Chapter 5
Luca
“I shouldn’t have made it so easy for you to hate me.” Evan’s words play over and over again in my head.
The apology hadn’t been what I expected when Evan walked up to me last night with determination burning in his eyes and told me he’d needed that last tequila shot for courage. I’d thought he was going to try to try to seduce me.
With every footstep he took closer to me, my cock grew harder—which seemed impossible since it had been rock hard since I’d watched him licking the Tajín off his lips from his first tequila shot.
Then he’d leaned in toward me, and all the good reasons I told Grave I had for not sleeping with Evan had lost any meaning. All I knew was Evan’s lips were inches away from mine, and my body tensed, waiting for Evan’s next move.
Which was to apologize to me, and before my lust-filled mind could come up with a response, he’d run into his room and locked the door.
He hasn’t come out since. It’s mid-afternoon, and I’ve barely heard a sound other than the opening of a cat food can and Delilah’s grateful meow.
But that was hours ago.
Just when I’m about to put my lockpicking skills to use, I hear his door open. “Morning,” he says, barely looking at me as he shuffles to the kitchen, where he downs a bottled water.
I come up behind him and see his hands tense on the sink when he senses me there.
“About last night…”
His shoulders slump. “Can we not talk about this,” he pleads.
I want to reach out and turn his body around so he faces me, but I know better than to touch him. “I don’t hate you,” I tell him.
“You should,” he says in a small voice.
“I have a few names engraved on my hate list, but yours isn’t one of them.”
“You sure about that?”
I let out a low chuckle laced with an unhealthy shot of bitterness. “Believe me when I say they did worse than shrieking at me and accusing me of sipping soup too loud.”
Evan tenses, and I know he’s flashing back to seeing my stomach the other day. “That makes it even worse,” Evan says, fully turning around. “You deserve more than me backing everyone else’s shitty behavior.”
“What I deserve, especially with my past, is debatable. Don’t bother with saying sorry to me, kid.”
Evan flushes, puts his hands on his hips, and glares up at me in a move I really wish I didn’t think was so damned sexy.
“I’m not a kid. I’m twenty-four years old, and I owed you that apology.
I just wish it hadn’t taken all that tequila-fueled courage to be able to give it to you.
” His hands go to his stomach. “Trust me, I really wish it hadn’t. ”
I notice his pale face and red eyes, which signal he’s suffering from the hangover I’d warned him about.
I immediately go to the fridge and get two more water bottles, a croissant, and then three extra-strength painkillers. “Here,” I say, putting everything on the counter next to Evan. “Down these all at once, eat the croissant plain, and you should feel better in no time.”
He looks at me strangely, like he’s not used to anyone taking care of him, but gives an “I can’t feel any worse than I do right now” shrug, and follows my instructions. By the time he’s finished the croissant, he’s looking like he's on the mend.
Setting the water bottle down, a look of grim determination comes over Evan’s face. “You deserve a do-over on my apology now that I’m completely sober.”
“I already told you—”
“No, you’re getting the real deal because I left some things out that really should have been said.
” He runs his hands across his face. “I’ve been a total asshole to you, and you haven’t deserved it.
And yesterday—well, yesterday, I went beyond asshole and trespassed into creep territory.
” He takes a deep breath. “Yesterday, you were just trying to stop me from putting myself in danger, and I got all caught up—caught up in—”
“Caught up in what?” I ask carefully.
“I shouldn’t have sunk to my knees to—to—” His face goes maraschino cherry red. “To blow you. I shouldn’t have put you in the awkward position to reject me.”
“Reject you?” If the position he means is rock hard and dying to put my cock in his pretty mouth, he doesn’t deserve full blame for that. I was right there with him. I start to tell him that, but Evan rushes on.
“Yeah. I know Grave and Dream coming over kept you from having to go through that. It was messed up to think that, even for a second, you could have wanted that from me, considering how I’ve treated you.”
Not wanted that from him? Is he fucking kidding me right now?
“Evan—” I start. It’s unfair to him to let him think he was the only one playing with fire, but he interrupts me before I can tell him.
“Please let me get this out. No matter what your sexual preference is, I know it’s not a guy who’s screamed at you and called you names all week. I was all worked up and horny, and I shouldn’t have used you to burn off my frustrations. It was wrong.”
Burn off his frustrations. While I’d been fighting off giving in to the seismic attraction I feel toward Evan, he’d just seen me as a convenient cock. It shouldn’t feel like a shiv in the gut to hear him say it, but it does.
Stop it. It’s just physical attraction. Like you told Grave, you don’t really have feelings for the guy.
“Can you forgive me?” Evan asks, his eyes huge while he awaits my answer.
I should admit my attraction to him to put us on even ground, but that might make things worse. And in the end, I need to establish a stable and professional relationship going forward that puts Evan’s safety at the forefront. We need a fresh start.
I put out my hand, and Evan regards it suspiciously.
“Hello, we haven’t met before. I’m Luca Doran. I’m going to be your bodyguard.”
Evan blinks, realizes I’m offering both of us a do-over, and shyly puts his hand in mine.
“I’m Evan Kelly. It’s nice to meet you.” He gives me a hint of a smile that I wish I could have more of. “I’m grateful you’re here to keep me safe, and I’ll cooperate in any way to make your job easier.”
“I appreciate that,” I say, shaking his hand and cementing our new boundaries in place.
Boundaries that will stay in place as long as I ignore how perfect his hand feels wrapped up in mine, as long as I don’t admit to the sparks running through my body at the sensation of his skin on mine.
I release his hand and take a few steps back.
Fucking boundaries.
I’m sitting on Evan’s couch, going over last night’s feed from the security cameras for any suspicious activity, when I hear Evan’s door open.
“I have a proposition for you,” Evan says, coming out of his room and carrying his phone.
My body fires up with lust at his words.
Boundaries, I remind myself—boundaries I’ve carefully observed by staying on opposite sides of the room from Evan and only keeping up polite, careful conversations.
Evan has done the same, and I hate it. Despise it.
I’d rather him go back to screaming at me passionately than talk about the weather with him for one more goddamned second.
Evan freezes mid-step when he realizes what he just said, and his face turns red. “I…I meant I need to talk to you about something important.”
Fuck, it’s hot when he gets all flustered. I’d love to tease him. Encourage that blush to travel across his entire body and then slowly trace its path with my tongue.
Boundaries, I repeat to myself, so sick of the goddamned word. “What are you trying to talk me into?” I ask, my voice rougher than I’d like.
Evan comes to stand in front of the couch where I’m sitting. I move the tablet to his coffee table. “You know the Freedom Festival?”
I stand up so he’ll feel the full force of my answer. “Hell no.”
The Freedom Fest is a huge music festival hosted in Lexington, Kentucky, to raise money for civil rights causes.
This year, it’s getting even more attention because rockstar Jonah Reeves is headlining.
Hoping to cash in on all the publicity, Digger Mcree plans to take over the stage and announce his run for governor of Kentucky.
That would be enough for Evan to want to cover the story, but Evan is also aware that Cash and company are planning to sabotage Digger’s political ambitions.
Knowing how dangerous Digger will be if he manages to bribe and strong-arm his way into public office, they’ve devised a plan to discredit him in front of the massive music crowds and media presence at the festival.
I should have known Evan would be plotting to cover Digger’s downfall in person.
“But—”
“Fuck no,” I interrupt because there is no reason for him to waste his breath trying to talk me into this insane plan of his. “No way you are attending Freedom Fest. All it would take is one person to recognize you, and I won’t be able to keep them from getting to you.”
The idea of not being able to help Evan no matter how hard I fight for him sends my body into fight mode.
My fists clench with the need to defend Evan, and my heart races from adrenaline.
I really need to get back to my yoga routine and the centering techniques I’ve neglected since I started watching over Evan.
“We may be outmaneuvering them at every turn because we are a hell of a lot smarter and sneakier than they are, but in numbers and firepower, they’re the winner, hands down.”
“What if I can be sneakier than them,” Evan asks. “Dream came up with an idea I wanted to run by you.”
“Dream? You mean Dream, the artist, came up with an idea that I’m gonna think is good enough to let you walk into the fucking lion’s den?”
“From what he told me, he managed to get away from the Reivers on his own, so maybe you should give the artist’s plan a listen-to,” Evan snarks back, getting his back up a little over my comment. He and Dream have bonded, and he’s protective over his new friend.