Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 272(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 272(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
“Why didn’t you warn me you’re a closet romantic? I had no idea.”
“I’m not. I’m not any good at romance. You…you need to be protected. Always.”
Part of him wanted to argue that he didn’t need to be protected all the time. That he could make it just fine on his own. But the words never came out because he was drowning in Ryder’s soft gaze. Maybe Ryder protecting him wasn’t about Gideon not being able to do it himself. Maybe it was one of Ryder’s love languages.
He leaned closer, drawn to those parted lips. Ryder’s hands tightened on his thighs and side, pulling him in tighter.
“Get a fucking room!” some asshole shouted from a passing car.
Ryder bared his fangs and growled, his eyes taking on a faint glow as if he were ready to launch himself at the idiot who’d interrupted them.
Gideon tossed his head back and chortled. He could feel the tension instantly roll off Ryder, who carefully set him on his feet on the mostly cleared sidewalk in front of the store. Yeah, he wanted to kiss Ryder more than anything, but he’d never imagined it happening in front of a thrift store.
“Come on, my big protector. Let’s see what we can find in the ‘weird crap we don’t need but gotta have’ category.”
Ryder frowned. “If we don’t need it, why are we getting it?”
Gideon shrugged and led the way to the glass front door. “Who knows? Because it looks cool. Because it’ll make Ethan jealous that I found it first. Because your place could really use some useless crap.”
A half smile lifted one corner of Ryder’s mouth, and Gideon practically skipped into the store. It wasn’t a kiss, but he’d take it as a win.
The thrift store was utter chaos, and he loved it. They tried to organize things according to various categories, such as household items, decorations, clothing, and board games, but people had a tendency to pick things up and walk with them before putting them down in weird places. He found a cute tiki statue shoved in among a bunch of old casserole dishes straight out of the seventies and a rainbow pillow among the shoes.
Nothing was catching his eye yet, but it meant that he needed to search each and every aisle to inspect all the goods. Ethan had taught him that. Finding weird treasures required patience and diligence. Also, the only one of the Varik brothers you could bring shopping at the thrift store was Bel. None of the others had the patience except for the scientist Varik, who was curious about everything.
Ryder appeared to be quite patient. He trailed along after Gideon, not making a single sound of annoyance. Not that he appeared to be perusing the goods much. Occasionally, he’d stop and pick something up to inspect it, but he always returned it to the shelf.
With a smirk, Gideon wandered over to the books. They’d packed the shelves with worn paperbacks and some hardbacks of popular fiction, but Ryder was hooked. After patting Ryder on the shoulder and promising to come fetch him in a while, he left the enormous vampire to pick through secondhand books, allowing Gideon to wander through the rest of the store without a care.
Ryder wasn’t bad to shop with. He never complained. He was always happy to carry things. And he never made a peep about how much money Gideon was spending. Yeah, that was nice.
Oh! He also never teased Gideon about being too weird or impulsive. That was even better.
Gideon continued to wander through the store, catching glimpses here and there of the three other customers who were strolling the aisles in search of treasure. An eighties power ballad was playing on the store speakers, and Gideon hummed along. He was just about to consider the trip a bust when he found it.
A squeal might have erupted from him that was high-pitched enough to break glass, but he didn’t care. He dropped to his knees in front of the old leather-and-wood trunk with worn brass accents on the corners. The leather handles on the ends carried some wear and tear, as if someone had heavily used the trunk over the years. There were even some faded vintage stickers proclaiming the thing had seen Paris, Berlin, and Sydney in its heyday. It was beautiful and perfect in every way.
The sound of rushing footsteps drew his eyes from the trunk in time to see Ryder running toward him with his arms completely full of books. Gideon didn’t know how he was keeping all of them in his grip while running. It was kind of a miracle.
“Are you okay?” Ryder demanded, looking ready to pounce on anyone who’d dare to disturb Gideon.
“I’m in heaven!” Gideon laid his cheek on the top of the trunk and gently stroked it. “Isn’t it gorgeous? I used to have one exactly like this in my ballet days. They shuffled me between dance corps and living with different people. Because of that, I needed to stuff all of my things in a single trunk.”