“No, it’s fine.”Jesus, he must have ears like a bat!Ian scrambled to remember if they’d said anything embarrassing. Thankfully he didn’t think so. “And no trouble as such.” He struggled to think of something plausible that didn’t sound like a lie. “Normally Cate closes up with a couple of the others, so there’s a few of them who walk out together. But she finishes early tonight, so it’ll be just her.” He fought not to grimace. At half twelve on a Friday night, it wouldn’t exactly be deserted on the streets, but he’d panicked trying to think of something. It wasn’t as though he could just say, “Hey, we just found out vampires are a thing, and Cate is a bit skittish at night now.”
He smiled, hoping it looked more genuine than it felt. “I offered to walk her to her car, and she said yes. We’ll be here till about twelve-thirty, when her shift ends. That okay?” As soon as the words were out, he blushed and ran a hand through his hair. “Shit, sorry. Assuming of course you want to do that?”Fuck.
Jesse’s eyes darkened, his gaze sweeping over Ian from head to toe, and his fingers circled Ian’s wrist in a loose grip. “I do.” As he leant closer, his knee rubbed up the inside of Ian’s thigh. “I came here for you tonight. No one else.”
Ian’s smile grew. “Well, in that case, when we’ve walked Cate to her car, do you want to come home with me?”
“I’d love to.”
“There you go.” Cate plonked their drinks down unceremoniously on the bar in front of them. She glanced between them and rolled her eyes. “No need to rub it in. Some of us’ll be going home alone tonight.”
Ian shrugged, smile huge by this point. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, you look it.” She pointed a finger between them. “No shagging in the toilets. I don’t want you getting thrown out before I clock off.”
It was Ian’s turn to roll his eyes. “I’m sure we’ll manage to control ourselves.” Although with the way Jesse’s knee move back and forth with just the right amount of pressure, Ian wasn’t so sure.
CHAPTER SIX
Jesse played with his glass, fingers skimming around the rim as he inwardly struggled to get himself back under control. Too many truths—or as near to the truth as he could get—had slipped out tonight. Ian seemed to bring out a reckless side Jesse had thought long gone.
He made him feel young again.
Jesse was no stranger to picking up humans from bars like this, but he never revealed more than a first name, and even that tended to be a lie. Safety lay in anonymity. They didn’t need to know his age, profession, or anything else about him that might stick in their memory and come back to haunt him. You never knew what fate had in store.
Talking to Ian was easy.
Too easy.
Was it because he saw Callum in him? Did that make him drop his guard a little and revert to the boy he’d been all those years ago?
Maybe.
Telling Ian his age was one thing. It was on his driving licence for all to see, though off by a few decades, obviously. Jesse had been a chef when he was human, that much had been sort of true—well, he’d been working his way up to be one.
Not the most useful profession to bring with you when you were turned, but he’d kept his hand in over the years, working at various low-key establishments that wanted late night cooks. Again, not something he usually shared.
But the dancing...
Jesse hardly ever danced anymore.
That had been his and Callum’s thing. Of course in those days, they couldn’t rock up to a bar like this one and just dance the night away. It was harder to find somewhere to relax and be themselves without fear of being arrested, but they managed. Sometimes they’d just dance in silence behind closed doors, locked away in their rooms. Ian might think Jesse was a good dancer, but Callum had been something else.
“Hey? You all right?” Ian nudged him, and Jesse startled to have been caught so off guard.
Get a fucking grip, Jesse.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just spaced out a bit. Sorry.” He took a deep breath in to keep up appearances, but that turned out to be a mistake. Smells invaded his senses—alcohol, sweat, aftershave of every kind, but underneath it all the familiar tang of blood lingered on the air. A fight nearby, maybe?
His gaze automatically dropped to Ian’s neck, fixating on the steady beat of his pulse.
Fuck.
The urge to feed suddenly gripped him like a vice, teeth aching with the need to drop down and his body on high alert searching for the source.
He’d fed before coming out tonight, of course he had, but the need was always there, hovering underneath the surface. After so many years of practice, Jesse had learnt to keep a tight rein on his instincts, but tonight...
He’d messed up, let his control slip for a moment too long, and was about to pay the price if he didn’t get out of there.
