Page 54 of Vampire Lee

“Buy some with taste.”

“What?” He turned to Hanna.

“Condoms with taste are the worst, those strawberry ones. The scent clings to you for days.”

“You want me to smell of artificial strawberry?”

“Best would be if you smelled of Rei, and since you’re now smelling of Dillon, it’ll be hard to sell you’re fucking Rei. Strawberry or bubblegum or whatever would help distract the scents.”

Yeah, but no one would believe he and Rei used condoms with taste. He’d jerked off with a condom once to know what it felt like but nothing else. Condoms smelled weird, and he’d much rather taste Dillon than flavored latex.

He grimaced, and both Hanna and Murrie burst out laughing.

Murrie stretched. “Pick some up. Hopefully, you won’t have to pretend much longer. Shower and hug Rei before you head in.”

Shower. He’d showered the night before. He didn’t want to wash away Dillon’s scent. It wasn’t obnoxious, he didn’t smell of sex or sweat, only like he’d held Dillon through the night. Or like Dillon had held him.

He ground his teeth. He was strong, Dillon was not. He could move fast, could lift things, could fight off an enemy, could control people with his mind. Dillon could do none of those things. He was the protector in their weird relationship or whatever. It wasn’t a relationship, more of a prolonged one-night stand. Either way, Dillon should lean on him, not the other way around.

Murrie stood. “Hopefully, someone will say something about an event tomorrow, or Faelan will learn more.”

Lee nodded. Maybe everything would be over soon, and he could go back to his normal life. A life where he hooked up with different people whenever the opportunity arose, where he went to work and poured drinks and went home to his boring apartment to sleep only to do the same thing again the day after.

Fuck. He wanted to snarl in frustration but took a calming breath.

“Did you find anything in my apartment?” He directed the question to Hanna.

“Nah, it smelled of bear and vampire, but no scents I recognized. No clues otherwise. I don’t know if they simply wanted to trash it, so you’d have to sleep at Rei’s or what. Maybe they hoped to trail you here.”

“It can’t be hard to figure this address out.” They kept a low profile, but several people knew Hanna, Faelan, and Rei lived together. Lee had never seen Murrie at The Rumbling Rogue, but he assumed some were aware he was part of the group. Mars showed up from time to time, though not lately, which most likely had something to do with Devin. Did he feed from Devin? Lee glanced toward the patio. Special blood, Faelan had said.

“If you search for our names, all you’ll find are PO boxes, but you can find an address for the department, and if you pay attention, you’ll figure out we live here.”

“So either they’re lazy or they already know we’re both here.”

Hanna nodded. “Security is pretty good. Mars and Rei went into crazy mode after Devin was taken last year, so there is no way anyone will get in here without us knowing. I’d be more worried about what happens to and from work and while you’re at the bar.”

“I’m not worried. They want Rei, not me. I’m nobody.”

“You’re most likely right.” She patted his shoulder and stood. “Now go fix whatever you did to piss Dillon off.”

“He’s not pissed off.”

Hanna chuckled. “Oh, you poor thing.”

* * * *

Dillon watered the carrots they’d sown the day before. He’d googled, and it said the key to getting a good carrot harvest was to keep the soil from drying out while waiting for the seeds to sprout.

“You think we should go to a garden center?” Devin was running his fingers over an arched trellis they’d put in yesterday. The plan was for beans to climb it.

“I don’t know. You’re the one with a plan.”

“I think it would be good to get some tomato plants. I know you have some coming, but I’m not sure if they’ll have time to mature.”

Dillon nodded.

“Or we ask Mars to go get some. We don’t have to go.”

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