Page 3 of A Husband for Max

“You didn’t have to say ‘thank you’,” even his voice was decadent, and breathless, “or follow me all the way home.”

Even though I smiled, it wasn’t the full one I hoped it to be. I couldn’t smile in a way I would have liked to; serrated teeth were unsettling to humans. “My coat is special. It deserved a proper thank you.”

He blinked, confusion filling his every movement. But the towel twitched. At least his body wasn’t confused about what was happening, and I licked my lips, shivering under his gaze.

The door opened further. “Don’t stand in the cold. I’ll be a second.”

He held onto the towel in a clenched fist as he headed back down the hallway. His back showed the tan lines of a working man, and I could even see a few scars. It was obvious he worked hard and even at his middle age, I could see that it had kept him healthy.

I was used to the smooth, lean bodies of my own people. Even in our human forms we all kept to a similar swimmer’s physique. Nothing like this behemoth of a man.

I wished the towel wasn’t held so tightly. I wouldn’t mind if it slipped and I could see the rest of the man I was lusting after.

He disappeared into a doorway that I paused at. His bedroom. The bed was unmade. And there were some clothes in a pile beside the bed. This human lived alone. More good news. And I breathed in the scents around the space. Only his was fresh; any other smells were so old that I could be confident that there was no one else in his life right now.

“What’s your name?”

I was disappointed that my human had decided to start wearing clothing. But I was also grateful he had decided sweats were enough. He’d left his towel around his neck, catching the water droplets from his still wet hair. I couldn’t look away. I wasn’t used to seeing so much hair on a man’s chest and it was beyond distracting.

“Tesh.” It was probably embarrassing to be caught staring at someone’s chest, but I’d be damned if I was going to stop anytime soon.

“Hello, Tesh.” His grin was lopsided and his body trembled when he said my name. Or perhaps it was me who shivered. “I’m Max. You really didn’t have to come all this way to thank me.”

I could smell him. Max was not against me being here. His body couldn’t lie about that, and it made my mouth water. “I would have been lost without my cloak. To have it returned so fast is... unheard of in my family.”

“Is the coat an heirloom or something?”

“Or something,” I allowed. Maybe one day I would be able to tell him the coat was actually my own skin, but for now thinking of it as an heirloom was enough.

As long as Max knew it was important that was all that mattered.

He shifted, hands going into the pockets of his sweats. It was sad that I could no longer see the outline of what I wanted the most. At least his chest was still bare.

“Well, Tesh, you’re welcome. I didn’t do anything that anyone else wouldn’t do.”

“No. No one else would have done that.”

We were a supernatural race, and our pelt was, for a lack of a better word, addictive to a non-magical being. They didn’t understand but it was like finding a trinket they couldn’t let go of. Sometimes they made sayings about it, like picking up a penny as being good luck. They never realised it might be a part of a treasure hoard or a leprechaun’s pot.

A selkie pelt was just the same.

That Max had given it up, even going as far as draping it across my shoulders, was against everything I’d ever been taught.

“Ok.” Again, he moved, his head tipping to the side. There was so much confusion in him, but there was no way I could tell him the truth. Not yet, no matter how sure I was. “What now?”

The urge to just grin was overwhelming and I had to duck my head to hide my teeth. But I took a step forward, because there was no denying what I wanted.

“Perhaps there is a boon I could give you?”

***

“A boon?”

Part of me wanted to take a step back. Tesh looked predatory, in a way that I’d never seen before. He was so much shorter and slimmer than most men I knew. That wasn’t difficult; when you worked in construction most of the men around would be able to bench press someone as small as Tesh. Even that small, there was no doubt that he was all man. Beneath the cloak the clothes hugged tightly at the muscles, and the lines of his body were missing the colt like limbs of a younger man.

The part of me that wanted to step back was vastly overshadowed by my dick wanting to find out exactly what this boon could be. The way he licked his lips made me bite back a groan. My body did not have any issues with whatever Tesh might want to give me.

“Yes. You should always pay back what you’re given.”

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