His stomach immediately dropped. “What?”
Seth turned, hands on his hips. “Riley. I have a life. A business. I know you want things settled, but that takes time, and you can’t keep me holed up here all the while.”
Riley stood there, at a loss for words. Of course Seth was right. Of course he couldn’t stay here forever. Even Riley’s voice wasn’t protesting, for whatever reason.
Oh fuck, was Riley’svoicethe sensible one?
Because for the first time, Riley understood Wolfgang, who’d turned and sort of kidnapped his mate at their first meeting and then figured the rest out after. Riley finallygotit. He really did.
Riley wanted Seth to be his. Now. Always. He didn’t want to wait. He didn’t want to let him go back to town and the life he was making, where Seth might decide vampires and their nonsense weren’t worth the pain.
But that wasn’t right. And convenient as it had been, what Wolfe had done wasn’t right either. To be a good mate, Riley had to consider whatSethwanted.
And Seth wanted to go home.
“Can I come with you?” Riley asked, searching for any solution that might stop that sinking feeling from taking over his whole being. “Can—can I sleep over?”
Seth tapped his foot, considering. Riley tried to look as appealing and nonthreatening as possible. He didn’t exactly know how to do that, so it mostly involved standing very still and keeping his eyes open wide. He might also have been pouting a little, but Seth was probably used to that by now.
“You can come,” Seth finally said. “But I will besleepingtonight. I wake up very early and?—”
“And you get grumpy if you don’t sleep,” Riley finished for him, fighting back a massive grin.
“Exactly.” Seth cocked his head. He was still staring at Riley, and Riley wasn’t sure about the odd look that suddenly gleamed in Seth’s eyes. He looked…devious.
“You can come with me to the bakery too,” Seth said after a moment. “And we’re going to start something. Maybe a book club.”
“A book club?”
Seth nodded, a little wicked smile quirking at his lips. “Yeah. You like to read, right?”
“Yes?”
“Good.” Seth tugged on one of Riley’s shirts. “That’s settled.”
Riley’s pout was no longer a maybe. “But…why?”
“Because you need to be around people,” Seth told him. “You need to make friends. Have interests that aren’t me and…me.”
“But I like you.”
Seth turned away, rifling through Riley’s sweatshirts now. “Maybe Violet can help,” he murmured. “She seems to be well connected.”
He wasn’t even talking to Riley anymore, was he?
“Violet?” This was getting worse and worse.
“Yeah.” Seth dug deeper into Riley’s drawer. Riley wished he could see his face, since the back of his neck was giving nothing away. “I’m gonna see if she wants a job. I can stay open later on the weekends, get my prep done while she finishes out front. And I’ll have backup in the event of any more…accidents.”
Hadn’t they just been in the shower, coming their brains out while they discovered the wonders of Riley’s tongue in Seth’s ass? How had things devolved so quickly? Riley stepped forward, determined to get things to make sense again. “I’myour backup.”
Seth waved a hand. “You’re my boyfriend, not my backup.”
Riley froze in place.
“I…am?”
“Yeah. We’re dating, aren’t we? I don’t let just anyone eat my ass in the shower while they hog all the hot water.”
