Page 32 of Unicorn Unashamed

“Don’t.” Raymond caught his shoulder as Josh started to turn away. “Don’t, please. It’s okay.” He ducked down to press his face into the join of Josh’s neck and shoulder, inhaling as Josh shivered. “God, you smell amazing.”

Josh let out a nervous little laugh, which made no sense, because he wasn’t nervous. He knew this would be good, because Raymond was good. He knew Raymond would take care of him. Would be with him, and then would stay.

Okay, so maybe he was a little nervous just to… to know that he was going to have all that. Have Raymond, here, with him. For this.

“You okay, sweetheart?” Raymond asked, cupping his face.

Josh swallowed. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I just—I, um. I’m really happy you’re here. That you want to be here. Even if you didn’t have to be, and it was totally fine if you wanted to do regular work for the next two days.”

“I wanted to be with you, and I’m happy to get the chance to be. There’ll be other virile periods where things might be different, but this one’s special.”

“Yeah?” Josh blamed being virile on his soppy smile.

“Yeah,” Raymond said. He bent to pick the grocery bag back up.

“Oh, here,” Josh said, reaching for the duffel. “I’ll go put that in my room.”

“Okay.” Raymond grinned at him and handed it over. “You’re not hungry, are you?”

Josh shook his head. He never had much of an appetite while virile. That was pretty typical.

“Okay,” Raymond said again. “Kind of figured. Meet me in the kitchen anyway?”

“Okay,” Josh said. “Yeah, sure.”

Not wanting to be apart from Raymond as much as possible, Josh made a beeline to his room, depositing the duffel on his bed and making it back into the kitchen in record time. He found Raymond at the stove, stirring a pot of something.

“Watcha making?” Josh asked, coming closer and pressing up against Raymond’s back to peer down at the little tin of cocoa powder and bottle of vanilla extract on his counter. “And why do I have vanilla extract?”

“You didn’t,” Raymond said. “Which is why I brought some. I’m making hot chocolate.”

“Ooh, okay. That sounds good.”

Raymond grinned at him. “Thought it might.”

Josh stuck close to Raymond while he stirred the milk and sugar, just breathing him in. His senses weren’t anywhere near as good as a werewolf’s but being virile still enhanced everything. Raymond smelled so good.

Once Raymond added the cocoa to the pot of milk, he wasn’t the only thing to smell good. “That smells amazing.”

Raymond took a deep breath. “It’s not the only thing,” he said, setting the spoon down before turning to Josh, body angled in.

The look he gave Josh was so fond it made Josh all over squirmy. Josh’s lips parted. “Please.”

Raymond wasted no time placing a hand on his hip, the other curling around his back and drawing him closer. Josh happily closed his eyes and let the slide of Raymond’s lips over his settle him. When Raymond shifted from Josh’s mouth to bite gently at his earlobe, Josh shuddered against him. God. He loved this—loved how Raymond knew him so well now, having cataloged every one of Josh’s reactions to tuck them away for later.

Raymond pressed one last kiss to the underside of Josh’s jaw and stepped back, picking up the spoon again. “Hot chocolate’s almost done.”

“Okay.” Josh ran a hand through his hair and went to pull two mugs out of his cupboard, turning to catch Raymond watching him. “What?”

Raymond shrugged, smiling. “You’re gorgeous.”

Josh huffed a laugh. “Uh-huh.”

“I’m serious!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Josh said, fighting the urge to duck his head. Every positive reaction from Raymond, every compliment, was just fueling a barely-banked fire. “So’re you.”

Raymond chuckled and went back to stirring.

---