Chapter Eleven

Callum blinked, “What?”

Mason grinned and dropped his hands from Callum’s face, “Would you like a job at Haggard?”

Callum blinked again. “Are you being serious?”

Mason nodded, “I was going to offer you the job when you came over last week and told me about what was happening, but decided to wait. I was only going to hire you if you didn’t find a job somewhere else by today. So what do you say?”

“C’mon, just say yes, Callum. We can continue to be work buddies,” Grayson urged. He had come up to the two of them while Callum tried to restart his brain.

“What are you talking about?” Callum frowned at Grayson.

Grayson rolled his eyes impatiently, “Your boyfriend offered me a job at his club, and I said yes. Now you just nod your pretty little head and we show up to our first day of work on Wednesday.”

Callum had only one thing to say, “He’s not my boyfriend for fuck’s sake!”

“I think the cutie doth protesteth too much, but I’d prefer the title of mate over boyfriend,” Mason mused, leaning in for another kiss.

Callum was much more prepared this time. However, that didn’t mean he escaped Mason’s greedy lips. Thankfully, Mason curbed his hunger and only pecked Callum before letting go and stepping back to give Callum space.

“Soooooo?” Grayson pressed. “Hurry up and agree! Seriously, Cal, I know you only go to that one place your friend owns but Haggard is like the place to party for normies and paras alike. And we’d get to work there and, dude, the people that go there are hella hot.”

Callum frowned at Grayson, “What happened to finding a girl who’d love you like…” He stopped himself with a glance to Mason, cheeks flaming, before stumbling along, “A girl who’d love you unconditionally?”

Grayson shrugged, “I’m nineteen, dude. I’ve got time, and who knows, maybe my soul mate is hella hot. Yours is.”

Callum was stuck between flustering around like a fish out of water and scowling in angered embarrassment. So he settled for a weak, “I thought you were straight.”

“I am, but I have eyes,” Grayson said, rolling aforementioned organ. “Don’t worry, I won’t try and steal your boyfriend or husband or mate or whatever you paranormals call it. Besides, your wolf’s only got eyes for you.”

“I wasn’t worried,” Callum huffed.

Mason decided to enter the conversation then, slipping his arm around Callum’s waist and grinning down at the halfie when he looked up in surprise, having forgotten Mason was there for those few moments. “Nice to know you’ve got a lot of confidence in us.”

Callum gaped and spluttered, “No! That’s not what I meant, there is no us!” Laughter echoed around him and Callum groaned, “You all suck. I’m going to the bathroom.” Callum wrestled his body out of Mason’s single armed hold and stomped to the kitchen, heading for the staff room where the employee bathroom was.

Once safely inside, Callum went to the sink and splashed water on his face, hoping it would cool him down. When he looked up at the mirror again, his face was still flushed. At that moment, his brain decided to remind him of his reunion with Mason, particularly the moment where Mason commented on Callum’s ability to blush ‘prettily’. Callum groaned and splashed more cold water on his face.

While Callum scrunched up some paper towels and wiped his face, the bathroom door opened and Callum wasn’t foolish enough to hope that it was anyone other than the root of all of his mortification related problems.

Callum ignored Mason and dumped the paper towels in the trash. He intended to walk out of the bathroom but Mason was blocking the exit by leaning against the door.

Callum sighed, “Mason…”

“I was being serious you know,” Mason said. “About both things. Obviously, the I love you part, but also the job offer.”

Callum sighed and leaned against the sink, “Mason. I don’t want pit—”

“It’s not pity, love. I honestly want to help you and Grayson out. Yes, the fact that I love you to the ends of the earth and back plays a significant role in all this, but even then it’s not out of pity. I care and want you to feel safe and secure and I’ll do whatever it takes so that you are.”

“It’s unethical?” Callum tried. He didn’t know why he was looking for any possible way to refuse the offer but he was.

“I promise to not show favoritism. Although, everyone there knows I’m completely in love with you and have been dying to meet you so they have more ribbing material against me.”

Callum blinked, “What?”

Mason shrugged, “I may or may not have talked about you a little…or a lot.”

“Oh my god, Mason, now I really can’t take the job,” Callum groaned.

Mason walked up to Callum and grabbed his hands, “Because I know you would never let yourself accept, I’ll give you two options. One, you say yes and work at my club as a waiter or bartender, whatever you prefer or are best at. Two, you move in with me and I will spoil you until the day you die and my offer to Grayson becomes void. So what’ll it be?”

Callum gaped at Mason, “You asshole. That’s not fair.”

Mason shrugged, “True, but you need a job, love. You can quit the moment you find another job somewhere else. Think of this as temporary, just to keep you on your feet. Please?”

With Mason pleading gently while lightly caressing Callum’s knuckles with his thumbs, Callum found himself nodding, “Until I find something else.”

Mason smiled widely, “Perfect. Now, let’s head on back out?”

“Ugh, they’re gonna be insufferable,” Callum complained. “I’d rather wait around here until they find something else to preoccupy them.”

Mason stepped in closer to Callum, pushing him into the sink. Déjà vu hit Callum like a truck.

“I like that idea. While they find something else I’m sure we can make use of this time and space,” Mason murmured, bending his neck to mouth at Callum’s ear.

“Mase—ahh,” Callum’s eyes fluttered shut when Mason latched onto his neck, sucking on the skin. His hands clung onto Mason’s shirt as Mason’s went to his hips, pretty much being the only things keeping Callum from the floor.

Mason’s lips moved along Callum’s neck until they were hovering just barely over Callum’s lips.

Callum opened his eyes with a confused frown. His mind was a bit hazy.

“I’m really curious as to why you kissed me that night,” Mason whispered.

Callum blinked and his mind finally cleared. Heat flooded his cheeks, creeping up to his ears, and he unfurled his hands so that his palms were pressing against the slightly wrinkled shirt, Mason’s heat warming his hands although Callum really didn’t need to feel any warmer at that point.

“I…uh,” Callum stuttered. He didn’t know where to look but Mason’s face kind of filled his vision. He settled for dropping his gaze to Mason’s nose even though he probably looked cross-eyed doing so.

Mason’s nose nudged his, “It’s all I’ve been able to think about. You ran off before I could realize I wasn’t dreaming.”

Callum’s stumbling got worse, “It-I-I mean-uh, well-umm…”

Mason chuckled and his hands moved from Callum’s hips to his lower back. He nuzzled Callum’s nose once more before pulling his face back a bit with a soft smile, “Take your time, love. I’ll be right here.”

Mason pulled away and headed for the door, just before he left, he said, “I’d suggest you wait a bit before coming back out if you don’t want to be teased mercilessly by your friends.”

Callum could only nod and when the door closed behind Mason, he let out a shuddering breath and sagged back against the sink.

He really did not want to go back out to the party.

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A/N: Heyyo! I start school again tomorrow so I thought I'd update. So.... I think SW may be nearing its end. I'm estimating it'll be about nineteen/twenty chapters. Also, chapter thirteen is really short so the next update is going to be a double update and I will have to bump the rating up to R soon, and one or two chapters might end up being private....

I kind of want to finish this since I'm so close so I might not update anything else for a bit and just focus solely on SW (and a submission piece I'm working on but that's due by May and I'll probably psych myself out and not even submit it so whatever).

Also, if you look at the attached video, you will see a book trailer I made for these two dorks. It's a silly little, less than a minute long trailer that was pretty fun to make because it's so stupid.

Yup.

Laters!