Chapter 8

G regori had no idea what had made Salem suddenly change his mind and let him stay. Something clearly had happened between their last argument and this morning. And while it wasn't what Gregori wanted, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He had the opportunity to stay with his mate without it turning into a fight. He'd take full advantage of the situation.

For a few days, he let the status quo be. He stocked up the kitchen with groceries so he could cook for Salem. His very busy pediatric surgeon needed more home-cooked meals.

In between housework and cooking, he tried to make more of a life for himself here as well. He went to the police first, introducing himself, and offered help as they needed it. They in turn introduced him to the fire department, who were delighted to see him. Fires were very prevalent in winter, as people's heating systems misfired and caused house fires on a fairly regular basis. Gregori, with his flying speed and ice magic, could smother those flames faster than conventional methods. He was very welcome with them.

Pleased he'd found a good way to spend his time—and made friends in the process—Gregori returned to the apartment in a very good mood. He hadn't had time to cook today, so he picked up pizza on the way in, along with a bottle of wine, with the hopes of tricking Salem into a home date. Should be easy; the man liked to eat.

He found the apartment door unlocked, and he could hear what sounded like Salem talking to someone.

Stepping inside, Gregori found the cutest sight ever. There was a little girl, no more than six, with flaming red hair lying in loose curls around her shoulders. She looked very distressed, her hands on Salem's knee, watching the proceedings with full attention.

Salem sat on the couch with thread, scissors, and a stuffed animal of some sort all laid out on the coffee table in front of him.

What the hell was going on?

Salem glanced up as he entered, shooting him a fleeting smile. "We're in surgery over here. Is that pizza?"

"Yeah, I picked up some on the way in. Surgery?" Gregori put the pizza on the table so he could come in closer and see this for himself.

Ah, it was a stuffed bunny. With its head completely detached. "Who guillotined the bunny?"

Salem snorted a laugh—the first one Gregori had heard from him. Aww, look at how cute he was.

The little girl was the one who answered. "Grammy washed Bun Bun 'cause she was sticky, but her head came off."

"Ohhh." This was no surprise, considering how well-loved Bun Bun looked.

"Grammy had me bring Bun Bun to Mister Doctor 'cause he knows how to sew."

Salem shrugged. "Comes with the territory. All right, I think we're ready to get Bun Bun's head back on."

Why did this look like an ongoing relationship? Gregori had met the neighbors on this floor already, and everyone had been very welcoming to him. Surprised he was with Salem, too, as they had assumed him to be a confirmed bachelor at this point. No one had mentioned Salem was the resident fixer of stuffed bunnies, but Gregori could tell she had been here before based on her easy body language. She'd made this request and gotten her stuffed animal fixed.

The way Salem deftly stitched the material, slowly reattaching head to body, also told its own story. He'd clearly done this before too, as he wasn't fumbling or hesitant.

Gregori studied his bowed head and marveled at his mate anew. Every day he spent with Salem, he saw some part of this man's heart. He'd already known Salem must have a big heart to be a pediatric surgeon. Watching his tired mate patiently fix the bunny for his neighbor's grandchild only highlighted how big.

Gregori suspected Salem kept him at arm's length because he had been burned by too many bad relationships in the past. If he could just get it through his mate's head that he'd never, ever hurt him, half the battle would be won. Gregori recognized a trauma response when he saw one. Not that Salem trusted him enough to talk about it openly.

Well, he had time. Really, they had all the time in the world. Gregori wasn't giving up on him. Salem's walls would come down on their own eventually, and Gregori would be able to love him properly. Right now, he just had to be patient.

"There!" Salem finished off the last knot and snipped the threads. "All done. Tell Grammy no more washing it in the washing machine, okay?"

"Okay!" She hugged her bunny to her chest, beaming. "Thanks, Mister Doctor!"

Then she darted out.

Gregori followed her to the door, watching as she went straight across the hall and into her grandmother's apartment. Safe and sound then, good. He closed and locked the door behind her, as he doubted they'd leave the apartment again tonight.

Salem immediately went for the pizza, then made oohing sounds.

"Wiiiine. Thank fuck. I need alcohol today. I'm so buzzed I can't settle or relax."

"Glad I got some, then."

Salem did a little happy dance as he grabbed glasses and plonked himself down at the table. He poured them both a glass before promptly sipping his.

"Ahhh, a good red goes down right. Where were you today?"

"Oh, signing up with the police department and fire station." Gregori accepted the offered glass and took a sip. Mm, the wine was delicious. He'd guessed the correct one to grab.

Salem paused with the lid to a pizza box half open. "Uhhh…why?"

"Well, they're in line with what I do. And I need something to occupy myself aside from feeding you and sexing you up."

"I mean, you're right, but why those two places?"

"Well, I'm a demolitions expert." Gregori shrugged. He was secretly very pleased at Salem's interest. This was the first time he'd ever asked Gregori any questions. "I figured the police was an obvious choice. And they agreed, but they also had me sign up with the fire department to help with all the house fires."

"Oh right, ice dragon magic. You'd be good at suppressing fires."

"That I am."

Salem gave a sage nod. "I bet they cried tears of joy when you signed up."

Gregori snorted a laugh, shaking his head as he grabbed some slices for himself. "I wouldn't go that far."

"The tears were secret, held inside."

"Uh-huh."

Salem consumed a full slice before asking, "What was the weirdest or best story when it comes to your job?"

"Hmm, I don't know about ‘best' but I do have a crazy one."

"Hit me."

"Well, this was while working with the Brazilian film studios, actually. I do freelance work with them if they've got a scene where something goes kablooey."

From Salem's expression, he hadn't expected this. "What, really?"

"Yup. They use explosives in some form or fashion sometimes to get the right effect, and they hire experts so it doesn't do actual damage. Kinda hard to blow up a car on camera without actually blowing up a car, if you get what I mean."

"Okay…so you're on a movie set, and…?"

"It was one of those crazy action movies. Not a blockbuster hit, either, although I saw the movie later and it wasn't half bad. Anyway, in this scene, a prop plane slams right into an eighteen-wheeler, and they both explode upon impact. Not exactly what would happen in real life, but movie magic at its finest, am I right? My job was to rig the whole thing so they would explode on impact. I talk with the crew, get things set up, we walk through angles and whatnot. Prop plane is actually on wires, with a massive crane guiding it in, so it can't go off the rails and hit something else. Takes a full day to set this up."

Salem looked very interested in where this was going.

Gregori put his pizza down, hands getting involved in the storytelling. "The only person not happy with me is the action director. He's wanting all sorts of impact from this scene. He kept arguing, telling me I wasn't using enough powder for him."

"Powder?"

"Powder explosives," Gregori elaborated. "Most pyrotechnic explosions are a mix of gunpowder, kerosene, and select minerals for some razzle dazzle. Like something you'd see in fireworks."

"Ohhh, gotcha."

"Anyway, he's arguing with me about this. He wants more of this, more of that, and I'm arguing back with him because what he wanted was insane. It would have blown up the whole set. I've never in my life raised my voice at someone like I did with him. He was being so stupid about the whole thing. I shut him down and told him I wasn't adding anything more to it. Like, I'd walk and break contract if he didn't let this go. He stomped off, fuming, and I thought that was the end of it."

Salem rolled his eyes. His mouth was full of pizza, but his expression said it all.

"Yeah. He didn't listen. Good guess. The bastard snuck back onto the set and added another twenty barrels of kerosene. Basically another two hundred gallons, as they were ten-gallon barrels."

"Oh my god!"

"I had no idea. I thought it was a done deal, right? I was only on set again the next morning to oversee everything, as I was still under contract. So we're all set up for filming, they get some cameras up close and running, but under protective bulletproof glass just in case. The action director was far closer to the set than he should have been, directing a camera, and I thought about saying something to him, but I just didn't want another argument. I figured, he's an adult, he's responsible for himself. And then it's lights, camera, action. Whole thing went kablooey."

Gregori spread his hands wide as he made an explosive noise. "Never mind having a burning plane and truck, they blew sky-high. Everyone was knocked down due to the shockwave, including me. The director and cameraman were so close, they took almost a direct hit. I scrambled up to my feet and immediately used ice magic to suppress the out-of-control fire. It damn near burned down the whole set before I could get it contained."

"Oh. My. God." Salem had stopped eating, riveted now. "Were they okay?"

"Well…mostly? The cameraman was largely protected by the camera in front of him and the protective shield, so he wasn't too bad off. Just a little scorched around the edges. The action director had been outside the shield, though, 'cause he kept popping in and out like a jackrabbit. He did not fare as well. His face and hands looked like he'd been on the beach cooking all day, he was so red. Eyebrows were clean burned off. As was some of his front hairline."

"Wait. Wait. He'd stepped away from the protective shield?"

"I didn't say he was smart."

A startled laugh erupted from Salem. "He must have looked comical."

"Oh, for sure. All the while, he kept babbling about how he hadn't added that much kerosene, it shouldn't have done that, yadda yadda. Honestly, if he hadn't confessed, I might have suffered the fallout. All of the evidence was burned, after all."

"Did he keep his job?"

"Oh, hell no. Man was promptly fired. Then sent to the hospital for treatment. No one trusted him afterward. I understand he had a hard time getting hired again."

"What, no one wanted to risk him blowing them up?"

"Hard to imagine, right?"

Salem snickered and sipped his wine. "It's damn lucky they hired you, above anyone else. You were able to put the fire out, after all. A human expert would have struggled to keep people safe."

"I am a favorite for them to hire for this reason."

"I bet."

He really did look entertained by this. In fact, this was the most relaxed Gregori had ever seen him. It made him want to capitalize on the whole situation.

"I've got the movie saved on my cloud drive, if you want to watch it."

"Wait, did they actually use the footage in the movie?"

"They did. Director said no sense in wasting it."

"Ha! That's hilarious." Salem paused, glass in hand, his expression one of temptation. "I don't understand Portuguese, though."

"I can turn on English subtitles."

"Oh, in that case, you're on."

Looked like his home date was going swimmingly. Gregori hid a smile behind his pizza. See? Pushing Salem was not the right choice. If he kept laying out breadcrumbs for the man, though, Salem would come to him in no time.

Gregori would bet on that.