Page 7 of Bloody Temptations

“Finny-boy! Whaddya doin’?” The hypnotic connection is broken when an orc barrels into my guy. Unfortunately, he doesn’t end up plastered against me again. The orc catches him and yanks him back in a drunken hug.

He looks apologetic as he’s engulfed by his group. At least with all his friends shouting at him I've managed to find out his name.Finn.

Is it petty to notice that the touching is all friendly rather than gropey? Probably. But I am petty, so I don’t care. Especially when I’m already having to swallow my disappointment that our moment has been interrupted.

“I’ll just grab these if you’re done.” I tip my head towards the collection of glasses on the table.

The group makes a chorus of noise about mine and Nikolo’s dance. Only one guy, the tall one with the long black hair pulled up in mage-braids, doesn’t look entirely impressed with my presence at their table. He glares at me with an icy stare the entire time I’m stacking their glasses.

Resting them carefully against my shoulder I give them all a friendly nod goodbye—all of them except Finn.

“Don’t be a stranger.” I hold eye contact for as long as I can, before looking him up and down one last time, my eyes dragging over every inch of him as slowly as they please.

Is it too much to hope that he gets the hint and we can meet up somewhere on my break? He does look a little panicked. Maybe it’s not his thing, but what can I say? I’m an optimist.

I wink again, turning my back on his pretty as shit blush and his friends’ cat calling and teasing. Fighting the urge to turn back and look at him, I make my way back to the bar, a happy buzz in my veins that not even Lifo can kill.

Okay. Maybe it dims a little as the night wears on and Finn fails to make an appearance at the bar. I think I see one of his friends come up and order, but Belinda gets to them before I can. Maybe he’s decided to avoid me by using the small bar at the back of the club we open on the weekends?

Not that I’d be able to leave to get up to any fun anyway. It’s chaos—one of those kinds of nights that we wish Maddy hadn’t put ablanket ban on roller skates. One tiny accident and a little fire in the DJ booth and suddenly she’s all, ‘Insurance doesn’t cover this’ and, ‘I’m not paying your lawyer fees’. Pfft.

It wasn’t even mine and Nikolo’s fault that the fiery fae lost control of their flames.

But as the night wears on we don’t even get a chance to breathe—metaphorically anyway—having to chug our blood squatting behind the bar rather than taking our actual breaks.

It’s later than normal by the time that Nikki and I manage to get back on the bar. We’re received with the same roaring approval we always are. And just like always, there is the same rush of having all those eyes on me.

Only this time, I put a little more into it. Between the flashing lights and the phones pointed in my direction, I can’t see for shit, but if Finn is still out there, I’m determined to give him a little something extra. Maybe that’ll convince him to come back.

I toe the line with the crowd as far as I can without getting us done for public indecency. Though, with the way Nikki is basically humping the bar, maybe we’re done for anyway? I shake my ass and I run my hands all over my shiny, glitter covered chest the way I know they want to. I shred my air guitar in a way that just happens to have me thrusting my junk in the face of a guy whose friends dragged him up to the front. All while dodging the groping, grabby hands of our adoring public.

By the time closing time comes, I’m a couple of hundred dollars richer in tips, exhausted to my bones, and have more numbers shoved into my jockstrap than a vampire knows what to do with. I’m a little disappointed that I don’t have the number I’m after, but even without my old shifter instincts, I know for certain I’m gonna see him again.

And I can’t fucking wait.

5

Finn

It takes sixteen nightsfor me to get back to Bloody Temptations.

For the first couple of days after our last visit, I didn’t go back because it felt too soon and stalkery. I mean, “don’t be a stranger” doesn’t exactly translate to “come and awkwardly lurk at my place of employment” in any language I’m aware of.

Plus I was really hungover, and the idea of going back to a bar made me feel sick. And I didn’t want to go on a weekend when the place was too busy. And I didn’t want to go on a night when it was too slow and I’d stick out like a giant beacon of dork. Then I got rostered on a string of long shifts when the flu went through the humans at work.

When that finally let up, Bedeer—who is usually really cool about not doing his emotional eavesdropping thing—managed to pick up on my feelings about going there and started to ask questions I really didn’t want to answer. I’m not sure I even have an answer for him, it’s just a complex jumble of feelings driving a need to go back. That meant I had to wait for a scheduled day off during the week.

At least myCrumblesapp is getting a bit of a rest. Nearly all the time I used to spend getting sucked into those drama posts is now being much more wisely invested in searching every social media app for theHot Vampire Bartenders. And Kai. That’s his name, I found it when I found the videos of him and Nikolo at the bar.

There are a lot. And I’ve studied them all.

In depth. Repeatedly.

It’s become an addiction—my shameful little secret.

Every morning, I push my body to stay awake as long as I can to watch the videos again and again, seeing how many times I can make myself come.

Turns out, it’s a lot.

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