I’ll say. This guy is Murphy’s Law in physical form.
“Can we, or can we not, borrow your coffin?” he grunts.
“Casket,” I correct.
“Whatever. Can we borrow it once it gets here? He’s too tall to fit on my couches, and I feel bad putting him on the floor, but even if I had the time to mattress shop today, it’d take a few days to ship once I pick it out.” Wynnter’s eye twitches as his muttering devolves into incoherent grumbles.
“A few days to ship,” I echo, gaze drifting toward Dominic, who’s firmly looking anywhere but at me and holding the back of his hand to his blazing cheek. “Yeah, Dominic can stay here for a few days.”
I watch Dominic’s heart stop as his gaze slashes to me. Eyes wide, he balks, mouth hanging open.
“What?” Wynnter growls.
“When do you think you’ll be able to go mattress shopping?” I ask, studying the broken, crimson-faced man. It’s so verymale leadof him to be broken, isn’t it? This will be excellent research for my upcoming vampire novel.
The tricky part might be weaving the angst that a vampire novel generally implies into the pure comedy before me, but I believe in my ability to rework the genre expectations.
“August—” Wynnter’s lip curls in a sneer, tugging on his short beard and all the freckles dappled around it. “—you’re not going to take in a guy you don’t know for who knows how long.”
I fix my attention on my brother. “Oh, so he’s both a murdererandan arsonist? Why are you still willing to put him up, then?”
Wynnter flinches. “No. He’s a perfectly lovely individual, and it wasn’t his fault the bed caught on fire. The outlet beside it was faulty, which…” His grip tightens as his head drops. “…is another thing I need to deal with.” He cusses. “Right now, I’m dealing with it bynotdealing with it. I just have the power off in that room. But I’m going to need to talk to Lynn about getting the whole house checked over since I don’t have space in my schedule to do it myself right now and—” His muttering grows truly uninspired, so I block him out.
Mybrother just called this mana perfectly lovely individual. I don’t think Wynnter hasevergraced someone with a compliment of that magnitude. I find my curiosity insatiable. “Dominic.”
“Are you listening to me?” Wynnter snaps; I ignore him, because I amnotlistening to him, actually.
I am enjoying the way Dominic’s shoulders squared at the sound of his name being called.
Cautious, the pretty blond boy looks at me. Something terribly enticing ripples through his eyes before his eyelids lower. “Yes?”
“Would you be comfortable staying here for a few days until things with Wynn’s house get sorted?”
“August,” Wynnter hisses.
“I…” Dominic hesitates.
“Your options kind of suck. You either sleep here, in a casket in a room that probably doesn’t have faulty wiring, or you curl upon Wynn’s itty bitty couches. And maybe explode overnight due to faulty wiring.”
“Or,” my brother attempts to enlighten me, “you let me borrow yourcasketwhen it arrives so he has something closer to a bed at my place. Which I can confirm willnotexplode overnight. Because I’ll be turning the power off at night until Lynn can get Micheal to stop by.”
I plant my hand to my heart, appalled. “So poor Dominic will be forced to sleep in the dark in the summer without any air conditioning?”
“Generally, people do sleep in the dark, August, and it shouldn’t get that hot overnight.”
“You’re being awfully determined.” I draw curled fingers in front of my mouth. “Don’t tell me. Is thisyaoi?”
Wynnter’s eyes narrow. “I do not know what you just said.”
That’s probably for the best.Yaoiis outside the genres I write, anyway.
Humming, I press on, “Why are you so against letting aperfectly lovely individualstay with me for a few days?”
“Because.”
“Because it’sindecent?” I frame my cheeks in my palms. “Because I mightfall in love! The forced proximity, it compels me!” I drop the theatrics. “As if. I’ve never harboredromantic feelingsfor someone in my life. And if he’sperfectly lovely, there’s no issue about safety. Spill. What’s the problem?”
Wynnter’s eyes roll, and he releases my shoulders to fold his arms firmly across his broad chest. “I’m unwilling to let you torment the poor guy.”
