I startled when a bowl clicked down before me. “Oh, yes.”
I ate as if I’d been starved, which I likely had been. It felt like I was a bottomless pit, every bite I took going nowhere, settling into a void that begged for more. “Thank you.”
“No problem. We have matters to discuss—” Gre started, but I held up a hand as I tied into my second bowl. The poltergeist… I wracked my brain for his name. V-something. Vinny? No, too stereotypical. Vincenzo! Vincenzo gave me a wise grin.
“We have—thirty-seven hours, and I’m sure we can have a creative solution for what needs must.”
Gre offered me a smile with no shame or blush in it. Our shadows pantomimed dry humping one another with a stretch along a wall that caught even Vincenzo’s attention. The poltergeist must have seen a lot under his work with Mage Hawthorne because he barely gave it a second glance. Still, Gre maintained composure. “That can be handled in time, at your own comfort, but my concern lies mainly in visiting your father.”
“Oh.” I took another bite.
“That isn’t a problem for you, is it, Esmeray?” The way he said my name, like a kiss on my lips, made my heart stutter and Ausmius pantomime holding his chest and falling over on the wall.Jerk.
“I need to call him, first. But I imagine we need to take care of that looming clock.” He sighed.
“I can wait.” Gre shrugged, eyes drifting down my body, taking me in with hooded eyes. I didn’t know if the attraction we shared was due to our bond or our attraction. I had been interested before. I’d contemplated him briefly since our meeting, but had been so busy with the coven’s lawsuit that I hadn’t even had time to take things to my own hand.
Ausmius made an up-and-down fisting gesture nearby that I blatantly ignored.
“That is a good point, Ausmius. We can both please ourselves separately and imbibe a drop.” Gre didn’t seem bothered by the gesture. “If it doesn’t work, we still have a day and a half to go.”
“What’s wrong with going all the way?” I glanced up from my soup and earned a raised brow.
“Because we do not know one another’s limits, our sexual tastes, proclivities. I don’t know if you even enjoy bottoming—”
“I’m an omega.” I said it with as much flatness as I could.
“And I’m an alpha, but I do enjoy being topped occasionally.” The pearly whites of his teeth shone in thecandlelight before us. Vincenzo appeared to like the ambience of flame.
I choked on a bite of soup. “Really?”
“Oh, yes. Quite so. Nothing like having a partner in the throes of penetration with me. Sex isn’t masturbating into their partner and hoping the other gets off in the process.” He muttered something about humans under his breath, and I snorted.
“I’ve never had the opportunity to top, but I’m not opposed.” I truly wasn’t. The thought of bending Gre over his bed and having my way sounded promising.
“Fetishes?” Gre poured himself a goblet of sparkling water and added a splash of wine before pouring Ausmius his glass. His shadow imbibed too, this time, like hummingbirds sucking nectar out of its light.
“Oh hell.” I opened my mouth to speak a few times and grumbled before sighing deeply. “I’ll let you peruse my eBook reader and let you figure out from there.”
“At least you’re a consumer of fine literature.” Gre smirked and tied into his soup, quite obviously dodging the issue.
“And you?”
“A little of this and that.” He bobbed his head side to side.
I put my spoon down, nearing the end of my second bowl and only then feeling somewhat sated. I wasn’t a large male to begin with, so I had no idea where the soup actually went. “Tell me, because secrets will breed resentment in our union.”
“True. I crave unorthodox things.” He stirred his soup, eyes turned away from me, depriving me of their beauty, their strength.
“It’s not feces, is it? Please tell me it’s not feces or vomit or…”
“No! Goddesses, no!” He spluttered and dropped his spoon. “I merely crave a dynamic that isn’t conventional.”
“I’m not into pet play or diapers or infantilization,” I said. The deadpan expression that crossed his face had a tinge of relief in the way his brows softened.
“Not that, either. I— Please do not think I—you have a choice. You always do.” Gre rubbed across his face, fingers massaging into a temple.
“Understood. I didn’t take you as the ungentlemanly sort.” I waited patiently and tried not to flinch in wait for something I could never do.
