He was pretty sure she was laughing at him, because she damned sure wasn’t
laughing with him. There was nothing amusing about nearly hearing details he thought might well result in him never having an erection again. And now that he’d discovered just how much fun he could have with his dick and Adam’s ass, that was a risk he wasn’t willing to take.
“Well, then, if you don’t want me talking about my long-deceased sex life, I suggest you have a seat.” Charlene pointed at the bench, giving him a stern look. “This won’t take long.”
Fuck! Les scrambled for an excuse. He really did need to get back to work, but that look Charlene was giving him strangled his protest before it could pass his lips. He sat down on the very edge, half his ass hanging off as he sighed. Screwed, that’s what he was, sure enough.
Charlene sat down and put the cookies between them. She tapped the lid and smiled.
If she meant to be reassuring, she failed, because Les was barely keeping himself from running. “I made these for you. They’re Adam’s favourite, double chocolate chip. They’re still warm, even.”
Les dragged his gaze to the container, his heart nearly tripping over his arteries as his stomach lurched. “Uh, thank you,” he mumbled, because he knew he had to say something.
He sure wasn’t going to tell her he wasn’t going to eat the things.
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“So, Les,” Charlene said, sounding for all the world like she was worried about him.
He looked up at her and wondered why her expression matched her tone. “I just wanted to tell you you’re welcome to come over for dinner any time.” Sweat beaded and rolled down Les’ brow and spine. “I like you, and I thought before I heard what you said to Josh, that you’d be good for Adam, good to Adam. I don’t think other men have been, you know. He’s never said anything, but my son has always been beautiful, and I think there’ve been people who took advantage of him because of it. Maybe even made him feel like he wasn’t good for anything other than that, being something pretty to show off or say you’ve had.”
If Les had felt queasy before, it was nothing compared to the way he felt now.
Charlene’s words made perfect sense to him, and she knew her son better than most parents knew their kids. It was obvious she loved Adam something fierce, but why—Les just couldn’t figure it—why did she think Les deserved Adam? He didn’t think anyone was good enough for Adam, least of all someone fucked up like himself.
Although, when Charlene spoke again, she proved she also knew Les, and in some
ways, better than he did. “You aren’t like that, I can tell. You’ve had your eye on Adam since the second you saw him, but you didn’t take advantage when you could have. And I know you paid his hospital bills,” Charlene said, her eyes twinkling.
Les figured his own were on the verge of popping right out of his head. “How did
you—”
Charlene tapped the side of her head. “I’m not stupid. Who else would have done it?
Nick? I don’t think Josh would have stood for that. Besides, I might have overheard you saying something about it at the hospital. Or maybe it was when Josh told Nick…”
“I didn’t do it just so I could f—ouch!” Jesus Christ, the woman was fast! Les rubbed the tip of his nose where Charlene had just flicked him with a fingertip. How could something so light—it wasn’t like she’d punched him, for shit’s sake!—make his eyes water like a damned fountain? “That’s assault,” he muttered before he could think better of it, then flinched when Charlene pointed that dangerous weapon at him.
“You watch your mouth, same as I told Adam this morning! I’ll flick the tip of your nose plumb off if that’s what it takes to teach you manners!”
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He had manners…just apparently not the one that would keep him from getting
thumped. “Yes ma’am. I’m sorry, ma’am,” Les grunted out. He should have been more careful. He was lucky all he got was a flick and a short lecture.
Charlene quit glaring and smiled at him like a queen bestowing a favour. “Apology accepted. You young people need to realise you can say something without saying it crudely.
But”—she waved her hand in the air as if shooing off a fly—“that’s neither here or there. I know what you meant. You didn’t pay the hospital bills just to get in Adam’s pants. I never thought you did. If you had, wouldn’t you have told him about it? Tried to use it to get what you wanted?”
“Uh.” Les scrunched his eyebrows together, feeling dumber than a box of rocks. “I guess? I don’t really think that way so it’s hard to say.”
“Exactly!” Charlene crowed, clapping her hands together. Les was beginning to think she was a bit batty. “That’s what I mean! You did it because you’re a good man—with a potty mouth, but Adam has that, too—and anyway, you know my son is a wonderful man, too. You saw that right away, whether you realised it or not. Those cop instincts, I bet!”
While Les sat there stunned stupid, Charlene jumped up and patted his shoulder.
“Now, Adam gets off work tonight at two. I have his car—and that was an argument that ended up with his nose getting flicked a couple of times, let me tell you. Anyway, he didn’t want me to have to pick him up that late so he said he’d get a ride home.” Charlene pinned him with a look as she propped her hands on her hips. “I think that should be you. In fact, after what he told me about that place, I can’t stand the idea of him being up there without someone to look after him. That Randy guy…”
Les wasn’t entirely stupid yet. He knew he was being manipulated, but since it was in a direction he wanted to go, he almost didn’t mind. And he was a little irritated that Adam hadn’t called to let him know he’d be working tonight after all, but they hadn’t really agreed to anything like that. Les just wanted Adam to call him, tell him where he’d be.
He realised Charlene was on the verge of scowling at him and quickly assured her
he’d pick Adam up, and even go over to the Xxchange when he got off his hospital shift. His cheeks damn near caught fire when Charlene informed him he didn’t have to have Adam back until both he and Les got plenty of sleep. The wink she’d given him let Les know she doubted they’d sleep much. God, he wasn’t going to survive another round of this!
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After she left, refusing to let him walk her to the car—all she had to do was brandish that finger and Les flinched—Les stood and took the lid off the cookies. They smelt so good, chocolate, cinnamon and vanilla teasing at his olfactory senses.
But no, he couldn’t eat them, not when his hands trembled just looking at the cookies.
There were too many memories that tried to swamp him, too many days and nights of living in sheer terror. Les walked over to the trash can and dumped the cookies in it. He was contemplating how much trouble he’d get in with Charlene if he tossed her container, too, when Josh spoke up and took a decade off Les’ life.
“What’d you do that for? Oh my God, I’ve heard about Charlene’s cookies from
Nick!” Josh shoved Les aside and bent over the trash can, inhaling deeply. Les decided everyone was fucking nuts tonight. “Oh, man! They smell so good! You…you…ugh! Why’d you do that?” Josh demanded again, standing up and turning a glare on Les he’d never have expected from the normally happy man.
“I don’t eat homemade food from…” it sounded stupid, too stupid to finish, and
Josh’s look said Les shouldn’t even bother.
“Why eat anything at all then! Unless you grow it yourself, everything you eat’s been handled by someone else—made by someone else! What’s the difference?”
Les shook his head, unable to understand why Josh seemed so pissed off. “I don’t like cookies, okay?”
“But other people do,” Josh pointed out, and Les shifted uncomfortably when he
realised Josh wasn’t looking at him angrily now. No, those green eyes were damn near probing in his head, trying to figure out why Les had thrown out some stupid cookies! “I wonder why you would just assume it’s better to throw them all away than see if anyone else wanted any?”
And that was a direction Les didn’t want Josh’s mind going off in. It’d be too easy for Josh to get the answer to that question.
“Because I’m a dumbass,” Les grumbled. He was. He should have ‘accidentally’
spilled the stupid cookies or something, but he hadn’t wanted to even touch them. Hadn’t trusted himself not to eat one or puke if he did. Hadn’t, as much as it shamed him, been able to trust Charlene. “I have to get back to work.” Les walked off and left Josh by the trash can.
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At least he hadn’t been so stupid as to toss Charlene’s dish, which was still in his hands. He’d give it to Adam, later.
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Adam was only a little bit humiliated to have to ask Troy, “How do I make a ‘Cum in a Hot Tub’?”
Troy laughed and set down the bottle of top shelf tequila he’d been twirling around.
“Wouldn’t you like to have been there when whoever it was thought up that name?”
Adam grinned as he shook his head. “No, I’d much rather have been making someone
cum in an actual hot tub, not mixing up some stupid drink.”
“I bet,” Troy said, snickering as he waved Adam closer. “Probably a certain someone, like that big snarly cop you were banging in the employee’s room, right?” He grabbed a bottle of vodka and another of white rum. “Get the Bailey’s, will you?”
Adam took the bottle down from the shelf and glared at Troy. “We were not banging in the freaking employee’s room, all right? That’s just so…skeezy!”
“Bet you wanted to.” Troy uncapped the vodka and poured what Adam guessed was
a couple of ounces into a glass. He put the lid back on the liquor then uncapped the white rum. It looked like half the amount of the vodka was added.
“I don’t want to talk about what happened last night,” Adam said, because damn it, Troy was right. “It isn’t anyone’s business.”
“Oh ho! So it’s serious, then!”
“Troy,” Adam growled as he tried to pay attention to how many drops of Bailey’s
went into the drink.
Troy held the drink up and winked. “Look, ‘Cum in a Hot Tub’. Easy. And stop
growling, you’re gonna make my alpha tendencies kick in and that could get nasty what with your big bad cop here.”
“What?” Adam whipped around, looking for Les. Damn it, his dick was already
stiffening right up and he hadn’t even seen the man. When he did, there wasn’t any bit of softness left to Adam’s shaft. It was every bit as rigid as the scowl on Les’ face as he spotted Randy.
Randy.
Oh shit!
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“Leave him.” Troy clamped a hand around Adam’s wrist when Adam would have
bolted from behind the bar. “Give your customer his drink, and don’t watch your man. Mr Talbot said if your cop came in and Randy was dumb enough to get caught, he deserved what he got.”
“What? But why—” Adam took the drink and tore his gaze away from Les, who now
had Randy cornered in a booth. Randy’s ragtag group of friends had been smart enough to run. Adam set the glass on the bar in front of the green haired freckled guy. It wasn’t a good look for the dude, made him resemble a cracked out leprechaun for some reason.
“What time do you get a break?” the man asked.
Adam frowned at him. He hadn’t done anything to make the idiot think he was
interested, but he guessed maybe the man figured it never hurt to try. Except—he darted a glance at that booth, saw Les’ big fist slam into Randy’s stomach—in the case of Mr Green Hair, it very well could hurt. Something Adam decided to point out.
Leaning an elbow on the bar, he pointed at Les, who now had Randy pinned to the
wall with one hand. If Troy thought Adam was staying behind the bar, he was an idiot. “See that man beating the shit out of the other guy? That’s my boyfriend—the beater, not the beat-ee. The guy who’s crying now,” and Randy was, pussy, “all he did last night was pinch my ass. Now leave me alone so I can go rescue the dipshit before my boyfriend seriously hurts him.”
All kinds of happy tingles shot through him when he called Les his boyfriend. It was silly, he thought, but…but he liked it, a lot. And before Adam had cleared the bar, Les had given Randy a good shake then let him go. Randy slid down the wall and curled up on the floor. Adam looked over a few feet and then further back and was surprised to see Mr Talbot standing there, arms crossed and a grim smile on his face. He noticed Adam and gave a tight nod. Adam wasn’t sure what that nod meant, but he thought it might be, as bizarre as it was, that Les wasn’t going to be in any trouble for kicking Randy’s ass. Or maybe Adam wasn’t going to be in trouble. Hell, he didn’t know and didn’t care at this point, he just wanted Les, and he would have headed over to him except—
“Fuck, he’s a stud! I’d bottom for him if you don’t mind sharing!”
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boyfriends. It was taking every bit of Adam’s will power not to plough a fist into Green Hair’s fat mouth.
“I’m pretty sure that’s a no,” Troy said from behind Adam. Adam hadn’t even realised the other bartender was there, or that Troy once again had a hand clamped around his wrist.
“Now, shut up before I let Adam take his break now. I’m so tired tonight I doubt I’d see him clock your freckled ass.”
Troy then pulled Adam back and down to the far end of the bar. “I know you think
what you two have going is too special for some hard and nasty fucking, but listen to me.
The two of you are so wound up y’all are practically sending off waves of testosterone. So take a goddamned lunch break and go expend some of that energy.” And with that bit of advice, Troy slapped a couple of condoms into Adam’s hand and gave him a shove. “I’ll keep everyone out of the store room for thirty.”