Page 9

Finn

“What are you looking at on there, huh?” Kai asks, crossing his arms on the bartop he’s just finished shining up and leaning towards me.

I’m pretty sure that there are a million other things he should be doing, but he seems to have stuck within a three foot radius of me ever since I got here an hour ago.

I guess it’s not that shocking, I’m one of the only beings here tonight.

There’s a small group of women huddled in a booth towards the back.

One of them is sobbing on the table while the others alternate between comforting her and plying her with drinks, which seems like a terrible idea.

And another table of beings and humans in suits are celebrating something.

Which just leaves little old me to keep Kai occupied at the bar.

He certainly doesn’t seem interested in talking to the other guy he’s working with. Lifo, I’m pretty sure it is.

They don’t seem to get along, I’ve noticed. Not that I’m, like, stalking Kai or anything. But in the two other times I’ve been in since my first solo visit, it’s been hard to not notice things. It’s all perfectly innocent.

I drop my phone like I’m doing something very not innocent on it, rather than just reading a Crumbles thread, making Kai raise an eyebrow .

“ Finn ,” he coaxes. “Were you doing something naughty?”

His teasing voice drops a couple of octaves, making it sound deliciously flirty and I almost wish I was doing something salacious. Instead my cheeks burn painfully and my ears feel like they are about to set fire to my hair.

“Uh—no! No! Never!” My suddenly dry mouth makes me stumble over my words, making it all sound a lot worse than it is.

Kai’s shoulders bounce with his attempt to smother his laugh. “Okay, now I have to know what you were looking at.”

Groaning loudly, I unlock my phone and slide it across the bar to him. It’s not even that bad . I have just somehow made it worse with my complete inability to be a normal being around someone so criminally hot.

“What does AITA mean?” He asks eventually. There is still a hint of a smile in his voice, so I open my eyes just a bit to peek out at him.

“Am I the asshole?” I answer, and he nods, but he doesn’t look up, too engrossed in the story.

It’s a classic, complete with four years worth of updates about some guy asking if he was the asshole for ‘stealing’ his neighbour's puppy. It was barking outside all day, every day. Eventually he’d had enough, so he’d jumped the fence and brought it home, before returning it just before the neighbour got home from work.

According to the first post, this went on for weeks until his neighbour came home early and thought their dog was missing.

Turns out the puppy was actually escaping every day and didn’t know how to get back in.

Cut to four years later, and the guy was sharing a very happy update that he and his neighbour were now married, with a second puppy and twins on the way.

My heart is in my throat as I watch him read the whole thing, eating up his growing smile .

“ That is fucking adorable,” he says, tossing my phone back when he’s done. “What app’s that?”

“Uh, Crumbles .” I’m vaguely chuffed with his approval of the story, even though it’s not mine. It’s like approval by proxy for showing him.

“And people just share their life on there? That’s pretty cool.” Kai leans in a little closer and I can’t help but mirror the action, leaning forward on the bar so we’re only separated by inches.

“Yeah, they share all kinds of things. There’s all kinds of stuff on there.”

Kai nods, his eyes entirely focused on me.

“So there’s dirty stuff on there too, right?” He whispers, and then bites his lip, giving me a hint of fang.

I laugh. A little too loud and with a snort too. It’s so embarrassing I die a little inside, but Kai’s smile softens, changing from his usual flirty grin to something a little more natural.

“Yeah, there is dirty stuff. And not just the porn. People share all kinds of stories. Here, let me show you.”

He sits up a bit straighter and waves towards the phone in a ‘go ahead and show me’ kind of motion.

It takes a couple of seconds for me to find the thread but I manage to find the one that I was thinking of.

It’s a story about someone who wrote erotica as a side hustle, and then found out that their best client—one they’d fallen a little bit in love with due to their shared kinks—was their step brother.

“And people just share this shit? Like, that’s wild,” Kai says, barking out a wild laugh, flashing his fangs.

I know exactly which part he’s up to—the moment it all got leaked at the family dinner and the author had to explain their side hustle to their grandmother, while their other sibling gave a graphic explanation about felching.

Finished with the story, Kai looks at me with almost playful contemplation.

The lights are dim in the club tonight, without the flashing strobes or colours.

It has to be the neon lights reflecting off his perfect eyelashes that makes them almost look heavy lidded.

Like he’s considering some of those things in the story. And me. Together.

My throat is burning dry and my teeth are aching like they haven’t in months.

I practically dive for my glass, nearly spilling the blood inside as I raise it to my lips.

Kai says nothing at my fumbling; he just raises an eyebrow at me when I swallow.

I can see his eyes dip just slightly to watch my throat work down the too-big mouthful of blood.

Tension throbs between us like a rumble of thunder. His lip is back between his teeth and I can see that fang again.

But then just as quickly as the heavy moment came, it passes again.

Kai seems completely unaffected by the moment, confirming the voice in the back of my head telling me I must have been imagining things.

He holds out my phone, and I curse inwardly when I realise my hand is shaking as I reach out to retrieve it.

My fingers brush his—accidentally of course—and he holds on for just a second longer.

“What else is on there?” He asks, and I’m so caught up in him I’ve forgotten what we’re talking about entirely.

“Oh, uh.” I fumble and fight to physically shake off the chaotic nerves overriding my brain cells.

I swear, there are people and beings out in the world that consider me smart.

Capable. Just not around him, apparently.

I unlock my phone out of reflex and quickly scroll through my feed.

“There’s loads of stuff. Whatever you’re into. Books and TV. Local stuff. Whatever.”

“What’s that?” He leans forward to look at the phone too, and I can feel the brush of his hair against mine.

Thank the Gods I’m logged into this account, and not the one that’s subscribed to the HVB channels. Just strike me down with lightning and send me straight to the ether.

“Just a meme about customers. ”

I pause so he can read it, enjoying his soft chuckle.

“Sounds about right. Shit. Be right back. Do not move.” Speaking of customers, one’s come to the bar, so he has to leave me to work for a bit. Not moving isn’t exactly a struggle. Watching him shake a cocktail shaker is like watching one of the most absurdly erotic sights imaginable.

“So, still not loving the customer service thing?” He asks when he comes back. He’s managed to find a job to keep himself occupied, mixing up syrups and bottles. I’m not exactly sure what he’s doing, but it means I get to watch his arms flex.

“It’s fine. I mean, I can’t complain.” I roll my lips over my teeth to try to keep my complaints inside, because who wants to hear someone whinge? But it’s a lost cause. I can’t keep it in.

“Actually I can. Gods’ tits, how do you do it ?

It’s not even the customers! I mean, getting screamed at because they drove on a flat tyre and don’t have roadside assistance is one thing.

I can even tolerate someone having a go because I don’t know where they are and they keep just screeching that they are at their mum’s house, but they don’t know the address—but the perverts? Why are there so many perverts?”

I groan and drop my forehead to the bar while Kai laughs.

“Yeah, pervs kinda come with the territory.”

“I bet you know all about it.” I sit up again, rolling my shoulders and laughing along with him, not even caring when I snort-laugh.

“Are you calling me a pervert, Finn?” Kai clutches his chest dramatically. We’re drawing Lifo’s attention—he’s glowering from the other end of the bar—but by silent agreement, we’re ignoring him.

“What?” I splutter. “No! I meant you would have come across a lot of perverts and…” I drop my head to the bar again. “Gods, just kill me now. ”

A tea towel wallops my back and I look up to glare at him through my hair. It’s fallen all over my face with my dramatics.

“I’m kidding!” He laughs, then he leans back down on the bar again so we’re close enough that I can see the reflection of the lights in his dark eyes.

It’s magnetic. Hypnotising. I can feel each throb of my blood pulsing in my veins.

His left fang digs into his lip, and I can sense how close the delicate skin is to breaking.

It’s a hyper awareness of the blood underneath.

My phone buzzes violently on the bar between us. A reminder of the final bus to get home. Fuck.

“I have to go.” I don’t know why I whisper. I just do. Neither of us have moved back.

“Well, Finn, that is a damn shame. You gonna come visit me again?” We’re both whispering now, apparently.

“I told you, that’s not why I came here.”

Kai wrinkles his nose, like I’ve said something funny and pats my hand before standing up, moving himself out of my personal space and releasing the brain cells he had in his strange, sexy, psychic mind-hold.