Blue Dream (Kreuzberg Dragonshifters Book 1) #Wattys2016

Blue Dream Part 3

Whilst their unexpected visitor's eyes were not yet fully open, his body, however, looked distinctly more animated than it had previously, fingers and legs twitching and shifting, as though the man was testing out his extremities to see if everything still worked. Paul felt a sudden stab of guilt at that, as he knew it would have been his fault should anything bad have happened to the man, before he padded into the room; his movements, the sound of his passage and the smell of the coffee seemed to rouse the man still further, into actually opening his eyes. Paul almost gasped when their gazes locked; the man's eyes were an unusual shimmering colour caught halfway between green and blue, and seemed to have an almost inhuman sheen to them, like twin jewels trapped within a wearied face. Whilst Paul had thought the man attractive before, the stranger's unusual eyes lent him an inhuman, yet infinitely beautiful, cast, that made Paul's heart stutter within his chest.

"Hi," Paul said, awkwardly, uncertain as to what else he was supposed to do, or to say.

Flake snorted out a sudden choked laugh at that, as though he, too, thought that Paul was being particularly awkward.

"Hi," the man on the sofa said, and it seemed as though Paul's salutation didn't seem particularly strange to him. "Where am I?"

"Our flat," Paul said, as he gestured vaguely behind himself and Flake, unable suddenly to drop his eyes from the man's face.

"Am I still in Berlin?" the visitor asked, in a way that suggested he thought that Paul's answer was a little too vague.

"Yeah," Paul said, with a grin and a nod. "You're in Kreuzberg. Urbanstraße, to be exact."

"Good. You ran me over," the man said, as he squinted at Paul. "Why did you do that?"

"It was a bloody accident. I'm sorry," Paul said, words suddenly flooding from his mouth in a worried rush. "I took you home. My friend's a doctor, or he's as good as. I thought you were injured."

"There's not much chance of that happening; I'm pretty hard to seriously injure," the man said, as his gaze shifted from Paul to Flake. "But thank you. I guess most people would have just left me there, I suppose."

"Yeah," Paul nodded. "Obviously, I'm not one of those people."

"No. Thank you," the man repeated, with a smile that time.

Paul couldn't help but notice that the smile, brief though it was, was really rather a nice one, that warmed the stranger's unusual eyes and brightened his face a little.

"There is a doctor on the way, as in a real one," Flake interjected, as he padded forward. "I called him to give me a second opinion on how you are."

"Send him away," the man said, sharply, as he glared ferociously at Flake. "I don't need a doctor. I'm fine."

As if trying to prove a point, he got to his feet and each movement seemed fluid and easy, as though the man had suffered no true motor damage in the accident. Paul was surprised at how large the man seemed, even though he only had a few inches on Paul himself, and was on a level with Flake. Paul supposed that it was the man's sheer broadness that lent him the supposed extra height, shoulders broad and arms seeming to hold a promise that they could cause harm if wielded in the wrong way. The rest of his body seemed nicely rounded however, and Paul's eyes travelled downwards, taking in every soft dip and curve upon the other's body. He only realised that he was staring when Flake pointedly gave him a jab in the ribs and Paul looked away, a little embarrassed.

When he looked at their visitor again, Paul saw that although the man was aware of Paul staring, he was smiling and didn't seem in the slightest bit offended by Paul's scrutiny. Paul couldn't help but notice that now that he'd stood, the man's gaze travelled and flickered in equal measure over Paul's own body, as though, despite his amusement, he couldn't stop himself from checking Paul out in turn. Paul felt a sudden sparking something pass between them, undefinable yet irrevocably there and hard to ignore, all the same. Paul smiled, embarrassment fading away slightly beneath what he assumed was genuine interest from the other man; he received another sharp jab in the ribs from Flake, at that.