Page 26 of Earth-Bound

Randall placed his hands on his hips. “Iam about to serve my customers andyouwill sit quietly if you want to eat this evening.”

Broadmire and Randall glared at each other for a moment. I wasn’t sure whether that was a threat Randall would carry out. It seemed Broadmire thought it was, since he huffed and ambled over to one of the tables, flopping down into one of the solid chairs like mine and folding his arms. “Want cake.”

Randall put his nose in the air. “You’ll take exactly what I give you.”

The grin on Broadmire’s face was almost as disturbing as it was sweet. I suspected he had plans for his evening which included satisfying his appetite and his, well,appetite.

Joe came slowly into the café and lifted a hand to scratch behind his head. I stifled a groan at the sight of his bicep bulging.

“I, uh, came by for some dinner,” he said.

He was going to grab it and run, I could tell. Swiftly, I stood and gave a bow. “Please, won’t you join me?”

He cast a glance over at me from the corner of his eye. “I don’t want to impose…”

“It will be no imposition at all! I assure you, quite the opposite. I will be delighted to have you dine with me.”

I only just heard Broadmire murmur, “Delighted to have you over my chair,” and hoped fervently that human hearing was not quite as acute as mine.

I also hoped Joe didn’t notice the bulge in my britches that I’d only just been getting to go down, before Broadmire put the image in my head of Joe taking me over the back of the chair. That hadn’t helped the situation.

I glanced at Broadmire. His hard eyes were on me and I saw a glint in them that told me he knew exactly what he was doing. For a troll, he was basically a saint, but that didn’t mean he was being at all helpful in my current situation.

Chapter 13: Joe

Standing this close to my fantasy man was doing things to me. I tried to focus on what he was saying but all I could think was that this man was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen in my life. Up close, his skin was olive-toned and smooth, and his hair was just a little too long which made it curl round at the nape of his neck. I’d never gone in for long hair before but I was desperate to push my fingers through those locks and see how soft they were.

I gave a cough, trying to clear the arousal out of my throat before I spoke again.

“If you’re sure…”

Terrund gestured at the chair opposite him at his table and I sat down. I hadn’t realised I’d be sitting so close to Terrund. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, hoping he hadn’t noticed me getting hard for him. He was watching me with a small smile on his face, and I didn’t know what to make of that.

Randall said, “I’ll go and get dinner. The café’s closed, so it’s just us tonight,” and with that he went out to the kitchen. Broadmire, somewhere behind me, grunted and said nothing. He wasn’t generally chatty, was Broadmire.

That just left me and Terrund.

I cleared my throat. “So Terrund…”

I trailed off. I had no idea what I wanted to say. If I’d been able to just speak my desires out loud, I’d have asked him if he wanted to get out of here and spend the night rubbing his body against mine in various ways, but that wasn’t the done thing. And I wasn’t sure what his sexuality was.

Although… he was looking at me intensely. There was something in his eyes that made me want to lean forward, to just be as near to him as possible. Maybe this attraction wasn’t one-sided after all?

God, I hoped so. I’d never wanted anyone the way I wanted this man. I liked sex, but I’d never felt drawn to one person, never had the simmering feeling in the pit of my stomach that Ineededhim to notice me. If there was one thing that had characterised my life, it was that I’d neverneededanybody.

“Hmm, so what is it you do?” I asked.

“I’m—” Terrund paused and glanced over at Broadmire. I turned and looked at him, but he was focused on the door to the kitchen, waiting for his boyfriend to come out.

Terrund said, “I don’t work at the moment.”

“Ok.”

I couldn’t think what else to say. I didn’t want to pry into why that was. Might be that he was independently wealthy and didn’t need to. Might be that he had an invisible disability that stopped him from doing it. I hadn’t known him long enough to pry into his personal life.

“You’re a gardener?” he asked.

I nodded.

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