Page 20

Chapter 20

Caleb

T he address was in his phone, and thank goodness for that. Caleb never would have found the high-rise apartment on his own. Bears weren’t exactly trackers, and his sense of smell wasn’t up to the task.

He wanted to think he could find Jasper anywhere, but it obviously wasn’t true.

He wasn’t even sure he knew Jasper like he’d thought.

What if it had all been a ruse?

He glanced down at the bag of godsdamned Oreos in his hands, and almost dropped them into the nearest trash can. Instead, he steeled his spine, drew himself to his full height, and marched up to the elevator.

“Floor?” asked the snooty attendant. He was looking Caleb over and had clearly already found him wanting.

Caleb met his eyes, staring hard, and gave him the floor number.

The man looked like he wanted to protest, but apparently the scary guy in front of him trumped the scary rich guy who might eat his soul.

Did incubi eat souls? Caleb’s knowledge of them was lacking, and frankly, if Jasper didn’t want him, he had no interest in learning any more. He had no need of an incubus in a general way. Sex with Jasper had been incredible, but that had been because it was Jasper, not because of some demonic sex powers.

The elevator stopped and the man looked at him, waiting, smirking, like maybe Caleb would have changed his mind. Caleb blinked, shook himself out of his reverie, and stepped off the elevator, giving the man his back and no attention.

The hallway was fancier than anything in Caleb’s cabin. There was a table in marbled wood, with an enormous display of fresh flowers in garish red and black. Caleb couldn’t think of anything that suited Jasper less, but he reminded himself that maybe he didn’t know Jasper at all.

Maybe Jasper belonged in this place more than he belonged in the cabin.

He knocked on the door and waited, head down, staring at the cookies. He shouldn’t have brought them. It was silly.

Gods, he hated Oreos so much.

The door opened on Jasper saying, “Don’t tell me you forgot your keys.” When he saw Caleb, he froze. “You?—”

Caleb took him in, in his fancy clothes, hair straight and neat, wearing leather loafers instead of his ridiculous hiking boots. “You—” Caleb’s voice came out raspy and strained, so he cleared his throat and tried again. “You asked me to bring you these.”

Jasper’s gaze fell to the cookies and stayed there for a long moment. He bit his lip, and Caleb wanted nothing more than to lean in and kiss him breathless. He didn’t like the fancy clothes; they weren’t his Jasper, but they did look beautiful on him.

Anything would look perfect on Jasper. Almost as perfect as nothing at all.

“This is so ridiculous. Who carries a wallet in this day and age?” an affected, nasally voice huffed from Caleb’s right, and he looked over to see a dark-haired man flouncing down the hall. He marched right up to Caleb and only then seemed to notice his existence. “Move, creature,” he ordered.

Caleb simply stood there and stared at him until he got huffy and shoved past.

“Honestly, Jasper,” the man called over his shoulder. “Grow some balls and just tell him you’re not interested in whatever it is he’s selling. It’s probably a scam anyway.”

Jasper winced, and his reaction to the idea of summoning his family made a lot more sense. Caleb thought Poppy was hard to explain to people, but at least most of the time Poppy wasn’t intentionally an ass.

Except when she was leaving him to handle the Poisonwood monster on his own.

“I—I can’t really—” Jasper muttered, without looking up to meet Caleb’s eye. “I’m sorry. But I’m not—you’re not?—”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Jasper,” the man said, marching back into the room as he stuffed a wallet into his pocket. He stopped and looked down, then huffed again and rolled his eyes. “Honestly, this completely ruins the line of my trousers.”

“It’s a wallet,” Jasper muttered. “If you’re going clubbing, you should probably have money.”

The man waved him off. “As though I ever have to pay for anything. Father insisted, though.” He looked back over at Caleb, giving him the slimiest once over he’d ever been subjected to in his life. He wanted to take two showers after that. Then the man got a nasty smile on his face and turned to Jasper. “Oh, Jas.”

“Malcolm—” Jasper started, but the man cut him off.

“When Sasha said you spent the week fucking a bear, I was worried she’d meant the actual woodland creature.”

Caleb’s stomach dropped, his blood going cold. Jasper had told these people about him? He’d told this man?

The man looked over at him again, and somehow, the gaze grew even more disturbing. It was almost like a physical thing, oily and heavy and intrusive. When he was finished, he turned up his nose. “Honestly, Jasper, you’d have been better off with the animal. At least it wouldn’t smell like that.”

He took the bag of cookies from Caleb’s hands and tossed them into a trash can near the door, then closed it in Caleb’s face.

There were raised voices behind the door, but it didn’t matter anymore. Jasper had told everyone about him.

He’d spent the week having sex with a bear.

That was all he was to Jasper, then. A week of sex.

He turned and headed for the elevator, but thought better of it and took the stairs. He didn’t need to face the snooty elevator attendant on the way down too.

Fucking Oreos.