Page 6

Jay

A lex was back. Alexei , Jay reminded himself as the door chimed and his new favorite regular arrived. He’d told Jay the other day to call him Alexei.

Jay liked it. The little “ei” added a bit of softness to the human’s name, which added a bit of softness to him as a whole. Which was kind of nice because Alexei could be a bit…intimidating.

He was big, for one. So much taller than Jay, by practically a whole foot, it seemed.

And he was very, very handsome, for two.

Just…quite appealing in general. His face, with its long, straight nose and rugged, masculine jawline.

His build, with broad shoulders and large hands to match.

Even his forearms were weirdly nice looking when he pushed his sweater sleeves back, like now.

Golden hairs dotted them, the color matching the scruff on Alexei’s firm jaw.

Jay wanted to rub against those arms like a cat. His beastie did too.

But that would be weird, right? Humans didn’t rub up against other humans they barely knew.

So no rubbing. And also, Jay had been counting something. What had he been counting?

Right, the ways in which Alexei was intimidating.

So for three, his handsome face was always kind of stern, those dark-golden brows often drawn together in a subtle frown. Not quite a scowl but also not not a scowl.

The nice thing was, though, those stern eyebrows always kind of relaxed around Jay. He liked watching it happen, the moment Alexei caught his eye and that frown softened to… One couldn’t quite call it a smile, exactly, but it was definitely neutral at the very least. That always made Jay feel good.

Today Alexei had on a black pullover sweater and worn-looking jeans. He didn’t seem to wear a coat as often as other humans. Maybe when a human was that big, they didn’t get cold as easily? Jay would ask Danny about it later. His nurse friend always knew important medical facts like that.

Anyhoo, Alexei wore a lot of black and gray.

Enough that Jay might normally have considered his fashion sense kind of a bummer to look at.

But Jay’s new favorite regular got away with it because he had those colorful eyes and the prettiest hair Jay had ever seen.

And even though Alexei always wore that pretty hair up, and Jay really (like, really ) wanted to see it down, there were always these little strands that would escape around his face, and that looked quite nice.

So really, Alexei didn’t need to wear anything super bright to still be the nicest-looking thing in the room.

And oops, now he was there, at the counter. Jay had been staring again. Luckily he’d also been waving like mad, so maybe Alexei hadn’t noticed.

“Jay,” Alexei greeted, his voice all gruff and gravelly from the cold outside.

“Do you think I’d look good with a little bun?

” Jay asked, studying Alexei’s golden topknot.

“My hair’s not quite long enough yet, but if it were…

” He reached up and tugged as many of his dark strands as he could into the semblance of a bun, even though only half of them actually made it into one, the rest falling back down around his ears. “What do you think?”

Alexei tilted his head, considering Jay’s efforts carefully.

Jay liked that so, so much—the way Alexei often studied him, so intent and serious. He never brushed off Jay’s questions with a laugh or an eye roll like some people did. It was why he was Jay’s new favorite regular.

That and maybe also the way he smelled. So good . Like vanilla and sugar.

“I think you could pull it off,” Alexei finally answered, that not smile, not scowl on his face.

Jay beamed at him. “Me too. What can I get you today?”

Alexei did that other thing Jay liked so much, where he leaned down low over the counter so they were both closer to eye level with each other.

Jay liked it because he could see all the pretty colors in Alexei’s eyes even better but also because the human smelled so, so good.

It always made Jay’s beastie perk up in interest (well, perk up more; his beastie was always very interested in everything Alexei).

“Are you sure you haven’t been baking cupcakes?” Jay couldn’t help but ask. Alexei had told him no the other day, but maybe it had just slipped his mind. He seemed like a guy who had a lot going on. Busy and important, probably. Why else would someone look so serious all the time?

Alexei huffed a not quite laugh. “No cupcakes, kotyonok.”

Jay’s heart warmed at the nickname Alexei had started giving him. It meant “kitten” in Russian. Jay didn’t think Alexei knew he knew that, but Jay was afraid if he told him, Alexei might stop, so he kept his language knowledge to himself.

Alexei leaned just a hair’s breadth closer. “Do you like cupcakes?”

“I like anything with sugar,” Jay answered honestly.

“I see.” Alexei’s gaze traveled down to Jay’s lips, just for a second.

Was he imagining Jay eating a cupcake maybe?

Jay felt a little hot and squirmy at the thought, which honestly happened a lot around his new regular.

Something about him always had Jay’s little beastie wanting to rise to the surface, as if it wanted a closer look.

It had Jay half-afraid his fangs were going to pop out at any moment, which would be majorly embarrassing.

He was raised to have better control than that, after all.

Jay shook a mental finger at his beastie, pushing it back. “Your order?” he asked again. His voice sounded a bit breathless to his own ears.

“Americano. Iced, please. With a pump of…peppermint today, I think.”

“Iced Americano with a pump of peppermint,” Jay repeated dutifully. Alexei never ordered the exact same thing twice. “How festive!”

Alexei’s brows rose slightly. “It’s February, kotyonok. The holidays are long over.”

Jay shrugged. “Still very festive.”

“It is, isn’t it.” Alexei was almost smiling, his lips soft and relaxed, and Jay was beaming, and their faces were very close, and oh, Jay just really, really wanted a nibble.

Just a little nibble of the delicious-smelling regular with the handsome face and pretty eyes and strong-looking forearms with his sleeves rolled back.

A throat cleared.

Jay peered around Alexei’s broad form and was startled to see Soren standing behind him, looking beautiful as usual, his blond hair all swept back in this fancy way Jay could never even attempt, grinning his not-scary-to-Jay-but-scary-to-a-lot-of-people grin.

“Soren!” he exclaimed as Alexei handed him his card wordlessly. The almost smile had left his lips, and his eyebrows were all stern again. “You’re here!”

“Surprise,” Soren said dryly, stepping up to the counter in Alexei’s place.

It kind of was. While Soren came into the café regularly, he usually ventured in later in the day, when Gabe went to the gym before his night shifts.

Which meant maybe he’d come in earlier just to see Jay work his earlier shift.

How nice of him. Jay beamed at his friend, even as his gaze strayed to Alexei, strolling to the opposite end of the counter.

Soren followed the path of his gaze. He arched a brow. “Dude looks like a mobster.”

Jay’s smile faltered a little. “No, he doesn’t. He looks like Alexei.”

Soren grinned sharply at him. “That’s a mobster name.”

“It isn’t,” Jay insisted, feeling vaguely insulted on behalf of his regular. “It’s an Alexei name.”

Soren waved a dismissive hand. “Just teasing, Jaybird. What would a mobster be doing in Hyde Park anyway?”

For a moment, they both stared at Alexei, who had received his Americano from Colin and was at his usual table, looking back at them with his stern expression still firmly in place.

Jay waved at him. Alexei’s brows furrowed deeper.

How strange. Usually they relaxed when Jay waved at him.

Jay tried waving with more enthusiasm. Alexei turned his face back to his drink.

Jay sighed, trying not to feel too disappointed about that. He wasn’t very successful.

“He’s hot. You should bang him.”

Jay’s cheeks heated, and he knew he must have a horrible blush on his face. Soren was always saying stuff like that.

But Alexei was a grown human man, one with nice, fancy clothes and a good smell.

Jay saw the way other customers looked at him.

Alexei must have quite a bit of sexual experience.

What would he want with Jay in that regard?

Jay wouldn’t be good at any of it. He’d be…

disappointing. And Jay hated disappointing people.

Still, his regular was pretty to look at. He made Jay’s little beastie purr inside his chest. It liked having him in the café, in their sights.

Looking would have to be enough.

Jay arrived early for book club.

He’d tried not to—Soren had told him once that it was much cooler to be fashionably late for things than early—but he couldn’t help it. He hadn’t wanted to be in his quiet apartment for even one more minute.

And Danny never seemed to mind when Jay was early. Tonight he opened the door with his usual smile—he had such a nice, warm smile—and ushered Jay in, Ferdy wiggling like mad behind his legs. “Hi, honey.”

Jay waved to Danny and the dog both. “Hi, Ferdy! Hi, Danny! You have such a nice smile. Have I told you that before?”

Danny’s cheeks turned pink, which made his freckles blur together and looked awfully nice with his big brown eyes all wide and happy. “Thanks, Jay. What have you got there?”

Jay presented him with his plate of hors d’oeuvres, these mini bagels that were somehow also pizzas. Human food was wild. “I brought these for our humans. Well, your human guests.”

“Oh!” Danny’s brow furrowed as he stared at Jay’s plate. “Did you— Um, did you make these yourself?”