“WHY DON’T WE go sit over there?” Quentin said to Hunter, pointing to an empty booth in the corner.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Hunter agreed.
They grabbed their beverages and made their way over to the circle booth in the corner. They both sat with Quentin putting several feet between them, so they could look at each other.
“So, I obviously missed something while I was getting us drinks. What happened?”
Hunter didn’t know how to answer right away. He didn’t want to sound like he was accusing the shifter of anything or that what he’d found out was a bad thing because it wasn’t. Hunter had simply been surprised.
“Your friends seem to think I’m your date. I told them that I’m not. Am I?”
“Do you not want to be my date because you’re unsure of where we stand? Or because you’re not gay?”
The look on Quentin’s face was serious, and instinct told Hunter that how he answered was very important.
“Well, to be honest, I’m not sure if I’m gay or not. Like I told you the other night, I had kind of come to the conclusion I was asexual because I’d never been attracted to females or males. You know, asexuality is a real thing, right? I actually did quite a bit of research on it. It didn’t quite fit for me though because I, uh…like to pleasure myself. So, then you entered my life, and I didn’t really know what to think.”
Quentin nodded, so Hunter continued, “I was shocked when they told me that you were gay though. Although it makes sense why there are mostly guys in here. I guess I always thought that gay bars were…”
“More flamboyant?”
Hunter winced. “No, just more lively. It’s so tame in here.”
“Well, this is a bar, not a nightclub. Just like straight bars and nightclubs, there is a difference. I like it here because it’s easier to hang and talk with friends. Nightclubs can be more for hooking up sometimes.”
“That makes sense.”
“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you beforehand. It’s just that I didn’t want your view to be prejudiced before you even walked through the door. It’s almost harder with guys right out of the closet than straight guys. It was for me.”
“For you?”
“Yeah, I was kind of like you. I coasted through high school, dating the head cheerleader who wanted to stay a virgin until marriage. It never occurred to me that it didn’t bother me until I started hanging out with Noah. I was the perfect boyfriend for her, and she was the perfect beard. I just didn’t know it until Noah asked me why I didn’t even want to have sex with my girlfriend. The rest of the pieces fell into place. I broke up with my girlfriend and started dating Noah.”
Hunter cleared his throat. “So, do you think I’m gay?”
Quentin tilted his head. “Would you have a problem with it if you were?”
Hunter gave the question truthful consideration. “I’ll be honest. Yes, and no.”
Quentin raised his brow, apparently surprised by his honest answer. “How so?”
“Well, I say yes because vampires are old-fashioned, as you probably already know. I can only imagine how my family would react. And I have no idea what the Vampire Council would do. Hopefully, my position as a Guardian wouldn’t be threatened.
“I say no because, while I might be accepted for being the way I am, I’ve always wondered what everyone was talking about when it came to sex. Especially when feeding. So many of my friends love to feed when having sex. It really ups the sensations. I’ve never felt it. I only feed because I need to. I always thought that maybe I just had to wait to meet that special someone. I just didn’t know that someone would be a him instead of a her.”
Hunter caught the deer-in-the-headlights look on Quentin’s face.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you are stuck with me for the rest of my life or that we have to date or…jeez.” Way to go, Hunter. Scare the guy off. “I was just trying to explain how it feels to be me.”
Quentin scooted closer. “So, that night we were assigned to each other…I’ve been wondering about that. You seemed like you wanted to get away from me. Was that because I was gay or—”
“Oh, no. That was because of my reaction to you. I didn’t know what was happening, and I didn’t want to scare you away or have you think I was weird.”
Quentin laughed and moved closer until they were right next to each other. “Never,” he said. Then, he kissed Hunter.
Holy shit, was his first thought.
He’d kissed and been kissed before, but it had never felt like this. Quentin’s mouth was larger than any females’ he’d previously made out with. His tongue was forceful and dominant, and his beard scraped Hunter’s face. Most significant was that Hunter was hard in two-point-five seconds, something that had never happened in the presence of females.
The difficult thing was that Hunter had no idea what to do in this situation. He’d never kissed a male before. Thanks to society, he knew what to do with a woman, but there was no guy talk about making out with another guy.
It was a good thing that Quentin knew what he wanted because he used one hand to guide Hunter’s fingers to his cock while Quentin wrapped his own around Hunter’s.
Hunter almost came in his pants. That had never happened to him, not even in high school.
Hunter slightly pulled away. “We have to stop,” he said between breaths. When Quentin frowned, he clarified, “Otherwise, I might make a mess.”
Quentin grinned and moved his hand away but not before he kissed Hunter again. “Damn, you taste good.”
Hunter realized he still had Quentin’s erection in his hand and blushed as he drew his hand away.
The wolf took pity on him and said, “Come on, let’s go back to the group. I’m sure they have all kinds of theories about what we are talking about.”
Turned out, no one said anything to either of them. They just welcomed them back. And, now that everything was out in the open between Hunter and Quentin, it was definitely true that they were on a date.
Quentin touched him whenever he had the chance, it seemed, and if another male came up to introduce himself to Hunter, Quentin made sure that the male knew exactly who Hunter had arrived with and who he was going home with. Hunter just wasn’t sure if that going home was going to be Quentin dropping him off or if something more was going to happen.
When it was closing time, Hunter didn’t know what he was going to do for the rest of the night. For him, it was like the middle of the afternoon. There were still several hours before the sun came up.
They said good-bye to Quentin’s friends and got in his car. As they left, Hunter could tell that Quentin was taking him home by the direction he was going. The vampires lived in St. Paul, whereas the shifters, both wolf and cat, lived on the Minneapolis side.
Hunter looked over at Quentin several times. Am I gutsy enough to let the wolf know I want more than just a kiss in the back of a bar?
He thought back to the girls he’d dated. He wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but now, he realized it was because he hadn’t really cared if they turned him down or not. But he didn’t want Quentin to reject him.
“So, did you have fun tonight?” the shifter asked.
“I did. Your friends are great. And they didn’t care that I was a vampire.”
Quentin smiled at him before turning his eyes back to the road. “In my experience, shifters are less prejudiced than the other way around.”
Yeah, Hunter had heard the same thing.
They drove the rest of the way in silence, and as they grew closer to the compound, Hunter knew he was losing his chance to make a move. He had been so busy ruminating in his head that he hadn’t even realized they had arrived until Quentin parked and opened his door to get out.
He left the vehicle running, so Hunter didn’t take that as a good sign.
Hunter got out of his own side of the car as Quentin walked around. Before Hunter could say anything, Quentin pulled him close and kissed him again. It felt different because he was taller than the wolf, which was more apparent with both of them standing. He had to lean down to kiss the male but not as much as any female he’d kissed.
Quentin thrust his tongue in Hunter’s mouth, and Hunter took the opportunity to suck on it. He couldn’t believe how good Quentin tasted. He wanted to kiss him all night. Hunter rubbed his erection against Quentin, shocked for a second when he encountered another hard-on.
This male-on-male-kissing thing was going to take some getting used to. Hunter grabbed Quentin’s dick and squeezed. He wanted to see the male naked. He almost came in his pants again, just thinking about it.
Hunter groaned, and Quentin ended the kiss.
Hunter reached for the wolf again, but Quentin put his arms up to stop him.
“I think that’s enough for tonight.”
Hunter was confused. “Why? I thought you liked it.”
Quentin smiled. “Oh, I do.” He stepped forward, touching Hunter on his chest. “But you just came to some conclusions tonight. While you think everything is all figured out right now, part of that is the honeymoon phase. Tomorrow, you’re going to wake up, and you might feel the same. But you might also feel differently. I don’t want you to regret anything we did tonight, okay? I don’t want you thinking that I took advantage of you. I don’t want to think that I took advantage of you.”
Hunter opened his mouth to protest, but Quentin shook his dark head.
Hunter closed his mouth, and the shifter smiled.
He kissed Hunter one last time and walked around to the driver’s side. He rolled down the passenger window as he put his car in park. “To be continued,” he said with a grin before he sped off into the night.