CHAPTER TWO
Sebastian Breckon glanced at the time on his phone, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for the train to start again. He had no idea why they’d stopped in the middle of the tracks, but if they didn’t get a move on soon, he’d be cutting it close.
Shit, of all nights for the train to be running late too. The station had been packed with people getting out of the game, so he’d missed the first train and had to catch the second. He hadn’t expected this delay.
He should have told the guy to be at his place in an hour and a half, not an hour. He probably would have bailed though. The dude was clearly impatient.
If Sebastian didn’t need the release right now, he wouldn’t have bothered.
But he could feel it like a low hum under his skin. He was under a ton of pressure right now and the thought of losing himself in the touch of another person sounded like exactly the break he needed.
The last guy he’d set up a hookup with a few nights ago had ghosted him.
No message. Just never showed. Jackass.
Maybe Sebastian had a type. After all, his latest relationship had ended with him sitting alone at a table in a restaurant while he got dumped via text message.
Thankfully, tonight, as Sebastian waited for the train to restart, the only messages he had were from his dad—talking about tonight’s game, which he’d watched on TV—and his sister, Brie.
Sebastian skimmed the messages Brie had sent earlier to make sure he hadn’t missed anything urgent.
His niece, Harper, was doing okay right now, but he still worried.
It was always a worry that she’d take a turn for the worse. Shortly after she was born, doctors diagnosed her with PHACE syndrome, a group of life-threatening birth defects that could impact the brain, skin, arteries, heart, and eyes.
In Harper, it primarily affected her arteries and heart, although she’d also been born with some motor difficulties and a large red birthmark that stretched along one cheek.
Brie had spent the past five years trying to keep Harper as well and happy as possible. The syndrome wasn’t terminal, but it could be life-threatening. She’d had a pacemaker put in a few months ago and had endless testing and appointments with specialists.
Which meant an enormous amount of time and energy spent by Brie on top of her job as a medical transcriptionist.
It was why Sebastian had moved to Boston in the first place.
Brie’s asshole ex-husband had bailed last year, saying “this isn’t what I signed up for” and Brie had run herself ragged since. She was stressed and exhausted and after the umpteenth trip from New York to Boston, Sebastian had finally asked, “What if I move here?”
She’d protested of course, hadn’t wanted him to give up his life there.
But his two floral shops were doing well, Max had just broken up with him, and really, there was no reason he couldn’t visit his friends there from time to time.
His best friend, Nicholas Calhoun—captain of the New York Rockets—had understood better than anyone why Sebastian had to put his family first. He’d said he’d miss Sebastian, but he admired that he was so committed to helping Brie and Harper.
Besides, Sebastian liked the challenge of something new.
So he bought a storefront in Beacon Hill and fixed it up.
The night before he opened the shop, he and Brie sat on the floor by the counter, sharing a bottle of Champagne and talking.
Several glasses in, she’d broken down in tears and told him that she never would have asked him to move there but she was grateful he had anyway.
That she couldn’t have done this alone for much longer.
He’d hugged her and told her she’d never have to worry about that again.
Their parents were as supportive as they could be from a distance, but they lived all the way out in New Mexico and their dad had been injured in a car accident ten years ago, leaving him partially paralyzed.
Their mom did a lot to care for him, and his condition made travel to Boston difficult. Brie and Harper went out to visit them when they could, but unfortunately, that left her at a loss for day-to-day hands-on help.
Sebastian was filling in wherever he could, but he privately wondered if that would be enough when the next crisis hit.
Thankfully, Harper was doing pretty well right now. Still, it was stressful for all of them.
On top of running three floral shops—two remotely—Sebastian spent a lot of time at Brie and Harper’s place. He didn’t have time to date, and quick hookups usually did the trick.
Tonight’s was looking less and less likely to happen though because the train didn’t appear to be going anywhere.
While Sebastian waited, he answered the texts from his dad and Brie, then sent a message to Nicky asking how he was doing.
Sebastian didn’t really expect to hear back. Nicky had been dealing with persistent post-concussion syndrome for several years now and often took days or weeks to reply to messages, depending on how he was feeling. Sebastian didn’t take it personally.
“Fuck! Is this train ever going to go again?” the woman behind him muttered and Sebastian silently agreed.
He opened the hookup app again and debated if he should just cancel instead of making some dude come all the way to Beacon Hill, just to have Sebastian pull a no-show.
Thankfully, before he could do so, the train began to move. Sebastian crossed his fingers. Two more stops before his. He could just make it in time if there were no other delays.
He navigated back to the guy’s profile. There wasn’t a lot of info about him, but he was good looking. Solidly muscular with a great dick. He had a ton of ink too. It was all blurred out and Sebastian idly wondered why. Clearly, he didn’t want to be recognized.
Ugh, hopefully the guy wasn’t married or something.
Sebastian should have asked. He usually did, he’d just been in a hurry tonight.
Though it wasn’t like guys didn’t lie about that stuff anyway.
When the train reached the stop before his, he closed out of the app again, tucked his phone into his pocket, and got out of the seat, moving toward the door.
He wormed his way past people who gave him dirty looks, but it meant he was able to bolt out the doors the moment they opened. He struck out at a quick jog, grateful he lived less than a block and a half from the train.
He had his keys out before he reached Twig & Bloom and fitted the key into the lock. He pushed open the front door of his flower shop, breathing in the cool green floral scent that never failed to put a smile on his face.
He didn’t have time to enjoy it for long tonight though.
Sebastian shut the front door but left it unlocked, then turned on a small lamp sitting on the counter.
Unfortunately, he ran the risk of someone thinking the shop was open—despite the closed sign on the door and the incredibly late hour—but it was either that or tell guys to go through the alley and to the entrance at the back of the shop.
Unfortunately, that tended to spook guys who were convinced it was a setup and that they were going to get mugged. Sebastian didn’t love mixing business with pleasure, but sometimes desperate times …
He jogged up the steps to his cozy apartment, flipped on a few lights, tidied a couple of things he had strewn around, then lit a candle just to get rid of any lingering odors from his earlier dinner for good measure.
Good enough. About all he had time for, anyway.
Thankfully, this was just a blowjob. Sebastian really didn’t have time to worry about a shower and prep the way he did if he really wanted to get fucked.
No time for that tonight and he wasn’t really in the mood for it anyway.
Amazingly, Sebastian made it back downstairs with a whole five minutes to spare and he puttered around the shop while he waited, tweaking displays and plucking dead leaves off potted plants.
When he heard the rumble of a vintage engine, he perked up, peering through the window to see a black muscle car cruise by. Damn, that was a nice classic car.
He was surprised when it made an abrupt U-turn, then parked across the street.
Oh, shit, maybe that was the guy from the app? Even better.
Sebastian watched curiously as a man got out. Though his face was in shadow, the light coming from the streetlamp showed off a guy with broad shoulders, a solid torso, and muscular legs.
Yep, that matched what Sebastian had seen on the app.
There had been no face pic, but there had been plenty of shots showing off his body.
And his deliciously thick cock.
Sebastian shifted, anticipation building in his belly. That had to be the guy, right?
He was crossing the street now, making a beeline for Sebastian’s front door. He was dressed well too, in dark suit trousers and a vest, with a white shirt under it, a leather jacket draped over one arm despite the chilly night air.
Niiice, Sebastian thought appreciatively.
Tonight might turn out to be a good night after all.
Traffic had been a bitch leaving the arena and that twitchy, buzzy feeling under Luke’s skin had only grown in the time it took to get across town and to the guy’s place.
Luke crossed the quiet, dark side street, anticipation building into a low hum in his groin as he thought about the coming release. Fuck, he needed this.
It was more than just a general feel of horniness, more than the feel of balls heavy with need. It was like a terrible itch that needed to be scratched, a fucking obsession his brain wouldn’t let go of.
This guy better be legit.
Luke studied the gold lettering on the window that said Twig & Bloom Florist with a frown. What the fuck? The guy had given him an address, but he hadn’t said anything about a flower shop.
But yeah, that was the right street number on the wall of the building. He had to be in the right place. Maybe there was a stairwell somewhere that led to some apartments?
Luke’s phone buzzed with a message when he reached the far sidewalk. He pulled out his phone, checked his messages, and found one on the app that said, Come inside.
You live in a florist shop? he typed out, wondering if he was imagining that he could feel someone’s gaze on him.
I live above it, yeah. Meet you at the front door.
Huh. First time Luke had ever met a hookup at a place like this.
Fucking weird but whatever, that was fine as long as the guy matched his profile pics and was willing to suck dick.
Honestly, he’d come this far already and the need for release pulled at him too strongly to let a little weirdness get in the way.
With a shrug, Luke strode toward the shop. Well, only one way to find out if this guy was actually legit.
A moment later, the door swung open to reveal a guy with dark curly hair and stubble.
Luke had just long enough to register that the dude wasn’t half-bad looking yet somehow vaguely familiar before his gaze landed on the vintage New York Rockets jersey stretched across his chest.
“No fucking way,” Luke said through gritted teeth as the realization hit. “Absolutely fucking not.”