CHAPTER SIX #2
Tarzan grunted something that might have been a greeting, then reached forward to curl his fingers around Cameron’s bicep. “Sorry to interrupt, but—”
“Then don’t.” Asher bared his teeth and stared pointedly at the asshole’s meaty hand.
“It’s cool that you two know each other, but he’s with me.”
Sliding his arm around Cameron’s waist, Asher tucked him against his side and held him possessively. “Not anymore.”
“Look, man, I don’t know who the hell you are, but you need to back off my date.” Tarzan pulled more insistently at Cameron’s arm, making him stumble forward a step. “Cam, let’s go.”
“Cameron, do you want to go with him?” Calm. Reasonable. No one would guess how badly he wanted to rip the bastard’s arm off and beat him with it .
Cameron shook his head as he pried Tarzan’s hand off his arm. “I’m sorry, Scott, but I think we both know this isn’t going anywhere. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”
The casual dismissal spoken in his silky-smooth voice ignited a fire in Asher that went straight to his cock. “Damn, that was sexy.”
A smug smile quirked Cameron’s lips, and he looked up at him with both eyebrows raised. “You like that, huh?”
“Is this payback for the pumpkin guy?”
Asher blinked at Tarzan, trying to make sense of the statement. “Pumpkin guy?”
Leaning more heavily against Asher’s side, Cameron sighed. “I’ll tell you later.” To Scott, he said, “This isn’t payback for anything. This is simply where we part ways.” He took a step back, pulling Asher with him. “Goodbye, Scott.”
“That’s not what you said earlier, when you practically begged me to fuck you.”
Asher rolled the statement around in his head, let it sink in, then tossed his head back with a bark of laughter.
Oh, he could picture Cameron begging, pleading, writhing and bucking as sweet whimpers spilled from his lips.
With a muted groan, he reached down to adjust his swelling length, not caring who saw him. Yeah, he could really picture that.
Just not with that pouting man-child. The idea was just too laughable to take seriously .
“Do tell me how you begged,” he teased, angling his body so that his hard, jean-clad cock pressed against Cameron’s hip.
Cameron’s breath caught on a cute little hiccup, and pink crept into his cheeks, but he pressed closer, adding more pressure to Asher’s straining erection. “I said I had to work in the morning, and I didn’t want to stay out too late.”
Asher couldn’t help himself. He laughed again. “So, Tarzan took that as an invitation back to your bed?”
Cameron’s lips quivered, and he tilted his head to the side, studying Scott as if he’d never seen him before, but he didn’t object to the nickname. “Yes.”
The teasing had been fun and well-deserved, but Asher really wanted to be finished with the conversation. “I bet you could use a drink.” At Cameron’s nod, he laced their fingers together and gave him a little tug. “Say good night, sweetheart.”
Cameron didn’t hold back his smile this time. He looked Tarzan right in the eye, nodded, and said in a clear, carrying voice, “Good night.”
~
Cameron didn’t need a savior, but he settled a little knowing someone had his back. Not just any someone, either. Asher Dare had come to his rescue, and whether he needed saving or not had no longer been the point.
Cool and commanding, Asher’s tone had washed over him and made his head spin as the blood in his body made a swift retreat south.
Cameron had been hard from the moment he’d heard Asher’s voice, but when his embrace had turned from friendly to possessive, it had been all Cameron could do to remain upright.
Every word after that, spoken in Asher’s smooth, honeyed voice had made his cock jerk and leak a surprising amount of pre-cum that dampened the front of his boxer briefs.
God, the things that voice did to him. He might have been embarrassed, if not for the sizeable bulge straining Asher’s zipper.
It was a strange thing to find comforting, but it made him feel better to know he wasn’t the only one affected by their close proximity.
“Do you really have to work in the morning?” Asher tugged his hand more insistently, directing him away from the entrance.
The blush that had begun to fade came back in full force, burning hotter and spreading all the way up to the tips of his ears.
The words themselves had been innocent enough, but the invitation in the question was anything but.
“No,” he answered honestly, hoping he didn’t sound as breathless as he felt. “I’m off work until Monday.”
They’d made it only two steps, but honestly, Cameron had already forgotten about his disastrous date and the guy he’d left standing beside the door.
So, when a hand wrapped around his arm and jerked him around violently, he was too stunned to fight back.
His lack of awareness had him stumbling right into Scott’s arms, and for the first time that night, a sliver of real fear threaded through him.
He’d thought Scott uncouth and critical, but ultimately, harmless. With his fingers digging into Cameron’s triceps hard enough to leave bruises, and a wild, unhinged gleam in his emerald eyes, he didn’t look harmless. He looked dangerous, and his simmering rage focused solely on Cameron.
Scott didn’t want to hurt him. He wanted to break him.
At nearly half the man’s size, there was little Cameron could do to stop him. Another ripple of fear raced through him and pushed the throttle on his pulse, but he stood his ground and refused to cower.
“Let go.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Scott demanded, giving him a hard shake that made his teeth clack together. “You’re with me.”
Movement in his periphery had him glancing toward the right, and he nearly gasped at the quiet, possessive fury that darkened Asher’s expression.
Fuck, it was sexy, but so far, they hadn’t caused a scene or drawn attention, and Cameron wanted to keep it that way.
So, with great reluctance, he caught Asher’s eye and shook his head .
“Look at me,” Scott barked, shaking him again.
His arms ached, the grip on his muscles becoming increasingly more painful, but Cameron didn’t try to pull away as he tilted his head back and met the intense stare. “We went on a date. It didn’t work out.” He spoke slowly, his tone deceptively calm. “You don’t own me.”
“Wow, you’re a fucking tease.”
Cameron didn’t understand the context of the statement, but it didn’t sound like a compliment. “A tease? I’m sorry if you got the wrong impression, but I promise spending an hour listening to you talk about yourself and degrade everyone around you is not my idea of foreplay.”
Out of the blue, Scott smiled. “You’re playing hard to get.” He shook his head as if the answer should have been obvious. “If you were trying to make me jealous, it worked, so you can stop pretending now.”
Oh, for crying out loud.
“I’m not playing hard to get. I’m not playing anything, not with you. Go home, Scott.” He did try to step away then, but the grip on his arms kept him immobile. “Or stay. I don’t really care, but take your hands off me, and leave me alone.”
Apparently, Asher’s patience had reached its limit, because his long, elegant fingers encircled Scott’s wrist and squeezed until the skin turned white. “I suggest you take a hint and remove your hands. ”
When Scott leveled a look on Asher that promised pain, Cameron thought things couldn’t get any worse. He was still trying to work out a way to diffuse the situation without anyone ending up bloody or arrested, when an all-too-familiar voice cut through the tension like a hot knife.
“What the hell is going on here?” Standing next to Scott, James at his side, Nico took in the scene through narrowed eyes.
“Misunderstanding,” Asher answered when no one else spoke, his fingers still squeezing Scott’s wrist while Scott held Cameron’s arms.
Cameron could only imagine what they looked like, the three of them locked together in the least erotic threesome ever.
“Misunderstanding?” Nico’s gaze hardened, and his lips pressed together in a thin line.
“Yes,” Cameron said, tired of being manhandled. “Clearly, Scott misunderstood when I told him to go fuck himself.”
“Scott? Hey, ease up, man. Let’s just calm down.”
It pissed him off that James hadn’t spoken up sooner. Scott was his friend after all. He’d hand Nico his ass for such behavior. James, on the other hand, sounded more like he was speaking to an overemotional toddler than a full-grown man losing his shit because someone had dared to deny him .
“Let him go,” James pressed, placing his hand on Scott’s shoulder. “You’re hurting him.”
Angry, humiliated, and exhausted, Cameron just wanted to go home, crawl into bed, and stay there until Monday morning.
He could probably get out of Scott’s hold with a well-placed kick to the balls, but he had hoped it wouldn’t come to violence.
With his hands beginning to tingle from lack of blood flow, he worried he might not have another option.
Nico, however, had no such reservations about the use of force to get what he wanted. “Take your fucking hands off him, or I’m going to rip your dick out through your nose.”
Whether from James’ gentle coaxing or Nico’s threat—Cameron couldn’t say—Scott finally seemed to realize he was outnumbered and making an ass of himself.
With deliberate movements, he unfurled his hands from Cameron’s upper arms and straightened to his full height.
The moment his hands fell away, Asher released the grip on Scott’s wrist and wound the same arm around Cameron, holding him close as he took a step back to place them out of reach.
“I think maybe we should go.” James’ glanced from Cameron to Nico, his smile apologetic.
Rubbing the feeling back into his arms, Cameron nodded along with Nico in agreement. The rational part of his brain understood he couldn’t blame the guy for his friend’s behavior. The part of him that had just been attacked by a narcissistic douchebag kind of hated him on principle.
“We should get you home, too.” Folding his arms over his chest, Nico turned his back while James ushered Scott out of the club. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He wasn’t happy about everyone treating him like a swooning damsel in distress, but otherwise, he’d walk away with nothing more than a few bruises on his arms. “I’m going to have a drink.”
“I really should take you home,” Nico insisted.
“No.” He’d had enough of muscled cavemen telling him what to do. “Go if you want. I’m staying.”
“I’ll make sure he gets home.” Asher’s palm traveled up and down his back, calming him.
Nico glared, but before he could argue, Cameron pressed closer to Asher’s side and shook his head. “Good night, Nico. You owe me fucking big for this.”
“I’m sorry, Cam. I mean, I knew he was kind of full of himself after the first five minutes, but really, I had no idea he’d turn out to be a complete psychopath.”
“I know.” He just wanted to forget the entire night. “I’m going to get that drink. You coming?”
Nico looked between him and Asher several times before he finally dropped his arms to his sides and angled himself toward the door. “Nah, I’m going to take off. You sure you’re okay to get home? ”
“I’ll make sure he gets there,” Asher promised again.
“And I do know how to call a cab,” Cameron muttered. “I’m a big boy. Know how to tie my shoes and everything.”
Grinning, Nico held his hands up in a placating gesture. “Okay, smartass. I’ll come see you tomorrow.”
“He won’t be there,” Asher interjected before Cameron could speak. “I said I’d make sure he gets home.” His lips turned up in that heart-stopping smile that made Cameron’s knees weak. “I just never said when.”