18. Seymour

Chapter 18

Seymour

I flipped the grilled cheese sandwich over, the toasty, buttery brown of the side telling me I had hit the perfect temperature for the griddle. These were going to be amazingly delicious.

Kai and I were having a date night—or, well, more accurately, a date day. The four of us had talked early on about how we all needed to make sure that we had alone time with each other. Not everything had needed to be, nor should be, a group activity.

We loved being together, the group of us—we all got along, cared about each other, and it was great. But also, we didn't want to lose sight of our own private relationships either. That turned out to be easier said than done.

It was easy to let life get in the way, especially when you had a little one at home, jobs, and basic life stuff to deal with. Canceling a walk because we ran out of milk and needed to run to the store real quick or to decide to stay in and chill with the family after a long day at work both seemed like no big deal. And in isolation, they weren't, but they could quickly become habit, and if we wanted to prioritize our relationships, we needed to be sure to do the actual prioritizing.

Dante and Gideon had taken Albie to the aquarium today. He loved looking at the fish, and especially loved the crawling play area they had built for the littlest visitors. We decided to stay home, watch a movie, and eat lunch together. It might not have been a typical date night, but we were both excited.

"I picked a movie," Kai called from the other room. "Need help with the sandwiches?"

"Nope. They are almost ready. I'll be there in a sec." I flipped them onto the cutting board, cut them into strips, and plated them up with a little sauce cup of tomato soup for dipping. It was one of my all-time favorite meals, and I was excited to share it with him. There's something so satisfying about homemade tomato soup coating buttery, toasted bread with long, stringy cheese—delicious. Not as delicious as my mate, of course, but close.

I brought the food out and set it on the coffee table. Kai already had the film pulled up on the screen.

"This looks like a horror movie," I said, basing my assessment on the butcher knife dripping with blood.

"Yeah, it is, but it's not a scary horror movie."

"There are other kinds?" Because wasn't scary the entire point?

"This is more psychological. Apparently, this guy owns a butcher shop and is being haunted by a ghost."

"So, they thought they should make it look like a slasher film?"

He shrugged. "I don't make the movies, I just turn them on."

"You turn me on. That's for sure."

He rolled his eyes.

"And besides, you sort of did make them."

"Okay, fine. I made a TV show, but I didn't know, so it doesn't count." He grabbed his plate and started eating, making little moany sounds of delight as he did.

That whole television thing was still weird to me, but I didn't mind. Not that he was on a show, but that it wasn't a show to him. And I felt guilty because whatever the surrounding conditions were, they brought Kai to me, and I was sort of glad he'd been in the accident. That thought came with an extra helping of guilt, but I couldn't help how I felt. It brought my whole family to me, and I refused to be mad about it.

"Okay, but if you get scared, don't cling to me, because I'm going to be just as scared as you are."

"You're the bravest person I know. If any big, bad ghost came here, you'd burn them to ash."

I paused, amused. "Think about that. How would that even work?" My dragon was fierce, true. But burning-ghosts fierce? That wasn't even possible. At least I didn't think it was… if ghosts were even real.

"Fine. No ghost burning." His mouth was full and he mumbled the words. "You'd burn the butcher to ash instead."

"I thought he wasn't the bad guy." Now I was doubly confused.

"Just eat your sandwich."

We turned on the movie and ate our sandwiches, and sure enough, there were a few jump scares. The butcher might not have been the "scary" element in the movie, but he did eat dead people, so that was extremely subjective. It was well done, though, and had us on the edge of our seats.

That was until Kai ended up using my lap as a seat.

"Fuck!" Kai yelped, nearly leaping out of his skin as the ghost flew up the butcher's nose.

In one swift motion, he ended up on my lap, his arms wrapped around me, his heart pounding against my chest. I could feel the tremble in his arms, the way his breath hitched slightly as he kept taking a look back at the screen before burying his face into me once more.

"Hey, we can turn it off," I murmured.

"It's fine, Seymour," he sighed. "I was just liking this seat better, is all."

And to be fair, I did too.

His fingers found the hem of my shirt, absently playing with it as he now watched the film.

"It's the going-up-the-nose thing, is all."

I thought back to the episode of his show where his coworker had a spider crawl in his ear, and it made sense. That was creepy for me to watch and I wasn't even there. Heck, I thought it was television magic.

We continued to watch the movie, but there was a shift. His hands went from playing with my hem to caressing my skin, and then when a not-so-scary scary moment appeared on the screen, he turned around and faced me "to be on the safe side."

My lips found the top of his head, peppering soft kisses into his hair before tracing a path down to his temple, then to the spot just beneath his jaw that always left him squirming and begging for more. Kai leaned in, and I pressed my mouth against his in a tender, deepening kiss.

As our lips moved in sync, the butcher completely forgotten, the sound of the action on screen drowned out by the sound of our mingling breaths. My hands started to explore, skimming over the fabric of his shirt, feeling the warmth of his skin beneath. Kai moaned into my mouth, a subtle shift of weight guiding my hand lower, past the waistband of his pants.

There wasn't a day I didn't look at him and wonder what I did to make fate shine so favorably upon me. Kai was everything I wanted in a mate and more.

With each button undone, each zipper lowered, we peeled away layers. There had been a time in the beginning when I'd have frozen now, worried that I might be crossing a line, not with Kai, but with Gideon and Dante. Now? Now I suspected that they were both looking forward to hearing the recap later.

The world narrowed down to the taste of Kai.

"Se-Se... Seymour," he gasped between ragged breaths.

"I've got you." I went to my knees in front of him, taking him into my mouth.

It had been too long since I'd made him come with my mouth, and by too long I meant at least a day. But I couldn't get enough of him. I sucked him, licked him, bobbed my head up and down his length, swallowing each time he reached the back of my throat.

His hand came up behind me, and he wove his fingers through my locks, not guiding me, but holding on as if he were afraid I'd disappear.

I wouldn't. I had a mission to accomplish, and gods, what a great one it was.

I savored the salty-sweetness, the way he swelled and twitched, reacting to every flick, every suckle. I could hear his hitched breaths, feel the way his thighs tensed, and an increased abundance of small, appreciative noises that escaped him.

And then, with a stifled groan, Kai succumbed to the sensation, spilling warmth into my mouth. I took everything he had to offer without hesitation, swallowing it whole, licking him clean, helping him ride out his orgasm.

As his shaking subsided, I slowly made my way back up to face him, where he pulled me in for a searing kiss before bringing his lips to my ear. "My turn for dessert."