Page 3 of Double Shot

Maybe a few more drinks.

Clarence was licking his lips and inching closer. His breathing was getting heavier and a little raspy, and it sounded kind of… weird. Like he had a head cold and his sinuses were full of mucus, and there was a little globule of it rattling in the back of his throat.

I looked around in mild panic, then lunged to cross the street just as Clarence started puckering his lips and leaning in, eyes half-closed.

“Let’s go in here!” I practically shouted, my pulse leaping with another little hint of panic when Clarence clung on to my hand and I half dragged him across the road to the rundown-looking bar with a flickering neon sign.

Gargy’s, it declared. The windows were tiny and hazy with grime, but I could see a low-lit interior, and the trio of folks standing outside were two banshees and a werewolf. There was a sticker of a specific symbol denoting its status as a supernatural-run business in one of the windows, which instantly put me at ease.

Before I could drag Clarence inside, he stopped me and rested a hand on my arm, encouraging me to face him.

He was eyeing me carefully. “Niko, are you alright?”

I tensed a little at that nickname. “Yes. Fine. And, um, like I said, Niko isn’t—”

“My beautiful, sweet Niko,” he crooned, stepping closer and skimming his palm down my arm. I simultaneously melted into the touch and wanted to flinch away from it. It was weird.

But… it’d just been a long time since someone had tried to woo me, you know? Not like this. Not being all soft and romantic. I got a lot of guys telling me how much they wanted to fuck me, telling me how hot and sexy I was, begging me to have sex with them because they desperately wanted to feel that extra little thing concubi had…

But Clarence didn’t even seem to care that I was an incubus. He was just interested in me. Klaus. He thought I was stunningly beautiful.

I didn’t like the nickname, and it wasn’t even my name, but… at least he cared enough to give me one, right? So soon. On our first date.

…I guess?

“Just relax,” Clarence purred, smiling at me indulgently. “We can do whatever you want. Go in here for a drink, go somewhere else, go back to your place or mine…”

Again, I had that weird conflicting reaction where I was both incredibly flattered and almost repulsed. But that was just… romance jitters. Nerves from being courted by someone so…

So…

Present. Yeah. Clarence was here. In front of me. Currently. That was nice. Being literally present was the first step in forming a passionate yet loving relationship.

And everyone knew real passion came very, very gradually, over time. Over many, many years. Slowly.

It didn’t matter that I was feeling the opposite of passion right now.

“Let’s go in here.” I gave him a brief, somewhat queasy smile. Clarence didn’t seem to notice, just nodded as his own smile widened. He turned and gestured for me to go ahead of him.

Which, again, was very nice. Gallant. Gentlemanly. Romantic.

This was fine. This was… a good date. Great, even. Clarence was just a… slow bloomer or something. You had to wait a while before you started to see the good bits.

This was going to be lovely. A lovely, romantic drink with a lovely, romantic faun who’d hit on me at the grocery store. And asked me about my previous lovers over dinner. And given me an incorrect nickname already.

Just before I stepped into the bar, I cast one last longing look at the bakery, wondering if I’d made the wrong decision.

Chapter 2

Wrong Decisions

Klaus

I’d made the wrong decision.

I nodded for the thousandth time while Clarence droned on and on about his dance troupe. I was trying to be polite and not let my gaze drift around the bar, but there were some ridiculously hot guys in here, and I just… wasn’t attracted to Clarence at all.

Like, at all.