“I don’t know. They weren’t here this morning. They look similar to the ones from the house the other day. Do you recognize them?”
Elijah shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about those. Didn’t want to talk about howheused to send him lavish gifts and expensive floral arrangements all inhisfavorite color, how Lucifer used to tell him how lucky he was to have such powerful people believe in him. “Throw them away… please.”
Shep didn’t hesitate, just tossed them in the trash can beside the counter. “All gone.”
Elijah nodded, shaking away old memories. He stopped at the bathroom sink and cleaned up as best he could before throwing on sweats and a fresh hoodie. Another rumble of thunder came, this time close enough to make the trailer vibrate.
Elijah forced himself to turn to Shep and smile. “I hope you’re ready. Cause if this day gets canceled, we’re going on a date. Then it’s just you, me and all the free porn we can stomach.”
“Is that a giant dick?”
Elijah grinned at Shep over his shoulder. “Yeah, it is. Want to rub it for luck?”
They stood just inside the entrance of a restaurant in an Atlanta neighborhood known as Little Five Points. A very busy neighborhood where tons of people wandered by each moment, all of their gazes lingering on Elijah too long for Shep’s comfort. He took a step closer. He should never have agreed to this. There were just too many uncontrolled variables. Keeping Elijah safe was his number one priority, always.
He scanned the perimeter, honing in on a group of girls who had their phones out. They weren’t pointingin Elijah’s direction, but the girls whispered and pointed towards them just the same. Shep scowled. “This was a bad idea.”
“What? This was a great idea. A date. A real date. Just the two of us. What could be wrong with that?”
Shep hooked a brow upwards. Was he serious?
Elijah stepped closer. He ran his thumbs along Shep’s eyebrows. “No, don’t give me the eyebrows of confusion.”
Shep huffed. “My eyebrows aren’t confused. They’re concerned. People recognize you. The entire world thinks you and that Robby kid are dating. People have threatened your life.”
Elijah shook his head. “Oh, please. People have been threatening my life since way before I outed myself. Besides, we took precautions. You’re armed. Nobody knows I cut my hair for the movie. I have brown contacts in.” He looked down at his skinny jeans, black sweater and white sneakers. “And Lucifer wouldn’t let me be caught dead in this outfit. Those girls are staring because you’re hot and you look like the wood in your jeans is far bigger than the fake one standing in front of us. We make a really hot couple. People are going to stare. Get used to it.”
Before Shep could utter a response, Elijah spun away from him and wrapped his arms around the giant wooden dick. “Quick, take my picture,” he commanded, squishing his face to the statue.
Shep smiled against his will and took out his phone, capturing the photo. “You look ridiculous.”
Elijah sidled up to him, slipping his arms around his waist, letting his hands slide under his sweater. Shep shivered at the coolness of Elijah’s palms. “Don’t be jealous. Unlike those girls, I know exactly how big your dick is and I promise to give it the same treatment later. I’ll even let you take a picture.”
Shep’s cock took notice of Elijah’s words, no matter how ludicrous the sentiment. His infatuation with the boy was a problem. He should take him back to the hotel. It’s what any other guard would have done. But Shep found it impossible to refuse Elijah anything, which is why when they’d shut down the set for inclement weather and Elijah had gazed up at him with those big eyes and begged for a real date, Shep had folded like a lawn chair. He hoped it didn’t come back to bite him in the ass.
Once seated, a server came to the table, chomping her gum. She had blonde hair shaved short on one side revealing deep black roots, but the middle part swooped down to cover one overly lined blue eye. Other than that, she wore no makeup. Her nails were short and painted black except at the ends where it had worn away either from her biting them or from everyday wear. “What are you drinking?” she asked Elijah, her tone somewhere between bored and irritated. “And if you say anything with alcohol, I’m carding you, baby face. Even if you are here with your dad.”
Shep’s lip curled, his anger instantaneous. But Elijah laughed, threading their fingers together on the table. “Relax, babe. They get paid to be rude. I’m just having a Coke, anyway.”
She rolled her eyes. “What about you, Outlander?”
“Water,” he grunted.
She turned without another word. Elijah shook his head. “Down boy. Being rude is their shtick. Or are you mad that she said you were old enough to be my dad?”
“I am old enough to be your dad,” Shep said. “I don’t like people talking to you like that.”
Elijah laughed. “We live in LA. If ten people aren’t rude to me before lunch, I get paranoid. I’ll let you know when to get mad. I promise.”
Shep just grunted. “It’s my job to protect you.”
“You do protect me. More than anybody in my entire life ever has. But, maybe don’t snarl and growl at the servers who make like two dollars an hour. Let’s just have fun today, please?” Elijah’s fingers squeezed Shep’s, and his anger faded away. The boy was so excited to be out in the world, he was vibrating with it. He’d smiled more in the past two hours than he had in the last six weeks, even with the gray skies and the oil slicked puddles on the street outside.
“You seem happy.”
The statement seemed to rattle Elijah, his smile dimming a bit, before he shrugged. “Why shouldn’t I be? I am out in public with a person I chose, eating in a place I love without being surrounded and harassed by hundreds of people on a much-needed day off.” He leaned forward, dropping his voice, his tongue darting out to lick over his lower lip. “And when we get back to the hotel, my night will end with mutual orgasms.”
Shep’s cock throbbed behind his zipper. “You need to stop talking like that or your day will be cut short.”
