Page 11 of Johann

“Roman.” Danny had a lot of different ways of saying Roman’s name, Jay had noticed. Sometimes he snapped it, like when Roman was rude to someone who wasn’t Danny (he was never rude to Danny himself, of course); sometimes he laughed it, like when Roman said something unintentionally funny in his old-fashioned speech; and sometimes he said it like now, so full of love that even Jay, who had so little experience with the emotion, could hear it in his voice. Danny was looking at his mate with his big eyes all soft and tender. “You made so much.”

Roman cleared his throat, wiping his hands on a kitchen towel and tossing it carelessly into the sink. “It is cold out, mon amour. I thought your human friends would appreciate some warm food while they discuss their book.” He tore his eyes off Danny with obvious reluctance to give Jay a nod of greeting. “Yours was not a bad choice. I quite likeJane Eyre.”

Jay rocked onto his toes, his plate of offerings still in hand, pleased beyond measure with such rare approval from the broody vamp. “It’s so romantic, isn’t it?”

“Mm,” Roman agreed. “I have a special fondness for stories of kind, lovely humans accepting cold, damaged lovers.”

“Roman,” Danny scolded.“You aren’t coldordamaged.”

“Did I say I was? My, my, someone is projecting.” There was a rare twinkle in Roman’s bright-blue eyes as he swooped down to give Danny a kiss.

Jay did his best not to watch, but it was kind of too fascinating to resist….Danny justmeltedin Roman’s arms the moment their lips touched. Would Jay’s muscles all go soft like that, if he was kissed by a handsome man?

Jay’s mind turned back to where it had been drifting quite often these days, to a veryspecifichandsome man, and he squirmed, feeling himself flushing for some reason. He was speaking out loud before he knew it, interrupting Danny and Roman’s kiss. “I have a new regular at the coffee shop.”

Danny stepped back from Roman, his cheeks apparently permanently pink now. “Oh. That’s good, right?”

“Mm-hmm. Yep.” Jay held his plate up high so Ferdy, who was nosing around Jay’s waist, couldn’t reach it and sneak a nibble. “I always like my regulars. And this one especially. I like the way he smiles at me. Well, he doesn’tsmileat me exactly, but sometimes a corner of his mouth sort of lifts up just a little bit and it’s almost like a smile? And I think if hedidsmile, it would look pretty nice. Also, he smells really good. Like vanilla and sugar. He swears he hasn’t been making cupcakes, but for someone who hasn’t been making cupcakes, he smells a lot like one.”

Danny’s face did a strange twitch as he stared first at Jay, then at Roman, then back to Jay. Apparently he didn’t find what he was looking for in either of them, because in the next moment, he was calling out, “Soren!”

Jay beamed as the vampire himself appeared in the kitchen doorway in the next moment. “Soren!” he greeted happily, feeling lucky to see his friend twice in one day. “Are you joining us tonight?”

Soren leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb, looking very elegant, even in his chunky knit sweater. “Just this once. Only because Gabe is working and all my going out clothes are in the wash. And I suppose I don’t mindJane Eyre.” He lifted a hand and studied his nails. “Wuthering Heightsis better though.”

“But it’s sosad,” Jay protested, unbelieving that his friend could prefer such a wretched story to the simple love—imprisoned wife and untimely fire notwithstanding—between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester.

Soren shrugged. “But everyone is so delightfully mean and unhinged. It’s absolutely divine.”

“Jay, sweetie,” Danny interrupted gently. “Tell Soren what you just told me.”

“I didn’t make the bagel bites,” Jay told Soren, raising his plate in demonstration. “I just heated them up from a box.”

“What? No, that’s—” Danny shook his head. “No, sweetheart. Tell him about the café.”

“Oh! I have a new regular, and he smells really, really good.”

“What do you think about that, Soren?” Danny was looking at Soren like Jay was saying something significant, his eyes all intense and his eyebrows doing some intricate things Jay couldn’t comprehend.

Soren hummed, his gaze lifting from his nails to study Jay like he was some kind of puzzle. “Are you talking about the mobster, Jaybird?”

Jay’s brows furrowed. “He’s not a mobster. You’re being prejudiced against Russians.”

“He’s Russian?” Danny asked, shooing Ferdy out of the kitchen when he started trying to jump up to reach Jay’s plate. “Like, full Bond-villain accent?”

Soren shrugged. “No accent, but he called Jay ‘kotyonok.’” He grinned at Danny and Roman, arching a brow. “It means ‘kitten.’”

And now Jay was blushing even more fiercely, his face all hot for some reason. “I like when he calls me that,” he defended.

Soren laughed sharply. “Yeah, I bet you do. Does your new friend know you can understand him?”

Jay sniffed. “He hasn’t asked.”

Danny was frowning at Soren. “You think he wouldn’t like that? Like Jay’s in danger?”

Soren waved a careless hand in the air. “What could a mobster possibly do to a vampire?”

This was getting frustrating. Jay resisted the urge to stomp his foot. He didn’t want to be rude, but he wasn’t liking at all the direction this conversation was taking. “He’s not a mobster. He’s my regular, and he lets me call him Alexei, and he smells like cupcakes, and Ilikehim.”

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