Page 22 of Elemental Love (Warlocks #1)

Chapter ten

T he next day, Saturday, dawned with the threat of more rain.

The sky seemed to boil with dark, rolling clouds tumbled by the gusty wind.

Evrain’s mood always seemed to reflect the weather, or perhaps it was the other way round.

He’d slept badly, something he put down to spending the night in his grandmother’s bed.

He felt unsettled and impatient, his thoughts a jumble of confused images.

He needed to vent but hadn’t yet explained the process to Dominic.

The poor love’s freaked out enough as it is.

Evrain paced around while Dominic pulled together a makeshift breakfast of honey-sweetened porridge and herbal tea, then sat and drummed his fingers on the table as he waited to be served. Dominic brought everything to the table and set a steaming bowl in front of Evrain.

“I don’t know what’s it’s going to taste like—I’d normally make it with milk rather than water.” He took the seat next to Evrain.

“Thanks, I’m sure it will be fine.” Evrain dipped his spoon in the viscous mixture and gave it a stir. “I’ll get groceries later.”

“You’ll need to bring all your things over from Portland, won’t you?” Dominic asked.

“Yep, and you must have things you want to move too.”

“Oh, I’m not sure that’s necessary, is it? Aggie didn’t specify that I had to move in here, it was just a suggestion.”

“A suggestion that you will follow,” Evrain said, unblinking.

“But you can’t tell me what to do, Evrain.” Dominic’s voice shook a little as he said the words, as if he didn’t quite believe them.

“Oh, I think I can.” Evrain stroked Dominic’s thigh beneath the table, enjoying the jerk of muscles. “Did you sleep well last night? Any interesting dreams?”

Dominic’s spoon clattered into his bowl. “That was you, wasn’t it? You did those things to me.”

“Now how could that be the case?” Evrain said with a smirk. “You don’t believe I’m a warlock.”

Dominic’s cheeks colored. “Then how do you know what I’m talking about?”

“Ah, you’ve caught me. I must say it was delicious watching you squirm. How did it feel, those fingers of heat and air assaulting you, holding you down?”

“You bastard!” Dominic shoved his chair back, escaping Evrain’s touch. “Why would I want to move in here with you, when you do things to me without my permission?”

Evrain chuckled. “Oh, save the false indignation for someone who cares. You loved every second of it and all it would have taken for me to stop was one word. One word. If you’d said no, or indicated in any way that you weren’t into it, I would have stopped immediately.

” He tapped his fingers on the table. “Perhaps we should agree on a safeword for you?”

Dominic’s eyes widened. “What? Why would I need a safeword? Are you into bondage and…and whipping and stuff?”

“What do you think?” Evrain teased.

“I don’t know what to think. You confuse the hell out of me.”

“Good. You can think about your safeword while you’re at work today. You do have to work, don’t you?”

Dominic nodded. “This morning. I have two jobs in White Salmon. I should be finished by lunchtime. You didn’t answer my question.”

“No, I didn’t, did I?” Evrain grinned. “I’m sure you’ll have great fun letting your imagination run riot, though. If you’re very good, I may give you a proper answer later. And who the hell names a place after a fish?”

“God, could you be any more annoying?”

“I could try.” Evrain smiled sweetly.

“I give up.” Dominic piled the dirty dishes in the sink. “I can take you back to Portland before I start, if you want to go home.”

“This is home now, whether I like it or not.” Evrain sipped his tea thoughtfully. “I can wait until you’ve finished. There’s loads to do here and if you’re finished by lunchtime, we’ll still have plenty of time to move my things over and then yours later on.”

Dominic growled. He actually growled, though the noise was more like a puppy practicing than a pissed-off Rottweiler.

“I have not agreed to move in here.”

“You don’t need to agree, you just need to do as you’re told. You’ll find it makes our relationship a whole lot easier.” Evrain smiled, knowing it would annoy Dominic even more.

“We have a relationship?” Dominic sighed. “No, don’t answer that. I don’t think I’m ready for whatever you might say. I have to get to work.”

“You do that, sweetheart.” Evrain raised his mug in a toast. “We’ll talk again later. You have a good day.”

After calling in to his apartment to change into his work clothes, Dominic applied himself to his jobs with his usual dedication but found that hard physical work was not enough of a distraction to keep his thoughts away from Evrain.

As he mowed the huge lawns of one of his regular customers, he had too much time to think.

So long as he steered the ride-on mower in a reasonably straight line, it didn’t require much attention.

He put aside the idea that Evrain was something more than human—he was having a hard enough time coping with the idea that the attraction between them was apparently mutual without having to deal with magic and mayhem.

Whatever had happened the previous evening, it could be put down to exhaustion, an overactive imagination, hallucinations brought on by stress and the shock of inheriting so much wealth from Agatha.

There had to be a rational explanation for all the strangeness.

Fires flared all the time. Doors slammed on their own—a simple gust of wind could cause that.

Their conversation that morning had confused Dominic even more. Evrain was so sure of himself. He dropped hints about being into a BDSM lifestyle, something that both scared and excited Dominic.

“Safeword! He wants me to choose a safeword!” Dominic shouted at a passing wood pigeon.

He supposed there was no harm in thinking of a suitable word.

He’d done enough Internet research to have heard about the traffic light system, but red, yellow, green didn’t float his boat.

He needed a word that would irritate Evrain.

That would make thinking one up worthwhile.

Dominic hummed as he turned the mower for another pass over the neatly cropped grass. He had just the word.

Dominic couldn’t imagine taking the initiative to move things along with Evrain.

He got so tongue-tied around him—it was even worse than usual and that was saying something.

He’d always been shy—it was part of his defense mechanism not to attract attention that had, too often in the past, turned to aggression.

In his late teens there had been a couple of older boys at his group home that had attempted to force him to suck them off, holding him down, wrenching his hair and hitting him when he’d resisted.

They hadn’t succeeded due to a timely interruption from a member of staff, but the experience had taught Dominic a valuable lesson in remaining inconspicuous.

As he’d gotten older he had eventually realized that men found him attractive but no one had ever appealed to him enough to gain his trust. Evrain’s magnetism was breaking down his barriers—he just hoped that he would have the courage to respond if Evrain tried to take things further between them.

The incident in the tool shed had been spur of the moment.

A one-off. It had been easy to drop to his knees in the darkness, and that brief pleasure had fueled his fantasies ever since.

He had thought last night that Evrain was about to make a move, but then he had withdrawn.

It had been a relief but disappointing at the same time.

Evrain had said he wanted to fuck Dominic through the mattress.

Dominic suspected he’d be quite happy to go along with that suggestion.

He was still trying to make sense of his feelings but physically his body was beginning to overrule his mind.

Evrain would only have to issue one of his infuriating commands and Dominic would fold like a poorly constructed house of cards.

He glanced at his watch for the third time in fifteen minutes and grinned ruefully.

Clock watching was a bad habit to get into, but he could almost feel the pull of whatever invisible tether connected him to Evrain.

Dominic got back to the cabin much later than he’d planned.

He had been delayed by having to collect a part for a misbehaving hedge trimmer, which had had to be fixed before he could complete his second job of the morning.

Then he’d gone home to pack an overnight bag and fill a cooler with a few essentials.

He’d skipped lunch, but it was still almost two o’clock when he walked back down the garden path to Agatha’s cabin.

The butterflies engaged in formation-flying in his stomach were making him feel a bit queasy and he hesitated outside the door.

He looked at his mud-stained work trousers and worn shirt and sighed.

His hands were engrained with dirt and yesterday’s blisters concealed beneath ragged bandages wound around his palms. He desperately needed a shower and wished that he could have cleaned up before seeing Evrain again, but there was no time.

In front of him, the door swung silently open.

“Are you going to stand out there all day, or are you coming inside?” Evrain’s voice came from somewhere inside.

Dominic didn’t allow himself to think about how Evrain had known he was there, or how he had opened the door without being anywhere near it. He swallowed and went in. The door slammed shut behind him. Dominic dropped his bag and put the cooler down.

Evrain sat, cross-legged, on the rug in front of the fire, surrounded by an assortment of jars and bottles containing all manner of herbs and liquids. He had a smudge of dirt across his cheek and still managed to pull off effortless beauty.

“You’re late.”

Dominic wasn’t fooled by Evrain’s calm tone. His statement held undertones of annoyance and his strange eyes glinted as he looked up.