Chapter Sixteen #2
“Just let me know what you want, or when you’re ready to sell. You have my card after all.” Derrick bounced down the steps to the sidewalk, then turned and waved before getting into his truck.
Elouan ambled to his own truck, heart light. He hummed along with the radio on his way to his—his!—new house. A duffel on the front seat held some items he intended to store there.
The house looked less forlorn when he pulled into the driveway. Though someone had kept the house relatively clean, he wanted to add finishing touches, making lists of things he’d need. What a feeling to own his own place. He’d never have gotten this chance back home.
He wandered from room to room. His home. His very own home.
Which he couldn’t wait to share with Jules. Oh, yes. Saturday couldn’t get here soon enough.
“Still going out with Jules today?” Curtis entered the kitchen on Saturday morning, hair still wet from the shower. He stopped and stared at the coffeemaker, mouth hanging open. “You made coffee? What smells so good?”
“I figured it was about time I started pulling my weight around here. I owe you an apology for not doing so before now.” Look at Elouan making amends.
Curtis waved a dismissive hand. “It was nothing. After all, I’d be making coffee for myself, anyway. What’s a little more?”
Elouan poured Curtis some coffee and set the cup and a plate of cinnamon rolls on the kitchen counter.
“Cinnamon rolls! You made cinnamon rolls!” Curtis gazed at the confections like a long-lost love.
Elouan tore his attention away from his cellphone screen before placing the device on the kitchen table with a sigh.
He sank down onto the uncomfortable wooden chair.
Yes, the time had come to move out and get a dining table with padded seats.
“I still don’t understand what you’ve got against Jules. I like him. Really like him.”
“A human, and a weak one, isn’t good enough for you.”
Elouan had heard enough. “Since when are you the expert on what’s good for me?” He didn’t manage to keep the growl out of his voice. No, he couldn’t growl. He wanted a conversation with a friend, not a submissive omega who agreed with everything an alpha said. “Sorry.”
Curtis’s mouth dropped open. “No, I mean—”
Elouan schooled his emotions. “I appreciate you giving me a place to live, introducing me around, and helping me find a job, but that doesn’t give you the right to dictate my life, okay?
And by the way, you should’ve ripped me a new one long ago for not doing my share of the work around here. I’m sorry.”
The tight line of Curtis’s lips gave away his ire, as did the arms folded across his chest. “You’re the last hope of your court.
One day you’ll return to Adrakus, and unlike me, will receive a hero's welcome. I care enough about you to want that day to be a triumph, not filled with shame because you mated with a human.”
Again with the upset over Leon marrying Curtis’s mother.
The hurt must truly run deep. Elouan calmed, his alpha nature becoming protective.
“I’m sorry.” He ran a hand through his hair, his fingers tangling in the uncombed strands.
“I know you want what’s best for me, but what if I never go back?
What if this life is all that I get? Do you honestly want me to while away the years waiting for someday? ”
“But if you do go back—”
“I’ll worry about my choices when I have to. Until then, if it comes, let me be happy, okay?”
Curtis grumbled, “Okay,” staring down at the floor.
Elouan poured the remnant of his coffee down the sink, rinsed the cup, and left it on the drainboard. Time to get out of here. Now wasn’t the time to mention moving out.
Having Jules sitting next to him in the truck felt like coming home. The cloudless sky completed the setting for a perfect day. They drove around the neighborhoods near where Jules lived, Jules pointing out promising future projects.
At last Elouan pulled into the drive of the house he’d just bought.
“Wow! Cute place,” Jules said, staring out the windshield. “It’s yours?”
“Every square inch.” Elouan had constantly visualized Jules in each room, usually naked, ever since the closing. The result left him ready to throw Jules over the nearest counter.
“You don’t mess around, do you?” Jules asked, eyes wide. He ran a hand through his hair, leaving the strands artfully tousled. “When you say you’re going to do something, you do it.”
Elouan gave Jules a meaningful, full-body appraisal. “I never mess around when I see something I want.” He sealed his mouth over Jules’s. “Hold that thought,” he said when he came up for air. No need to make out in the truck, not with an entire house waiting.
He climbed out of the driver’s seat, dashed around the truck to hold Jules’s door open, and extended a hand. “Come with me.” Anticipation ran through Elouan. Not only did he have Jules all to himself, hopefully he’d soon have answers.
Jules smiled and laced their fingers, allowing Elouan to lead him to the front door. The lock opened easily.
Jules entered, turning in a circle to take in the living room. “Nice. I love the hardwood floors.”