Drew looked away quickly and cleared his throat. “So, I’ll just reheat the leftover pasta for dinner and then—”
“No!” Zach announced and strode around until he was directly in front of Drew. “No, Drew. We arenoteating that horrid stuff for a second night in a row.”
Frowning, Drew glanced over into the small kitchen. “Oh, well, I’m not sure what else I have here but I’m sure I can find something to make. There’s a little bread left. I was saving it for toast in the morning but I could make toast for dinner if you prefer? It’s probably too stale now for sandwiches.”
Zach sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Or we could use my magical money card andorder in.Doesn’t Chinese sound good to you?”
His stomach rumbling just at the thought, Drew found his hunger was stronger than his pride and stubbornness, and he nodded. “Yeah, it does,” he said softly. “Only if you’re sure, though. I don’t want to feel like I’m taking advantage of you.”
Zach rolled his eyes and then stepped forward into Drew’s space, crowding close. “Oh, I’m sure, sweetness,” he practically purred.He leaned down until his breath was hot and sweet against Drew’s ear, making him shiver. “Do you really, truly believe it’smewho is being taken advantage of here?” He reached out and trailed a hand down Drew’s cheek and over his throat, then danced it across a shoulder before stroking down . . . down . . . down Drew’s back. “Do you worry I’ll think you owe me?” he asked, voice low and husky. “Do you think I might demand that you pay me back somehow?”
Drew was achingly hard in his jeans and also slightly terrified. He swallowed loudly and managed a nod. “Maybe,” he admitted.
“Oh, Drew,” Zach growled, and his hand dipped down even further until it was just resting on the swell of his ass. “I can think of so many delicious ways I could take payment from you. Somanyways. But . . .” He paused, his lips tickling Drew’s ear. “I thinkthiswill be enough.” And he dipped his hand into the pocket of Drew’s jeans and snagged his phone. Then he stepped back, looking completely and utterly unaffected by their closeness, and swiped it open. “So, any recommendations for the best Chinese around?”
Knowing his mouth must be gaping open like a fish but quite unable to compose himself, Drew shook his head. “No, no, anything is fine. I uh, I have to use the bathroom.” And he hurried across the room, into the bathroom, and quickly shut the door behind him, leaning against the cool wood and breathing hard.
He could almost swear he heard Zach chuckling, but he didn’t care. Drew ripped open his jeans and shoved his hand down into his boxers, closing it around his cock and squeezing. He came immediately, spurting over his hand, biting his lip hard so as not to make a sound. Drew wasn’t under any delusions that Zach didn’t know exactly what he was doing, but as he shook and trembled through the aftershocks of his orgasm, he found he simply didn’t care. He was just lucky he’d lasted until he had some relative privacy, since he’d been close, way too close, to coming in his pants untouched.
When he finally recovered enough to leave the bathroom with a measure of nonchalance, he found that Zach had placed an order for dinner and was laughing at something on Drew’s phone. He quickly checked to make sure it wasn’t anything private, but relaxed when he saw it was just a cat meme. Drew grabbed his laptop and booted it up, leaving Zach to entertain himself with the phone. He opened an incognito browser window—really not wanting this in his search history—and typed in “witches and wizards in Nanaimo,” but he didn’t get a lot of hits and so had to expand the search to Vancouver Island at large. A lot of what he found was historical information, and there were a lot of sites for Wiccan practitioners and then numerous dead ends that took him to new-age bookshops, but finally, on the third page of the search results, he found something that seemed promising. There was a knock at the door as dinner arrived, and Drew quickly scribbled down an address in Ladysmith so he could go and investigate tomorrow.
Looking at the numerous bags of takeout sitting on his tiny kitchen counter, Drew turned to Zach and his lips quirked into a smile. “Are we feeding the hordes of Hell as well? Should I have prepared for company?”
Zach sniffed as he pulled out several containers of rice. “I’m on vacation. Why would I want to invite my colleagues?”
Drew opened a container of honey pepper beef and breathed in deeply, salivating a little at the aroma. “Maybe to show off how you’ve turned me into a glutton?”
“Not my department. The whole sin thing is the big guy’s job.”
“Well, maybe you wanted me to meet the family,” Drew teased as he fished a piece of beef out and popped it into his mouth.
Zach went still, and all amusement fell from his face. “I don’t have any family in Hell,” he said, voice tight with something Drew couldn’t recognise.
“Zach, I—”
“Drew,” the demon said, cutting him off. “Let’sjust eat, yeah?”
It was clear the discussion was over and Drew didn’t push it, just got out two plates and handed one over before filling his own. Zach obviously didn’t like talking about his life, and Drew respected that, though it made their—would he call it a friendship?—decidedly one-sided. Zach knew much more about Drew than Drew did about him, but he’d been raised to respect personal boundaries and he wasn’t going to pry when it wasn’t welcome. He could admit to himself, though, he wasverycurious about Zach’s past. He just hoped that perhaps one day, before this was all over, he’d get some answers.
“Do you want to watch something?” Drew asked, gesturing behind him to the TV.
“Sure,” Zach agreed easily enough, and Drew was relieved he wasn’t still upset.
“Um, I don’t have Netflix or anything, but I have some DVDs.” He left the kitchen and went over to the small stack of discs next to the TV in the main room. He read out the titles, and Zach picked out theWrath of Khan. They settled down on the bed to watch it, and as Zach’s thigh pressed close against Drew’s, he began to regret not having a couch. He could feel his cock growing hard again, just from being so close to Zach, and his earlier orgasm felt like it had been years ago. Drew sighed and tried to will it away, knowing he couldn’t excuse himself again to go and jerk off in the bathroom. He refused to look over at Zach, worried the demon wouldknowhe was hard and that it was because of him. Drew couldn’t stand to see the sexy smirk on his face, the knowing smile, the amused glint in his eyes. He’d embarrassed himself more than enough for one night.
Drew wasn’t able to concentrate on the movie, too busy with his internal conflict as he fought his attraction to the demon. Eventually, he fell asleep, and when he woke the next morning with Zach wrapped around him, he began to question if he should even fight it anymore. There was no way to know how long Zach would be part of his life, and if he found the spell to reverse the summoning, would he regret not taking the chance while he’dhad it? It was easy enough to consider, lying in the dark with the warm bulk of Zach at his back, but Drew knew once he was up and about for the day, faced with Zach’s charm and handsomeness, it would feel much more unattainable. So he closed his eyes, let himself drift back to sleep, and enjoyed the brief moment as all he would ever get to have.
Off to See the Wizard
They stood on the sidewalk of First Avenue, looking up at the inconspicuous front door, and Drew checked his scribbled instructions once again to make sure he was at the right place. The house in front of them was completely unassuming. It was a neat, older home with white cladding, steps leading up to a covered porch, and a side entrance to what looked like a basement suite—not somewhere he’d expect to find a wizard. He glanced at the numbers on the gate, confirming they were definitely at the address he’d found online. Shrugging, he started to make his way up the paved path to the steps, but Zach grabbed his wrist, stopping him. “Are you going to tell me what we’re doing here? I really don’t like being unprepared.”
Drew’s eyes were glued to the large hand clasped around his wrist and an image of that same hand holding him down but in the bedroom flashed before his eyes. He shook his head, shaking away the welcome but untimelyimage, and tilted his head towards the completely inconspicuous house. “We’re here to see a wizard,” he said.
“Excuse me?” Zach actually looked shocked.
“According to Google, there’s a wizard here who might be able to help me find the spell we need.”
Was it his imagination or was that a flicker of hurt in Zach’s eyes? “Yougoogleda wizard?” Zach blustered.
