Page 53 of Incubus
The real victory was that Sasha had joined in on the laughter, and when Nathan looked across the table at him, the now bright expression on Sasha's face was almost hypnotizing.
All Sasha was doing was sitting there, leaning back in the booth with his face lit up from laughing, and it just undid Nathan. Sasha didn’t look any different than he usually did, but today perfectly normal Sasha was more than enough to make Nathan entertain thoughts of pulling the redhead up onto the tabletop and taking him right there in the restaurant.
As Nathan’s own laughter died, he slid his fork from its rolled napkin prison and brought it down to his lap beneath the table. Wrapping a hand around the fork's tongs, he braced himself and squeezed. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it did the trick of snapping him back to reality.
Walter had perched himself in the window ledge and was looking down at Nathan in concern. Nathan ignored him.
Thankfully, the waitress finally brought their food. And, after they had been handed their plates, Sasha started right in on options for where they should head next.
"We can leave tomorrow after Nathan is...back to normal," Sasha said. "I know you must be getting anxious to find some real leads, but we'll manage. You're my top priority, but I won't lie that I have to see if I can find some clues about how the Muses got here. It could be a fluke, but it might be part of something bigger. Dark sidhe don't just cross over from the Veil on their own, not without some serious mojo going on. The good thing is, looking for dark fae should bring us leads on both accounts."
"Sounds good," Jim said. "As long as we can figure out a way to help Nate, we won't keep you from doing your job. I'll admit, the Muses have me a little spooked."
Nathan nodded, and took some comfort in Sasha's confidence.
The smoothness of Sasha's baritone voice was pretty comforting, too.
Nathan tried to focus on his food and the conversation, but his mind kept wandering. One moment he would be responding normally to Jim and Sasha's suggestions, and the next he was wondering what it would be like to nibble on one of Sasha’s slightly pointed incubus ears. He tried stabbing his fork into his thigh, but it wasn’t helping as much anymore.
"Are you okay, Nate?"
“Huh? Sure,” Nathan said absently, avoiding eye contact with Sasha, though he could feel those perfect blues all over him. “Just…tired. Too much coffee.” He accompanied that comment with another swig of his now third cup.
“It's just...you keep stretching your legs out,” Sasha said.
It was only then that Nathan realized he had been trying to hook his foot around Sasha's ankle. He pulled his legs back with a bang against the bottom of the table, upsetting the coffee pot so that it sloshed and spilled over its edges.
“Sorry. I'm not…feeling so hot,” Nathan said. “Walter thinks I should stay in, so…I think I might do that and head back to the hotel. I'll see you guys later." He started scooting out of the booth, putting all of his attention on the door so that the sight of Sasha wouldn’t sway him to change his mind.
“Are you sure, Nathan?” Jim called after him. “We can come with you.”
“No,” Nathan nearly squeaked in his haste. “I’m fine. The fresh air will be good for me. I’ll…see you back in the room.”
As Nathan walked briskly from the diner, he considered it a triumph that he didn't once look back.
Chapter 20
EvenwithoutSashaaroundit was difficult for Nathan to focus. Images of the redhead kept invading Nathan’s thoughts. At first, Nathan considered taking a nap to sleep the pheromones off but, as soon as his eyes closed, images of Sasha rushed up around him more vivid than ever, constant and decidedlygraphic.
Nathan tried resting with his eyes open, but Sasha appeared then too, like a mirage—on the other bed, watching him and laid out just as Nathan was, as if on display. Nathan could hear Sasha’s voice, picture the intricacies of his tattoos perfectly, and smell that wonderful Sasha scent as if the incubus were truly there. When Nathan’s hand started drifting for the clasp of his jeans, he knew he needed to find other means of distraction. And quickly.
Scrambling for the remote, Nathan tried flipping through cable channels, still kicked back on the bed, but switched theprogram he was watching at random to keep his brain alert andawayfrom thoughts of Sasha.
Walter appeared, sitting on the edge of the bed, but Nathan told him to go away.
“You can’t help, and no, I don’t want to talk about it,” Nathan said, perhaps a little sharper than Walter deserved, but Nathan was not in his right mind, which was exactly the problem.
Jim returned to the room some time later without Sasha, which should have been a relief, and yet Nathan felt a pang in his chest at the incubus’ absence. Sitting at the table, Jim started reading through the book Nathan had used to summon the Messenger. Every so often he would look over at Nathan and ask if everything was okay.
Nathan replied each time without moving his eyes from the television. “I’m fine. Quit nagging.”
Jim was accommodating at first, but his prodding of Nathan’s well-being grew more frequent as the day passed. It was getting dark outside when Jim finally abandoned his reading and went to sit next to Nathan on the bed. “Okay, Nate, what’s going on?”
“What do you mean, what’s going on?” Nathan said. He was sick of pretending he was actually watching anything and flicked the TV off. “Pheromones, dude. Case closed. What else is there to figure out?”
“Well…I just get the feeling there’s something else bothering you.”
“Like what?”
