Chapter 21
You’re a what?
Heston
“Thank you for getting me out of town for a few hours.”
It was my day off from the café, but I had to work this evening doing my cleaning job. Devyn kept pestering me to give that up, but we had to pay rent and utilities and buy food.
Once again, I’d left Dad with Dean. My friend was a lifesaver.
He’d just texted saying Dad was with him in the office and he was having a great time chatting to guests as they checked in.
It got me thinking that I should have been taking Dad out more.
He was very social, much more than me, and being with other people and not staring at our four walls would improve his quality of life.
“I had an ulterior motive.” Devyn got up and wandered away, before glancing over his shoulder.
I crooked my finger at him. “If you wanna fuck or get a blow job, you need to be a teeny bit closer. I’m not a magician.”
“Mmmm.” He flipped his head back and studied something up above. I followed his gaze, but couldn’t see anything unusual. Trees, sky, a few scattered clouds.
“Devyn?” He reminded me of Sebastian when I last saw him. Gods forbid the man I loved would bring my stepfather to mind. Devyn wasn’t listening to me. It was almost as though I wasn’t here.
“Yeah.” He stuck his hands in his pockets and faced me. “That word you used… magician… it’s appropriate ‘cause I’m about to show you something that people would label ‘magic.’”
I waited for him to wink. It never came. No matter, he was referring to his cock, or maybe his tongue. His hands were also magic. But the faraway look in his eyes didn’t suggest foreplay.
“That’s odd.”
His head jerked up. “What is?”
“I could have sworn your eyes were lighter than they are now, which is dark, almost black.” I peered upward. Did he look at the sun? Was that the magic he was referring to?
“As lawyers say ‘You opened a door, Heston.’”
I narrowed my eyes. I never got the chance to become a lawyer, but I’d watched enough TV dramas to understand the concept.
“Go on.” I sat on a log while a trail of ants carried away crumbs from our lunch.
“When you were a kid, did you read fairytales?”
I nodded. This had to be regarding his father, the family, and the impending marriage. But Devyn was the black sheep, so this tale he was weaving was about him. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t think of a fairy story about a black sheep, but Shakespeare’s plays were riddled with them.
“What I’m about to show you is kinda like a fairytale.” He bit his lip. “But maybe not.”
What did magic and fairy stories have in common? Witches. There were always witches in old tales. I peered around and shivered. And we were in the woods which was where bad things happened in those stories.
“You’re scaring me. Just spit it out.”
“Long ago, my ancestors lived in the forest.”
“So? Many people did.” My head swiveled left and right. “Oh, is this your land? Your dad left this land to you and you’re planning on selling it for a million bucks and giving some of the money to me for dad’s operation? That’s so kind, but I can’t let you do that.”
Devyn put a hand on either side of his head. “Wow. You ran with that idea.” He did a three sixty. “I wish I did. I’d sell it in an instant though I know someone who’d rage if I did that ‘cause he loves coming here.”
I jumped up. “Are we meeting someone?” I didn’t hear a car.
“We are. A very important someone.”
“Who?” We’d kept secret about us meeting and falling for one another.
Devyn removed his coat. My body tingled but not in a sexy I’m about to get fucked way. I gulped and raked my nails over the rough bark. Someone was coming and I’d be outnumbered. Inwardly I was freaking as my mind raced, thinking of how to get out of here.
His shirt came off and as goosebumps marched over my skin, I staggered toward the car. Dev had the keys, so that was pointless, but I couldn’t stay where I was.
“You’ll see.” The guy talking and removing his clothes wasn’t my Devyn, he was someone else.
Bile slithered up my throat, almost choking me and I coughed before glancing around for a pickax.
Or any weapon he’d brought with him. Perhaps the person coming had a knife or a gun.
If I could find a big branch I could whack him and run.
As my heart sped up, my eyes filled with tears. How could I have been so wrong about this man, the love of my life?
“Please don’t be scared, Heston. I love you and I have to show you a part of me before we continue our relationship.”
I backed toward the car, not convinced by his conciliatory words.
“My love.” His bottom lip trembled and a single tear slid down his cheek. “I’ve done what I shouldn’t have.” He slapped his brow.
“And what’s that?” I snapped. I was in no mood to be nice as I calculated how far I’d have to run before finding other people. Fingering the phone in my pocket, I could call Dean to come get me, but he’d have to get Dad in the car and it would take a while.
He took a deep breath. “I figured you’d be uneasy, maybe afraid, possibly curious or pissed off. But that was during and after the big reveal. Now you’re all those things and I haven’t shown you what I came here to do.
The words combined with his expression, which appeared to be crumbling, eased my fear a tad.
I was probably making the biggest mistake of my life listening to him but I picked up a fallen branch and brandished it between us.
“Show me the magic. But hurry and get it over with.” There was no doubting the steel in my voice.
“I’m going to take off the rest of my clothes.”
I was almost glad he was fucking around with pretend magic because it put off me thinking about our future, my future.
Devyn had shown a side of himself today that didn’t align with the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
Whatever the fuck he was doing had freaked me out and he’d shown little consideration for my feelings.
He stood in the middle of the clearing and sort of fell forward on all fours.
But that wasn’t the weird part. He sprouted fur and his mouth protruded, forming a snout.
He had a tail and sharp teeth. I fell back onto the hood of the car and slid onto the ground.
The last thing I remembered was that damned dog sniffing me.
Darkness enveloped me and I was warm and snuggly. There was an unfamiliar smell in the room. My dirty socks? Maybe I hadn’t put them in the hamper.
Wishing I could stay in bed, rather than haul myself up and go to work, I turned over, hoping for another few minutes of shuteye. But my face bashed into something hard and my eyes snapped open.
I was in a car and my fight or flight response took hold and I hammered at the door, trying to get out.
“Heston. I’ll take you home. Or if you prefer, you drive my car to your place and I’ll make my own way back.”
“How did I get in here?” I made myself small and huddled in the corner.
“You fainted.”
Memories flooded back of Devyn scaring me, taking off his clothes, me backing away and then the fur and teeth. Fairytales. He’d spoken of them and magic.
“Something… something happened that I can’t explain.”
“I can. But I suggest we do it at your apartment, a place where you feel safe.”
“And if I scream there, people will hear me.” It was almost a threat, telling him others would come to my rescue.
The blood drained from Devyn’s cheeks. He lifted one hand as if to push a strand of hair from my face.
But I shoved it away even though a little voice in my head told me to stop.
He loved me. He’d never hurt me, but that was before.
Now I wasn’t sure who he was and how my hallucination of him becoming a canine fitted in with the whole scenario.
“That might be best,” he agreed.
He turned the car around, and we drove in silence back to town. But Dean messaged, saying his shift had finished and asking if I wanted him to drop Dad at our place or would we collect him. He’d done me such a huge favor by having my dad with him, I couldn’t ask him to bring him home too.
“Can you make a detour to the motel?” Would I ever be able to think of the place Devyn and I met as the beginning of our lifelong journey, or had it been tainted by whatever the fuck happened today?
A niggling in my belly told me I wasn’t being fair to him, but I was pissed and scared. Not a great combination, so I was in no mood to admit I’d been hasty in my judgment that this was all his fault. I was too far into my you did some fucked up shit mood.
“We can talk after my night shift. Meet me in the park near the motel at six AM.” There were plenty of joggers and dog walkers in the mornings, so I wouldn’t be alone with Devyn.
I almost wept as I helped Dad into the car.
Why couldn’t I be alone with the man I loved?