Chapter 13 #2
Cameron made a mental note even as he pressed for the information he really wanted to know. Because he needed to get to the bottom of this before he dug himself into an embarrassing corner. “I’m asking because I honestly can’t read the man. He’s giving me very mixed signals.”
Her eyes cut to his face, examining him. “Are you interested in him, then?”
“Excuse you, the man’s so hot it’s a wonder he doesn’t set things on fire.
Me—I’m talking about setting me on fire.
And he’s charming, like seriously did he kiss the stone at Blarney Castle?
And he’s protective and alpha in the very best of ways, not to mention he gave me that sweet, teasing kiss, and if you hadn’t been in the room with us at the time, I so would have jumped him. ”
“You should have done it anyway,” Lisette answered baldly, eyebrow arched.
“Ha! So he is interested! Damn, I wish he wasn’t so hard to read.
” Cameron considered all of this for a moment, running it through his head to see how viable it sounded.
Alric would tease and flirt one second, disappear the next.
Cameron had never dealt with a man who did this push-and-pull before.
Or maybe it wasn’t even that. Maybe it was a culture gap?
Did Alric possibly think Cameron was just flirty by nature and wasn’t really interested?
There was also quite a bit of an age gap between them; maybe Alric thought him too young?
But no, he’d kissed Cameron, so that couldn’t be it.
Was it because he hadn’t kissed back? Cameron hadn’t meant to give the wrong idea; he’d just been startled.
And then magic. Magic was very distracting.
But he’d strongly hinted about kissing dragons more and that Alric was handsome, trying to get his interest across. And still, Alric hadn’t made a move.
Cameron suspected something else was at work here.
And he had a very dark suspicion as to what the hold-up was.
“Lisette. Correct me if I’m wrong, okay?
But you said Alric was body shy. Baldewin told me Alric doesn’t think of himself as attractive.
And the man doesn’t seem to know how to approach me.
Is this”—Cameron waved a hand toward his own left side in illustration—“the issue?”
Lisette sighed, her shoulders slumping for a moment. “He won’t say as much to any of us. Not even to Baldewin, and he and Baldewin have no secrets. But that’s what we suspect, yes. At least part of it.”
“And the reason you’re encouraging me is because he’s interested?”
“Yes. I think he likes you a great deal.” Lisette shot him a look as she opened the jar of carrier oil. “I do hope you’re good at taking the initiative. Now, focus. We are losing time. And the measurements on potions must be precise.”
Cameron focused and made notes. He’d been using the note section of his daily planner so far, but he really needed something else—an actual notebook for this sort of thing.
Did mages in this day and time have grimoires?
If they didn’t, could he convince people it needed to make a comeback? Because Cameron so wanted a grimoire.
The potion was easy to make. It reminded him of his halmeoni’s mixture of essential oils, actually.
They poured it into a glass container with a screw top lid and then more or less speed-walked back up to the king’s wing of the castle.
Lisette didn’t do more than briefly knock before sailing through. “Alric! I have your salve.”
“Thank you,” Alric’s voice floated toward her, sounding relieved. “There wasn’t much left in this jar. And I’m due for a—oh.”
Cameron rounded the open door leading into the king’s bedroom, and he could tell Alric was flustered and embarrassed to have him in there.
The king was half-dressed, black slacks on and a shirt hanging on the tri-standing mirror nearby.
Alric was expecting the salve, yes, and had stayed in this half-dressed state.
But he did not want Cameron to see him shirtless, that was clear.
The man couldn’t meet his eyes and he sat stiffly, head turning away.
Oh yes. Cameron saw the problem. He wished Alric would look at him because then he’d see that Cameron absolutely wasn’t disappointed.
The damage on the left side was extensive, yes.
The lines of injury were red in parts, puckered where things hadn’t healed right.
The white lines of scars wrapped around his arm like a lightning strike across his skin.
They didn’t detract from him—they enhanced the rest of his taut body.
Alric clearly exercised on a regular basis, and it left him toned in a perfectly yummy way.
Was Cameron drooling? He might be drooling. Also, he really wanted to lick a nipple.
But Alric was getting stiffer and more uncomfortable by the nanosecond, and that had to stop. Cameron put on a cheerful tone and strode right in as if he were oblivious to Alric’s unease. “I hope you don’t mind if I practice on you. I mixed this one up myself.”
That brought Alric’s head up a notch. “You did? You’re learning potions already?”
“Yeah, Lisette said this one wasn’t complicated, and she wanted to introduce potion making to me.
” He screwed off the lid and knelt just off to Alric’s side, dipping his fingers generously into the jar.
How did he ease Alric’s tension? How did he communicate that he liked the look of this man and the scars were absolutely not a deterrent?
First order of business, activate the salve. “ Fekats gev adi .”
The salve sparked briefly, the magic mixing in like glitter.
He scooped a generous amount onto his fingers.
Fortunately, Cameron’s mouth had never had a problem supplying words.
He touched three fingers to the top of the shoulder and then jumped.
“Damn, you’re hot! I mean, you’re hot in that sense too, but I didn’t realize dragons ran this warm all the time.
I find the inside of the castle a little cold, and you’re sitting here shirtless like it’s nothing and you’re still warm. This is unfair.”
Alric’s attention was on him now, and was that a blush heating the man’s cheeks?
Making the King of the Fire Dragons blush was kind of fun and very adorable.
Cameron would so be doing that more often.
“It’s common for the fire dragons to be warm generally, yes. We carry a great deal of heat with us.”
“Makes sense.” Cameron smoothed oil over Alric’s shoulder, dipped his hand in for more oil, and kept going, keeping a weather eye on Alric’s expression as he did so.
He didn’t want to cause pain, but wasn’t sure how much pressure to apply, either.
He didn’t see any hint of discomfort on his face, so he figured he’d gotten it correct.
Lisette cleared her throat. “It seems that Cameron has this well in hand. I’ll leave it to you, Cameron.”
“Sure.” Yes ! The chaperone had left the room.
Now Cameron had a chance to get some game on.
He waited until he heard her high heels on the wooden floor in the hallway outside before speaking again.
“I imagine your right side is trying to compensate for the left, so I’ll oil up that side too, okay? ”
Alric was back to shifting uncomfortably. “No, that’s fine. I’m taking away time you should be spending with the rest of the clan and your studies. If you’ll leave the jar with me, I can—”
Cameron needed a clue by four. So he could hit Alric over the head with it. Right, time to change tactics. He shouldn’t try to come on as nurturing. Make this sexy. “Alric. You ever have this fantasy you think will never come true?”
Alric paused, studying him as if Cameron was a puzzle he couldn’t quite figure out. “I think we all have those.”
“Well, mine involves a sexy man—older men are my preference, by the way—and oil, and a little privacy.” He dipped his fingers in again, this time soothing the oil directly over Alric’s chest with both hands, looking the man dead in the eye as he rubbed the oil into his skin with a firm sweep of his palms. Alric’s breath audibly hitched in his throat, and he stared back as if mesmerized.
Cameron murmured in a low voice, “Let me indulge, okay?”
Alric’s voice was husky as he breathed, “As you will.”