Page 7 of Changeling
They were painting what was probably the largest room downstairs other than the bar itself. Sasha was finishing the last of the walls with dusty blue paint while Jim was on a ladder finishing the ceiling in white. Nathan couldn’t help how his eyes strayed to Sasha’s low-riding jeans again and the winding of his tattoos that dipped down beneath the waistline.
Then something caught Nathan’s eye. Sasha lifted a hand to wipe at his brow andswayed, like he was dizzy or weakened.
Nathan frowned.
“Nathan,” Alex said, a little impatiently, “I asked if you wanted anything.”
“I’m fine,” Nathan said, too focused on Sasha to care about beverages.
“Okay,” came Alex’s humored reply, assuming Nathan’s distractedness was still due to revealed skin. Then she was gone, and Nathan immediately moved into the room, rustling the plastic tarp as he walked over it.
“It’s all still a little wet, Nathan,” Jim called down from his ladder. “Be careful.”
Nathan barely acknowledged Jim as he passed him, making a beeline for Sasha. The incubus turned as he approached, smiling warmly at him, but Nathan couldn't help noticing how dazed Sasha looked, and not in an entirely normal,humanway, either.
“Jim!” Nathan called over his shoulder. “I’m borrowing this guy for a while, okay?” He grabbed Sasha by the arm, took the incubus’ paintbrush and tossed it down into the tarp, and hauled Sasha out the nearest doorway into an empty hall.
Jim’s amused reply of, “Didn’t need to know that!” followed after them, but Nathan ignored the tease. He wasted no time before pushing Sasha back against the hallway wall. Sasha’s initially pleased expression turned wary as Nathan glared at him.
"Gabriel's stunt caused more damage than you want to admit, didn’t it?" Nathan said plainly. "It drained you, even with all the antidote we used to make you better. Have you been putting off feeding again because I'm hurt?”
A brief wave of panic flashed through Sasha’s eyes before he pulled on a smile. “It’s not that serious, Nate. I’m fine.”
“Really?” Nathan stepped closer into Sasha’s personal space, a hair's breadth left between their bodies, and grazed the fingers of his right hand along the skin at the waistline of Sasha’s jeans, all the way around to touch the dip in Sasha’s lower back.
The incubus growled low in his throat, staring hungrily back at Nathan as his eyes flickered red and then back to blue.
“Yeah,” Nathan said, pulling his hand away and taking a step back. “You’re fine.”
The lustful haze faded from Sasha’s face, replaced by guilt, anguish, and fumbling lips that couldn’t seem to form words.
“I'm hurt, but I’m not broken," Nathan said. "Or did you fail to notice the full range of motion? Still fully functional over here.”
“Nate," Sasha sighed, "I know you’re not half as comfortable with all of this as you’ve been pretending. We’ve only beentogether once. I don’t want to push you. It's not just your wounds; I can feel your emotions, remember? There’s still uncertainty there.”
Nathan couldn’t deny that, but he wouldn’t just come out and admit it either. "I told Alex the truth, didn’t I? I’mtrying. And because I want to. Because I like this.Allof this. So will you stop being stupid and give me a break from the Lifetime movie of the week here? I want to be with you.”
The hodgepodge of emotions on Sasha’s face melted into amusement, with maybe a little of that lust returning too. “I know. Sorry…you’re right. I should have told you I’d need to feed sooner than usual after what happened, I just…I didn’t want our next time together to be out of obligation. I know it wouldn’t be,” Sasha said before Nathan could interrupt, which he had been poised to do, “but I’m not used to having someone…all for me.”
A flush of warmth filled Nathan’s chest and he wasn’t sure how to respond.
Sasha, ever-attuned to Nathan’s emotions, gave a short laugh. “Sorry, no more Lifetime movie of the week. I can do that. So…are you saying you want to shoot for something in the higher up channels tonight?”
Nathan shivered at the thought. But since he was pleased to have the conversation moved to something other than sentimentality, he offered Sasha a sideways smirk. “Cable access only? You’re gonna have to be gentle with me, though. I’m all weak and defenseless.” He waggled an eyebrow.
Sasha grinned. “We can call it a night after I’m done painting,” he suggested. “Half an hour and I’m all yours.”
“I like that plan,” Nathan said. And he did. He really did.
He let his eyes drift over Sasha’s body, so perfectly speckled in blue and white across his pale chest, with even a little paint on his face and in his hair. He reached out his fingertips to press low against Sasha’s stomach.
Sasha sucked in a breath and pushed just slightly from the wall, dipping his head with a wide grin before he leaned enough forward to brush their lips together, so feathery light that it made Nathan shiver again. He tried to lean into the kiss to deepen it, his tongue pleading for entrance with light flicks along Sasha’s lips, when there was a sudden clicking noise and a contained giggle from down the hall.
Slowly, simultaneously, Nathan and Sasha pulled their heads apart and turned towards those incriminating noises.
Not attempting to hide her treachery in the least, Alex stood a few yards away with her camera phone pointed in their direction. “You know,” she said, “I could post this anywhere online and I’d probably get more hits than Wikipedia.”
“Gimme that phone!” Nathan called, uncaring to his wounds or fatigue as he broke into a run. With Sasha’s laughter following after him, he chased a laughing Alex back into the bar area.
