by R. Cooper
Just when Ray couldn’t get away. He was going to kill Penn later. Or give Steve her number. Or maybe do that and then start a conversation about her mother.
Cal appeared in front of him, shimmering with so much glitter that it was momentarily blinding. He was eating a glazed donut with multicolored sprinkles but took half of it and held it up to Ray’s mouth.
Ray considered it, breathing in sugar before realizing that Penn was right, and he was starving. He gobbled it up, carefully minding his teeth and Cal’s fingertips. He studied Cal as he chewed, swallowed, looking him over, though any injuries would have healed by now.
“I’m sorry,” he said after he swallowed, and Cal seemed confused. “I couldn’t protect you from Steve… or Ross. I couldn’t get him out of the circle, and….” He still wasn’t sure what had happened actually. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I’ll fix your door.”
“What?” Cal hopped. “My door? The way I see it, you were going on instinct. Because you were, weren’t you? And you didn’t do too bad.” He smiled. It was almost… dreamy. “In fact, I didn’t think… you were…. I’ve never seen you as a full wolf before. It was…. Whoa.” He flushed, then cleared his throat. “Anyway.”
“You did good too.” Shockingly well. Ray tried to reach out, got tickled with sparkles for his trouble.
“That’s me, a total badass.” Cal flexed a bicep, then dropped the pose and shrugged. “I just… realized what you’d been trying to do, and I thought… I should try it too. No big deal, Ray.”
“You confronted a murderer in control of a demon, Honeysuckle. It is a big deal.” The teasing tone came back easily. Cal blinked, then fluttered his lashes, but Ray wasn’t about to let it go. “How did you? How did you get him out of the circle?”
“Oh, that.” Ray had a feeling he was being teased in return. “I talked to him. You know. Granted him the fairy-gift of truth. Which is simply noticing the obvious.” Cal hopped again, then leaned against the bed, warm like melted chocolate. His gaze was serious, for one moment, offering Ray a clue to something. “I told him how that wolf he had his eye on had been in love with me for a long time now, and everyone knew it and really, the only mystery was why that wolf hadn’t pounced despite all the green lights I’d been giving him.”
“Were those green lights? I hadn’t noticed.” Ray growled to cover his embarrassment. Of course Cal had known all this time. Cal flicked Ray’s nose with his fingers and then met his eyes without any embarrassment at all.
“Holding up traffic, Ray. Someone should have ticketed you.” He was so soft. Ray couldn’t stop staring, but Cal had always known that, so this time Ray let himself stare. Cal shrugged. “So then I went on about how I’d finally figured out that it must be some weird Were thing holding you back, and then how I’d gotten a clue from this other wer—anyway. I should have met some other Weres years ago. I learned a lot, though I still had to look up some stuff when I got home that morning. The morning after that night, Ray. That night.”
There was pink in Cal’s cheeks. Not embarrassment, more of a rush of heat. Pleasure. Glints of rapture in his eyes that were stunning in every sense of the word. “That night, Ray…. Then I may have mentioned how it was true about werewolf lovers. In detail. Ross wasn’t pleased.”
Ray let that sink in for a few minutes. Then glanced up. He still had to explain his “weird Were thing,” but Cal tutted and moved his fingers to rest over Ray’s mouth.
“So, Ray Ray, was that a distraction, what you said? The mate thing?”
Ray shook his head and scowled. He’d never lie about that. Ever.
“No.”
“Then I want to know now, Ray. What that means. Now. Not later or tomorrow. Now. What does that mean to you?” Cal couldn’t seem to catch his breath, and directed his gaze to his fingers against Ray’s mouth. “The stories, what I found, they all said for life.” He must have read the answer in Ray’s silence and suddenly looked up with a glare that made Ray flinch. “You should have told me. This whole time I’ve been trying to figure out why you wanted me, but didn’t want me enough to….”
“Of course I want you,” Ray pushed out against Cal’s fingers. He reached out, just for a moment, to hold Cal’s wrist and feel his pulse. Years of holding back made it stream from him. “I want you. I want you more than anything else, I….” Cal had to at least understand what Ray felt before he left. “You looked up what Mate means?” He knew he had before Cal nodded in response. Knowing Cal, he’d looked it up in graphic and instantly memorized detail.
“Then you know I need you. Only you. Just you. But… I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable. I never intended you to know. It’s why I didn’t—I’m not Ross. I’d never force that on you.”
“Uncomfortable?” Cal wrinkled his nose. “Hold up. Scroll back. I thought—you barely tolerate me. Despite being madly in love with me that is. You growled at me the first moment you saw me.”
“No, I—” Ray stared at him, watched Cal figure it out, Ray’s pathetic attempt to protect himself, protect Cal.
“You son of a bitch.” Cal paused and pulled his hand back. He looked absolutely devastated. “Oh, how could you? How could you pretend to not like me?”
“You terrify me.”
His honesty seemed to have Cal perplexed. “But I’m a fairy.”
“Exactly. I was sort of helpless in the matter,” Ray admitted hoarsely, and then blinked dry eyes when that statement made Cal snap out of his devastation long enough to look even more confused, and then to preen. “You see, I thought…. Well, I thought…. Fairies.”
Cal’s scowl was starting to return, and Ray swallowed.
“Fairies don’t want…. They just don’t. But even with that, there’s nothing I don’t love about… fairies… even when you run out of my house without any clothes on, or put yourself in danger when you shouldn’t have.”
A murderer in control of a demon. He couldn’t believe it. Cal was trying, valiantly, to hold still. Ray could not have loved him more. “The rest… I’m sorry. I thought—I’m sorry, Cal.”
He looked down.
“I can’t change how I feel, obviously, but if you don’t mind, I’ll just continue to… want… you. Without pressuring you or….”
“If I don’t mind?” Cal looked extremely disgruntled and then climbed up without asking, clambering onto the bed, which was already too small and settling himself up against Ray’s side, his face in his face. “That is what I want, you silly, silly puppy. I have been trying to tell you that since like day one. Since day three. Since your bathroom. Since laying eyes on you.”
“Really?” Ray could blame the drugs or the lack of real rest for allowing himself to ask that. He felt stupid, but he often did around Cal. “I thought you just wanted to sleep with me. I didn’t think….” Cal’s face clouded, and Ray quickly tried to move on. He tried to think over those moments, but he was too used to pushing them away. “I don’t understand. I thought you….” Because he hadn’t had enough embarrassment for one day, he couldn’t stop talking.
“Take me, you said. Remember?”
Cal blinked, his expression clearing and then turning so hopeful Ray already knew he was going to say yes to whatever Cal asked him. But his heart was thundering so loudly that he almost didn’t hear Cal’s question.
“Are you asking to see the truth, Ray Ray?”
Nasreen had been wrong. There was so much power over Ray in the simple nickname Cal had given him. The first time he had said it, Ray had been naked for him, or almost, but he always felt naked around Cal. That wasn’t new.
What was new were the questions he wanted to ask.
“Yeah, Cal.” But he was already flinching at the memory of being alone with Cal, the realization, the panicked, raw thought that Cal couldn’t understand and wouldn’t want him in return. He looked over, saw Cal looking at him like he was a bonbon, like he was barely holding on until he could tear away gold foil. “What do you see?” His throat was so hoarse.
“You.” Cal’s tone was both delighted and serious. “But oh, Ray, not now. You’re not at your best right now. They keep telling me you should be sleeping.”
“Yes, now.” Ray had a feeling he was frowning. “You’re just like your father. You know that, right?”
“How dare you?” Cal’s hand left Ray’s side, then immediately returned. “No wonder my mother warned me about charming Weres.”
“Did she really?”
“No.”
“Does she still love your dad?”
“Yes.” Cal didn’t hesitate. Ray wished he understood why Cal sometimes did and sometimes didn’t. Why he’d wait for Ray. Why he’d wait so long.
“So tell me the truth.” It was a good thing it hurt to breathe. It meant he could stop without missing it.
Cal’s hand started to stroke over his hip, didn’t stop until Ray was breathing again, breathing him in.
“Do you remember the first time I was in your cave, Ray? In your house?”
Ray might have nodded. Cal only smiled so brightly that Ray felt it in his lungs.
“Then once upon a time, I rudely invited myself into your lair….” Cal began, and Ray frowned at the hazy sparkle at the edge of his vision, behind his eyelids. The air tightened. It was a spell after all, fairy magic.
“No, that’s not everything, but it will do for now.” Cal coughed and dropped his voice. It was a lot like Penn’s singing voice, melodic, filled with hidden notes to make you listen. “Once upon a time, you were very, very angry with me, Ray, and I couldn’t figure out why because I’d just met you, and I’d been nothing but nice.”
Ray remembered him as being a little too nice. Cal shushed any protests by continuing.
“And you had just ushered out a pretty, youngish friend of yours, and you were all frustrated and lovely and sexy, remember?”
He did. Well, he remembered showing Lex out and then turning to face the half-fairy that had been assigned to work with him a few days ago. “I’m not sure about lovely and sexy, but I remember being frustrated.”
“Trust me. You were. But stay with that, Ray. You were frustrated. Remember.”
And he did.
The moment the door closed behind Lex, Ray crossed his arms and faced his uninvited guest. His posture was defensive and he knew it. It only left him more agitated. He wasn’t even sure why.
He’d never had a problem with fairies before, but this one put him on edge, filled him with a confusing mix of instincts, grab and hurt and hold and lick and pounce, and if it had been just sex, he might have done it, but the violence in him, the need, was new.
He didn’t understand it, and he didn’t like it. The fairy in front of him was pretty, beautiful, attractive, sexy, but Ray had met pretty before without wanting to growl at it, rip its clothes away and kiss it senseless.
The sound of his heavy breathing felt too obvious, and he tried to control himself. He thought of the state of the moon outside, wondering if that was to blame for the way he felt, or if it was something about the creature in his living room.
Cal Parker’s multicolored eyes stayed on the door for a moment longer, as though considering the now-departed Lex, and then they fixed on Ray, swirling with innocence. A moment after that they dropped, again, to the bare expanse of Ray’s chest. Parker gave a hum of approval, as though determined to embarrass Ray as much as he possibly could in one day, and then, unbelievably, inched forward.
As the memory of their fight that afternoon was fresh in Ray’s mind, Ray let out the growl that had been building in his chest. He could still see Parker in the middle of the station, demanding Ray’s attention by parking his fabulous ass on his desk and announcing that it was so obvious that the person threatening the Prescott family and harassing their patriarch wasn’t human, but if all the detectives didn’t want to believe him, then it was fine, he could leave. He didn’t want to be there anyway.
Ray had stood up, pushing the half-fairy from his desk with one hand and swallowing back his exclamation at the warmth under Parker’s skin and the wide-eyed welcoming look he’d received, even after being rough, had told Parker squarely that if he didn’t want to be there, no one was making him stay.
He was volunteering his time, had only come in on the case at the instigation of his father, there was no need for any dramatic speeches or even any anger on Ray’s part. But when Parker had glanced at him, wings flapping, his mouth open in an expression of soft, shocked sadness, and asked if Ray really wanted him to go, Ray had snapped. Told him to leave if he wanted to go so much, that they didn’t need any miserable fairies hanging around.
It wasn’t like anyone expected fairies to stick around. And this one hadn’t. With a twitch of his wings, Cal Parker had taken himself out of the police station and hadn’t looked back.
Ray was suddenly hot all over again, burning with not-quite temper and the powerful urge to crush the delectable pop tart in front of him to the nearest hard surface and make him want to stay. He wasn’t feeling subtle either, but just reached down to pull up the pants loose around his hips. He hadn’t buttoned them when he’d rushed to get the door ten long minutes ago, and the zipper was starting to slowly inch back down.
For a second, he almost heard it give another tiny fraction and as though he did, too, Cal Parker’s gaze went right to Ray’s crotch.
Ray growled. Again. He’d never growled this much at someone he knew didn’t really deserve it.
“I ought to announce that I don’t believe in fairies,” he snarled, aware that he was being ridiculous, that he was referencing a children’s book, and Tinkerbell and Never Never Land had no place in an adult argument, and Parker gasped dramatically.
“That hurts. What if that book had been in any way factual, and you’d killed me with that remark?” And there, amid every other emotion crowding Ray’s mind, was the need to laugh. He didn’t understand it, but what drove him insane in public was nearly unmanageable in the privacy of his living room. Cal Parker was twinkling at him, grinning at what Ray hadn’t meant as a joke but that suddenly was.
“Then I would have clapped real hard,” Ray informed him, not smiling, because he would have. Cal—Parker—smiled for both of them, slow and hot.
“You would have, wouldn’t you? I had a feeling you were a big softie.”
“I….” Ray had to change the subject, regain control. “I thought you quit the case.” It was a mistake to breathe out. It meant he had to breathe in, and his house still reeked of fucking, sweat/come/need, sex now infused with rosewater booze and divinity candy. He had the fleeting thought that Parker was drunk, but even sober, he probably would have spoken the same way.
“Are you always like this, Detective? He, your friend, had bruises. Were you rough? Are you rough? In bed?” Those eyes came to rest on Ray’s face, desire evident even through the half-fairy’s glitter haze. “Please say you are. Let’s play Red Riding Hood, and I can talk about what a big—”
“Parker.” Ray swallowed, the always-ravenous wolf inside ready for more, and there was such a tasty, sexy half-fairy in front of him. He felt alive with that scent near.
What he’d been going to say was lost in the hot cloud of lust and licorice whips, bold interest like lightning strikes seen through a window. Flashes of light and heat that coincided with the spikes of need curling in Ray’s belly. Ray had never felt anything like it, and yet in the past three days, since meeting Cal Parker, he’d felt it every time their eyes had met.
Parker suddenly straightened, though he lowered his voice. “Oh yeah, rough like a big dog. Rrrrufff. Not always, but sometimes, right, Branigan?” he asked in all seriousness. “You left little marks all over him, and he’s just a fuck buddy. He’s not even spending the night.” Parker was alarmingly on target, watching Ray with eyes that shouldn’t be so smart. Ray tried to think past the strange flurry of sensations, to how Cal’s father had promised his son was smarter than Ray would ever believe, and how Ray hadn’t seen it until just now.
> “What a lucky guy, though. I’m willing to overlook your personal dislike of me, or is it fairies in general, if you’d ever want to help me get that lucky, Branigan.”
He slid a hand to his flat stomach, just like that, pushing up his shirt and then working a finger into the waistband of his jeans. He tugged. Ray saw skin, pale gold and smooth.
“What—” Ray seemed to have lost his ability to focus on anything but Cal. “I like fairies,” he admitted weakly. “They’re fun. Good to drink with. I—” For a second he wondered if he was dealing with some kind of incubus instead of the child of a fairy and a human cop. He saw that skin and thought of the marks, only a few, that he had left on Lex, and how he could leave anything he wanted on Cal Parker and it would heal in moments. He could grip his hips and suck him down and drive him out of his not-so-ditzy fairy mind.
Cal would like that. Ray knew it without asking. Even before Ray did anything with his mouth, Cal would be reaching for him and begging for more. He didn’t know how he knew, his senses told him it was true, and so it was. It was frightening, and Ray didn’t frighten easily.
He took a step back, scowling at the creature in front of him, but Cal didn’t seem to notice.
“Well that’s good to hear, Detective. My dad said you were one of the best. That you are understanding to Beings, which makes sense, I suppose, because you are one, though I’ve met a few self-haters. But you’ve been an unbelievable hard ass to me for the past three days, so I thought maybe you were a prick after all. You like fairies, huh?” Parker… it wasn’t Ray’s imagination, Parker’s glitter was shining. “Ever had a fairy lover? I’ve never had a Were lover, but I’ve heard the legends….”
Ray normally held back with humans in his bed. He had to. But tonight he had let himself get forceful, nipping, pushing, gripping. Lex had been confused by the sudden passion in their convenient arrangement, but had been turned on, too, liking it, asking for more. This was the third night in a row Ray had called him over, and yet when he’d pinned him to the bed and slid his teeth over his skin, it hadn’t felt like enough to Ray either.