Chapter 6
Being sexually frustrated, as Ash has found out, has one advantage—increased physical endurance.
Which effectively turns his morning jog from five kilometers to eight.
How convenient. He recently started noticing a little pudge growing on his tummy, but it’s hard to resist when his patients regularly supply him with chocolates or home-made cookies.
Hopping into the shower once he gets home, he decides to quickly rub one out anyway. It’s healthy! Science says so.
Kieran’s grumpy face exorcises any other thought, getting his dick hard in two seconds flat.
He gives himself a firm, languid stroke, summoning the memory of what it felt like to hold Kieran close.
How his fingers curled in Ash’s shirt so tightly it tore open, and how Kieran seemed to push closer for a moment before realizing what he was doing.
How he demanded Ash let him go, but made no attempt to step away himself.
The light, coconutty scent of his shampoo tickling Ash’s nose.
Kieran's tightly corded muscles under his hand, when his arm was wrapped around him.
God, Kieran was so tense. He's always on edge, and not just around Ash. Just observing him for a bit and having a quick peek at his thoughts had revealed how highly strung he is on the regular.
Ash loves it.
And he would love it even more if he could discover all the ways he could make Kieran relax.
He lets his imagination run wild, increasing the pace of his strokes when he feels himself getting close. What tips him over the edge is the look he imagines in Kieran’s eyes, full of fire and wonder, while Ash rocks his whole world.
Although, given how Kieran manages to occupy his every thought despite only meeting him twice, it wouldn’t be just Kieran’s world getting rocked.
Turning the water temp to cold when his dick expresses interest in round two, he quickly scrubs himself down. It doesn’t help much.
After drying himself off and wrapping a towel around his hips, he grabs his phone, doing a quick review of his appointments for this week. Almost fully booked, as per usual. That’s good, he needs a distraction.
It’s a shame he’ll need to wait to see Dawson until next Friday.
After what happened last Saturday at the cafe, he’d really like to do a check on him.
It’s not every day that you find out your husband is actually not your husband, but a reaper who had just snatched the husband’s body and managed to lose all his memories in the meantime.
Gabe seemed confident that everything would be okay.
Ash doesn’t really have an opinion. He’s never met Cal, never got the opportunity to get a read on him.
But after hearing what Cal used to be like before his accident and seeing him in Dawson’s thoughts and memories, he doubts things can get much worse for Dawson.
He’s probably a million times better off with a reaper from the beyond than the man who used to be his husband.
Thinking of Dawson brings him back to Kieran and last night.
After having a quick glance at his thoughts, it became obvious that the main thing on his mind hadn’t been a potential hookup.
It had been Dawson, and his immense worry for his best friend.
How he’d created the worst-case scenarios and played them over and over in his mind like a horror movie.
It was also obvious that he blamed Ash for failing Dawson, ‘because if he’d done a good job Dawson wouldn’t have gone back to his abusive husband’. It took a lot of self-restraint not to tell Kieran everything and alleviate his anxiety. So he resorted to the next best thing—flirting.
It helped. Kieran hadn’t thought of Dawson after that, and Ash got to have some fun.
A message notification lights up his phone. He’s surprised to see it’s from Zeke. He could count on one hand the number of times they’ve exchanged messages.
Zeke:
Hola! You planning to drop by today?
How random. Except Zeke doesn’t do random.
Wasn’t planning on it.
You should
Ash checks the time. He still has two hours before his first appointment, so he might as well.
Is there a special occasion?
You could say that xD
As he suspected. And now he can’t wait to see what that’s all about.
After he arrives at the café, it doesn’t take long to find out why Zeke wanted him here.
Stopping in the doorway, Ash takes in the unusual scene in front of him.
For once, Zeke is behind the till and serving a customer, while Gabe is…
well, he should be making coffees. Instead, he’s deep in conversation with the man on the other side of the counter.
Judging by the googly eyes Gabe is making at him, it must be the infamous Ellis.
Finally, Ash will get to see for himself if the guy his cousin has pined for is worth the time of day. He has no doubt Gabe would avoid introducing the two of them if he had his way, so this works out perfectly.
He’s about to reach out and poke around in Ellis’ mind, but he and Gabe start eating each other’s faces. Aww, would you look at the lovebirds.
Someone should cockblock them.
Ash would happily take on the task, but the customer in front of him beats him to it.
“Get a room!”
Ash’s ears perk up. That nasal voice sounds awfully familiar. And seeing how his dick gives an interested twitch upon hearing it, there’s only one person it can belong to.
He almost doesn’t recognize Kieran. He looks way too good for someone who could barely walk straight just several hours ago. He’s all smiles and amusement, eyes filled with good-natured mischief instead of fury. It’s kind of cute.
Not as cute as when he’s giving Ash the murder glare, but close.
The smile doesn’t last. Kieran’s attention lands on Ellis, and a frown appears between his brows.
Now, that’s more like it.
“Hey. I know you,” Kieran announces, managing to sound accusatory.
Ellis’ confusion is slowly replaced by reluctant realization. “Right. You’re Dawson’s friend. Kevin, is it?”
“Kieran!” Kieran corrects snappily. There’s probably a story there, and Ash struggles to hold back a laugh. “And you’re Dickhead’s brother. Wait.” Kieran’s frown deepens. “Why were you kissing Gabe?” Now that was definitely accusatory.
Gabe sticks his tongue out. “Because I’m irresistible.”
Kieran doesn’t laugh. “Are you two a thing? Seriously?” He points at Ellis. “Him?”
“Hey, cut it out,” Gabe bites out, his usual playfulness gone. It’s not often that someone manages to unleash his dark side. Generally, it’s Ash who has the privilege. “What’s your problem?”
Okay, you had your fun. The show’s over. Time to step in.
Walking up behind Kieran, Ash answers, “He needs a good whooping, would be my guess.” He can both see and feel Kieran tense up. He whirls around, and then Ash is face to face with that lovely, murderous glare. “A bit of a drama queen, aren’t you?”
“You,” Kieran growls. Ash is surprised he doesn’t see foam coming out of his mouth.
A broad, delighted grin spreads across his face. “Miss me?”
“Fuck you,” Kieran spits out, seething. “What are you doing here?” His eyes narrow in suspicion. “Are you stalking me?”
“Nothing that interesting,” Ash says with a huff. “Just popping by to say hi to my favorite cousin.” He nods towards Gabe, who manages an awkward wave. “Looking a little worn out, huh? Rough night?”
Kieran’s teeth flash. “Fuck. You.”
Ash’s grin widens. It takes all of his self-control not to drape Kieran across his knee and spank him until his ass is as red as his face, public space be damned. “Keep saying that and you might get your wish.”
Visibly vibrating with anger, Kieran turns to Gabe. “Is my drink done yet?”
“Oh!” Gabe jumps, hastily looking around for what Ash assumes is Kieran’s order. “Just a sec.” What feels like five seconds later, he’s putting the finished drink on the counter. “Here it is.”
Kieran stalks forward and grabs the cup roughly, some of the liquid splashing out of the sipper. “Your family sucks.”
Gabe gives a strained laugh. “You’re not wrong.”
Kieran trudges towards the door, stubbornly keeping his gaze on the floor. Well, that simply won’t do.
“See you around, Kieran,” Ash calls after him.
Kieran comes to an abrupt stop, his knuckles turning white around the cup. Ash half expects to be cleaning a coffee stain from his shirt in the near future, but instead receives a very passionate “Fuck you!” before Kieran runs away.
There seems to be a theme here.
As Kieran passes by the café windows, he stops to give Ash the finger, before taking off again.
Ash’s heart freaking flutters. He sighs wistfully. God, he can’t wait for the day Kieran gives in and turns into a shameless, begging mess for him.
The sound of his name pulls him from daydreaming (and potentially from sporting a boner in broad daylight). He turns towards his new victim and his cousin. Gabe is wearing his signature annoyed face, while Ellis is looking at him with mild terror.
“I see you’ve talked about me.” Ash walks forward, holding out his hand. “You must be Ellis.”
A look of surprise passes across Ellis’ face. He reminds Ash of a confused puppy.
“Yes.” Ellis takes Ash’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“It really is,” Ash drawls, his grip tightening a notch. He takes advantage of the close proximity and slips into Ellis’ mind, searching for any red flags. He only manages to scratch the surface, coming across nothing substantial, when Gabe interferes.
“Ash!” he barks. “Cut it out.”
Ash withdraws from Ellis’ mind, holding his hands up and adopting his best innocent face, which is…well, very poor.
His voice is heavy with insinuation when he speaks to Ellis again. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Only the worst, I hope,” Ellis says.
His expression is remarkably stoic, despite being clearly uncomfortable with Ash’s attention. Impressive.
Letting out a hearty laugh, he turns to Gabe. “I like him.”
“Don’t.”
Apparently out of customers, Zeke joins their little group. “Wow. What did you do to Kieran?” he asks Ash. “I haven’t seen anything that amusing in a while.”
“Nothing.” Three skeptical pairs of eyes land on him. “He’s so highly strung I don’t even have to try to rile him up.” It’s true. But that doesn’t mean he’ll let the opportunity pass if it presents itself.
“Why do you want to rile him up, again?”
Figuring Gabe would ban him from the café if he actually told the truth, he just smiles mysteriously and steers the conversation towards Zeke. “When was the last time you saw something amusing?”
Zeke purses his lips and taps his chin. “Probably when Gabby lost control of his mouth and told loverboy over here he’d like to eat his ass.”
On cue, Ellis chokes on his coffee, coughing up a storm. It would be hilarious on its own, but it gets better when Gabe starts sputtering through some lame excuse, making it even worse for himself.
“I didn’t— That’s not—” He turns his pleading eyes to Ellis, before fixing them on Zeke with a look of utter loathing. The effect is diminished by the bright-red color of his face. “I hate you.”
Zeke laughs and leaves to serve a customer.
Taking advantage of Gabe’s distracted state, Ash dives into Ellis’ mind again.
Big mistake. He doesn’t get far this time either, but that’s because he willingly breaks the connection.
He shouldn’t be surprised that Ellis’ thoughts are currently revolving around his ass and Gabe’s mouth.
Ash isn’t a prude by any means, but he does not want to scar himself by watching his cousin have sex, even if it’s just in someone else’s imagination, thank you very much.
On the other hand, he’s glad to have confirmation that Ellis isn’t too shy about dating a man for the first time.
Honestly, when Gabe had told him his now boyfriend has zero experience with dick, Ash had been worried.
He doesn’t want Gabe to get hurt, which, knowing what a softie his cousin is, is highly probable.
Okay. Good. Ash won’t have to kick anybody’s ass. For now.
“So…Kieran is clearly fond of you,” Ellis suddenly speaks.
“Don’t worry, he’ll come around.” Hopefully, he’s not smiling too much. He can’t seem to help himself when his thoughts steer towards that little grump.
“Wait. That was you flirting?” Ellis asks, taken aback.
“That was Ash being a self-absorbed ass and trying to get into a straight guy’s pants,” Gabe says, sounding very disapproving.
Ash snorts. “Nothing straight going on in there.”
“Don’t you think I’d know? I’ve known him for years.”
Ash slowly arches one brow. “Don’t you think I would know better than you?”
Gabe’s eyes narrow, but he doesn’t contradict him again.
“Are you talking about your mojo?” Ellis asks. On seeing Ash’s surprised face, he turns to Gabe, all apologetic. “Was I not supposed to tell? I’m sorry.”
“He knows?” Ash grins, folding his arms over his chest and resting his hip against the counter. “Well, would you look at that? Am I hearing wedding bells?” Gabe usually guards the truth about his abilities like a dragon guards its gold. But he’s already spilled the beans?
“Ash…” Gabe growls in warning.
“Got it. Got it,” Ash placates, although not without an eyeroll. “I’ll get my usual and be out of your hair in a jiffy.” His job here is done, anyway.
His drink arrives suspiciously quickly, accompanied by a glare. “Now leave.”
Unbothered, Ash takes his drink and salutes Ellis with it. “Pleasure to have made your acquaintance. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of each other from now on.”
Well, that was fun, though not as fun as seeing Kieran lose his shit again, two days in a row.
What a great start to his day.