Page 4

Alexei

D eath by Coffee. What a fitting name. Maybe Alexei would find a bullet waiting for him in the small brick building.

Not that he’d really expect his brother’s men to be waiting to ambush him in a place like this.

Still, he couldn’t count it out entirely.

Expecting the unexpected might be the only way to stay alive.

He hasn’t found you , he scolded himself, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, annoyed at his own thoughts . Stop being so paranoid.

Alexei pulled the beater he’d bought outside the Denver International Airport to a rolling stop halfway down the block from the café he’d spotted.

He’d been in Hyde Park for weeks and hadn’t explored any more than the seven-hundred-ish square feet of his apartment.

Theoretically, that was because he was lying low—no matter how unlikely it was that he’d been tracked to the little mountain town already—but in reality he just couldn’t be bothered.

What was even the point of getting out of bed these days?

There was nothing and nobody waiting for him.

He could sleep twenty-four hours of every day and not a soul would be bothered.

That sounded pretty nice, actually.

But he’d woken up at four that morning and hadn’t been able to go back to sleep this time, so after two hours of staring at the same amoeba-like water stain on his bedroom wall, he’d decided to get out of his apartment and go somewhere .

Anywhere. And not much else was open, so why not start with coffee?

Alexei opened his car door and began the painful process of unfolding himself from the front seat.

The little compact, clearly not designed for someone of his height in mind, was light-years away from the town cars he’d been used to all his life, the comfort of which he allowed himself to briefly miss before knocking the spoiled sentiment out of his head.

He debated grabbing his coat, but despite the snow on the ground, the chill was nothing compared to what he’d left behind in New York. His gray cashmere would do just fine.

Alexei’s desire for a six a.m. coffee didn’t seem to be a popular one that morning. The large front windows of the little café showed it to be mostly empty, its small wooden tables and cozy atmosphere shared only by an older couple reading their respective papers in the corner.

Alexei made his way inside, grimacing in annoyance at the jangling bell announcing his arrival.

“Hello!”

Alexei tapped his boots on the mat at the door, looking to the source of the greeting.

There was a little guy at the counter, dressed in a truly hideous sweatshirt, and he was waving at Alexei with surprising gusto.

Alexei was so distracted by the strange enthusiasm of the greeting (not to mention that eyesore of an outfit), that he was all the way to the counter before his brain processed the fact that the guy beneath the clothes could only be described as… adorable.

Distractingly so.

The barista couldn’t have been any taller than five feet five, with dainty features and a mess of dark hair, the oversize, electric-blue sweatshirt with the kittens on it so large on him he’d had to roll it over about a dozen times to get it above his elbows.

Alexei had the momentary, completely bizarre thought that he wanted to steal him. To put the stranger in his pocket and take him back to his apartment, stash him there for the foreseeable future. Just…keep him.

Because apparently Alexei’s recent hermitage had melted his fucking brain.

“I’m Johann,” the guy chirped, oblivious to Alexei’s disturbing new impulses, still waving enthusiastically even though Alexei was now directly in front of him.

“But you can call me Jay. Welcome in. You’ve really chosen very well.

” His eyes—a soothing slate gray—were positively shining.

“Our coffee’s delicious. The best in town.

Although, I wouldn’t actually know. It’s the only coffee I’ve ever had. ”

Alexei was staring, and not just because of the word salad he’d just been presented with.

He simply couldn’t look away. The guy was so…

pretty. Gorgeous in a soft, unassuming way, with that little button nose, those Cupid’s bow lips.

And really, the bed head look he had going on was too much; it was sending Alexei’s brain into dangerous territory.

Like sweat-soaked sheets and a dark head bobbing between his legs and a million other dirty things he shouldn’t be thinking about.

His dick was in serious danger of plumping up in his jeans just from looking at the guy.

What in the actual fuck? Alexei needed to get his head on straight. He’d seen a million and one cute twinks in the city, hosted a considerably lower number than that in his bed, and he’d never before felt like he was two steps away from leaping over a coffee shop counter and—

And what, planting a kiss on the guy? Hoisting him over his shoulder?

What was wrong with him?

Alexei cleared his throat, trying to find the corner of his brain that knew how to order coffee like a regular human. “I—”

“Your eyes,” the barista—Jay, he’d said his name was—interrupted, leaning forward so they were nose to nose, his breath warm on Alexei’s face.

Alexei hadn’t realized until that moment how far he himself had leaned over the counter, as if pulled by some magnetic force.

The barista smelled like peppermint. “They have so many colors in them.”

Alexei had nothing to say to that, but that didn’t seem to bother Jay. “I can see green. Blue. Little flecks of golden brown.” Jay smiled wide at him, leaning back and leaving Alexei feeling oddly bereft. “They’re really very pretty.”

Alexei cleared his throat for the second time, trying to find his bearings.

He was taken strangely off guard by the compliment.

His eyes had always been a source of discomfort for him.

His older and younger brothers had gotten the ice-blue coloring of their father’s, paired with his white-blond hair.

Proof of their heritage, the strength of the family line.

Proof Alexei had never received. Nor had he inherited his mother’s eyes, neither their limpid brown color nor their warmth.

His strange hazel eyes were an anomaly, one his father had always liked to prod at when he wanted Alexei to feel… other.

Alexei tried to get some words out. “Okay. Thanks. So—”

“And your hair.” The barista cocked his head like a little bird. Or a curious kitten. “There’s so much golden blond but also bits of brown and even some streaks of—I don’t know…strawberry?”

Alexei lifted a hand to his own head, fingers touching the overly long hair he’d pulled into a loose bun that morning. He’d been meaning to cut it, maybe even dye it. He now suddenly felt quite strongly he should leave it exactly the way it was.

“And you smell really good. Like vanilla.” For just a second, there was a flash of…

.something…in Jay’s gray eyes. Almost predatory.

But Alexei must have been imagining it, because the next second, it was gone, and Jay was again looking upbeat and perky, smiling brightly at him.

“So what can I get for you? And what name for the order?”

Alexei’s mouth moved on autopilot, his brain now seemingly permanently somewhere far away. “An Americano. Please. Alex.”

Jay beamed at him. “Okay, Alex. I know how to make that.”

“Good.” Alexei didn’t recognize his own voice, the strange husky note to it.

“It is, isn’t it? Although, to be fair, I know how to make all our drinks now.” Once again, Alexei had nothing to say in response. A brief stare-off ensued before Jay lifted a finger to point to the other end of the counter. “If you wait over there, it’ll be out in a jiffy.”

Alexei forced himself to unfreeze his muscles and move from where he stood over to where the redhead manning the espresso machine was watching him with clear amusement on her face. He didn’t look back at Jay. He couldn’t.

“What just happened?”

It wasn’t until the redhead answered him that Alexei realized he’d asked his question out loud. She smirked at him, tamping down the espresso she’d just ground. “I’d say you got Jayed.”

“Is he like that with everyone?” Alexei asked, hoping his expression was significantly more neutral than he felt. He needed to place the strange interaction he’d just had into some sort of context.

“You mean unknowingly charming the pants off everyone he meets, giving devastating and sincere compliments that leave people reeling, then flouncing away without a care in the world?”

Alexei coughed weakly, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Yeah. That.”

The redhead shrugged, her smirk turning into an evil grin. “Pretty much, yep. He’s like that with everyone.”

Five minutes later, coffee in hand, Alexei wandered back to his car in a daze.

By the time he remembered to drink his Americano, it had gone ice-cold.

Alexei couldn’t stay away after that.

There was no rhyme or reason to it. He hadn’t even meant to go back to Death by Coffee the next day, not consciously. Alexei had just been driving around, and then soon he was parking in a familiar spot and then walking through that jangling door, and there Jay had been, smiling and waving.

Alexei’s heart had stopped in his chest for a moment at the joyful, “You came back!” he was given on that second visit, thinking for a moment the strange attraction he felt was mutual.

But he soon learned the redhead hadn’t been lying: Jay was like that with everyone.

Beaming smiles, sincere compliments, absurd non sequiturs.

But the frustrating thing was, no one else seemed quite so…affected by it. Not like Alexei was.

It was certainly clear—after a week of daily visits, observing every interaction more closely than was strictly sane—that Jay’s regulars adored him. Alexei had watched, dumbstruck, as one older woman had actually pinched Jay’s cheek, something Alexei hadn’t known happened in real life.