by Jo Penn
No one was ever just one thing, so Tyler wasn’t only the lively youngest vampire prince who gave cheek, pulled pranks and teased others. It was good that Constantin saw this and paid some attention.
Keeping hold of his mate, Tyler pulled Constantin out of their bedroom and through the suite to the small kitchen. While he liked a good pizza with lots of everything, Constantin wouldn’t. He was a vegan and only ate organic. Tyler had gone grocery shopping with Archie and between them, they’d returned with Slushies, some snacks, and organic fruit. Grocery shopping was harder than it appeared. So he’d given a list to one of Misha’s many assistants, who grumbled and said she’d organize it. Then the chefs here at the coven made up some meals and the rest of the food Tyler stocked the fridge and cupboards with.
“What do you feel like?” Tyler opened the fridge and waved a hand at it. He wouldn’t mind an Alfredo fettuccine pasta and looked through the freezer to see if he’d eaten all the pre-made meals.
The Durand coven had gotten the idea to make extra meals and supply them to all members of the coven from the Aston Estate across the road. Tyler thought it an awesome move as now he just put in a few requests and his freezer got stocked. Cool!
“I’m not just going to do what you tell me, you know that, right?”
Tyler paused in his rummaging through the freezer to see his mate watching him closely. Tyler grinned and winked.
“Sorry, sweets, I can be a little bossy. It’s a fault, I know. Syndal, my sister, tells me often. I can’t drop the possessive behavior and occasional dominance, though. That’s ingrained in my biology, just like eating organic is for you.”
Constantin seemed to mull that over as he turned back to the fridge and studied the contents. That was good, at least the mate had said something to Tyler instead of stewing over what bothered him. Tyler really didn’t like when people did that, one of his pet dislikes. He guessed everyone did it a bit but was glad Constantin hadn’t.
“Aha! Alfredo. Thought I had one left. What’re you having, sweets?”
“I’m not really hungry.”
Tyler looked his mate over. The man couldn’t weigh more than one five and that was with clothes on. And the only thing Constantin had eaten since Tyler picked his mate up and brought him to the coven was a light meal of mostly salad and a sandwich. Knowing his human would probably be annoyed if Tyler bossed, he could see they would clash over that. Constantin didn’t like to be bossed around and had a few issues with it while Tyler could be a little bossy at times but was working on it. He leaned a hip against the counter beside the fridge and threaded his fingers through his mate’s.
“Feeling okay?”
“Yeah, just tired.”
“Okay. I know this is a bit of an upheaval for you, Constantin, and you’re probably tired and out of sorts. Just do me a favor and don’t skip meals. It’s not healthy.”
“Why do you say that? How do you know it’s not healthy to skip meals? For me, anyway?”
Tyler blinked and grinned. He liked this little quirk of his mate’s, who was normally so serious and not altogether chatty.
He was curious, though, liked answers. Probably why he was studying transport logistics, which would actually make Tyler’s head cave in.
“My Ma used to say it to me and when I questioned her, my brother Ryson researched and gave me a one hundred and forty-two page document on the importance of not skipping meals. I still have that somewhere, I think it’s saved under Ryson’s Answers on my computer if you wanna read it.”
“Ah…hmm, maybe later? I don’t think I could concentrate right now.”
Holy shit! Right, okay, Tyler better print that old report off. Or maybe he should text Ryson and see if his brother could do up a new one, specific for Constantin’s dietary needs.
He squeezed his mate’s fingers. “Choose something, we’ll eat then watch a movie until we fall asleep.”
Con chose a salad. Tyler pushed a gluten free, free range organic pasta at his mate instead. Con got that stubborn look in his chocolate brown eyes and glared. Tyler gave a beguiling smile and when that didn’t have any effect whatsoever, and knowing bossing wouldn’t wash with his mate, he went for directness and honestly. He was concerned his mate hadn’t eaten enough and after a big day, the upset and everything going on, he just wanted Constantin to eat.
Snatching the container, Constantin used the microwave first and sat down at the table. They didn’t have to keep touching now, the make-out session and being close for a few hours must have helped their fragile bond, but Tyler didn’t want to take any chances and hovered. Seeing his mate in pain earlier had been horrific for both of them.
They ate, Tyler teasing Constantin about his motorbike and dangerous driving which the human denied, saying he took calculated risks which had Tyler gaping over the inaccuracy of that statement. Yeah, he’d get bossy on the dangerous motorbike riding issue and his mate could lump it.
After finishing their meals, they cleaned up together. In the bedroom, Constantin chose a foreign movie with subtitles that made Tyler want to poke his right eye out. There wasn’t even any nudity! Why watch a foreign movie without nudity? It didn’t make any sense.
He probably talked most of the way through the film with his mate only responding a couple of times and shushing him the rest. He texted Ryson but Dimitri texted back saying the vampire was resting and would look at the research tomorrow. So he texted Archie, who filled him in on the latest gossip, then a few friends while the entire time he let his hands wander over his mate and finally they ended up snuggled together, legs tangled, Constantin sleeping.
Sitting up, he pulled off his own clothes—he was more than happy to sleep naked—and began on Constantin’s. Tyler managed to get his mate’s shirt off and was working on his jeans when Constantin woke.
“You can’t sleep in these skin tight jeans, sweets. Lift up so I can pull.”
“You’re just trying to get me naked,” Constantin murmured sleepily but lifted his ass anyway.
“Yeah, course I am. I’ve been trying for the last four months! Finally.” Tyler tossed the jeans across the room, not caring where they landed. “Now the briefs.”
“What? No…” Con gaped as Tyler wiped the briefs off.
“You are just so damn hot, sweets.” Tyler leaned down and flicked his tongue over Con’s left nipple.
It was the truth. Constantin was hot. He had those dark Mediterranean looks, and with his hair out of the mantail and curling around, he looked even sexier. Tyler couldn’t believe how fortunate he was. Fate knew her shit! The human was exactly the type he went for, so perfect, his skin soft and smooth, his hair silky and those lips he could devour, and did, drawing happy little pleasure sounds from his gloriously naked mate.
Tyler hadn’t missed that fact. Hell no! And his hands and eyes were taking full advantage as he worked his way down over Constantin’s stubborn jaw, his throat that just begged to be bitten and claimed, over the slender chest and down that flat stomach. All natural, no big muscles, just beautiful lean toning. Perfect.
He slid his hands over that smooth skin, the slight indents here and there, the tucked in waist and down further to springy dark curls that had a nice medium size dick begging to be fondled and sucked.
“Wait, Tyler, wait.” Constantin grabbed Tyler’s hands and held them still.
“I can’t tempt you?” Tyler gazed into those brown eyes that reminded him of melted dipping chocolate and felt his heart give some more.
He was falling hard for his mate. That was bound to happen and after the last four months following, studying and spending time with Constantin, Tyler was already completely smitten with the human and loved him. Was in love.
“Yeah, you’re the only one who has tempted me for a long time.”
Constantin smiled and brushed hair back from Tyler’s face. That smile felt like it burst through Tyler, lighting him up and chasing away any lingering reservations or concerns. This man was his. His mate. His one true
love. Gods, the fates had been so damn good to Tyler.
Pressing a light kiss to his mate’s lips, Tyler changed position so he was lying beside Constantin. “I’m so glad I can tempt you. I’ll try again tomorrow. Night, sweets.”
Constantin laughed, just a soft little whoosh of breath, but it made Tyler feel he’d done something right.
* * * *
Tyler woke alone. He didn’t like that, especially as he hadn’t even felt Constantin get out of their bed or sense him leave their room. They also needed to remain physically close so as to strengthen the bond between them.
Jumping up, Tyler sniffed deep. The scent of his mate was strong in the room, which was either because the human had just been here, or it lingered from the hours they’d spent here last night. Whichever, didn’t matter, Tyler reminded himself, rolling his eyes mentally and following the scent along the short hall, through the living room and into the dining room converted to their study. He smiled seeing his gorgeous mate seated at the desks Tyler set up so carefully so as to have everything his mate could possibly need.
He knew it was a big deal that Constantin had to give up his home, his life as it had been because he was Tyler’s mate and wanted to make the transition easier where he could. A place for them to study together was the simplest for Tyler to do.
“Why the frigging bloody hell won’t this calculation work—fuck, of course!” Constantin muttered, glaring between a battered old textbook, a sheet of paper and a calculator.
Hmm, looked like Tyler had missed a few things. He’d gotten a new desktop computer for Constantin, plus a laptop and had the tech guys at the coven set up everything, including the online version of the texts Constantin would need for his classes. But Tyler had forgotten his mate had out of date textbook editions and not let the human know to use the computer instead.
“Morning, sweets.” Tyler walked over and kissed his mate’s cheek.
“C-clothes, Tyler,” Constantin mumbled, face flushing.
Chuckling, he caressed his mate’s hair. “How long have you been up?”
“I don’t know. What’s the time?”
“Eight.”
“About three and a half hours. Err, clothes?”
Tyler was shocked. “But that’s…four-thirty in the morning! Why did you get up so early?”
“Study. Clothes!”
Laughing, Tyler turned and walked back toward the door. He wiggled his butt. “Am I tempting you, mate?”
“Distracting.” Constantin peeked out from under his curls, eyes glued to Tyler’s body.
“Good. Next time wake me up.”
“Bossy.” Constantin locked his jaw stubbornly, eyes lingering on Tyler’s arms.
Hmm, was his mate an arm and chest man? Cool. Tyler could use that. Then he remembered about the old textbooks.
“Log on to your computers, the instructions are in the blue folder beside the desktop screen. You’ll see downloaded copies of your textbooks, the newest editions.”
Chocolate brown eyes narrowed and the stubborn jaw locked even more. “I don’t need—”
“Yeah, you do and accept my gift, sweets. I’m a paranormal. What is mine is yours. I’ll get dressed and we’ll go down to the family dining room for breakfast.”
Tyler took his time showering, styling his hair, shaving the bit of chin fluff that deemed to grow there and choosing his clothes. As his mate liked arms and chests, and as promised Tyler would try and tempt his mate again today, he chose a white collared thin linen shirt that fitted like a second skin. He rolled the sleeves up to just before the elbows and matched this with colored pale blue skintight jeans and Skechers. While he liked to hang around in board shorts and singlets, Tyler was admittedly a clothes horse and often overdressed. He tried to encourage Misha to also, but his brother was more sedate, always some boring, stylish suit that yeah, looked fantastic, but didn’t show how his brother had a wicked sense of humor.
Now Ryson knew how to dress! Tyler and Ryson spent hours shopping together, much to Dimitri’s displeasure. Val Baby, not so much. Tyler’s other brother was…a bit anti-style and more evil bad boy. Suited the vampire but Val Baby went out of his way to downplay his looks as much as possible, which Ryson, Tyler, and their mother just couldn’t understand.
There hadn’t yet been time for all of Constantin’s belongings to be set up in the suite. There was only an overnight bag with a change of clothes, which Constantin was currently wearing, and all the clothes and accessories Tyler had enjoyed purchasing for his mate.
And the damn human had ignored them!
Going back to the study, he sighed and slapped his own head.
Stupid, stupid move, Tyler. Now his mate was engrossed in the computer and would probably give Tyler a difficult time trying to budge him.
And he did. Constantin waved Tyler away, protested, glared, got snappish and gave Tyler the finger. With a hiss Tyler threatened to turn off the computer and alarmed Constantin so much the mate quickly saved what he was working on and argued that Tyler didn’t get to boss him around.
“Breakfast! Aren’t you hungry? And why are you wearing that? There’s a trillion clothes in your walk in wardrobe—”
“Not mine.” Constantin glared when Tyler reached past and flicked the computer off. “Hey!”
“Look, I get that going downstairs and mingling with a bunch of vampires may be a bit overwhelming, but they’re my family, yours now, too. And I’m starving. So go shower and change.” Tyler winked. “I’ll even get some clothes out for you ready.”
Constantin stood and, surprising Tyler, moved close and angrily got in his face.
“I’m not a dress up doll, Tyler. You either like me the way I am or—”
“Oh, shove it,” Tyler hissed, now getting in Constantin’s face. “Or you’ll what? Wear clothes you know I won’t like just to disrespect me? You’ll leave me? What, Constantin? I don’t like threats and I don’t back down from them. So you said yesterday not to lie and be deceitful, well, same goes.”
“How am I being deceitful?” Constantin stepped back cautiously, eyes darting around, possibly looking for an escape route.
Man, all Tyler had wanted was to tempt his mate, have the human close and spend some time together. Why was that so hard and turned into a fight?
“Because I don’t believe you’re all that hung up about clothes you’d deliberately threaten me with things over them.” Tyler took a deep breath. “If you’re worried about going downstairs, just tell me and we can talk. Hell, I don’t care if we stay in the suite all day by ourselves.”
Actually, that sounded like the perfect plan! And it may very well help Constantin settle in better. Tyler didn’t have a problem hanging out with creatures he didn’t know, he didn’t have a problem turning up at functions and mingling, but he got that some people did.
Not that he felt Constantin had difficulties in social settings, other than what the mate wanted to have. He may be cautious and standoffish, but that was partly a barrier the human used to keep others at a distance. And he wasn’t very good at it. Sure, he’d chased off many a potential suitor from what Tyler observed since first spotting his mate four months ago simply by being irritable, a bit snappish and unapproachable. Some creatures had attempted to get past that barrier and been shut down. Not harshly, though, just a simple thanks but no thanks, avoiding and not returning calls.
Beneath the caution and barrier, there was a good person who wanted to keep some distance between himself and others, and now it made sense why. Aside from a wicked fucked-up family, Constantin was inundated with knowing when creatures lied and deceived. That would suck, and wasn’t a lot different from what Tyler himself got bombarded with when keeping his mind gift open. He’d just learnt to control it from a young age, whereas Constantin hadn’t.
Tyler would protect his mate from that by showing him how to shut the gift down when he didn’t want it.
What Tyler had seen was goodness in his mate’s mind. Resistant sometimes, yes
, and still cautious, but when someone was desperate, Constantin would help. Like his current and past housemates. All of them had nowhere to live, had no money and lost jobs at some stage and Constantin let them live at his house, covered the bills until they got back on their feet, helped with costs and though he wasn’t a pushover about it, he helped when there weren’t many who would.
That was awesome.
Constantin was looking at his feet that were covered in scruffy socks with holes in the big toe. He peeked at Tyler through the curls hanging over his forehead and eyes.
“Yeah? You don’t mind? What about your family and friends?”
“I see them every day. I’m sure they need a break from me and if they don’t, they’ll just pop into the suite and hang for a time. How about it? I know we’ve got end of term just around the corner and need to study for exams, but why don’t we spend a few days getting to know one another properly?”
“Doing what instead?” Constantin asked suspiciously.
“Well, we can begin with me getting breakfast ready. It’s about the only time I actually do anything in the kitchen besides eat and drink. After we can talk and hang out. I can tell you about the coven and Milson City, the Valley and you can tell me about your studies and what you want to do with it when you’re finished.”
Constantin glanced around, ruffling his hair slightly with one hand. “Your brother said he wanted to talk to me about working for the coven.”
“Yep, and we’ll discuss that. I work for the coven. I’m in communications, pretty much like keeping communications between creatures open and fair as well as numerous other things I do. Press releases, scheduling meetings, research—lots. So, I’ll put breakfast on the table while you shower and dress, okay?”
He tagged the “okay” on the end so it didn’t sound like he was bossing. Constantin narrowed his eyes a moment, obviously suspicious, but nodded.