Chapter Four
Booker
Two weeks later…
Life fucking sucked, and Booker had a wealth of frustration stored up inside him. Taylin—or it was purely Frey and his flirty behavior—needed to stop. Booker had already been at boiling point after the trip on the jet at how many times—thirty, he’d counted—Frey had smiled at everyone but him.
Staying away from the office hadn’t lasted long when Dad and Popi had pointed out working from home wasn’t the best way to work with his brothers to achieve a common goal. He had no argument that wouldn’t alert them to his ‘Frey problem’, so he’d gone back into the office and put up with Frey’s sexy sassiness that… irritated him no end.
Yep… irritation is what is causing what's happening in your pants .
Don’t even start with me. Didn’t you see how weird Taylin was being around Frey?
Taylin was acting fucking odd and not just around Hollis, which was normal for him with the whole ‘I’m pretending not to be interested in Hollis, but so wanna get him naked’. Booker hadn’t missed how Taylin had done his best to avoid sitting next to Frey. This was what he usually did around Hollis and raised some suspicion on Booker’s part. Was Taylin now interested in Frey, too?
He’d gone through their recent group chat on the flight, and nothing stood out to alert Booker that Taylin’s obsession with Hollis had changed… but something was off.
He stomped after the porter, pushing their suitcases on a trolley as Hollis handed out room key cards, having been the one to book them in.
Booker stopped at the door and pressed the card to the electronic pad. The click of the door got him pushing it open and freezing when he noticed it wasn’t a hotel room but a suite. Three doors led off the main sitting area. He glanced back at Taylin. “What’s this?”
Taylin distractedly glanced back, his brows furrowing. “Yours and Frey’s suite?” he answered in a way that implied Booker should know this information.
“A suite?” Holy fuck. “We’re sharing with who?” he exclaimed, stopping Kodi and Rue, who were ten feet in front of him.
There were some gasps from those behind Booker, but he was too worried waiting for Taylin’s response to notice who they came from .
“Your PAs. Rue and Monty, Kodi and Lennon, you and Frey and me and Hollis. It makes sense. You can work with your PA in between visits and not waste any time.” The color Taylin’s cheeks were and how he avoided looking at Hollis made a whole lot of sense when he had the major hots for Hollis.
For Booker, though, being close was not his idea of fun. Hell no. He wanted to rant about how Taylin was shoving him into a situation he’d, up to now, spent most of his time avoiding.
“We are?” Rue was the first to recover, his gaze narrowing on Taylin. “Why wasn’t this shared before?”
“Yeah, Taylin, why is that?” Kodi asked in a sinister tone that suggested he was about to go off on one.
Booker held in his own angry frustration, not wanting a scene in the hallway. “Does it matter? We’re here now and I’m fucking knackered.” Booker looked back into the room. “We each have our own bedroom, so it’s not like we’re sharing a bed.”
Booker squashed the sliver of disappointment he felt as everyone filed off into their suites. The PAs looked as unamused as Booker, though he’d done his best not to glance in Frey's direction and see how he was taking this news.
Inside the room, Booker decided he needed a big ass shovel to dig a trench between him and Frey at the sight of conjoined bedrooms to the bathroom. Had Hollis arranged the rooms, or had this been Taylin’s idea of payback for all his snippy comments about Hollis? He wouldn’t put it past his brother, he could be sneaky like that !
Frey’s sweet scent was filling the room, and they’d literally only been in the place five minutes. Enough time for Booker to stomp to the minibar and grab a beer. He unscrewed the top and downed it, hoping it would remove some of the images the conjoined bathroom gave him. A naked Frey, all golden skin wet and slick…
“It’s alright if I take this room?” Frey asked, his usual flirty tone absent.
A throbbing developed at Booker’s temples as he twisted to glance at Frey, the bottle held loosely in his fingers. He wanted to kick Taylin’s ass for organizing a trip that required Frey to come with them. Now this! How was he supposed to stick to the rules? How?
When Frey gave him an arched look, Booker shrugged. “Makes no odds to me, take whichever one you want.”
Frey’s cute little nose wrinkled, and he sniffed loudly, flouncing off into the bedroom and slamming the door.
What was his fucking problem?
This wasn’t Booker’s fault.
Booker plonked down the empty bottle and reached to grab another beer. He could see it was going to be a long night. They’d already eaten on the jet, so it wasn’t like they needed to leave the suite and it was late.
Going to the sofa that was big enough for someone like Frey to sit on, but not so much for him, Booker sat and felt the base springs poke his ass in protest. He drank the beer and brooded .
The sounds of the shower running got him groaning and his eyes shutting to block images of what lay beyond the door. Was his skin as smooth and silky as it looked?
Booker’s eyes fired open, and he got up off the couch to pace the carpeted floor. It didn’t take long for his nose to twitch at how Frey’s chocolate and spice scent wafted under the door and clouded the entire suite.
No matter where he went, even locked in his bedroom minutes later, where he’d sought refuge, nothing stopped it from invading his sensitive nose.
Why are we hiding in here?
We’re not hiding?
You locked the door. His bear was too fucking quick to point out.
The smell of the fox was driving him to distraction. His bear was acting like a dick and that was before it envisioned itself curled around the little fox, rubbing his furry body against the fox’s, scenting it. Something that Booker had to take the blame for when he’d decided to research exactly what a Fennec fox looked like.
A moment of weakness, that’s what it was, after he overheard Monty and Bowie discussing Frey’s animal.
His bear considered the larger ears of the fennec fox to be utterly adorable. His pointy face Booker imagined were similar in both forms. Frey’s features were perfectly proportioned and pretty.
He snapped his teeth together at how his bear kept doing that. Drip feeding him comments about the fox at the most inopportune moments. Like now when he was dragging off his clothes, trying to cool the fuck down.
He’s delectable.
I get it. You like him.
Why can’t you just admit it, he piques your interest and has done for a long time.
I’m not having this conversation.
Why? Because you know I’m right.
The knowing chortle that came through left him growling in the empty room.
“Everything okay in there?” Frey asked, tapping on the door that led into the bathroom.
Booker had a moment of concern when he glanced down at his naked body and then back at the door. Was it locked?
He launched himself at the door, his cock thwacking off his leg and making his balls throb very unpleasantly as he hit wood.
The thud resounded around the room and Frey squealed in the bathroom. “What on earth? Are you okay in there? Did you fall?”
“I’m fine,” he snarled breathlessly, staying put right against the door in case the fox decided he wanted to investigate. Booker tried to catch his breath, reminding himself of his three rules.
“Are you sure?” Frey asked, sounding utterly unconvinced. And so he should, because Booker wasn’t fucking fine at all. The fox was right on the other side of the door, wet and smelling like a little piece of heaven .
“Yep.” He would be as soon as he got his heart to make its way down from the back of his throat, where it had lodged itself with the thought of Frey bursting into the room and them both being naked… together.
What’s wrong with you?
Nothing… abso-fucking-lutely nothing, he snapped so forcibly his mind rang with the words.
Back was the laughter giving Booker a headache when it took another two minutes—he counted—for Frey to leave the bathroom.
He slumped against the door and blew out a noisy breath. He was going to kill his brother slowly—very fucking slowly.