CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR #2
The night didn’t hit him all at once. It took its sweet time nibbling on his thighs, licking up his chest, and whispering in his ear. He was at Adam’s. They’d crashed in his bed after…
Maybe the couch was Scotch guarded.
Raj instinctively reached for his phone and found a lamp built into an open book. He had to pull on the quill to get it to turn on. Ah, now this was what he’d expected from Adam.
Four-poster bed with a canopy. Some kind of Dutch, French, Rococo dresser with fancy legs and carvings into each drawer.
He had no idea what it really was beyond very expensive and old.
A chifforobe sat on the next corner, looking ready to whisk them all off to Narnia.
He wormed his way out of the blanket, unsurprised to find the sheets were silk, and the coverlet damask.
Lucky for him, his glasses rested on the bedside table, so he was able to properly look. Raj hit the cold floor and winced. Minnesota did not play in autumn. Trying to not yelp, he made his way for the door, then the cold nipped where it shouldn’t, and he looked down. He was completely naked.
For all he knew, Adam was hosting a book club in his living room.
Grabbing the first thing he found, Raj looked once around the room in the hopes his clothes would materialize, then he leaped into a pair of fleece pants.
It was a tight fit, shrink-wrapping to his junk and barely obscuring his butt crack, but he didn’t have a lot of options.
Easing out the door, he glanced down the hallway.
So far, no roommates wandered toward the bathroom.
A crack broke through the air, and Raj’s stomach took control of his brain. Butter, salt, fried dough, coffee… Every scent pinged off his nervous system, driving his half-naked body into the kitchen.
Gluttony took a back seat to lust. There was Adam, much like the night before, at the stove. He had on his apron but was whisking a bowl with a whistle on his tongue. His hair was a mess, Raj’s doing, and a few red marks lingered on the side of his neck poking out from below his unbuttoned shirt.
Standing barefoot in the kitchen, Raj started to drool.
Adam’s haphazard swaying turned him around enough that he spotted Raj. “You’re awake.”
“I am.” Raj had to state the obvious because he had nothing else at his disposal. “And you’re making breakfast. Are you already dressed?”
“And showered.” Adam banged his whisk on the bowl, then dumped the contents into his frying pan. “I hope you like eggs.”
“Love ‘em.” Raj couldn’t help but engage in the time-honored tradition of peering over a chef’s shoulder to make sure he was cooking what he said. The fresh aroma of soap wafted off of Adam. Raj frowned, realizing he probably still smelled like sweat and cum. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I tried. But you seemed to be happily ensconced in all of my blankets.”
“Sorry. I’m not used to the cold here.”
“It’s all right. Lucky for you, you’re adorable when you’re out so hard an earthquake couldn’t move you.”
Raj laughed. Usually, he’d be jumpier than a squirrel on a highway at a new place. But the second his head hit that pillow, he was gone. “Your bed is…” He breathed deeply, falling into Adam’s gaze. “It’s wonderful. Comfy. I haven’t slept that well in months.”
“That doesn’t speak well of your hotel.”
“I don’t stay there. We need every room for guests.”
Adam doled out an omelette, then he added a sprig of parsley to the top. “Where do you live?” He handed over the plate to Raj’s confused hands, then pulled another from the microwave. “Turkey bacon.”
“Why?” Raj took two slices, trying to remember if he’d ever had turkey bacon. “Are you trying to get an invitation?” Hmm. It had a weird crunch, but the flavor wasn’t bad.
“I was merely making small talk before, but now I’m curious.” Adam poured out his omelette. “There’s silverware on my kitchenette. Also, a stack. Take as many as you like.”
A stack of…?
Raj looked for a place to sit and found a pile of silver dollar pancakes waiting to be scooped up. “I’m sorry, you had time to shower, dress, and make pancakes?”
“I may have checked your breathing…a couple times.”
That was strangely sweet in a morbid way. As if he’d expect anything less from Adam Stein.
Raj sat expecting to only eat his eggs and bacon, before the exertion of last night hit him. His fork started dumping two, then four, and finally six pancakes onto his plate. He was pouring on the maple syrup when Adam joined him across the little table.
He didn’t just sit, but draped a napkin across his lap and carefully added one pancake at a time.
It was infuriating and confusingly erotic at the same time.
The dedication he put into one tiny task, the focus, that damn lithe body controlled from his hair to his toes…
It made Raj want to dump syrup on him and suck it off.
“You didn’t say where you’re staying. Please don’t tell me you’re renting. The rates are atrocious this time of year.”
“Not renting a house, no,” Raj said carefully. His stomach churned at the idea of him having to tell a man who probably owned twenty suits that he was sleeping in a trailer on the hotel property because he had nowhere else to go.
“Well, my bed’s always free if you need a quick five hundred winks.”
“That’s…very generous.”
“I know,” he quipped. To Raj’s relief, they both laughed.
They talked about nothing important for a bit, both doing their best to not mention all that hot sex they kept having.
It was a date, sure, and a fantastic one at that, but there was something about sitting in a man’s kitchen eating his bacon that hit differently.
Like they weren’t just fucking when the mood hit and needed some relief. It was serious.
He couldn’t handle serious right now.
“Oh.” Adam placed his mug down. “Every Saturday, the Ladies of Anoka host a light luncheon tea. It’s mostly an excuse to eat tiny cakes that cost way too much because they’re pretty.”
“Okay?”
“I was thinking, to help boost your hotel’s reputation, why not rent out that little parlor you’ve got? Maybe leave the ghosts running. They’d get a kick out of it.”
“Ah.” Raj’s tongue turned to ash, his stomach knotting itself as he couldn’t look at Adam’s excited face. “The thing is, everything’s very delicate right now.”
“Sure, sure. After Halloween, once you’re certain the props won’t come alive and eat the guests.” He played it off as a laugh, but Raj could hear the glass in his voice. Adam hid it by taking another sip of his coffee.
“What duties does the King of Halloween have to compete in today?” Raj asked as a dodge.
“It’s the fun run,” Adam damn near growled.
“Oh, right, you hated being on track.”
“I can handle jogging for five kilometers, thank you. It’s more that I’m expected to do it while peering one eye at a time through the nose of a giant pumpkin that’s spinning around my head. Such fun.”
He sounded so miserable, Raj reached over to take his hand. They held each other like that, not saying a word, both breathing the other in and being together. Raj started to slip his fingers higher up Adam’s forearm.
“Ah. I know. The run,” Adam suddenly exclaimed. “There are always business booths at the start and end. Why not promote your hotel there?”
“It’s free?” Raj asked.
“Well, there’s a donation to the committee, but the mayor loves you so much he’d waive it, I’m certain. That gas station of his was dying without the hotel. You’ve really gotten on his good side.”
“I, uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why? Free publicity is free—”
“It’s just not,” Raj snapped.
The warm kitchen froze over. Silence slammed into them until only the slow drip from the sink punctuated every passing second.
“Look, I’m…I’m grateful for all the help I’m getting. Really. If not for you, the haunt would still be broken.”
“Please, tell me how handsome and brilliant I am,” Adam deadpanned. Damn it. Raj didn’t mean to hurt him. He was just under a lot of stress, treading water and…
“I want, no, I need to do this on my own,” he said.
Adam stared at him. “Why?”
A sputtering breath slipped from Raj’s lips. He pulled on his cheeks as he stared at the ceiling. Emotions tumbled in his chest, but he couldn’t give them form. Jealousy, shame, regret, pride, outrage, loneliness, fear—it became a seven-layer dip of family trauma.
“Do you come from a competitive family?” Raj asked.
“My sister lives on a goat farm where she spends her free time finding ways to scare the living to death. That would be a no.” Adam crossed his legs tightly, and he looked about to shove away from the table in disgust.
“My siblings and I were pitted against each other. Who could win the most medals, get the best grades, excel at science, medicine, business. I couldn’t keep up? They were the doctors and the accountant. I just played with silly movies for a very tenuous living.”
Raj took a steadying breath. “There was this chart. The ‘Best Choudhary’ chart that hung in the living room. You had to see it just to go out the front door. My parents had our names and pictures on removable stickers, and they’d rank all of us. I was never at the top.”
“Damn.” Adam gulped. “When I gave my mother a bag of mud for her birthday, she kept it on the mantle for years. It hardened to a rock in the end.”
That sounded sweet. Raj’s face fought to smile and also cry at such a simple thing like a mother loving the only gift her kid gives her. “I know you’re just trying to help, and I’m grateful, but I need to do this alone. I have to prove that I can make it work. I can be someone.”
Adam bowed his head. “Okay. I’ll leave all the brilliant marketing ideas up to you. But, Raj, from someone who’s done the alone thing for a while now, you don’t have to wall yourself up. The amontillado’s just as good out here. Probably better because it won’t smell like a decomposing corpse.”
He took Adam’s hand and held it so tight he didn’t want to let go. Adam spun his fingers, sealing them together while they stared into each other’s eyes.
A cuckoo shot out of a clock on the wall. As it bobbed in the air, Raj stared at the numbers, disbelieving the hands. “Is it…? What time is it?”
“Ten. Well, nearly. That thing’s always early.”
“It’s ten o’clock!” Raj shouted. He stood, shoving the chair back, and crammed the rest of his cooling pancakes into his mouth. “I have to get back. Checkout’s already happening. Oh, shit.” He drenched the pancakes in the coffee too good to pass up and tried to swallow.
“I had a wonderful night, we should do it again…” Raj reached over to kiss Adam on the cheek when the man laughed and pointed down.
“Are you really going to walk into your hotel wearing my Evil Dead pajama pants?”
Raj stared at the pants he’d put on without a thought. Tiny chainsaws, demon-possessed deer heads, murder hands, and the Necronomicon stared up at him. His clothing was stained with his cum. Damnit. “I can get a new shirt on the way—”
“Here.”
Adam yanked back an accordion door and pulled out a pile of perfectly folded clothes on top of a dryer. As Raj took them, he stared at the washed and fluffed sweater. “You had time to do laundry?” Then he noted the sharp pleats on his pants. “And iron?”
He responded with a shrug, but grinned as Raj turned around his clothing, realizing Adam also starched his underwear. This man would make a gay socialite very happy. He’s Jeeves and a hot ass all in one.
“Please tell me you’re showing off, and you don’t do this every morning.”
Adam shrugged, then he winked. “A little. Your phone and keys are in a basket by the couch. Don’t forget them, or I might think you intend to stay over again.”
“Well, I do, but I also need them for my job, so…” Lifting his clothing, Raj tried to find a way to slip out for the bathroom to get dressed without making this weirder than it was.
“I had a wonderful evening. I love your place. Your eggs are fantastic. And your cock is perfect. See you later.” With that, he turned to bolt out of this fantasy into his dreary reality.
“Oh.” Adam’s sudden cry twisted him around. “Every year for Halloween, there’s a masquerade. The committee’s been texting about it like crazy for some reason. It’s part to celebrate the end of a season, and also where the King is voted on.”
“Ah, your crowning moment.”
He blushed. “Yes. Anyway, I was thinking, as we’re no longer trying to destroy each other for the throne, why don’t we form a united front and go…together?”
Together to a ball? That sounded very serious. Leaving toothbrushes serious. “I…I’m not sure if I can.” Raj’s face crumpled as he expected Adam’s to do the same. For a second, it flickered, but then he went to stone. “It’s the busiest day, and I have no idea what’s going to break.”
“No, of course. You’re right. That makes…sense.”
“We should just keep things casual.”
“Casual?” he repeated, nearly spitting the word.
“Until things calm down, anyway. You’re busy. I’m busy. The whole town’s busy.” Why did he feel like he was saying the wrong thing? They’d only known each other for a few weeks. This wasn’t a make-or-break time.
“You’re correct, again.”
Raj glared out the kitchen door, his legs itching to run. He was halfway through it when he looked back at Adam, who hadn’t moved an inch. “I wouldn’t want you to lose your crown because you’re too busy with me.”
As the words hit him, Adam looked about to argue, then he draped his hands behind his back. In a soft voice, he said, “No, we wouldn’t want that.”
“I’ll text you later,” he called, letting the door swing as he hobbled into his underwear and pants. Ramming his sweater on, he called back. “Have fun at the run.” He couldn’t hear Adam’s response as he was already out the door.