“Jumping my bones,” Ray echoed flatly.
Cal scoffed. “You claimed me. Because I let you. Because I wanted you to.”
“You said you begged for me,” Ray pushed out. The image was stuck in his head. “That makes no sense. Why would you do that? Why would anyone, and why would you? So many of the people tonight smelled of desire for you, even while they wanted to strangle you. It doesn’t make sense that you would be here, now, when I am…”
“When you’re what?” Cal asked when Ray didn’t go on. “I can’t tell if you’re implying that I fuck anyone who shows any interest in me, or that everyone is interested in me—oh.” He seemed startled when Ray glanced away. “You think everyone wants me?”
“Of course they do,” Ray growled testily.
Cal stared at him for several seconds, then blinked. “Because I am beautiful,” he went on, his voice so light it was as see-through as his wings, “and you are somehow someone who isn’t. I see. I mean, I don’t see. But I see.” He cleared his throat. “Well, we aren’t halfway anything, and I wish I knew if that notion has been festering inside you for a while, or if it’s related to this. I kind of hope it’s because of this. Because then it means that I was doing better at keeping you than it seems that I actually was.”
“What?” Ray didn’t understand any of that.
Cal looked at Ray without quite meeting his eyes. “You should probably try to sleep, Ray.”
In that bed, Ray doubted he would be doing much sleeping. “Why didn’t we wash the bedding?”
At least it made Cal actually look at him. “Is that your objection? Your were nose usually likes it when the bed reeks of us. It helps you sleep. Though admittedly, not when the bed is also sticky, or crunchy.”
“You don’t sleep with me?” Ray demanded, straining to not sound like a whiny child or the very confused adult were he was.
“Fairies don’t need all that much sleep. But I do try to get some snuggles in with my wolf. A few hours a night, if I can.” Cal’s expression calmed as he slowly eased back against the couch cushions. “Though I didn’t think you’d want me there tonight, anyway, and I havethingsto research.”
He saidthingswith a particularly vicious energy. As though, if he had fangs, he wouldbite.
Fairies in the old stories were petty, vengeful, often merciless creatures. Ray had thought those stories were myths, like most of the ones about werewolves. Now, he was less sure of that.
“Are you worried that you won’t sleep?” Cal prompted when Ray didn’t speak, once again gentle and an apparently harmless half-fairy. “Sit down, at least. You still need to rest.”
Ray considered the space, then sat at the other end of the large couch. He watched Cal for another few moments, then faced the window, keeping an eye on the dark.
“Hypervigilance. Awesome,” Cal muttered sarcastically, fully aware Ray could hear him. Ray glanced to him. Cal seemed unrepentant. “That isn’t resting.”
“Someone did this to me,” Ray snarled quietly. “There is danger. I’m right to be worried.”
“That’s not—damn it. You still need to rest.” Cal made a determined face. “I will sit on you if I have to.”
An empty threat. Ray was too strong for that to matter. And anyway, “I don’t think that would help me sleep,” he pointed out, pleased when Cal was surprised into a laugh.
“I’d wear you out eventually,” Cal promised, only a little breathless. “Ugh. Don’t look so startled. Not even Benny could count the number of times you’ve had me here, right on this very couch.” Ray glanced down at the fabric, which smelled of them and dinners and spilled drinks and lots of vinegar or baking soda-based cleaning products. “And the rest of the house, of course,” Cal added. “I’ve had you a few times, too.”
He said that much quieter, in a voice that sent a shiver down Ray’s back. Ray raised his head.
“How much you trusted me to try that,” Cal went on, weaving a glamour with his words whether he believed he was or not. “A heady thing, Ray, to be trusted like that by you. If you’re curious, you like the stimulation, but not so much being passive. But… youdolike baring your throat to me. You do it a lot, but especially then, in those moments. I don’t know if it’s a were kink or yours in particular. Maybe both.” He took a deep breath, then released it and smiled shakily. “Anyway, I mostly use toys on you, if we’re doing that. Or fingers.” He wiggled his playfully. “I’m more into getting fucked than you are.”
Ray shuddered and turned his head, but still imagined Callalily’s hand settling gracefully over his throat. His voice was embarrassingly hoarse. “Was it my idea?”
He couldfeelCal’s attention on him. “Not out loud. Not directly. Not you. You just kept doing it until I finally put my hand rightthere, at the hollow of your throat. Very lightly.” He curled his hand in the air, demonstrating. “I would never press. But then, I didn’t have to. And I said, ‘How you please me, Raymond,’ because you do, you know. And then I said, ‘Will you take me?’ And you did.” Satisfaction and pride dripped from his words. “We were actually in the backyard, under a half moon. Just your mouth and then your cock, and my wings scuffed in the dirt, and bruises everywhere.”
“Callalily,” Ray warned, still rasping. This time, Cal did not snap at him to not use that name; he just smiled.
“Hopefully, now you’ll believe it when I say I am not afraid of the Ray that goes bump in the night—so to speak. The wolf in you—well, youarethe wolf. But you know what I mean. What others don’t understand, even though they want it.”
Ray shook his head, once, though he wasn’t sure what he was denying. “Did I damage your wings?”
Cal’s smile grew. “Didwedamage them. And yes, carelessly and violently, with the moon as a witness and your teeth in my shoulder. Then they healed. I always heal. So do you… most of the time.” His aura of fond, horny reminiscing disappeared. “We can talk about that later, too. You need to try to rest, Ray.”
“Then stop winding me up.” Ray turned back toward the window, but could see the sudden burst of extra glitter around Cal and how it gleamed in the light from the lamp on the end table.
