Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Felix
I’ve never been more glad that I Ubered somewhere than I am tonight, because I walk out of the restaurant and get into Ari’s car without having to worry about anything.
Not my car, not how I’m getting home, not the low-key awkwardness of driving in separate cars from the same place to the same place to have sex.
Instead, I slide into the passenger seat, wait for Ari to get in and start the car, and put my hand in his lap.
He glances down to where I’m trying to get his pants open, then returns his attention to the road. “I thought cats were supposed to be patient.”
I scoff. “Not when we have needs that must be gratified. I want cock, Ari, and you’re going to give it to me.” If I could only get into his pants. What the fuck is wrong with his belt buckle?
His breath stutters, but when I look at his face, his lips are curled into a smile.
“Bossy kitty.” My frustrated snarl makes his smile widen.
“I live five minutes from here, Felix. Hold on just a little longer, and you can have my cock all night.” One of his hands captures mine, trapping it against the bulge in his pants. “I’ll take care of you, kitty.”
Inside me, my cat stretches and purrs, loving the sound of that. Deep down, I only want to be petted and coddled and looked after like I’m precious. It’s why I’ve been on the hunt for true love, despite some spectacular failures.
But I know Ari doesn’t mean that—not yet, anyway.
For now, this is about sexual gratification, and I am zero percent mad about that.
The hand job in the restaurant was the first time I’ve felt truly satisfied since my last hookup, more than a month back.
My stupid sex hormones are snobbish about self-gratification.
Since he’s not going to let me jerk him off—or more—while he’s driving, I occupy my time with imagining him naked and spread out beneath me on white sheets, his hair fanned out around his head.
Or naked and riding my dick, his hair curtaining us both as he leans down to kiss me.
Or naked, his hair wrapped around my fist as—
Hmm. I might have a fetish for his hair.
“Felix? We’re here.”
I open my eyes and yank my hand away from his crotch, reaching for the door handle before I even fully take in where we are. It doesn’t matter—not really. If Ari lives in a tree house, we’ll be making love amongst the leaves.
To my relief, he doesn’t live in a tree house, though I’m surprised to see he lives in an apartment.
“I thought you elves liked to surround yourselves with nature,” I comment as I follow him up two flights of stairs.
That’s what Jared and Dáithí told me, anyway.
He won’t even have a courtyard garden up here—at most, a balcony.
“We do,” he agrees, leading me to a door and fishing out his keys. “But I like the city too. This is close to work, and it’s not as though I can’t be in the woods somewhere within just a few steps.”
“Mm.” I’m looking around his place—which has a vast array of potted plants—and nodding before his words actually sink in.
“Wait… huh? How can you be in the woods in just a few steps?” I might not have been paying attention on the drive here, but we definitely weren’t in the car long enough to have left the urban jungle.
There aren’t woods for miles. Tens of miles, even.
Ari closes the door behind him, hangs his keys on a hook beside it, and looks at me curiously. “Have your friends not told you about this?”
Clearly not. “About what? Can you fly?” I’m joking, but then I remember that I’m talking to a real-life elf and that dragons also exist. “Wait, can you?”
He looks at me as though I’ve said something ridiculous. “Of course not.”
That’s disappointing. I was imagining myself soaring through the air—in felid form, of course, because I’m more likely to land on my feet that way. “Oh. Well, how then?”
His head tilts, as though he’s thinking. “This isn’t general knowledge. Not all elves can do it, and most of us who do work for the DEA.”
“Okayyyyy. You’re starting to freak me out. Am I going to disappear forever if you tell me?”
Ari laughs and rolls his eyes. “Of course not,” he repeats, but if you ask me, there’s no “of course” about it. “But I’d prefer you not tell everyone you know.”
“Yeah, sure. Dáithí and Jared already know, though, right?” That’s what he said before—that he was surprised they hadn’t told me.
He nods. “Yes. It’s not a secret among elves.”
I stand there, in the middle of his living room, surrounded by minimal furniture and maximal houseplants, and wait expectantly for him to continue. “Are you going to tell me? You don’t have to, if you— Fuck me!”
I stare at the glowing green hole that looks like it belongs in a sci-fi show, not just a few feet away from me in an urban living room. “That’s… Is that…”
“It’s a portal,” Ari says calmly. Of course he’s calm—he’s the one who created a portal.
Holy fuck, the guy who jerked me off under a table in a restaurant and promised to take care of all my carnal needs just created a motherfucking portal to… somewhere.
“W-Where does it go?” I’m suddenly very conscious of the fact that the elves come from a whole different dimension. I know their home was destroyed and sealed off, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of traveling to other dimensions… right?
If I were smarter, I probably would have thought of this sooner. After all, they had to get here to Earth somehow. I was so busy playing hockey and partying when the migration happened that I didn’t pay any attention to the details, but that would make sense.
“To the woods,” Ari tells me, like it’s no big deal that he can go from his inner-city apartment to some random woods somewhere without even needing to unlock his front door.
“W-Which woods?” Just in case they’re on another planet or something.
He looks a little less unbothered now, his brows drawing together. “The ones in the national park—I don’t remember what it’s called. North of here.”
I relax. “Oh.” That’s totally normal… ish. I study the glowing seven-foot-high portal with interest, now that I know it doesn’t lead to a planet where I wouldn’t be able to breathe. “So how does this work? Can I just walk through, or do I need to, like, prep or something?”
He grins. “Be my guest. Let’s go for a moonlight stroll in the woods, kitty.”
Some of my newfound courage deserts me now that I’m faced with actually stepping into the portal, but Ari created this portal, and he’d never let me go through if it was unsafe.
I wink at him. “See you on the other side.”
Three steps is all it takes, and suddenly I’m standing in the dark woods, a warm breeze brushing over my skin.
Somewhere nearby, the undergrowth rustles, then stills.
Whatever’s out there recognizes my cat for the predator it is, even in biped form.
Through the canopy above, fingers of moonlight illuminate the shadowy trees around me.
This is fucking awesome.
I turn to Ari as he steps through the portal and stops beside me, the green glow vanishing immediately. “I can’t believe this is real. Thank you for bringing me.”
Even in the dim light, I can see his smile. “Come this way.”
After only a minute or two we break through the trees and onto a plateau. I hadn’t realized how high up we are, but I do now, gazing across the forest and a plethora of small farms to the far-off lights of the city. Overhead, a few lone clouds scud across the star-studded sky.
For a while, I lean against Ari, his arm a warm comfort around my shoulders, and breathe in the beauty and calm of the night.
“Hey, Ari?” I say at last.
“Hmm?”
“You know how you said you’d help with my hormonal needs?”
His body stiffens against me. “Yes.”
I turn to face him. “I want to suck you.”
Moonlight or not, it’s impossible not to see how much he wants that too. He swallows. “Okay.”
My grin is involuntary, and I sink to my knees and unfasten his pants. He’s already half-hard, which is flattering, and I don’t bother with anything fancy—just dive right in.
“Fuuuuuuuck,” he mutters as my mouth engulfs him. A hand lands on top of my head, not gripping, just resting, and I bet myself I can have him pulling my hair before he comes.
I want him to.
Breathing through my nose, I turn my focus away from his face and hands to his cock, and—
Wait.
What the fuck?
I pull off. “Dude, is your dick bumpy?”
He stares down at me with glazed eyes. “Huh?”
Squinting in an attempt to see better, I wrap a hand around him, and yep. Bumpy. “Well, well. This could be fun.”
“Never been with an elf or dragon before, huh?” Ari asks, his brain seemingly switching on again.
I shake my head. “Nope, and now I’m regretting it. Anything else I might find interesting? Wait, you know about shifter dick, right?”
His teeth flash as he grins. “The barbs? Oh yeah. Can’t wait to get those inside me.”
My whole body shudders with need. “Me too.” I lick my lips. “But in the meantime…”
The heavy weight of him stretches my mouth perfectly, and I relish the sensation of those bumps against my lips as I bob up and down on him. I love giving head. There’s no feeling quite so powerful and yet generous, and his long groan vibrates through me.
As his body gets tenser and tenser, I pick up the pace and slide my hand into my own pants, where my ever-present sex hormones—with help from Ari’s sexy self—have made me hard again.
“Felix,” Ari hisses, his hand clenching tight in my hair, and I smugly swallow as he shoots.
When he drops to his knees a moment later, panting hard, I let my gaze roam over every inch of him, stroking myself slowly as I do. I can’t wait to get him naked and spread out in a big bed.
“What’s that you’re doing?” he says a moment later, his breathing less erratic. “Need some help?”
I let go of my cock and gesture for him to take over. “I’m open to interspecies collaboration.”
Huffing a laugh, he gently shoves me onto my ass, then pushes me down flat, kneeling between my legs. “Let’s take the edge off, and then we’re going back to my place so you can fuck me in the shower.”
That visual combined with his mouth closing around the head of my dick are all it takes to have me coming hard enough to pass out for a second.
Lying in the dirt, still breathing hard as I stare up at the majesty of the universe above me, I decide that this is the best night of my life.