Page 74 of Forget Me Not

“Mmm.” Cal didn’t seem to mind now. His scent was rising warmth again but he didn’t grind against Ray or do much more than reach for the undershirt that smelled of Ray and use it to wipe his chest and stomach.

Ray grumbled.

Cal huffed. “I’ll still reek of you. But I refuse to be sticky.”

“I can…” Ray focused on words, on speech. “I can clean you.”

“You’ve been lost in the sauce enough for one night.” Cal paused. “Hey.” He tossed the shirt aside, then rolled over with no warning. “Do you feel okay?” He scrutinized Ray’s colors and pressed closer, as if trying to see Ray’s face clearly through force of will. He cupped Ray’s spent cock. “Still tired?”

He was frowning.

Ray scowled and turned onto his back. Cal followed him, draping himself over Ray and pulling Ray’s arms around him as he did.

“The thing is,” Cal began, suspiciously careful, “it’s just, tired or not, werewolf physiology being what it is, your reaction to my scent being the same as before, your body is usually, er, consideringmorein moments like these. Even if your brain isn’t, or you don’t want to. And yet.”

Ray shut his eyes since Cal couldn’t see him well anyway. He had no idea what to say to that.

Cal scooted up to kiss Ray on the chin, then swear, then kiss him on his mouth as he must have meant to do.

“I’m not with you for your dick or for sex, Ray Ray.”

Ray sighed and opened his eyes.

“I mean, both are nice in different ways,” Cal went on. There was no stopping him. “As much as I love it, loveyou, I am not here with you for the sex. Not right now or in general. And dicks being a part of that is optional, always. I only asked because I’m concerned about your health and this… spell… curse… whatever.“ He poked Ray in the side. “We’ve fucked and you’ve gone to sleep, or gone back to work, or decided to do the dishes instead of fucking again. Loads of times, even. But…” Cal paused to worry his bottom lip again, so Ray reached up to stop him. Cal spoke with Ray’s fingertips at his mouth. “You were tired before we started this. Tired in a way I haven’t seen from you before. Was this… I’m worried I made you worse.”

Ray was barely able to form words and did not want to use them to talk about this. He tightened his arms around Cal and brought him down to breathe into his hair. “All night, the first time,” he muttered at last. “You said. I can…”

“Ray.“ Cal’s bite had returned. “This makes me happy too. In fact, the only reason we don’t do more of the whole snuggling thing, which your wolf brainlovesby the way, is that we’re always working, and also I think of something and start to wander off because you know, fairy. Just… take a good sniff. Am I disappointed?”

He was not. Ray growled anyway, confused again. “You smell…”

“Happy?” Cal filled in for him. “I’m back with you. Finally. Two days felt like forever.”

Yes, Ray agreed instantly, without daring to say it because he didn’t remember and Cal might think it was a lie.

He wet his lips, then swallowed. “I can still please you. I don’t mind. I… want to follow your scents again.”

“You can sniff all you like, but then you rest,” Cal ordered gently and slid off Ray’s chest onto the mattress, rolling until his back was to Ray.

Ray slipped a hand down between Cal’s wings, then frowned and sat up so he could put his nose to the base of the tiny things. The scent there was clear and sweet, but alsosolidsomehow.

“The crunchy sprinkles on sugar cookies,” he decided in a low rumble.

Cal’s laugh was soft.

Chapter Ten

RAY WOULD HAVE waited outside the entrance to the Rainbow Wings Community Resource Center, but as if knowing that, Cal took hold of the end of his necktie and went in, leaving Ray no choice but to follow. Once inside, Benny turned to look at them, then said, “Gross,” just as he had when he’d come to pick them up half an hour before.

He didn’t actually seem disgusted. He had darted a glance to Cal first and smiled before he’d said it.

“Two days!” Cal had exclaimed at the time. “Two days instead of two years!Quitethe learning curve!”

Ray would have asked how Benny, a human, albeit a magic-using one, had guessed that he and Cal had had sex, but he’d decided not to waste the energy.

He also didn’t think about the need to save energy. It alarmed him, and then it reminded him of the night before, and when that happened, he would look at Cal, and Cal, confusingly, would smile up at him. Actually, Cal had been smiling all morning, which might have been what clued Benny in. The only time Cal had stopped smiling was when Ray had emerged from the bedroom, showered and dressed in a shirt and tie.

Cal also had not asked after Ray’s headache, just handed him a dishtowel full of ice which Ray had held to the back of his neck while drinking coffee flavored with Fall Spice Oat Milk Creamer. He’d watched Cal eat frosted toaster pastry after frosted toaster pastry, realized he wasn’t hungry, refused to be alarmed by that too, and forced himself to eat one of the electric blue so-called pastries that Cal was eating. He thought about calling his mother, his sister, but knew theywouldbe alarmed and he had no news to calm them.

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