The Problem Client

by K P Maxwell

  Ty’s eyes avert to the side, and he looks embarrassed about something. “My teeth,” he repeats. “I can make them sharp.”

  “You can?” Damien breathes, and he’s really got to sit down and have a talk with Ty later about all of the wolfy things Ty can do.

  Ty nods, pressing his eyes shut. He opens them again, looking up at Damien. He must like what he sees because he relaxes, and Damien smiles down at him.

  “Well, do your thing then!” Damien says, cheerfully, and Ty chuckles, sitting up, lifting the entire weight of Damien’s body with his core strength, and isn’t that sexy?

  “You sure about this?” Ty says, as Damien scoots into a better position. “You can’t take this shit back, you know.”

  Damien nods, more sure of it than anything he’s done in his life.

  In a way, it feels like the first time he met Melanie. She wanted him to wait, too, then. To wait to make his decision. But Damien doesn’t like to wait. He tilts his neck, like he’s expecting Ty to bite it. Ty stares down at it and huffs a laugh.

  “Here,” he says, and he gently takes Damien’s hand instead. He brings it up to his mouth.

  “You want me to do it to you?” he asks, eyes looking up at Damien, still unsure.

  Damien nods, “Yes, I trust you,” he says.

  And then Ty takes Damien’s thumb into his mouth, and the sight alone is so erotic that Damien nearly groans. He feels a sting, and wow, Ty’s teeth are much sharper now, and then it’s over. Ty’s eyes are glassy, pupils blown wide with desire. Damien pulls his hand back carefully, somehow reluctant. He presses a kiss to Ty’s mouth, mindful of the sharper teeth, and Ty groans into it. His cock twitches with interest, and Damien pulls back again, panting.

  Ty reaches his own thumb up to his mouth, biting down on it as well. His breathing is heavy now, too. He pulls his hand away from his mouth, and Damien’s eyes track the motion. He has half a reflex to lick the wound on Ty’s thumb, and when he looks back up at Ty, the other man is just watching him.

  “Well?” Damien asks, voice breathy. “What now?”

  “It just has to be given freely between us,” Ty says, but he doesn’t make any movement, as if he doesn’t want to impose. Damien wants to impose. Damien wants Ty to belong to him. Damien feels reckless with it. Mine, he thinks, and he finds Ty’s hand, interlocking their fingers together, pressing his thumb against Ty’s. Ty’s eyes widen.

  Damien’s not sure why at first, but then he feels it. Something snaps into place suddenly, and he feels warm all over, like something fizzy is creeping up along his arm and then all throughout his body. Ty’s grip on his hand tightens. He growls.

  “Damien, I –” Ty says voice rough, and Damien nods. He feels it, too. Ty pulls him in for a messy kiss, and it feels amazing. The sensation of Ty’s skin against him feels amplified somehow by the magic. With every shift, every breath, warm heat spreads up his spine. Damien wants to drown in it. He feels desperate with it.

  Damien frantically reaches over to the side table to find the lube again, nearly knocking it off. He’s still naked from the night before, and he reaches down, pushing his own fingers inside himself.

  “You’re killing me,” Ty says, and he grabs Damien’s other hand, the one with the cut, and sucks Damien’s thumb into his mouth. Damien moans, unable to control himself as he fucks himself down onto his own fingers.

  “Sit on my cock,” Ty says, releasing Damien’s hand and Damien slides his fingers out, scrabbling at Ty’s boxers. Ty helps him get the material out of the way, and then Damien’s climbing back on top of him again, stroking more lube over Ty’s hot, hard shaft. And then Ty’s hands are on his hips, guiding him down, down, down.

  Damien feels like he could melt from the inside out with the pleasure. He rides Ty hard and fast, unable to stop, and Ty helps him out when his legs start shaking. He lifts Damien’s weight up, fucking into him. Damien’s head falls back, and he comes completely untouched, fire burning in his veins, his release spilling over Ty’s abs. Ty’s own release is molten inside him.

  Damien feels lit up with desire, like he could go again, but his body’s protesting at the abuse. He must make a small noise of discomfort because Ty gently lifts him off, chuckling as he helps Damien to lie down beside him on the bed. He grabs the washcloth again, gently cleaning them both off.

  When he’s finished, Ty runs his fingers through Damien’s hair, grinning widely, happy in a way that Damien’s not sure he’s ever seen before. Damien can feel the connection running between them still, something warm and delightful. Something permanent. He snuggles up against Ty’s chest, and Ty hums contentedly.

  His mate, Damien thinks, giddy. Damien really hopes no one thinks to look for him, because he’s enjoying just being here with Ty.

  Ever since moving back into the café, he got back into his old schedule, but he has a suspicion that since Ty came through one of Melanie’s doors last night, Melanie knows he’s here and will leave them alone.

  A while later, they’re still laying in bed, and Ty’s running his hands through Damien’s hair, brushing his fingers across Damien’s temple. The magic’s faded for the most part, but there’s still a thrumming in Damien’s head. He wonders if they traded blood again if it would be like that again. He wonders a lot of things.

  Like, for example, if Ty’s just missing all of his meetings today, because it’s a Friday, and Damien knows for a fact that Ty usually goes into his office on Fridays.

  “Damien I –,” Ty says, as if he can see the question in Damien’s eyes. “I’ll do better,” he finishes, and Damien nods, nuzzling against Ty’s neck.

  “You work too much,” he says, but it’s lighthearted. Damien knows he has similar tendencies, so it’s hard to judge the other man.

  Ty shrugs, and lets his hand rest on Damien’s chest. Damien likes the warm pressure of it.

  “It’s no excuse,” Ty says, and then after another moment. “We should find a place together. Closer to the café.”

  Damien looks up at him then, searching his eyes and seeing nothing but affection in them. He melts at the expression on Ty’s face.

  “Yeah?” he asks, and Ty grunts in reply.

  “Yeah,” Ty confirms. “We can ask Melanie to fix you up something, if you want. Like a door to the café that you could use whenever. So you wouldn’t even have a commute if you don’t want one.”

  “She can do that?” Damien asks, and Ty nods.

  “She’s done something like that before,” he says. “I know she’d do it for you if we asked.”

  “We wouldn’t even have to get a new place then,” Damien says, but Ty shakes his head.

  “I want to,” Ty says. “And I can move my office.” He waves a hand. “There’s no reason I need to work out of that building.” He grins, looking mischievous. “Maybe I’ll just buy us a whole building.”

  Damien shakes his head, laughing. “Please don’t do that,” and Ty just keeps smiling at him, not saying yes or no. Eventually Damien rests his head against Ty’s chest again, enjoying the sensation of Ty’s skin against his own. He’s not sure if it’s the leftover magic or just a feeling that will stay with the presence of the bond.

  “So we can try again?” Ty asks eventually, and his voice has a pleading tone to it.

  “Of course,” Damien says. “I mean I am stuck with you now, right?” He grins as he sits up, pressing a kiss against Ty’s mouth. Ty smiles back against his lips, growling a little bit at the statement, and Damien can’t help but laugh.

  Damien likes the idea. He can live with Ty and work at the café. Ty can have an office close by, and maybe Damien can help him run his business a little better. Damien can have his own personal door to the café, so he can stop by any time he’d like. Kaz is right. Damien’s sure Melanie would say yes, if he just asked.

  Damien wants to have the best of both worlds, and Damien always gets what he wants.

  Epilogue

  Ty does, in fact, buy them a building.

&nb
sp; The building is only a few blocks from Café Seuil, and there’s a popular Indian restaurant at the bottom of it with office space next door and several residential units above. When they were looking for apartments, Ty showed him the largest residential unit and the office space below it, and it was so perfect that Damien said yes immediately. Ty grinned in a way that made Damien think that he was up to no good, and only when he showed Damien the details of the contract did Damien realize that Ty had planned to buy the entire building from the get-go. He really shouldn’t have been surprised.

  He’s also delighted to find out that Ty knows the owners of the restaurant. They live in one of the apartments above the building with their son and daughter, and they are shifters as well. Wolves, but apparently a different kind than Ty’s and Eli’s pack.

  Damien had no idea there was such a variety of shifters, and all living in Portland. He’s realized in the past few months of being bonded to Ty that there was a whole lot that Ty left out regarding Portland’s shifter population. In fact, it seems like there’s a lot more to magical Portland than he could have ever imagined. Melanie’s café is just the surface.

  It’s the middle of summer before they move in, and some of the guys from the café help them move the furniture in. Kaz and Ty have even started to tolerate each other. For the most part.

  Damien loves their new apartment. He walks to work in the mornings and back home in the evenings. Sometimes Ty stops in to the café for staff lunch or a coffee on the house. Now that Damien knows what to look for, it’s amusing to watch other shifters react to Ty. Ty really is well known in the shifter community.

  And living with Ty…

  Now that Ty’s office is in the same building as their apartment, Damien can poke his head in, make him stop working when he forgets, bring in takeout for dinner when Ty needs to work late. Damien also sees how many shifter clients Ty has, how many people in the community rely on him. Ty, Melanie, and Eli have some sort of system going, and Ty’s started to let Damien in on it. Melanie finds interesting cases via whatever mysterious means she uses, Eli provides medical care to shifters who can’t go to a regular doctor for any reason whatsoever, and Ty tends to clean up messes. Damien tends to just help keep Ty’s business in line since Ty has a habit of scaring off all of his assistants. A lot of it is very illegal, but not in the way that Liam imagined when he first found out that Damien was dating Ty.

  Damien’s still thinking about Kaz’s suggestion – to ask Melanie, or maybe even Ty for help. To work on getting a business degree. He likes the idea, but he hasn’t registered for classes yet. For now, he works at the café and helps Ty with his business. He’s still helping Melanie look for that new pastry chef. It’s surprisingly difficult to find someone who meets all of their specific criteria. Or perhaps not surprising at all.

  It’s late summer, and the sky’s still bright on Damien’s walk home, well past the time they close up the café. He sees the light on in Ty’s office, so he stops by there first, swiping his keycard on his way into the office space.

  Damien’s surprised to see a well-dressed man in a very expensive suit sitting across Ty’s desk from him, and Ty’s expression is serious. Ty looks up at Damien, and the serious expression immediately melts into something warmer.

  “Damien,” Ty says, smiling, and the man sitting across from him turns his head back. His profile is striking. He’s handsome in a cold way, all of his features schooled into something unreadable.

  The man stands, running his hand down the front of his suit in a habitual gesture to smooth it, and he’s as tall as Damien is, maybe a bit taller, even, and he radiates power.

  “We were just talking about a problem that my friend has here,” Ty says, and Damien’s immediately fascinated. What kind of problem could a man like this have, he wonders.

  Damien inclines his head. “I’m happy to help,” he says, and the man nods, eyes cool.

  “Nathaniel Lawrence,” the man says, holding out his hand, and the spark of recognition hits Damien immediately.

  Well, this is going to be all kinds of interesting, he thinks, and as he shakes the other man’s hand, Ty grins widely at him. Damien’s always up for a challenge.

  * * *

  THE END

  Thanks for reading!! If you enjoyed this book, it would mean a lot to me if you considered leaving an honest review at your preferred retailer.

  * * *

  As a first time author, I also welcome feedback directly at kp@kpmaxwell.com.

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  The Men of Café Seuil series continues with The Fake Boyfriend (Book 2), which will feature Liam’s story. To be notified when it becomes available, please sign up for my mailing list: https://kpmaxwell.com/newsletter.

  About the Author

  KP lives in the Pacific Northwest with several fluffy creatures. She drinks too much coffee and enjoys cooking and gardening. This is KP’s first book.