Chapter 14 #3
“You’re right, but it still feels strange.”
I take my shoes and coat off, then step in front of him.
“Stay here. Lemme check things out first.” I put a hand on his chest before he can step farther into the apartment.
After I make sure the apartment is clear, I head back out to him. “All good,” I tell him.
Ethan sighs softly. “No one hiding in my closet?” he asks with a soft chuckle.
“They’d be dead if they were,” I reply.
The complete and utter seriousness in my voice causes him to flush deeply.
“Anyway. Have you eaten dinner yet?” Ethan asks.
I shake my head. “No. I’m not sure I can eat.” I plop down on the couch as I run my hand through my hair.
“You could at least try. I’ll make us something,” he tells me as he walks into the small kitchen.
I don’t object. After all, if he’s cooking then he can’t ask me more about my family or my father. I’m not ready to vent to him about it all yet, especially the part about how I may very well get my ass kicked and handed back to me.
“There, I put some water on to boil and chicken is defrosting. Tell me about what happened yesterday morning,” Ethan says as he walks out and sits down right beside me.
Well, fuck.
I lean back and rest my head against the couch. “You really wanna know? It might ruin the night.”
Ethan scoots closer to me. “Since when do you care about that? You’re the brutally honest asshole of the two of us.”
“Maybe I’m gettin’ soft,” I mumble with a snort, and turn my head to look at him. He’s leaning against the couch as well, with an arm bent and his head resting on his hand.
“What’s going on? If we’re going to do this, I need to know.” His brow furrows.
“This?” I ask. “Being boyfriends, you mean?”
He nods slowly. “Obviously. This has all happened really fucking quick, but I want to do it right. I held so much in and lied to myself and Lena when I was with her. I don’t want to do that again.
Even if you are an incredibly dangerous man who all of my friends are going to be suspicious of forever. ”
I laugh. “Can’t say I blame you, or them.”
Ethan just stares at me. “Please. This is all so much. I’m still trying to come to terms with my sexuality, much less your family. You sharing with me helps.”
I take a deep breath. “Fine, fine. Fuck you for caring so much,” I mumble. “Speaking of friends and not approving…my father doesn’t exactly approve of you.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Ethan says. “Continue.”
“You know, when you’re not trying to figure out what the fuck you want and fighting your faggot urges, you’re real bossy,” I tell him.
Ethan places his other hand on my arm. “You’re the one who decided to stalk and rescue an honor student who insists on being in charge of every group assignment.”
“Oh, God.” I throw my head back mockingly. “Oh, the fucking horror. I’m fucking a nerd.”
“Shut up.” Ethan smacks my arm.
“I don’t still make you nervous, fluster you, turn your stomach into a raging fire?” I ask him as I tilt my head back up. I reach a hand up and slide my fingers along his neck, and his skin warms under my touch.
“I-I didn’t say that,” he mumbles. Then he brushes my hand away. “Stop distracting me. What did your father say?”
I sigh again. “What he said exactly isn’t that important. Just that I better be serious about you, because the Greivans got a stick up their ass over me protecting you.”
“I thought you were having a problem with them before me.”
“Exactly. We were. Father is just trying to force my hand. He wants more power and thinks my feelings for you are gettin’ in the way,” I tell him.
It’s quiet for a second or two.
“Are they?” Ethan asks.
I tilt my head. “Yes. One-hundred-fucking-percent, Ethan. I’m not gonna let them hurt you just so they’ll be more open to negotiating with my father. Though, he ain’t even man enough to do it. He’s sending my Uncle Barry.” I practically spit out his name.
“Barry?”
“Bartholomew. My mother’s brother. All he’s good for is talking. That’s why my father is sending him over. Plus, he knows he won’t try anything like…” I trail off.
“Like your mother,” Ethan finishes for me.
I nod. “Yeah…fuck, I need a smoke. You mind?”
Ethan shakes his head, but gets up and opens a window nearby. I pull my cigarettes out and light one up. Just the action of taking a drag helps ease my nerves.
“How are you going to get your father off your back about us?” he asks.
“I told him I’m serious about you,” I say slowly, exhaling the smoke and locking eyes with Ethan.
I see the anxiety creeping into his expression.
“Serious as in…the ritual?”
“Perhaps,” I say quietly.
“Is that it?”
I take another drag and shake my head. “Not even remotely. There are quite a few kids in the Greivan clan. Three triplet girls born just yesterday make the total seven. They’re all under ten years old,” I explain, my eyes shifting from him to the wall behind him as I smoke.
He’s sitting a couple feet away from me now.
“Are they in danger?”
“They might be. If the talkin’ doesn’t go well, my father plans on taking what he wants by force.”
It’s quiet, and I feel tension rolling off Ethan in waves. When I look at him, his eyes are glittering with tears.
“What are you going to do?” he asks.
“You think I’m gonna do something?” I stare back at him.
Ethan moves closer to me and takes the smoke out of my hand, holding it at his side. “You don’t care about those children? Even though they could die?”
I don’t answer him, just look into his eyes.
“You can act like you’re a villain in all this, that the pain and death mean nothing to you, but I think you care about this. You care about them. You don’t want innocent children to die any more than your mother did,” Ethan says.
I swallow hard. “No, I don’t,” I agree. “That’s why if the negotiations don’t work, me and Yvette will get them out.”
“How are you going to do that without getting hurt?”
“Very fucking carefully.”
Our voices are low, and our faces close. The cig is burning low. I grab it from his hand, take one last drag, and tamp it out on my belt buckle before tossing it onto the side table.
Before I can exhale, Ethan kisses me. He wraps his arms around my neck and climbs into my lap. My breath catches in my throat as he inhales and sucks the smoke from my lungs into his.
I grab onto his hips and ass, tugging him even closer.
As we kiss, the smoke trades back and forth between us until it dissipates from the corners of our mouths in wispy cloud.
Everything is gone while I kiss Ethan. Nothing else matters anymore. My father can fuck himself with a two-by-four if he doesn’t like me being with Ethan, because he’s all I want.
The taste of his mouth invades mine and I suck at his bottom lip while he squirms against my lap. Just feeling his body heat in my grasp, his hips trembling and and lips melting against mine, makes me hard as fuck.
Remembering the night before, how sweet, how perfect, how sexy he was…it brings up emotions in my chest that I don’t know how to process, or how to explain to myself or anyone else.
“I need you,” I whisper against his mouth.
Ethan moans softly. “L-Let’s move to the bedroom. I’ll turn the stove off.”
He starts to pull away from me, but I stop him, gripping his ass tighter. “No. Ethan, I need you…forever. I can’t lose you. I want you forever.”
Ethan looks into my eyes as he pants for air. “What do you mean?” His face is flushed so gorgeously pink. I reach up and brush my thumb along his cheek.
“Do the ritual with me. Pledge yourself to my family, and bind yourself to me in blood.”