet and sat on the lid glancing up at Elijah who was slick and naked with suds clinging to his dark hair. A strange feeling settled into his chest. He was so beautiful. Perfect. His. “No,” he said.
Elijah snorted a surprised laugh. “You’re so weird.”
“So you’ve said. Did my mother upset you?”
Elijah disappeared behind the curtain. “Not exactly. No.”
“Did she tell you that we shouldn’t be together?” he asked, a quick flash of anger igniting his blood.
Elijah snatched the curtain back and gave Shep a long look. “Get naked.”
Shep blinked at the rapid change of direction. “What?”
“Do I need to talk slower? Get naked and get in here,” Elijah said, disappearing once more.
Shep stripped, stepping over the lip of the tub and ducking under the curtain rod. Elijah’s hands were on him immediately, skimming his chest, before cupping his face. “Kiss me.”
His anger dissipated in an instant as Elijah’s lips found his. The boy melted against Shep, their naked bodies pressed together under the heat of the spray. When Elijah broke the kiss, he stepped back, taking in Shep’s naked form. He ran his hands along the plains of his abdomen, his thumbs tracing the V of his hips, his gaze seeming to snag on Shep’s cock before he dragged his eyes upward. “You’re very… proportional,” Elijah managed, licking his already damp lower lip. He handed Shep a white cloth. “Wash me.”
Shep did as Elijah commandedwithout question, soaping up the cloth and running it over the sculpted muscles of his back. Shep took his time, washing Elijah like he was fragile, which is how he felt. Fragile. Like this thing between them was finite, breakable, like the universe could rip itfrom Shep at any moment. When Elijah turned to face him, water clung to his lashes like diamonds, highlighting the brilliant silver-blue of his eyes. Shep ran his thumbs over the boy’s cheekbones, his need to touch him overwhelming.
“Your mom knows about us,” Elijah said.
“Okay.”
“She… she wants to talk to us—to both of us—about everything” Elijah said, fingers air quoting the last part of the sentence.
A million scenarios ticked through Shep’s brain. His mother wasn’t one to mince words. She always spoke plainly and honestly… at least with him. He couldn’t imagine what she wanted to discuss with them. Would she tell Shep to end it? Would she say that involving Elijah in his life was reckless? She’d cautioned him as a teen to avoid pulling people into his… experiments. To not play with them. Had she told Elijah about Shep’s childhood? The things he’d done before he’d learned to control his impulses? The faintest echo of panic shot through him. He wasn’t willing to end things with Elijah.
