Love Him Desperate (On the Market #5) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,3
person would be worthy. They would mean something more to him than just an escape. And he couldn’t help but feel cursed, like falling in love with him fundamentally shifted a person deep inside. It twisted them until they could no longer bring themselves to stay, and maybe it was the universe telling him he could have strength, and he could have security, but it came with a price.
Maybe it was the best part, or maybe it was the worst, but the day he got into his car and watched Cody’s house disappear in his rearview mirror, he realized it was a price he was willing to pay.
“You’re staring at me.” Raphael didn’t need to look up to know that Jayden’s eyes were on him, and he also knew why. He brushed his thumb along the sore mark just under the left side of his jaw. “I think Cherry Creek has a vampire problem. Maybe they followed me from Berlin.”
“All Vampires come from France and Italy, you and I both know this,” Jayden answered. “And they leave bite marks, not hickeys.”
He was on his saddle seat with rolling wheels, and he skid across the slick floors until he collided with Raphael’s desk. The salon was empty, as it always was on Tuesdays, but as tourism began to pick up with summer getting closer, the walk-ins were more frequent. A few weeks from now, Jayden would have to hire temps. A few weeks from now, Jayden would be cursing ever opening a salon, and Raphael would start booking private massage and facial appointments because Jayden couldn’t handle everything on his own.
But for now, he had his peace.
“Tell me about him.” Jayden drummed his polished nails on the metal edge of the file cabinet and grinned. “How sharp are his teeth?”
Raphael set his pen down and gave Jayden a flat look. It was a love bite, though he preferred the more crass American term of hickey because there was no love involved in what he and Isaac had been doing the night before. It was pure, rich, and carnal. It had him sobbing without tears, and it was exactly what he needed from the only man in Cherry Creek who could give it to him without wanting more.
Raphael needed someone who wouldn’t fall in love with him, because loving him always came with the consequence of leaving him, and he wasn’t ready for that yet. Lorenzo had wormed his way into Raphael’s heart a little too close for comfort, and loving him back was the biggest risk Raphael had taken in years.
But he liked to think that Lorenzo would be spared the grand departing of others from his past if it was platonic. And it was. He loved Lorenzo with a singular desperation of soulmate, except there was no romance there. Lorenzo’s arms held nothing but kindness and comfort, a way of keeping him steady and grounded. And they risked nothing else, because Lorenzo was in love with Wilder and needed him the way the tides needed the moon.
With Isaac, it was another world. They met properly for the first time two years before at the Tavern. Raphael was having a drink to himself, content to sit in the corner of the room and watch quietly from his barstool. His crutches sat to his left, the beer at his right hand, the room full of laughter. There had been a photoshoot with the fire department, and the men there were still slick with grease and covered in makeup.
Raphael knew the Chief, Fitz, and he knew a couple of the new recruits who had come in for shaves after learning the department didn’t allow beards. But he’d caught the eye of the man whose shirt read Captain at the breast, and he couldn’t look away.
“I’m Isaac,” he said when he was brave enough to cross the room and sit. “Everyone calls me Birdie.”
Raphael had winkled his nose and said with a simple sniff, “I don’t really care for that name.”
“Well,” Isaac said with a chuckle, “only my mother calls me Isaac anymore.”
“Your mother and one German man who doesn’t care for animal names over people’s.”
Isaac bought him another beer after that and then promised not to fall in love with him after proposing that he suck him off in the bathroom. Of course, Raphael didn’t want to disrespect Sonia’s workspace, so he led Isaac back to his house and appreciated that the man never once complained about his slow gait.