Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Matt
I can’t believe I came in my pants like a teenager . No one in any of my other relationships had made me blow a load without taking my clothes off. I’d have been embarrassed if the same hadn’t happened to Nick.
“Uh…if you have nowhere else to be, I could wash your pants and underwear. I have sweats you could wear.”
Nick pushed off me and stood. “That would be great.” He proceeded to pull his pants and underwear off, a smug smile on his face while he did.
“Okay, then.” I glanced at his impressive cock. I mean, it wasn’t hard anymore…
Maybe it was a semi , I thought.
“Eyes up here, Mattie.”
I looked up with a narrowed gaze. “Don’t call me that.”
I gathered his clothes and rushed off to the end of my apartment where the washer and dryer were. I tossed them into the wash with my own and moved to my room to grab some sweatpants. After slipping mine on, I went back to the living room, where Nick was roaming around, checking out all of my things.
“Here you go.”
He spun and beamed. “Thanks.” He slowly put on the pants. “Who is this?”
He was pointing to a picture of me and Trinity I’d taken at an amusement park. It had been early in our relationship and while our breakup wasn’t the best, I loved the photo.
“Trinity.”
“I saw them on your Ring camera.”
I rolled my eyes, not even dealing with how wrong it was that he had been watching that. There wasn’t a point.
“Yeah, apparently my stalker has been sending my exes gifts. I don’t understand the motive. Issue is, Trin and I didn’t have a perfect breakup. Tony, my latest ex, was a horrible person and was gifted chocolates, which he threw out before calling and yelling at me. Darnell was the only one who didn’t fly off the handle.”
Nick pursed his lips, his brows dipping. “Darnell is the only ex of yours that you still talk to?”
I nodded. “We work together, and we were friends first.”
Nick walked over to me, and of course it was sexy, but there was a slight nervousness to him.
“Matt.”
“Nick?”
“Can you please let me and my brothers look into this?”
I sighed and plopped onto the couch. “I don’t want you all taking people out.”
He chuckled and joined me. “I asked if we could investigate it.”
While I knew Officer Mendez was doing the best he could, I was getting sick and tired of everything going on.
“Yes. But only investigate it.”
“Thank you.” He leaned in and pressed a tender kiss to my lips.
“You’re welcome.”
“I do need a few things from you.”
“Okay.” I reached for my previously forgotten wine and sipped.
“I need the names of everyone who got gifts, people you know, people who gave you ‘off’ vibes…basically everyone you know.”
My eyes widened. “Oh, is that all?”
“It’s a lot. I get it, but whoever this is knows you, or at least has observed you freakishly well. I’m not going to invade their homes or anything, more like run background checks on them.”
That had the potential of ending badly. “I don’t want my friends being upset with me for a stranger digging into their lives.”
“I understand, but I promise to be respectful. Only digging deeper if I think there’s something there. I’ll also update you on everything I find out.”
“No hurting anyone?”
He held his hands up, palms out. “I swear. I won’t impede upon Mendez’s case. I admit this won’t be legal, per se, and likely he wouldn’t be able to do anything in say, court, with anything I find. That said, steering him in the right direction could only help, right?”
He was like a kid trying to convince his parents that the party he wanted to go to wasn’t all that bad when, in fact, it was a nightmare.
“Fine, Nick, but?—”
“I know, I will, yes.”
I smirked. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Whatever it is, you’re right.”
Laughing, I got up and moved to my desk. “Let me write down some names for you. Not sure I know last names for some, but like where they work, that good?”
“Yes, I can do a lot with that.”
Nick sat back drinking his own wine as I put pencil to paper and wrote the name of every person I knew a lot, a little, and not at all. I wasn’t sure if the pharmacist I used was useful, but he went on the list as well.
It took longer than I’d have thought but once I was done, I handed it to him.
He read each name and when he was done he raised a brow. “What about Steve?”
“Steve?”
“The guy at The Alibi that I scared off.”
“ Pfft , if I put every person I had an encounter with, it would be a novel. Most I don’t know their names. All I’d know about him was his first name, nothing more.”
Nick shrugged. “This is a great place to start, either way.”
We talked some more, and I answered a few questions he had about some of the names, pausing to throw the pants into the dryer.
By the time the clothes were done, it was late. Would asking if he wanted to stay be too forward? We’d had a heavy make-out session that I wasn’t averse to repeating…this time, naked.
I folded his pants and brought them over. “It’s late.”
Nick took his clothes with a grin. “It is.”
“If you wanted to, you could stay.”
He tossed his pants onto the couch. “On here?”
I eyed the couch and very much wanted to burn it right then, so the choice wasn’t there. “If that’s where you’re comfortable.”
He took a step forward, getting right up in my space. “Is it really all about where I’m comfortable?”
“I mean.” I cleared my throat, suddenly nervous…and hot, why was it so hot in here? “If you’d like, you can share my bed. I have only the one bedroom.”
He lifted his hand and rubbed a finger along my lower lip. “I’m good with sharing.”
“Yeah? Okay, great. So.” I turned, taking in a lungful of air. “This way, then.”
He chuckled behind me and followed me down to my room. Was he checking out my ass? I’d been looking at his. When I stepped into my room, I glanced around. Nothing was left out, and I’d changed the sheets yesterday. My room was simple, blues and grays, I had art on the walls because I found it creepy putting up pictures of people where I slept. It would be like they were watching me.
“Here we are.”
Nick’s eyes were everywhere, taking it all in. “Nice painting.”
Over my bed was an abstract painting Trinity had made me for my birthday one year. They were so talented and after we broke up, I’d refused to toss it.
“A gift.”
He nodded. “You have a nice room.”
“Nothing like yours, no tech in sight besides my television.”
Nick pressed on the mattress. “I like it.”
“So…did you want to shower or anything?”
He moved close to me; I stayed in place. When he was an inch from my face he smiled. “I think we should get more comfortable.”
I may have nodded a little too enthusiastically.