“I do,” Shep promised.
Elijah shook his head. “But why?”
“It’s like you told my mother. I’m yours. This body is yours. It belongs to you. Whatever you need to be happy, whatever you want to do with it, I’ll give it to you.”
“But I want you to be happy too.”
Shep shook his head. “Seeing you happy is the closest thing to happy I can experience. You’re mine. Providing for you, giving you what you need, that… moves something in me, but that’s as close to happy as I can get. It turns me on when you use me for your own pleasure, so whatever you want, whatever you need, we can do it.”
Elijah scanned his face as if looking for any hint of a lie. Finally, he sighed. “I don’t know what I like, but I know that I don’t want to just use you to get off like you’re my personal sex robot. So, maybe we should find out what each of us likes and talk about it?”
Shep tilted his head. “How do you propose we do that?”
Elijah rolled his eyes. “The same way every other person figures out what turns them on. Porn.”
“Porn?”
Elijah laughed. “Yeah, porn.”
Shep’s cock twitched. “You want us to watch porn together?”
“Yeah, but not on your mom’s wifi. When we get to Georgia. It’ll just be you and me in that swank hotel for weeks. There won’t be anybody around to bother us.”
One look at the excitement on Elijah’s face and Shep was nodding. “Yeah, okay. In Georgia we watch porn.”
“You’re okay, I guess, but Shep can pick me up over his head with one hand. You can barely pick me up at all. Just a tiny bit like to your chest.”
Elijah stared down into the little face of Tobias Jones, who shrugged his slight shoulders, palms up in a what-are-ya-gonna-do gesture. Tobi was a blond-haired, green-eyed, ball of energy. He was also the six-year-old son of Elijah’s costar, Demeter Jones. Demeter was a twenty-something single mom who played the teen co-ed Elijah’s character stalked in the film. Shep gave Elijah a knowing smirk from his spot on the sofa in the small makeup trailer.
Elijah let his face collapse in mock sorrow. “Wow. You said you loved my movies. You said you wanted to be just like me when you grow up.”
Tobi’s face went through a dozen expressions before he landed on one that stuck. “I do. I wanna be a famous actor like you. But Shep is big and strong like Thor or the Hulk. He’s a superhero. We’re just humans,” he said this as if to make Elijah understand it was nothing personal.
“Yeah, just puny humans,” Shep agreed, catching Elijah’s gaze in the mirror.
The makeup artist, Kaija, and Demeter—-Demi to her friends-—both laughed. Tobi let out a maniacal screech and launched himself at Shep who caught the little demon midair but not before his foot caught Shep’s crotch. Elijah winced as Shep grunted, his eyes watering as he listed to his side, his face a rather startling shade of purple. Tobi continued his assault, fists flying, unaware of Shep’s pain. Shep once more met Elijah’s gaze in the mirror, this time his expression screaming help me.
Elijah turned to the makeup artist. “Kaija, I think I look a little shiny here, no?” He pointed to his forehead.
The dark-haired girl narrowed her near-black eyes. “Oh, yeah. I can see it.”
“Mommy. Mommy, look. I beat up Shep. He’s crying.”
Demi took pity on Shep. “Tobi. Be nice. Shep’s strong… but he’s also super old. Like way older than you. Older than all of us, really.”
Shep’s mouth fell open. “Et tu, Demeter? I thought you’d have my back… one god to another.”
Demi snickered. She didn’t look like a girl named after a goddess, but she swore it was her given name. She said she came from a long line of pagans. Elijah didn’t know much about pagans, but he’d always just kind of assumed they all wore black and shopped at Hot Topic and were fond of movies likeThe Craft. But Demi couldn’t have been more different. She had honey blonde curls, a golden tan, and huge turquoise eyes. She also seemed to favor long lace dresses and knee-high boots and jewelry made of wood. Her aesthetic was a girl who wandered away from Coachella, but she was super nice, and she appreciated that Shep always seemed willing to keep Tobi occupied.
They’d been on set for almost three weeks and the hours were grueling for cast and crew alike. Six days a week, fourteen to twenty hours a day either in front of the cameras, prepping for the cameras or going back to the hotel suite and passing out for a few precious hours. Elijah spent his days offsleeping next to Shep but little else. Tobi’s obsession with Elijah’s god-like bodyguard gave Elijah a good excuse to keep Shep closer than necessary and kept the crew from asking too many questions, even if Demi did side-eye them an awful lot.
It was strange seeing Shep out in the world around people who didn’t know his secret, laughing and smiling and just looking so… normal. Maybe it should have concerned Elijah more that Shep passed so well, that he was such an accomplished liar, but it made his blood hum. Elijah was the only one who got to see Shep with his mask off, got to see him let go of the strain of pretending to be something he wasn’t. Even Dr. Molly Shepherd didn’t get to see that.
Demi hopped from her chair, giving Elijah the once over before saying, “Come on, Tobi. We’ve got thirty minutes to hit the craft services table. If you promise to behave, I’ll pretend I don’t notice you sneaking a donut instead of a fruit cup.”
“Sugar,” he shouted, jumping off of Shep and striking a muscle man pose as he gave a bloodthirsty yell. “Sorry I beat you up, Shep.”
“No problem,” Shep grunted, his color now a more cherry red than eggplant purple.
