Chapter 18 #2
Marjorie had DJ put two of the settings across from one another, and one at the head of the table. When it was time to eat, she gestured to Roy to take that one. She sent DJ an enigmatic look. “It feels right, doesn’t it?”
Marjorie knew so much, but he hadn’t expected her to sense what was between him and Roy. He had his own response to it, though.
“If it was just him and me, yeah.” When he looked toward Roy, Roy’s expression increased that coil of need inside DJ. “But I think this makes more sense.”
Coming to the head of the table, he pulled out the chair and nodded to her. “This is your chair. It’s always been yours.”
Her eyes got a little wet, but she sat down. DJ kissed the top of her head, putting an arm around her shoulders to hold onto her. “I love you,” he murmured.
“Stop that,” she sniffled. “I refuse to cry into my lasagna.”
He grinned and let her go, but his own chest was tight.
During dinner, the lustful feelings got worse. Hell, just watching Roy eat was getting DJ worked up. He was precise and mannerly—a napkin was almost wasted on him—and he complimented Marjorie on the meal, as well as the pineapple upside down cake they had with a side of the homemade ice cream.
After the meal was done and Roy and DJ handled dish duty, they headed for the porch. Roy and Marjorie had coffee and DJ had tea. Marjorie offered Roy a shot of Bailey’s and a teaspoon of whipped cream. Roy declined the Bailey’s, but took an extra spoonful of the whipped cream.
DJ had never seen Roy drink. Was it because when he was around DJ, he was always on the job? DJ wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
“Take the porch swing,” she told Roy. “DJ, you sit next to him, so I don’t have to overwork my neck, looking between you while we chat. Don’t worry,” she added as Roy gave the swing a critical look. “It’s survived three rough boys and their friends. The chains are bolted into that ceiling beam.”
“You had a smart carpenter.”
“John Bolles, down the road. He’s taken care of my needs for years.”
DJ snickered into his tea, and she shot him a narrow look. He lifted a hand. “I didn’t say a word.”
“John is a gentleman,” she declared. “Never even flirted with me.”
“Because he can’t put together three words around you. Man’s been crazy about you forever. Time to give him a break.”
Marjorie merely hmphed. “I will slap your head in front of Roy. Don’t think I won’t.”
DJ grinned around the lip of his mug. They spent the next hour in easy conversation while the crickets sang and frogs croaked.
DJ inhaled the smell of cut grass. Roy’s arm was stretched along the back of the swing.
Occasionally, he brushed DJ’s shoulder with his fingers, keeping that buzz going between them.
Roy’s long legs were stretched out, one foot controlling their slow rock back and forth.
DJ had one leg folded beneath him, the other bent, with his foot braced on the edge of the swing. Letting Roy control their pace.
“It’s been a good day,” Marjorie said, reaching over the arm of her glider to squeeze DJ’s hand. “It felt like all my boys were here with me.”
“Yeah, it did.”
“Roy is sleeping in the guestroom Tal liked,” she mentioned. “It has a king-sized bed and its own bathroom.”
“I’m aware.” DJ lifted a puzzled brow.
“There’s room for two in there,” she said, giving him a significant look.
Rising, she collected their empty mugs, waving their help away as she moved back into the house, a little hum floating over her shoulder.
DJ stared at Roy. Roy stared back. “What are you waiting for, Dory?” Roy asked.
“I guess an invitation.”
Roy’s fingertips slid over the bare skin exposed by the collar of DJ’s shirt, sending tingles through his arm and chest, tightening his nipple.
“You’re invited. But before we sprint in that direction,” his eyes did that sexy glint again, “let’s talk to her about what we discussed while you and I were doing dishes.
I already touched base with my mom. She’s good with it. ”
“Yeah.” A less-good feeling gripped DJ, but he knew it wasn’t something he wanted to avoid. Just the opposite. “I might need backup.”
“You have it. Always.”
DJ pushed off of the swing, his leg brushing Roy’s.
He was aware of Roy’s attention following him.
The door was open, so he’d be able to hear the conversation through the screen.
A glance back showed DJ he was in the same position, arm along the back of the swing, legs stretched out, intent gaze upon DJ.
He moved into the kitchen and joined Marjorie at the sink. “Marjorie, I’d like you to go stay with Gilda, Roy’s mother, for a few days. I think you’d like her.”
Marjorie gave him a puzzled look. “Tell me why.”
“Because I don’t know if this maniac knows about you, and he resents the fuck out of anyone I love. He sees them as a threat. If I lost you…” His voice shook before he clamped down on it, turning it cold and deadly. “I would turn into a rabid animal. Serious.”
Her eyes darkened and she laid both hands on his rigid jaw. “My tall boy. No. You never would. But if it gives you peace of mind, I’ll go. Roy told me plenty of stories about her today, and it sounds like we’d fit well together.”
Her jaw tightened. “I haven’t asked many questions because this time together isn’t about that. But I won’t sleep well until I know this horrible sick person has no chance of getting to you.”
Her gaze moved past DJ’s shoulder. He turned to see Roy standing on the other side of the screen, a hand propped high on the frame, the other hooked in his jeans pocket.
“Since it’s her boy protecting you,” Marjorie added, “and this stalker has made it clear he’ll take out whoever he feels is an obstacle to that, we can reassure each other.”
“She’d appreciate that,” Roy told her. “I have a top notch security system in place there. She’s agreed to use it. Probably for the first time ever,” he added dryly.
“Roy’s mom is mostly blind,” DJ told Marjorie. “But she has no trouble keeping Roy on a straight path.”
Marjorie’s brown eyes twinkled. “Isn’t it awful when parents have minds of their own, despite their kids knowing what’s best for them? It’s karma, plain and simple.”
DJ wasn’t ready to let go of the seriousness quite yet. He laid his hands on her shoulders. “I think you’re right about you and Gilda, but if you decide you’d be more comfortable at my place, just reach out and I’ll get you to Asheville.”
Marjorie gripped his arm. “We’ll be fine. But be warned. We’re going to talk a lot about our boys.”
“Gilda said the same. Despite the NDA Roy had her sign when he was five.” DJ tossed Roy a grin.
Marjorie touched DJ’s face with a tender look, then picked her phone up off the table and waved it at Roy. “Go ahead and give me her number. I’ll call her right now, and we’ll make plans.”
They hung out on the couch, channel surfing and listening with indulgent resignation while Marjorie and Gilda chatted and compared notes on their two sons. Then Marjorie did a load of laundry and started to pack, asking questions of Roy as she went back and forth.
Eventually she announced, “I’m off to bed. You boys stay up and watch TV, eat the rest of the ice cream, whatever you want to do. In the morning, I’ll make you breakfast before we hit the road.”
After she disappeared, they gave it another fifteen minutes, tracking the sounds of her moving between her first floor bedroom and bathroom. Since DJ knew her habits better than Roy, he gave him a slight nod when he knew she was settled in for the night.
Roy switched off the TV and rose, offering his hand to DJ. When DJ took it, he stepped close, bumping Roy with his body. Roy brushed his nose against DJ’s temple, lips there on his cheekbone, but then he stepped back. “Up the stairs,” he said.
DJ complied, aware of Roy close behind him, watching his ass literally. He hooked a finger in the back pocket of DJ’s jeans, a possessive touch. When DJ stopped at the top of the stairs and Roy stopped right behind him, he recalled the line from the Charlie Puth song “Attention.”
Now I’m all up on you…
Roy breathed against DJ’s ear. “Keep going.”
When they reached the guest room, Roy closed the door. Neither of them turned on the overhead lights. Marjorie kept nightlights in every room, this one a cow jumping over the moon.
DJ moved to the window. The barn’s tin roof gleamed in the moonlight, and he could see the empty fields that Marjorie paid to have bush hogged twice a year.
Rabbits would scamper out of them at night.
As a teenager, when he was troubled and couldn’t sleep, he’d sit in the window seat and watch.
He guessed that was why he’d insisted on the webcam at his home.
“Do you always see yourself as on the job when you’re around me? Is that why you don’t drink?”
“I have two jobs around you, DJ. Protecting you, and being your Master.”
Roy gripped DJ’s hips. DJ shuddered at the contact and the words, and leaned back into him.
“The two things have a lot of overlap,” Roy continued. “One of them being that I don’t drink for either role, and one or the other is always in play when I’m around you.”
“Do you drink at all?”
“When I’m on vacation, I’ll have a beer or two. I’m not big on losing control of my faculties.” DJ quivered as Roy set his teeth to his jugular.
“A control freak. Shocker.”
Roy chuckled and moved away, unhooking his watch to put it on the dresser. Did everything the man do have to look sexy? Not that DJ was complaining.
Roy glanced over his shoulder at him. “Because of my skillset, I’m legally seen as a weapon. If I lose my temper and harm someone, I’d be judged accordingly.”
“Like Nicholas Cage in Con Air. The Ranger thing.” DJ sat down on the end of the bed and removed his shoes and socks. “Do you think he should have stayed in the car and just driven away?”