40. Rami
Rami
Ihadn’t realised it was possible to feel this happy, especially given the events of the day before. But here, walking hand in hand with my mate as we talked, I was happy. Truly, unconditionally happy.
“I can’t believe I was almost taken out by a bus,” Ethan said mournfully. “Always knew it’d be my clumsiness that finished me off.”
“The good news is it can’t now. But if you could refrain from making comments about getting hit by a bus in future, I’d appreciate it.”
Ethan gave me a sheepish smile. “Shit, I do make that joke a lot, don’t I.”
“Far more often than I’m comfortable with.”
“I promise to be more attentive when crossing roads,” he said, amusement in his voice. “If for no other reason than because I don’t want to traumatise anyone else.”
His voice faded away as guilt flooded the bond. I squeezed his hand. “What is it, Eth?”
“I just…I just realised…” His throat clicked as he swallowed. “All those people who died yesterday…it’s my fault. It’s because of me.”
“No, baby.” I cupped his face firmly. “It’s because of Damien, no one else. You were one of his victims too. None of this is on you.”
A tear slid free. “I want to believe you, but I can’t.”
“You will,” I said, stroking his cheek. “I know it’s hard, but I’ll keep reminding you.
That’s something you learn about being immortal the hard way—you see people die more often than you should.
Sometimes, because of your actions. There’s no way to make it okay, but you find little ways to move on. ”
“How?”
“By surrounding yourself with those you love. Reminding yourself that for every awful person in the world, there are ten good ones. Life is a cycle. We might have stepped outside of it, but we can’t interrupt it.”
He gave me a crooked smile. “Well, you can.”
“True, but I shouldn’t. Not as often as I do, anyway.”
When his guilt had eased to a quiet thrum, we started walking again. In an effort to redirect Ethan’s thoughts, I asked a question that had been burning in my mind for weeks now. “The day we met, you said you wanted more friends, but then immediately changed your mind.”
Ethan smiled sadly. “Yeah. Really, I did want a friend. I think you know how true that was.”
“I do. What I don’t understand is why you changed your mind. Was it something I said? Or did?”
“No.” He looked up at the sky. “I didn’t want to become friends with you only to die on you.”
I glared at him. “I think I’ve made it pretty clear since then that people who care about you want to be there for you, in good times and bad.”
“I know,” he said wryly. “Don’t worry, that message has been well and truly hammered home.”
“Good.”
Ethan thought for a minute. “So, you compelled me to forget you, promised not to pursue me, and then reached out to Sam to set up the photo shoots?”
I groaned. “When you lay it out like that, it doesn’t sound great.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m flattered—and thrilled, given how everything ended up. I’m just curious as to how you reached that decision.”
“I tried to stay away from you,” I confessed. “But…let’s just say I didn’t handle it very well.”
Ethan hummed. “Funny you should say that. The couple of weeks after we met, I could barely get out of bed. I felt so…lost. Like I was forgetting something important. Maybe it was my soul trying to remind me about you.”
“I hate that you suffered. I’m sorry, Ethan.”
“Like I said, it all worked out okay in the end.” He glanced down at our joined hands and gave a startled laugh. “Oh god, you healed my scar, didn’t you?”
“I did. I didn’t mean to, but like I said, there wasn’t a lot of thought or finesse going into it.”
“I probably should’ve freaked out about where it had gone more,” he mused, “but compared to learning I didn’t have cancer, it didn’t feel very important in the grand scheme of things.”
“True,” I said. “Anyway, back to your earlier question, I suspected you were lying when you said you didn’t want friends. You seemed so fucking lonely, Ethan.”
“I was.”
“I know.” I kissed his temple. “You’ll never be lonely again. Not only do you have me, but you’ve inherited an entire family who will willingly march into battle with you.”
“Even Sam?”
“Oh, don’t underestimate Sam. He’s not much of a fighter, but he’s just as scary as the rest of us. He’s learned pretty fast that angels aren’t much better than children. You’ve got to put boundaries in place and reinforce them.”
“Noted.”
“Sam was the one who reached out, obviously. It was all his idea.”
“So he didn’t really need a thousand photos of you in different poses and outfits?” He smirked at me. “Shocker.”
“He is planning on selling them, but I wanted a way to become your friend without it seeming weird. When Nate found your website, this seemed like the easiest way.”
“It is kind of genius. God, no wonder Sam was so pushy about my fee.”
I fixed him with a pointed look. “That’s something that needs to be discussed, going forward.”
Ethan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, like you’ll be convincing me of anything of the sort.”
“You’re right, I won’t be convincing you of anything. Sam will.”
He flinched. “That’s not playing fair.”
I chuckled lightly. “Feels like a ‘you’ problem.”
“I thought we were in this together!”
“We are, unless it comes to matters concerning you. Then I’m firmly on the side of whatever is best for you.”
Ethan grumbled. “Damn it, you’re so sweet and earnest, it makes it hard to be mad at you.”
“Ah, you’ve discovered my dastardly plan.”
“I’m assuming your other plan didn’t involve flirting with me at every opportunity.”
“I wasn’t that bad.”
He raised an eyebrow, making me laugh.
“Okay, I was.” I shrugged. “But it was unintentional, I promise. I genuinely wanted to be your friend. I can’t help it if flirting with you is as easy as breathing.”
“That’s true; I can’t say I was much better,” he said ruefully. “We were just meant to be, even if I wasn’t always aware of it.”
“I would’ve waited, Ethan. Even if all you’d wanted from me was friendship, I would’ve been happy with that.”
“I know.” He kissed me briefly before grinning happily, an expression I knew was a mirror of my own. “Now we get to be friends and in love. How does that sound?”
“Like all my dreams come true.”
Ethan’s teeth dug into my palm, doing little to contain his whimpers.
“Listen to you,” I growled as I continued to rail into him from behind. “Making all this noise, knowing you’re in a house full of angels with supernatural hearing. You want them to hear, don’t you?”
Ethan gave a low moan, his arms shaking where he was holding himself up against the wall. Sweat and oil covered both our bodies, the empty oil bottle a few feet away. That was what got us into this mess in the first place.
We’d been about to begin the shoot Sam insisted we needed. Apparently there’d been more demand for Ethan’s photos of me than either of them had anticipated. But then Ethan had agreed to my suggestion that he finally be the one to rub oil into my chest. One thing had led to another, and then…
“Harder,” Ethan panted, lifting his mouth away from my palm. “Make me feel it, Rami.”
I obliged him, as if I could refuse Ethan anything, fucking him so hard that a painting on the wall started to rattle. “Everyone knows what we’re doing, Eth. I bet they’re all out there now, listening to you wail on my cock, knowing it’s me making you feel so good.”
They better fucking not be, if they knew what was good for them. I’d remove their ears if they needed the reminder in the future. But Ethan did love the fantasy.
As did I.
Still, there was no guarantee of how long we’d be undisturbed for, especially given we were expecting to be joined by some of the others soon.
Technically, we were breaking the house rule of no fucking in public areas, but I wasn’t too worried.
Only this morning, Nate had busted Noah and Jeremiah going at it in the utility room.
“Come for me, baby,” I said, as he stroked his cock urgently. “Let them hear you.”
Like he’d been waiting for my command, Ethan tensed up, his teeth sinking back into my palm as he came. His pleasure shot through the bond, taking me along with him.
“Fucking hell,” Ethan wheezed as I eased out of him. “You don’t think anyone actually heard that, do you?”
I kissed the back of his neck before reaching down for my shirt to clean it up. “Nah. And if they did, I’ll cut their tongues out if they say anything.”
“Please don’t.” Ethan shuddered. “I’m still not over Theo breaking Nate’s neck this morning.”
My nostrils flared. The two of them had been fighting worse than ever, and Theo had killed Nate while we were all sat eating breakfast. He’d hightailed it out of here immediately after, but when I got my hands on him, I was going to throttle him for doing it in front of Ethan and Sam.
If Ezekiel didn’t get to him first.
“I wish I could tell you it’s not a frequent occurrence, but that’d be a lie,” I said gloomily. “Do you want to go get cleaned up before the others join us?”
Ethan nodded, darting out of the room. I tucked myself away, then ducked into the attached bathroom to wash my hands.
Ethan and Sam had announced that offering photos of the other Seraphim would be good for both their businesses.
As much as I hated the thought of my family, namely the twins, posing for my mate, I wasn’t about to stifle his income.
But I was going to supervise. Closely.
The door opened and Nate walked in, closely followed by Noah and Jeremiah. Nate wrinkled his nose in disdain. “Gross. It smells like sex in here.”
I bit back a groan as Ethan returned just in time to hear his comment. He flushed as red as his hair, embarrassment filling the bond.
“Nice,” I said, glaring at Nate. “Are you determined to make everyone feel as pissed off as you are?”
He shrugged, stripping off his shirt. “Misery loves company.”
“I’m going to go ahead and say that’s not true,” Noah muttered before smiling at Ethan. “Did you want to start with individual shots or me and Jeremiah together?”