Page 81 of Double Shot

His breath caught. He ducked down, big hands settling on my waist, and we shared a sweet, lingering kiss that left me tingling all over with innocent pleasure when we parted. Brian laced his fingers through mine again, and I leaned indulgently into his side as we started walking.

We made our way through the werewolf section and into a small walled-in garden area that seemed to house the remains of a mishmash of other species. Lampyrs, empyns, a single ailyn and a single dullahan. It was hotter in here, and even more quiet. Wild roses had taken over, smothering the crumbling brick walls, filling the air with a subtle sweet scent and the low droning hum of honeybees.

There were no fae graves, because the fae tended to their dead in other ways, and the family graves for ghouls were tucked around the back of the church, shaded by a huge oak. The area for gargoyles was signified by the big, demonic grotesque crouched on a pillar in the centre of the graves, his bat wings spread wide as if he were shielding the graves from the elements. I was pretty sure he was a representation of a demonic deity some gargoyles worshipped, but I wasn’t sure.

We didn’t talk much as we wandered around, pausing every now and then to read inscriptions or make guesses over the species of the graves’ occupants. It was nice and quiet and calming, and I couldn’t remember ever going on a date this peaceful before Brian. Dates usually always held an edge of frenetic energy, whether that was born from nerves or pressure or, unfortunately more often than not in my case, desperate hunger.

None of that was the case with Brian. I felt so at ease with him, and I hoped he felt at ease with me too. He seemed to. I knew him well enough now to be able to see how different he was when it was just us compared to when other people were around. I could see him visibly relax around me. I could hear it in his voice, in the way he was starting to let himself laugh that big, rumbly laugh without getting self-conscious.

He didn’t do that in the graveyard though, obviously. There was a sleeping eldritch creature nearby.

Chapter 28

Brian Has a New Fan

Klaus

Brian knocked it out of the park on our surprise date.

We couldn’t have it until the following Monday, because the wrestling shows were on during the latter part of the week, which meant Brian’s evenings were booked up. I had work every evening until Saturday too, so while I missed him—and I did miss him; a scary amount—at least I wasn’t just moping alone at home every night.

Luckily, a human couple checked into the motel on Thursday and stayed for two nights. A very horny human couple. I’d been starting to feel the first pangs of that specific hunger—that knot in my chest beginning to tighten and become uncomfortable—but they came to my rescue. Human sexual energy was a rare meal for me, too. Obviously, I didn’t have sex with humans myself, because of the whole lack of consent thing due to my pheromones making them loopy with arousal. But I was confident that these humans’ little motel sex vacation would be enough to nourish me for several days—at least until I saw Brian again. And then, if we didn’t have sex on the next date, a heavy, sexually charged make-out session would have to tide me over for the time being.

Oh, what a hardship that would be.

On the Monday, Brian picked me up for our date at around four p.m. Kind of early for a date, but he said it was for a specific reason, one I obviously didn’t know about yet. I was so excited that I was practically vibrating in my car seat. I really did love surprises, but only from people I actually trusted to know what I would and wouldn’t like. Brian and I hadn’t known each other that long, but I did trust him. He was attentive and generous and sweet. And honestly, he was too much of an overthinker to get this wildly wrong in any shape or form. Besides, I just wanted to spend time with him. I didn’t really care what we did.

But he still nailed it.

We drove out of the city and into the countryside. I hadn’t been this far past the motel in years, so just seeing all the open space, the green fields and the swathes of trees in the near distance was enough to make this a great date already.

Eventually, he turned off the highway and onto a dirt road. If Clarence had tried to do this on one of our awful dates, I would’ve already pepper-sprayed him and army-rolled out of the moving vehicle. But as an incubus, I was good at reading people’s energy, especially once I’d spent some time around them. Brian’s energy was just… good. Peaceful and kind. There were never any spikes to signal anger or volatility. When he got nervous, which he did a fair amount, his energy grew kind of fuzzy around the edges, like it was vibrating at a super high frequency. It still wasn’t remotely aggressive or unpleasant for me, though. It just made me want to soothe him.

All that being said, I happily held Brian’s hand on the console between our seats as we bounced down a little dirt road in the middle of nowhere for a surprise date.

We pulled up to what looked like a small farm. That was my guess, anyway, because there were farm-like buildings to the right, including a barn, and sheep in the distance. To our left was a meadow with a huge oak tree and a wooden hut standing all alone a few yards from where Brian parked the car. Under the oak were two deckchairs with a cooler between them. A short distance away, glowing in the late-afternoon sun, was what looked like a lumberjack’s version of an easel—slim logs lashed together with rope—holding a large, thick slice of a tree trunk, like a giant wooden coin on display.

Brian cut the engine and looked over at me. He was nervous again. I could feel and see it, so I smiled at him and squeezed his hand.

He smiled back, but I could still see the nerves. “Um, so, if you don’t want to do it, that’s totally fine—we can just go straight to dinner—but I thought you might like to try axe throwing.”

I blinked in surprise. “Axe throwing?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged a little. “It just sounded kinda fun, and probably not something you’ve done before… I haven’t either, so I thought—”

“That does sound really fun.” A wide smile split my mouth. “Hell yeah, let’s try it.”

His big, beautiful grin appeared as his shoulders sagged a little in relief. “Yeah? I’ve booked us a dinner reservation for afterward,” he rushed to add. “We’ll probably get hungry doing this, right?”

“Oh yeah, for sure. We’ll need dessert too.”

His grin turned sweet, and he leaned in closer to me. The movement seemed almost instinctive, his body wanting to be closer to mine, which just made it even sweeter. “Obviously dessert too.”

I leaned in as well, still smiling, and kissed him. Just a sweet little kiss, mainly because I needed to keep my libido in check, and if this man started being any more precious than he already was, my dick was probably going to explode or fall off or something.

We got out of the car and I looked around, still smiling. The late afternoon was warm and balmy, but there was a gentle breeze that cooled my face and ruffled my curls. I almost got a little emotional as I looked around at the wildflowers swaying in the breeze, the rolling forest in the distance, the quaint little hut and towering oak tree. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to inhale all that wonderful, clean countryside air, remembering what Nat had said about some app telling him it was good for his mental health, then wrinkled my nose and immediately regretted it. I quickly opened my eyes and glanced sheepishly at Brian to make sure he hadn’t noticed. Okay, so the countryside didn’t always smell as incredible as it looked. Sometimes, it smelled like sheep. And sheep poop. But that was okay. We were kind of in the sheep’s home right now.

Brian locked the car and rounded the hood to join me. My gut tightened with want as I watched him approach. Lucifer, he was just so handsome. He was wearing faded jeans that made his ass look completely biteable and perfect, worn brown boots, and a pale blue T-shirt that showed off his wide shoulders and enormous biceps and also made his blue eyes even more vibrant in the late-afternoon sun.