Page 27 of Lovesick Gods (Lovesick #1)

Cho was in jeans again and a thick, intricately-woven, heather-grey sweater. He really did look good in everything—and nothing. Seeing him in sock-clad feet was alluring too.

Danny toed off his shoes to appease the man’s rules but was once again struck by the apartment.

He found himself staring, not only because of its general impressiveness but because Cho had dinner ready and waiting for him.

The sandwiches were laid out on platters, with a plate for each of them at the kitchen island—Cho didn’t have a dining table—as well as the salad tossed in a nicer bowl and the cookies spread over a plate of their own.

There was also a bottle of wine, not yet opened.

“Don’t flatter yourself too much,” Cho said as he crossed behind Danny into the kitchen and brought out two wine glasses. “You’re the one who insisted on buying dinner. Wouldn’t want your stamina to wear out later. Wine?”

“Please.” Danny smiled as he took up the stool he’d sat in before.

Things were progressing even better than he could have hoped.

Waiting for a nod from Cho, he started to fill his plate.

“Buy me something expensive next time, and we’ll really have this affair in full swing.

Wait…forget I said that. You’ll just steal something. ”

Cho chuckled and took the stool next to Danny, passing over a nearly full glass of wine. “I do have money, Danny.”

“Money that comes from criminal activity, so it’s basically the same as stealing.” Danny never lost his smile as he took a drink to try the wine. Heady and delicious—just like Cho.

“Yet that didn’t stop you from eating my Thai food.”

“That was an emergency.”

“Uh huh.”

“Fine. But I think the foundation of this arrangement is agreeing to disagree.” Danny took a large bite of his salad.

“About buying you something pretty? Because I could get on board with that.”

“I said expensive, not pretty,” Danny said with a half-hearted scowl.

Cho shrugged, “Why not both?” then trailed his eyes down Danny’s lanky frame. “Of course I can imagine several things from my own closet draped over that body, and then we could avoid any moral conundrum.”

Danny shivered at the direction this was going. “Such as?”

Taking a drawn out bite of his own salad, Cho pulled the fork from his lips and teeth slowly. “How about...one of my best dress shirts. And nothing else?”

How did the man do that with just his voice ?

“Though I have stolen some lovely jewelry over the years. Lucy kept most of what we didn’t fence, but a few pieces spoke to me.”

“Around here?” Danny turned his head to look at the apartment.

“Now, now, do you think I’d be so foolish as to have anything traceable in my home?”

“Maybe not traceable, but that doesn’t mean not stolen.” Danny licked his fork enticingly.

He was on the end of the island, with Cho perpendicular to him at his right.

Even the way the man sat with one foot dangling to the floor, the other propped on the rung of the stool, was poised and purposeful and picturesque.

Before becoming Zeus, Danny never would have believed a man like Cho would show interest in him.

Holding such easy sway over someone who oozed sex appeal made Danny feel more powerful than even his lightning could offer.

“Anything else?” Danny asked.

Cho eyed him approvingly, like he was envisioning so many naughty scenarios. “Mmm…” he hummed low and sultry, giving Danny goose bumps as blue eyes scanned him leisurely then flicked to his face to capture his gaze. “But if we get too distracted, we’ll never finish dinner.”

Danny laughed. He had to concede on that. So they ate. Drank wine. And cast each other frequent, furtive glances as they talked.

“Tell me, Sparky, any new villains tripping you up?”

On his second sandwich by now, Danny paused before taking another bite. “Worried about competition?”

“Maybe.” Cho inclined his head. “Heard more about that Virgil Labs case of yours. The one that interrupted our first night. It pays for me to keep tabs on other criminal elements in my city.”

“Looking for pointers?”

“Believe me,” Cho said with a slight chuckle, “if the police knew anything useful, I’d know by now too. But it seems this mystery thief even surpasses me when it comes to making a clean getaway. Any insider knowledge you’d like to share that a certain do-gooder hasn’t made public yet?”

Danny shot him a disbelieving stare. He should never discuss an ongoing case with someone outside the precinct, especially when that someone was a wanted criminal. But then maybe it was safer to keep on Cho’s good side as long as he didn’t give away anything that Prometheus could use someday.

“First of all, I’m not admitting I’d tell you if I did know something…

but no. Whoever it is might actually get away with this.

Either they have amazing tech or an unknown Elemental power, but I have no clues as to which it is or what or…

anything.” Danny took an aggressive bite of his sandwich.

He hated when answers eluded him, especially when such a high profile case had the captain breathing down his neck.

“It’s simpler when the bad guys make a big show of things so I know who they are. ”

“Such flattery,” Cho smiled, watching Danny while taking a long drink of his wine to finish the glass. He reached to pour himself another.

“What about you?” Danny asked, nudging his own empty glass forward.

“What? Trade secrets?”

“No, I mean…well, I’d certainly take any if you’re offering. But I meant …you know a lot about me. Most of what I know is from your case files.”

“My rap sheet and a rough childhood sum me up better than you might think,” Cho said as he refilled Danny’s wine to match his own. “And I don’t know everything about you. For example, do your parents know what you get up to at night?”

Danny schooled his features to keep from reacting too viscerally. Parents— plural .

The names of the power station victims had never been released to the public. Cho didn’t know Danny’s mother was among them. Danny didn’t want him to know. If he did, he might more easily guess at Danny’s intentions being here.

“I don’t hide that I’m Zeus from my family. But we’re not talking about me.”

“Are you asking how my day was, Danny?”

The inherent tease in the words would have almost been infuriating, but in some ways that’s exactly what Danny was angling for.

Anything he could use against Cho would be an asset.

Ways to better get under the man’s skin, cater to what he wanted, what he liked.

All while still playing their familiar game.

“How about one thing?” Danny said. “Tell me one thing about Mickey Cho that I couldn’t read in a case file.

Like…this apartment,” he turned outward on his stool, “your artwork,” he gestured at the photograph on the wall that had so intrigued him that first night, then raised his refilled wine glass before taking another sip, “why you have such good taste in wine.”

“Or whether or not I’ve seduced any other electric young men out of their pants?”

Danny smiled around the rim of his glass. “Whose pants came off first?”

“Yours,” Cho answered plainly.

About to protest, Danny recalled that the first time someone lost their pants it had indeed been him. “True…”

“How about something basic,” Cho said, pushing the plate of cookies Danny’s way and snagging one for himself. “ Mickey ? Is reserved for Lucy. Malcolm , I almost take as an insult. Never had much deference for my old man’s decisions where I’m concerned.”

“Okay,” Danny nodded—good to know. “So you prefer Cho? Or Ice Man?”

“Mal,” Cho said with a momentary drop in his guiled expression.

Mal . Of course, the way Cho had entered it into Danny’s phone. “Mal it is,” he said and snatched up a cookie. “So if we’re on a roll, Mal , how about another question?”

“I’m listening.”

“Where do you keep your costume? Got it locked away in some safe house, set to explode and take an entire city block with it if you don’t check in every twenty-four hours?”

Cho glanced away with a half-amused, half-chiding chuckle. “So dramatic. Besides, who says my gear is ever far away from me?”

Also good to know, not that Cho needed a costume to be dangerous.

They finished their meal and Cho got up to clear everything away while they divided the rest of the wine between them.

The training instilled in Danny by his parents kicked in, and he got up to help, carrying dishes to the sink and putting the remaining food in the fridge, though he left the plate of cookies out.

When he was done, he handed Cho his wine glass.

“Keep spoiling me, Sparky, and I’ll never let you out of this apartment.” Cho took the wine, and this time when he trailed his gaze down Danny’s body, he bit his lip as he got to the tight stretch of his jeans.

Stepping closer into Cho’s body, Danny kept his voice soft. “Yeah? Have me walk around in a speedo all day or just an apron maybe?”

“Apron…” Cho repeated. “Hmm…”

Danny giggled as he leaned closer, forcing Cho’s gaze to meet his. “Filed away in your list of things to drape me in…Mal?”

Cho shuddered. There was nothing more satisfying than causing that reaction in an Elemental made from ice. “Definitely,” Cho said and closed the gap between them.

They kissed. It was immediately apparent that their wine glasses were in the way. Danny pulled back to take them both and set them on the counter, then returned full force, grasping the curve of Cho’s jaw to pull him closer. He tasted of the wine, spicy and strong.

Gripping Cho’s hip with his other hand, Danny started to pivot them, backing Cho up until he felt resistance as they reached the island.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he huffed against Cho’s lips, thumb tracing the man’s faint stubble, the fingers at Cho’s hip slipping up beneath his sweater.

“Yeah…?” Cho breathed back, barely any space between them. “Tell me.”