The finale of the fireworks still echoed in my mind. Casersis looked at me with such love that I couldn’t help but kiss him stupid. But he also looked incredibly sad, and I wanted to wipe that sadness away, but he still refused to talk about it. That hurt the worst. Why was he keeping it tucked away? Why wouldn’t he talk about it and see if I could help? It wasn’t like I had given him a reason not to trust me. Had I?
Two weeks had gone by, and Casersis seemed to get more and more depressed with each passing day. We went on dates galore, but after the fair, they always seemed to be secluded places or public places in a secluded part of the venue.
Tonight, we were at L’amante, a fancy as fuck Italian restaurant where I had to wear one of my suits and was scared as fuck to eat anything for fear of getting it on my clothes. I had to admit, though. The food was great, the place was gorgeous, and the waitstaff was knowledgeable, considerate, and gave us sincere smiles as if it really was their pleasure to serve us. Then again, they probably got paid high wages for their sincerity. I had no idea how well people got paid at places like this, but the tuxedos the male waitstaff wore and the dresses or beautiful pantsuits the females wore looked more expensive than I wanted to know. Almost like they were all made by Mr. Cipriani.
Then again, they probably were.
One thing that kept my mind off it was the fact Casersis had convinced me that a glass of wine at dinner would be a good idea because I was now legal to drink, I wasn’t driving, and it was a private affair. I had to pick my battles, and I was kind of glad I did because the sweet Riesling I tried with my meal tasted so good, I could have drunk the entire bottle. The last thing I needed, though, was to get hammered, and I was already feeling tipsy.
I had to ask, though. And as the waiter disappeared with our empty appetizer dishes, I sat back with a glass of water to try and get the fuzzy feeling to leave my head and said, “Why do I get the feeling you’re ashamed to be seen with a younger man?”
Casersis’s eyes widened, and he gave me one of those looks that made me wonder if he thought I was speaking a foreign language. He seemed utterly confused, and it almost made me laugh. “What do you mean, beauty? Have I given you that impression?” Then he wrinkled his nose and looked down. “Obviously, I have, or you would not have asked. I am sorry, Dustin.”
I shrugged. “You acted weird through the entire fair, even when you tried to hide it. I didn’t want to say anything then because we were still having fun once I stopped making you ride the scary rides. And now, every date we go on, we’re either in secluded areas or in secluded locales. What am I supposed to think?”
His persnickety kitten face grew more persnickety. The nose-wrinkle deepened, and he sighed. “I have always disliked publicity since my exile, Dustin.” He looked around to make sure we couldn’t be heard and continued, “I live forever. If there are images of me floating around, I will have to do much to continue with the same name and the same face.
“In the early years, I did not need to worry much. There were no cameras, and I could chase people off my land quite easily to keep my solitude. Then cameras came into existence, but it was easy to say I was the son or grandson of myself. Now, I still do that, but it is harder because everyone has a camera with them, and there are surveillance cameras everywhere, including floating nanites that I have to magically shield myself from.”
I sagged in my seat, and then remembered not to wrinkle my fancy suit and sat straight again. Casersis had had to hide the entire time he’d been on earth, and it wasn’t fair. And here I was berating him for taking me to secluded places. How could I have been so insensitive?
Sighing, I reached across the table and took Casersis’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “I’m so sorry, Cass. I didn’t realize.”
He squeezed in return and gave me that sad smile again. “It is no matter, my beauty.”
I don’t know when it happened, but now, every time he called me beauty, or especially his beauty, it made my stomach come alive with butterflies. At first, I had thought it was silly or demeaning, and now I lived for the moments when he called me that. “I’m still sorry, kitten.”
He just smiled, and I pressed forward. “So, what has been bothering you? You managed to avoid talking about it after we got home from the fair and every day since. Cass, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”
I knew he was going to evade the subject before he even looked away. The fact he did look away hurt, but I just squeezed his hand. It didn’t seem like he wanted to lie. It seemed more like he wanted to tell me but needed time to process it. Hell, I could give him time. It just made me want to pry it out of him because I couldn’t stand to see him hurting.
The waiter saved me from grilling him about it by bringing out our entrées. I barely tasted my spaghetti carbonara. The creamy sauce was amazing, though. For such a fancy restaurant, they made great comfort food. Though, it wasn’t very comforting at that moment because I couldn’t get my mind off Casersis and his sad eyes.
“You know, beauty…” Casersis looked up from his plate and grinned at me, a conspiratorial tilt to his lips and crinkling the corners of his eyes. “I have a surprise waiting for you at home. That is why I ‘stuffed you into a suit’ as you groaned about and dragged you to a ‘fancy’ restaurant.”
Meal forgotten, I stared at him, pointed at him rudely with my fork, and demanded, “What did you do?”
He grinned brighter. “You will just have to see.”
“Oh, no. You aren’t doing that. You aren’t going to keep me in the dark until we get home. Cass, spill it.”
Casersis laughed and twirled some of his linguine around his fork, using his spoon to rest the tines instead of doing it on his plate. “You have been asking for something to do with your hands for some time. I have finally found something to help you with that.”
He was still evading, and I would pry it out of him if it were the last thing I did. “What. Did. You. Do?”
If his smirk said anything, my kitten was extremely proud of himself, and he drew out my exasperation and interest by eating the neatly twirled pasta off his fork and twirling another bite while he chewed the first. He seemed content in stuffing his face and making me wait until I lightly nudged his ankle. “Tell me, Cass.”
He sighed after he swallowed his next bite. “I had Joe Nichol help me by giving me a list of supplies, fittings, and tools to make a large gazebo, and I bought them. They are being delivered to the back yard right now and will be ready for you after we are done.”
Casersis gave me a sweet smile while I sat there, stunned. “If you need help, I can hire a contractor to work under your direction whenever you need it.”
I tilted my head as I thought and took a few minutes to eat while I planned shit out in my head. Fuck. This was great, but I knew I couldn’t do it myself. Still, it would be fun as hell. “It will take a while. Winter is coming soon, and we’ll have to stop. Might as well put a tarp over it all or store it somewhere until after the ground dries in spring so I can pour a concrete base without having it crack from the cold temperatures.”
My kitten’s face fell, and I reached over to grab his hand. “Don’t make that face. I’m ecstatic about this, Cass. Thank you. It gives me something to look forward to, and I can go through everything to make sure it’s all ready for when I can pour the foundation. It also gives me time to plan and design the structure and plan out decorative embellishments.”
The look he gave me then warmed me to my toes. “You do not have to pacify me, beauty. I will find something for you to do in the winter.”
I cracked a grin and nudged his ankle. “I’m not pacifying you. Designing the gazebo will take a few weeks, at least. And I like designing almost as much as I like building, so it’s perfect. And when the snow starts, we can figure something else out.” Nudging his foot again, I added, “You can even take me to get skiing and ice skating lessons. I’ve always wanted to learn.”
If Casersis lit up like a Christmas tree any more, I would have been blinded. Somehow, someday, I would find a way to keep him this happy forever. I just had to figure out how. “I will schedule in the lessons once the snow starts to fall,” he said with that happy light in his eyes and those crinkles at the corners that I wanted to kiss. He set the reminder into his CommLink with a few words, and we went back to our meal for a while in silence.
But as that silence stretched on, Casersis’s happy smile started to wane until it turned back into a pensive, pinched expression. If we were sat closer together, I would have reached over to tease the wrinkle between his brows out with my thumb until his expression relaxed, but that would end up getting carbonara on my suit, which would send Casersis into a kitten fit. Though the more I thought about that, Persnickety Kitten was a better reaction than this morose shit.
But I kind of liked this suit. Kind of. I disliked suits on principle, but I had to admit, it made me look hot, and I loved the way it made Casersis look at me as if I were a feast he was about to devour. It made me itch to get back home and make him undress me. Slowly so I could tease him while he teased me.
Fuck, my mind had gone straight to my dick, and I had to surreptitiously adjust myself before my raging hard-on broke my zipper.
It all made me forget, just for a little while, that Casersis was hiding something from me. Not for long, but at least my dick kept my mind occupied through dinner, another glass of wine, and halfway through the ride home.
But once we were in the quiet of the car, and I got my hormones under control, I saw Casersis frown down at his hands before looking out the window on his side, turning the back of his head toward me.
What did I do? I climbed into his lap, of course. From that first day we met, I figured out that it was the easiest and fastest way to offer us both comfort. He liked holding me, and I didn’t mind being held when I knew it made him feel better.
Casersis smiled softly, wrapping his arms about me and pulling me closer. “And what is all this?”
I shrugged and tucked my face into the curve of his neck. “You seemed sad, and I know your weakness.”
He chuckled near my ear, the sound going straight to my cock. Shit, I was not supposed to get turned on again. I had just gotten rid of that problem, and there it was, flaring to life again just because Casersis’s breath tickled my ear. But if I were truthful with myself, I loved it. I loved him.
“So, what has you so sad?”
“Please, beauty.” He sighed, his breath tickling my ear again until I squirmed. “Please believe me when I say it is nothing for you to worry about.”
“But it is something for me to worry about because it hurts me to know that you’re sad, and I can’t do anything to help.”
At least he didn’t lie and try to tell me he wasn’t sad. Instead, he teased my face out of the crook of his neck and kissed my forehead. “I will tell you when I am ready. Can you wait for that? Please?”
I sighed. It was a terrible idea, but I nodded. I didn’t want to fight, and I was too full and warm to be mad, even if I was wrinkling the shit out of both our suits by sitting in Casersis’s lap like this.
And Casersis didn’t miss a beat. His persnickety-ness came out in spades when he made a cat-sneeze sound and looked down at our bodies. “We will never get these wrinkles out.”
I snorted. “Beth will work wonders. Stop being finicky.”
The tension bled out, at least for the moment. I just wished I could help him.
