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Chapter 8 Helio

Helio tried to keep his breathing steady as Benny stared back at him, his gaze roaming over Helio’s form.

His unglamoured form.

“Your skin does sparkle,” Benny murmured.

“I don’t sparkle,” Helio argued, his offense briefly winning over his panic. “I glimmer . Sparkling would be undignified. I’m not some sort of fictional vampire.”

Benny nodded in an absent-minded way, as if he wasn’t really listening, his inspection moving on to Helio’s pointed ears.

Now would be the perfect time for Helio to snap his glamour back in place, to deny and obfuscate, to perhaps give Benny a morsel of some fruit of forgetfulness.

But it seemed Helio’s steady diet of Benny’s straightforward nature had…infected him somehow. He found himself saying outright, “I’m fae.”

Benny met his eyes, his head cocked. “Like…a fairy?”

Helio hated that word. It brought to mind little winged insects dancing among the flowers. But he couldn’t really throw around any righteous anger over nomenclature at the moment, could he? He’d already used up his protest over the sparkling. “This isn’t my private island,” he said instead. “This is the fae realm. You made an unwitting bargain with me that first night, and I was able to transport you here.” He paused but was unable to keep himself from adding, “Able to capture you.”

“Huh.” Benny scratched at the back of his neck. His dark hair—which had grown in a bit in the time he’d been there—was damp with sweat. He must have gotten at least some of his workout in before Cyprian had rudely interrupted.

“I could keep you here for an eternity,” Helio told him, his secrets seeping out like some sort of leeched poison. “I’d be within my rights.”

Benny didn’t seem any closer to terror than he’d ever been in Helio’s presence. His brow only furrowed slightly. “Why?”

“Why?” Helio repeated dumbly.

“Why would you want to do any of that?”

Helio kicked at the sand, feeling unbearably petulant. Did he really have to keep explaining himself? He was fae. It was what they did. Cruel and mischievous in turn, as was their nature.

But Benny was looking so sincerely confused, and not even a bit accusatory, so Helio let out a sigh. “I’ve been…bored,” he explained. “I was banished from my queen’s court decades ago.” Almost a century at this point, actually. It had been the case of a single error on his part—Helio hadn’t read between the lines the right way, had unintentionally offended her, and there had gone all his prestige, all his power. His whole charmed life, gone in an instant. Or at least until enough centuries passed for her to forget her ire. “I suppose tormenting humans has become my pastime.”

“So where are they, the others you trapped for eternity?” Benny looked around, like a gaggle of confused humans was going to pop out of the sand at any moment.

“No, I—I didn’t really keep them,” Helio told him sheepishly. “I let them go, once I’d terrified them sufficiently.”

Benny scratched at his neck again. “Pretty uncool.”

“Yes.”

Benny didn’t say anything else for a long time, and Helio didn’t know where to go from here. He wasn’t letting Benny go, he knew that much.

He couldn’t.

Although, he’d been expecting at least a little frisson of fear.

“Do you understand I’m not human?” Helio asked, embarrassed to realize he was almost pouting. “Because you don’t seem even a little frightened.”

“I’m surprised and everything, but…” Benny bit at his lower lip. “There’s this guy in my town. Sascha. I’m pretty sure his boyfriend is, like, a devil of some kind? I’ve seen him through the window, all massive with, like, horns sticking out his head sometimes, when I’m making a delivery and they don’t realize it fast enough. You’re not nearly as big as him.” Benny looked off wistfully into the distance. “I just wish he’d give me his workout routine.”

“Benny…”

Benny shook himself out of his thoughts with clear effort. He met Helio’s eyes. “So you were lonely and bored. I already knew that. What now?”

“Now…well, Cyprian knows we’re here. If the queen’s court figures out I’m staying in the fae realm and that I’m…content…they won’t be able to resist tormenting us.”

“Fae are kind of dicks, huh?” Benny didn’t wait for an answer to that question. “So we need to leave, then?”

Helio wanted to say no. He wanted to say that Benny would stay exactly here, where Helio had placed him. Wanted to say that nothing would disrupt this idyll they’d created.

He sighed. “Yes.”

“Bummer.” Benny echoed his sigh. “It’s been a really cool summer.”

“There are other places in the realm,” Helio said quickly. “Other spots we could find. There are pockets where time moves differently. We could spend years and no one would miss you.”

Helio didn’t know when he’d started to concern himself with whether anyone missed Benny back home, but he figured he should use all the selling points at his disposal.

“But I kind of miss them. No.” Benny shook his head, then lifted the edge of his shirt to swipe at the sweat on his forehead. “I think it’s time to go back.”

Helio stiffened. No . Not a chance. Benny was his . He’d said so himself, the very first time Helio had claimed his body. Not to mention the many, myriad ways they were magically entwined. He did not get to just leave .

Helio opened his mouth to say just that, but he didn’t get to, because Benny was raising his brows, asking, “Are you coming with me?”

Helio’s mouth hung open. “What?”

Benny cocked his head. “We’re, like, dating, right? You should meet my people. Seacliff’s really pretty too. I think you’d like it. We can split time between here and there, if you want, down the line.”

“I-I captured you,” Helio sputtered. “I kidnapped you. And now you’re inviting me to your home?”

Benny shrugged. “I wanted to come. I’ve liked it here. And you’re not gonna go back to tormenting innocent people, right? ’Cause you’re not bored or lonely anymore?”

And that was the crux of it, wasn’t it? Benny was seeing through him again. What had he called Helio before?

A little lonely and possessive?

Helio sighed, all his indignation deflating.

Benny grinned at him, pressed a swift kiss to his lips, then grabbed his hand and began tugging him toward the villa. “Come on, let’s get packed.”

Later, after convincing Benny that magical villas did not actually need packing, and then fucking him up against the gym mirror—Helio hadn’t been able to resist watching himself take Benny in his fae form—they lay on the gym mats, legs tangled together.

Benny was appropriately pliant and breathless. Helio already wanted him again—he always wanted him, damn it—but he was more or less content for the moment with petting Benny’s flank in smooth, steady strokes.

“You know,” Helio mused, his mouth running away with him again, “humans who successfully triumph over the fae are traditionally given a boon.”

Benny hitched his leg higher over Helio’s hip, encouraging his roving hands. “What’s a boon?”

“A favor. Riches. Titles. A cow whose milk will never run dry.”

“I don’t really have anywhere to keep a cow,” Benny mused, petting Helio in turn now, his tickling fingers tracing Helio’s pecs.

He was then immediately—and predictably—distracted by Helio’s cock twitching at his touch.

“Benny,” Helio prompted.

Benny looked up to meet Helio’s eyes, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry. Um. Is that what I’ve done? Triumph over you?”

“I’m afraid so.” There was no use denying it now. Not when, instead of keeping Benny in the fae realm for eternity, Helio was instead going to Maine.

“Huh.” Benny grinned for real now. “So that means you really like me?”

“Yes, Benny.” Helio would not roll his eyes. That would be juvenile. “I really like you.”

“Cool.” Benny’s hand started traveling downward, stroking lightly at Helio’s hip. “I guess it would be nice not to have to work odd jobs anymore. To just focus on my videos.”

“You want riches?” Helio asked, perking up. He hadn’t thought Benny would actually accept a boon from him, had just been making idle chatter.

“But isn’t that already the benefit of having a rich boyfriend?” Benny asked sincerely. “You’ve got a really high libido, you know,” he pointed out, making Helio blush for some reason. “It doesn’t leave much time for anything beyond fucking. So it’s like, you take care of expenses and we get to bang like bunnies and vacation in the fae realm and all that.”

“So you’re mine and in exchange, I foot the bills?

“Yeah.” Benny’s fingers caressed Helio’s cock lightly, bringing him to full hardness in an instant. “But it’s okay because we’re all in love and shit.”

Something settled in Helio, something that had been unmoored since Cyprian’s visit, since Benny had told him they were “dating.” Helio didn’t know anything about human dating. Didn’t know the key to success or failure in that area.

But he knew a thing or two about a fair bargain.

“So be it,” he murmured, fighting back his own smile.

“Cool.” Benny grinned at him, easy as ever, and then slid down Helio’s body, sucking his cock down whole, removing all thoughts of bargains from Helio’s mind.

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