Chapter 6 Riley
RILEY
Riley was doing so, so well.
He’d been taking it slow and steady, building a rapport with regular visits to the bakery. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that screamed, Creature of the night come to mate you for eternity.
Sitting in a warm bakery for hours on end while reading a good book? Totally normal. Not visiting too often, keeping it to every few days? Super casual and completely human.
And yes, maybe showing up before official opening hours like a stray cat was a little unusual, but Riley couldn’t help it—he liked the quiet time before the other humans arrived. He liked to breathe Seth in and catch his little furrows of concentration as he set up his cash register for the day.
It kept the voice calmer too. It was a covetous fucking maniac when it came to their mate, and it would prefer Seth only ever looked at them. It helped to feed it with some moments of alone time before they were surrounded with human customers.
The voice didn’t like it—the customers in their space, the shift in Seth’s attention when serving someone else—but it wasn’t stupid either.
It had learned, over the last few weeks, that the more it behaved, the more the two of them got to see their mate.
Because for every day at the bakery that it ranted and raved and tried to push Riley into sinking his teeth into Seth’s perfect neck, Riley sequestered them one day longer in the forest.
And oooohhh, it fucking hated that.
But too bad. Slow. Steady. That was Riley’s mantra. There would be no exchange of blood, no bite marks that bonded them forever—not until Seth chose it himself. Eyes open, heart full. Hopefully. Maybe. Pretty fucking please.
Stuck in the woods to protect himself and those around him, Riley hadn’t ever had a boyfriend, or even a real friend beyond the den of vampires in Colorado he only knew because of his moms. And now that he’d found someone he wanted, he wasn’t going to let the voice fuck it up and ruin it like it had ruined everything else in Riley’s life.
It had stolen his childhood, it had stolen his birth mother. It was not going to steal his chance to date Seth for real.
And yeah, maybe Riley’s “slow and steady” approach wouldn’t have worked if Seth wasn’t the type of warm, kindhearted person who couldn’t seem to turn a lost soul away.
And of course, Riley basically inviting himself over to Seth’s house for lunch today was probably two steps forward instead of just the one.
But holy shit. So worth it. Because getting into Seth’s home was like the secret key, and Riley hadn’t even known it.
There was something to the fact that it was Seth’s safe space, to the way he was so attached to the little things he’d surrounded himself with.
He kept showing them to Riley—his photos, his self-care tools, the personal touches he’d added to his home.
It was like he couldn’t quite help himself, even if Riley coming over hadn’t been his idea.
First Seth had done Riley’s nails, and then he’d taken off their face masks, and they’d both put some weird serums on. And then Seth had wanted to show Riley his favorite ASMR videos. He claimed Riley would have a good voice for it, if he ever wanted a side hustle.
Riley didn’t have a main hustle, even, but he didn’t know a chill way to say that, thanks to his undead adoptive mothers, he was independently wealthy and never had to work a day in his long life if he didn’t want to.
That was the least of Riley’s secrets, anyway.
And now, after a short tour of Seth’s backyard, they were sitting cross-legged together on the couch again, watching video after video. Riley’s inner voice was surprisingly calm and complacent, although he could feel it coiled within him, vibrating with the thrill of being so close to their mate.
Seth leaned forward to click another link on the laptop, which he’d placed in front of them on the coffee table.
The videos were odd—a young creator who talked in a whisper voice while pretending to do their makeup, or acting as if they were performing a doctor’s check-up on the audience, only dressed as a mer-person for some reason.
Still, Riley had to admit they were soothing.
And yet Seth’s pulse was jumping, and Riley couldn’t stop staring at it, that hint of movement under Seth’s soft skin.
Riley liked that Seth—who was so self-assured with every other human—got a little nervous around him. He didn’t know what that said about Riley, how much he liked it, but he did.
Riley liked the way that pretty pulse sped up when he was around. And he liked the little hitches in Seth’s breath he didn’t seem to be aware he was making when Riley moved closer to him.
Riley wanted more of it—that nervousness, that heightened awareness. He wanted to see what other sounds he could get out of sweet Seth if he tried. He wanted to know just how fast he could get that tender heart to beat for him.
Maybe that was what attraction was like for everyone, or maybe it was the predator’s instinct inside him acting out, wanting to startle their perfect prey. Riley didn’t know.
There was so much he didn’t know.
Seth leaned back again, letting the video he’d chosen play. He folded his hands in his lap, giving Riley a small, bright grin.
Riley wanted to take those hands and hold them in his again, like when Seth had been painting his nails.
He wanted to study them closely. They were fascinating to him, the way they were small but strong, with all these little nicks and burns.
Seth had told him the burns were from the ovens, and they ran along his forearms too.
They were pretty, in their way, but Riley still felt protective over them.
Vampires had healing properties in their saliva.
It was convenient for closing bites, a way to keep their victims from bleeding out after a feed.
Riley had never had a chance to use it that way, since he’d never fed from a live human deliberately.
But if Seth burned one of his fingers in the oven when Riley was there, Riley could put that finger in his mouth, couldn’t he?
He could suck so gently. No teeth. Just lips and tongue and—
“I’m gay,” Seth said out of nowhere, giving Riley a sidelong look. His pulse was still jumping, so maybe it was something he was nervous to admit. “Not sure if that’s something I need to say, but—” He shrugged.
“I know,” Riley told him. He’d already overheard Seth talking to Violet about the queer scene in Seacliff.
“Okay,” Seth said easily, his gaze drifting back to his video.
He didn’t ask. Didn’t push Riley to divulge his own interests.
But Riley wanted to.
He just didn’t know what to say. Riley didn’t know if he was gay or bi or what. There hadn’t been anyone before Seth, and there wouldn’t be anyone after, so what did it matter?
“It…depends for me,” Riley said eventually, his voice barely louder than the whispers coming from Seth’s computer screen.
Seth turned to him, giving him his complete attention. “Depends on what?”
On if it’s you.
“On the person.”
Seth nodded. “Ah, gotcha.” He placed a hand on Riley’s knee, a friendly squeeze, there and gone again. “Thank you for sharing, Riley.”
Seth had that way about him, Riley had noticed. He could be flirty and silly but also very sincere. Riley liked that.
He was pretty sure he liked everything about Seth.
Seth let out a happy sigh. “I really love this creator, you know. They do the prettiest makeup. Like, it’s the usual audio component, but also it’s so visually soothing.”
Riley had the sudden, overwhelming urge to shut the laptop. Or at least cover it up with something. They only needed to hear the video, right? They didn’t need to see the pretty creator with the glittery eye makeup that Seth loved.
But then Seth turned to him again. “Have you ever had your makeup done?”
Riley lived alone in the woods with two extremely fashionable mothers. He’d had his makeup done hundreds of times, at the very least.
But Riley thought of Seth touching his face, sitting close, breathing his air. He tried to look guileless and was pretty sure he succeeded. “Will you do mine for me?”
In answer, Seth scrambled off the couch, running into his bedroom with a laugh.
Riley almost regretted asking—he wanted Seth back on the couch with him—but it was barely a minute before Seth returned with another little basket that held eye pencils and little pots of eye shadow and other makeup supplies.
Seth settled next to Riley, cross-legged but facing him this time. Riley faced him in turn. Seth’s eyes were bright, his cheeks flushed happily.
He was the prettiest, cutest thing Riley had ever seen.
“Okay, so,” Seth began, “just a little something on the eyes, I think. Purple hues can look really cool with a dark brown like yours.” He cocked his head, studying Riley’s face, and it was a struggle not to preen under the attention.
“And a little shimmer on the cheeks,” Seth mused.
“We can wipe it all off afterward, if you want. I know wearing makeup isn’t for everyone. ”
“I don’t mind.” Riley would wear whatever the fuck Seth wanted to paint him with. He’d wear it proudly.
Seth grinned at him, sorting through his basket.
“I’m too lazy to rock a full beat all the time, but it’s just fun, you know?
To play. Or to have a little something extra on a good night out.
” He set his selections on the same towel he’d used when painting Riley’s nails.
“You go out a lot? Is there a fake ID somewhere in your wallet or is that too hard with a town this small?”
“I’m—” Trapped in the woods so I don’t eat the locals. “More of a homebody,” Riley hedged.
Seth nodded, then held out a cupped hand in front of Riley’s face. “Lean forward, please. Eyes closed.”