Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
Corbin tiptoed over to Cosmo’s place to see if there was any potato soup left.
He didn’t really want to cook, but he wanted soup and bread for both him and Evander. Ev was asleep. Like asleep-asleep, not in a coma, and he felt as if he could breathe now. Relax a little.
Is Mom still here?
Nope. I took her out through your living room. I told her that you were obviously asleep. What the fuck is going on?
He’s asleep.
Cosmo opened his door and let him in, finger to his lips.
I know, I know. Everyone is asleep, but I desperately need some potato soup. And some bread.
Cosmo’s eyebrow lifted. Aren’t you the good cook?
Shut up; you get access to the Dragon Realms where you’ve got everybody who cooks all the things.
Hell, they had Helena, who could whip up practically anything.
Dude, you get to go over to the Land of Summer and get, like, ambrosia and shit.
Corbin gave Cosmo a long look. I tell you what, let’s both be mad at Cullen because he gets to go over to the universe of utter and total magical shit and get whatever the fuck he wants because pixies just bring it to him on a silver platter. Fair?
Cosmo nodded. Yeah, that works for me.
Cullen had the Glade, which was the realm his mate Orion came from… No fair.
Cool. Potato soup. Is there any banana pudding?
Cosmo shook his head. I’ve got butterscotch and chocolate.
Damn it, the butterscotch, I think. It’s so good.
Perfect. Butterscotch it is. Cosmo gave him a once-over. “When you say asleep,” he whispered, “you mean…”
“I mean all the way normal asleep. As in, he was awake and talking. He ate soup. He sat up.”
Cosmo blinked. Impressive.
I know, right?
Well, don’t let Mother know. She’ll have a healer in here to look at him so fast your head will spin.
He’s not pointy at all. Corbin needed to make that clear.
Of course he’s not. There’s no way. If he was, you would be in here and leaving him alone. There was zero doubt in Cosmo’s voice. None.
Thank you, Brother. You know I love these babies enormously.
These were his nieces and nephews, and he adored all four of them. He would defend them and his brothers to the death, even against his mate, if he had to.
But he didn’t have to.
Ev wasn’t a vampire. Whatever Orion had done, it had cured him, and Corbin knew it.
Cosmo gave him a hug. I’m just so glad to see you smile and know that he’s awake.
Yeah, I was kind of starting to despair that it was ever going to happen.
Cosmo gave him a big grin that was super conspiratorial. You knew what was going to happen. You just had to have faith and use lots of healing energy on him, right? I mean, he just needed to come back to himself.
He did have to come back to himself. There was no way Evander was going to succumb; it just took a while. That was some powerful medicine that Orion had in his blood.
And it was fighting an evil that was equally powerful in many ways, at least in the human realm.
So take your food and go. Cosmo winked at him. Try to get some sleep yourself. You look tired.
I’ve been worrying for the better part of a year. It comes with the territory. Hell, it came with life, he imagined.
Now, soon it’ll be winter here, and you can just go fallow for a couple of weeks.
He chuckled softly because that amused the hell out of him. That his brother would tell him to just go fallow.
Will do. Thank you for the goodies. I’ll see you in the morning.
I will be here. Cosmo winked at him. Dealing with your wild and woolly niece and nephew.
Now all he could do was think of Elliot and Serena as sheep, bouncing around, going “bah, bah.”
He actually laughed outright. The idea of that little gargoyle boy, Elliot bleating like some kind of demented stone troll. BAH.
He loved them all so much.
He took his food and headed back to go rest and relax some, as ordered. Maybe he could nap in front of a movie.
The house was dark and quiet. He put the food away in his little kitchen, then he yawned and stretched, his back popping. Maybe he could rest for a little while. It felt like it had been so long.
“Whatever that is smells good.” The words scared him badly, and he jumped.
The plants in the house immediately began to grow and vine, winding around cabinet doors and reaching for whatever it was that had frightened him.
A deep chuckle sounded. “Whoa now, sweet. I’m not hunting you. I just felt like getting up.”
He blinked at Evander. For a second, it was as if there was a ghost or something behind the big fae.
He could see a hint of huge horns and this wild ferocity.
It was surprisingly hot. “You startled me. It’s potato soup and butterscotch pudding.
I was hungry. I thought we could use a snack. You’re up and moving!”
“I am. I feel like myself. I heal quickly in the normal course of things. What is butterscotch pudding?” Evander kind of… crowded him. Looming.
“Butterscotch—it’s caramel made with treacle instead of just sugar, so it’s got a little burned sugar yumminess to it. Cosmo makes it. It’s so good. You want some?” This was not hot or sexy.
Looming was not hot. Not, not, not. Not sexy.
“I would try it with you.” Ev advanced. He retreated. Suddenly he felt like the tables had turned, and he was not the one in control.
“I’d love to try it with you. It’s sweet. Do you like whipped cream?”
He turned to get two bowls and some spoons, and he could feel Evander right there next to him.
His body responded, and it was ridiculous, because there was no way Evander was up to acrobatics.
What if Evander had a little vampire in him?
Why was Corbin so hot? Physically, his body felt like he was on fire. He couldn’t breathe, and his body was responding like it never had before.
Whoa.
He glanced up at Evander over his shoulder. “Whipped cream?”
“Please.” Ev flashed him a wicked grin, his teeth very white in the gloom of the house. But not fangy at all.
“I like it too. Sweet and creamy.”
Oh God, Corbin, shut up. You’re being an idiot. Just breathe in and out and in and out and scoop the butterscotch pudding into the little cups and put on the cream.
No looking at how incredibly studly Evander was now that he was standing.
Just none, because looming should not be sexy. This was a non-sexy thing.
“You seem tense, lethean.”
“Do I?” Lethean. Mate. Lover. Beloved. The one who I desire most of all. “I feel… flushed. Silly, I know. I’m not a virgin.”
Evander chuckled, the sound dark and deep and rich. “I tend to have that effect on people, though. Corbin, I’m a hunter. I’m not a kinder, gentler, Flower Mound fae.”
That kind of put his back up and gave him the gumption he needed to straighten his shoulders and lift his chin. “I’m not exactly kinder, gentler either. I told you before, growing things is not an easy proposition.”
More vines came out and wrapped themselves around the legs of a kitchen chair. “I’ve been a guardian. I keep bad things from passing from the human realm into other realms. That’s what I do here.”
“I’m sure that’s why I’m drawn to you. I like a warrior spirit.” Evander moved close enough to press him back against the kitchen counter, their bodies coming together from chest to knees. Evander bent him back, hands on the countertop behind him.
“You should probably be very, very scared of me. I can be thorny, you know?” Why was it so easy for Evander to lift him up and sit him on the edge of the counter?
He wrapped his fingers in the long hair he’d seen so many times. That he’d washed, brushed, cared for, and re-braided back into the complicated plait that it had been in.
“You took good care of me. For that, I thank you.”
“It was the right thing to do. I wanted you. To. I wanted to.”
Evander’s lips were right there.
“I want you too, Corbin.” Evander bent and put that mouth on his lips, tongue pressing and searching for an opening.
As soon as he opened his mouth, Evander invaded, tongue tangling with his, hand coming up to cup the back of his neck.
He’d never felt so overwhelmed by a kiss in his whole life, and he had been around for a while.
His knees buckled, which is fine because he wasn’t holding himself up. The counter had him, and Evander had him.
Oh boy, did Evander have him.
He put one hand on the center of Evander’s chest, loving the feel of the steady rhythm of that huge heart pounding against his. The other hand, he put on the counter.
In the big bowl of butterscotch pudding.
Sploot.
He stared up at Evander, eyes going wide. “Pudding.”
“Pardon?”
“No pudding.” He held up his hand, which squelched as he pulled it free from the bowl of sticky goo.
“Oh. I think I could probably still taste it.” Evander took Corbin’s hand in one of his and licked his fingers. The motion of that rough-tongue sensation shooting up his arm and firing into his nipples and then all the way down to his groin.
A harsh moan escaped him and his knees drew up, his hips rocking in a rough rhythm on the counter. He could feel his body changing, his ass getting wet, his cock hard as nails.
“Please, Evander.”
“Yes? Should I stop?”
“Please don’t stop.” He took a deep breath. “Unless you want to.”
Please don’t want to. He thought that if Evander said that he wanted to stop, he might just die. Just explode. Boom.
It was kind of dramatic, but also probably true.
“I have no intention of stopping. Ever.” Then that tongue slid all the way up from his wrist to the tip of his middle finger.
He moaned, his breath starting to come in sharp little pants.
He’d always considered himself the most stalwart of his brothers, the one less likely to be affected by something like this.
He’d been very careful when he was taking lovers because he never wanted to get too involved.
But Evander had completely captured him from the very beginning, and he knew there was no fighting it.
And all he could do was watch that tongue as it lapped butterscotch pudding off his hand, his cock so hard he thought it could write his name in glass.