Levi #2
I didn’t think anyone would blame me for giving the drink a sniff before I took a sip.
It was bitter, but it had a floral sweetness that chased it, and I leaned back in my seat, my brow rising even further as I took a second drink.
There was a slight earthy note to the bitterness that blended into the faint sweetness, just enough to make the entire thing full-bodied and pleasant.
“Well, I’ll be, Dom wasn’t lying that you were excellent at making drinks,” I said, swishing the drink in my hand. “Remind me to get the recipe before the night’s over. I’d hate to lose the chance to have this again.”
“You could always come around more often, and I’ll make it whenever you want,” Mason said, looking over my shoulder. “What’s up?”
“Are you done messing with him?” I heard Moira’s voice, as irritable as ever, whenever she spoke to Mason. “Or should I let Jace and Dom know they’ve got competition?”
“Not on your life should you say anything of the sort,” I said, turning around to glare at her.
Moira smirked. “Oh, so you two are together then? Dom’s been very tight-lipped about that. Good to know.”
I sighed. “I keep forgetting that no matter how different you two are, you’re still ridiculously similar. Congratulations, you tripped me up and tricked the truth out of me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll try to remember it’s been fifteen years, and you might have forgotten a few things. Namely, claiming Mason and I are anything alike is a good way to get booted out the front door.”
“Seriously,” Mason grumbled as he came around the bar to stand beside me. “I actually know how to have a good time. She wouldn’t know one if it bit her on the ass...unless...does Kayden bite you on—”
Moira turned away. “Let’s go, dinner is about to start.”
I eyed him. “Do you know how to have a conversation with someone without pissing them off?”
“Do I know how to? Absolutely. Do I want to? Almost never. Do I enjoy getting on everyone’s nerves? Yes, I get a few days extra life every time I irritate someone.”
“You should be dying in the fourth millennium then at this rate.”
“Somewhere along those lines, c’mon, we don’t want to keep everyone waiting, do we?”
I blinked. “Err...I was meant to meet Dom here.”
“And he’s not on time, what a surprise,” Mason said with a snort. “Come on, the rest of the family won’t bite...probably. Depends on how many drinks Milo has had.”
“It’s going to be really strange seeing him all grown up,” I said as I got up reluctantly.
I might have been away from the family for fifteen years, but some lessons stuck.
If I didn’t get up right now and go with him, Mason would let everyone know I was lingering by the bar.
Which meant more people would come to find me, and it would be my luck that Matilda would come, and that woman reminded me too much of my mother for me to want to upset her.
“Grown up is a...relative term,” he said with a shake of his head. “But yes, he has an adult body. You, uh—”
“I swear, Mason, I will be the one breaking kneecaps if you finish that thought.”
“Hey, he was cute enough to make Elijah gay for him, all bets are off as far as I’m concerned.”
“And I heard, you’re madly in love with your sister’s ex, who despised you almost as much as you despised him. So maybe you shouldn’t speak about odd.”
“Alright, alright. There’s no need to be a dick,” Mason grumbled as he led me into the back hallway.
I eyed him. “Now, was it the comment about him being your sister’s ex that irritated you? Or the fact that you two hated each other?”
Mason laughed. “There have been days over the past few years when I wondered if he still hated me. I’d like to think we’ve got past those times... for the most part, anyway. We’ve found...better ways to deal with things.”
I snorted as we walked down the back hallway. “You can say sex and move on. I don’t need details any more than I did when I was younger.”
“Well, yeah, back then you didn’t want to know because you had a giant crush on me and that would have hurt your little feelings.”
“True. And now I don’t want to hear it because I have something far better.”
“I don’t know about that. Dom’s great and all, but let’s not pretend he’s on my level. I mean, you’re what? His first dude? I have a lot more experience than that.”
“You don’t need a lot of experience if you learn quickly. And he’s learned quite a lot in the past few weeks. It’s not often you find someone as hung as him who can use it as well as—”
“Alright,” Mason said with a laugh, but I caught the wince. “We won’t share details. I don’t want to hear about how good Dom is with his big dick, thanks.”
“His what?” I heard from behind me and spun around to see a familiar face under a mop of blond hair, gaping at us. “Holy shit, did I just hear that Dom is hung?”
“I could have gone without knowing that myself,” Elijah said from beside Milo, his nose wrinkled.
I glanced at Mason. “How is it that someone who still doesn’t know how to speak at a reasonable volume can move so quietly?”
“It’s a mystery none of us has been able to solve,” Mason said with a shrug.
“Milo, Elijah, it’s nice to see you both again,” I said with a sigh, gesturing to each of them. “Of course, I could have done without scarring your psyches, but here we are anyway.”
“How do you think we feel?” Milo asked, eyes wide.
Elijah snorted. “I’m horrified, but you can’t decide if you’re more horrified or curious.”
“I’m not answering any questions,” I told them.
“Oh sure, you can tell Mason that Dom is hung and good with his dick, but I can’t ask any questions?” Milo asked, clearly deciding he was more curious than anything else, other than offended that he couldn’t sate his curiosity.
“You told them what?” came a bellow from further down the hallway, and I groaned.
“Ooh, hi, Dom,” Milo spun around, mouth opening, but was stopped from saying any more when Elijah’s hand clamped over his mouth and pulled him back.
Dom gave me a disbelieving look. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I was originally testing to see what limits of conversation Mason had.”
“Almost none.”
“Well, yes, but there are limits. I’ve discovered that he becomes rather uncomfortable when he’s reminded that he and Jace used to hate each other, or that Jace and Moira used to date. I suspect the latter more than the former, though he wouldn’t confirm either.”
“You’d be right,” Dom said, frowning. “How did my dick come into the conversation?”
“That was the other thing I was trying to test out. I did discover that he doesn’t want that sort of detail about you, but I created an accidental...mess by not realizing Milo and Elijah were right behind us. And now there are consequences.”
“I’ll say,” Dom said, frowning at the two.
Elijah rolled his eyes. “Milo, stop licking my hand, it’s not going to work. Not after that tongue has been on just about every other part of my body.”
Dom stared at him, glanced at Mason, who was squinting at him, then down at me. “I think...we need to set some boundaries.”
“Make all the jokes you like about me saying this...but I think you’re right,” Mason said.
“I have learned things I didn’t want to learn, and have been reminded of things I would have liked to forget.
Can we...place a moratorium on conversations about our sex lives until we remember how to talk around each other? ”
Dom rolled his eyes. “This is your fault. You started it.”
“I’d argue, but I really don’t have ground to stand on,” Mason said with a sigh. “Now let’s go before someone else decides to add to this conversation.”
“Agree,” Dom said, looking down at me again. “Really?”
“I’ll admit it wasn’t my best plan,” I grumbled. “It succeeded, but there were...consequences, as I said.”
“Yeah, in this family, you can’t fuck around because something always comes back to haunt you,” he said, eyeing the drink in my hand. “And how many of those have you had?”
“This is my first one,” I said as I turned to follow the other three toward the dining room. “Well, that’s not completely accurate. Mason served me what I think was Everclear with enough cranberry juice to color rather than flavor it.”
“Oh fuck, my stomach just rolled at the thought,” he said with a laugh. “Why the fuck did he do that?”
“Because he thought he was slick by coming to the bar and hoping me or Moira didn’t recognize him,” Mason called over his shoulder.
“Ooh, bad idea,” Milo said now that his mouth was free of Elijah’s grasp. “Mason has like, photographic memory for faces and names. Moira, too.”
“And one became the head of staff at a hotel, and the other became a rather skilled bartender. That makes sense,” I said.
Elijah glanced back at me. “You know, I never thought about it like that, but you’re absolutely right. Huh.”
“And now he’s going to think about the other things they’re both good at that might work in their different jobs,” Milo said with a laugh. “I mean, they already share a taste in men, is it really a good idea to try to figure out what else they have in…ah!”
No one, especially Milo, saw Mason stick his foot out as we tried to enter the dining room. Milo’s arms pinwheeled, making Dom and me step back before he hit the ground with a hard thud.
“Eli!” Milo protested from the floor.
“What? You asked for that one,” Elijah said.
“You could have at least caught me!”
“That wouldn’t have been as funny, though.”
“Why must I suffer for your entertainment?”
“You suffer for all our entertainment.”