Page 22 of Mytho Investigations: Side Stories

“I was eight, and my sister was six.”

“You were the same age as Lekso when his mother died. I understand the scars that leaves.”

Mason hadn’t thought about the scars left by his death, not when he was approaching the same age.

Vlash moved in closer, hooking his leg over Mason’s hip before kissing him. “So we are both single and dissatisfied with how we’ve been living for the last few years.”

“Agreed.”

“So we should plan to do things differently in the New Year. That is what humans do? They set resolutions to uphold?”

Mason laughed. “Most New Year’s resolutions do not see the end of January.”

“Then we do not make resolutions; we make vows.” His lips were a whisper away from Mason’s.

“I was warned about elves’ words being binding.”

Vlash grinned, and it was all sharp edges. “I could bind you into keeping one of your New Year’s resolutions. But I will not. Binding someone is not something I take lightly.”

Mason released a breath. “Good, because I’d much rather succeed or fail on my own.”

“And what do you want to succeed at?” Vlash asked, his eyes bright and intense.

That was easy. “I want to make better choices.”

Vlash made a noise of approval. “That is something we both aspire to.”

CHAPTER 12

Vlash was not surprised that Mason's home was bigger and nicer than his. And he really tried not to be bitter about it.

Mason was human. Of course, he was going to have a nice place in a nice area.

They were upstairs in Mason’s bed, not watching whatever movie was on the TV.

Mason was becoming a drug that he found impossible to resist. The moment Vlash had walked through the door, nearly tripping over the boxes and other clutter. He’d wanted him. Lust swept through his veins and lodged in his balls as if he was fifty and had no care about tomorrow.

They had planned to watch a movie downstairs, but the sofa was so fucking uncomfortable they’d gone back up to the bedroom so they could loll in bed.

Not that he usually lay in bed in the middle of the day. But when Mason had messaged, and Lekso had been free to run the store—Lekso had almost pushed him out the door—Vlash hadn’t had a good excuse not to come around.

“Did you want to stay for dinner, or do you need to go home?”

The automatic response that formed on his tongue was that he should go. But he held it in. He didn’t need to go home. Lekso could sort his own dinner out, assuming he was going to be at home and not out with that human girl. He needed to use her name—Katie. Because Lekso called Mason ‘that human boy’ every time Vlash referred to Katie as ‘that human girl’.

He was proud that he’d raised such an independent young man, but he wished Lekso wouldn’t fight with him at every turn.

Maybe he could stay the night. They both had work tomorrow, so they needed to wake up early. But at the same time, if he stayed the night, then it changed the rules, and the rules were they texted and hooked up about once a week. They weren’t hooking up, though, because they didn’t have sex and then leave. They had sex, and they talked, and they had more sex and sometimes more talking in the shower, and sometimes it was midnight before Mason left.

This was the first time Vlash had been at Mason’s. Every other time, he’d waited for Lekso to go out before inviting Mason over.

“I can stay.” He wanted to, even though he wasn’t sure what it meant. At some point, they needed to talk about what they were doing, but he didn’t think either of them was ready for that conversation.

He didn’t want to examine what he felt because if he liked Mason, he was more likely to get hurt when Mason wanted something or someone else.

Not that either of them was actually out there looking for anything else. Which had been agreed they should, in the spirit of making different choices and being better people.

He wasn’t sure that was working.