Page 55 of Midsummer Phoenixes
I looked around. Ben was in his spot at the end of the counter, a bunch of werewolves were inhaling fries at the corner table, and two of Hawthorne’s crime scene cleaning hivelings were sharing dinner at another table.
All the way in the back, there were four elves all dressed up in rainbow sequins and sparkly makeup, not even bothering to hide their ears. Also present back there was Mr. Laptop, who managed to throw me a dirty look before going back to whatever it was he was doing on his laptop.
“Amory?” I asked.
“Just in the back,” Rae said.
I nodded. “If he tells you you can leave, that’s fine with me. Ben, you’re excused as well.”
The werewolf heard and acknowledged with a nod. I sat at my table, only noticing Roland was also back in the diner then. Two weeks after the reopening, this was really becoming the go-to place for the supernatural crowd. Wryly I wondered when St. Auguste’sHelp I Met A Freakprogram would offer guided tours to the Moonlight.
I got comfortable and looked at the swing door to the kitchen. After a few minutes, Amory came out with a large tub of vanilla ice cream in hand. He saw me and waved, then deposited the tub in the freezer. Elias’s visits were clearly taking their toll.
I watched as Amory got a cup ready for me and plated my cherry pie. Today, he glanced up at me as he did that. It was very seductive. Granted, most things he did were very fucking seductive to me, but today, it felt like he wanted it to be too.
He got all fancy and carried everything over on a tray.
“Welcome to the Moonlight Diner, boss,” my grinning server told me as he unloaded his tray in front of me.
“If you really want to make me feel welcome, you’ll have to let me order you around in the back room.”
Amory flushed before putting a finger to his lips. “Shh. You’re impossible. Is everything okay? You’re early. It’s not because I said I had to go in early today, is it? Because I wanted to stop by my place? I thought about it, and you looked a little bit disappointed when I left.”
My Amory. I loved him. Also, my cock twitched because him caring was incredibly attractive, so in a sense, my cock twitched with love. I would have liked to tell him that as a compliment. Maybe later.
“Everything is fine, and I knew what I was getting into with you. Smart, independent, looks good with an apron.” I sighed. “I consider myself very lucky you make time for me at all.”
“Oh, come on. You’re being silly.” He licked the corner of his mouth. “I always want to spend time with you. And last night, you telling me all of that, it meant a lot, truly. Thank you for trusting me with that story.”
Huh. I hadn’t expected that. “You don’t need to thank me. You sleep in my bed. You have the right to know things about me.”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “But you have to be comfortable sharing. And, you know, that you are makes me feel very special.”
“That’s because you are special. If I worried you earlier, that wasn’t my intention. I’m really just here because I was craving pie, my heart.”
He accepted that tiny white lie with a nod. “Okay. Well, I have to get back to work. My boss can be super strict. He might chase me if he saw me slacking.”
There were still hours between now and the Moonlight closing, but today, Amory definitely was in the mood to do more than cuddle. And if he wanted me to chase him, oh, I would oblige.
“Is that so? Well, I suppose your boss must have his reasons. Maybe you should ask yourself what it is about you that makes you so suitable for getting chased, Amory.”
His cheeks darkened in the most attractive way. He nodded. “I’ll go do that.”
And off he sashayed. I was absolutely leering at his very attractive backside in a way that—in any other person—would have drawn Ben’s attention.
As it was, Mr. Laptop saw. His brows drew together, and he looked unhappy, looked at me as if I’d just kicked a puppy or something.
Ben noticed this. He did some frowning of his own but otherwise ignored it and sipped his lemon water while Amory was totally oblivious to all of it.
CHAPTER FIVE
Nothing much out of the ordinary happened for the rest of the night in the Moonlight. People were nice, Amory smiled too much, and he did send Rae home about ten minutes after I got there, so there was that.
As the night went on, the diner emptied. I took note of it, but my main focus was Amory, watching him like I always had, focusing on his every move, the interactions he had.
He refilled my coffee regularly or at least checked if it needed refilling.
“Did you think about it?” I asked him on one of those rounds.
