Chapter Twenty-One
Rory
It’s been three days, and Shai is still at the house.
We’ve fucked twice more, so he’s down another thousand dollars for what he owes me, but despite the fact that this has a time limit, we still got tested, to be safe. Sometime soon, I really want Shai to breed me. Maybe that’s what it takes to get to that place where Cillian brings Ollie.
The more time Shai spends at my place, the more frustrated I get with Kat.
She calls him several times a day, wanting to know when he’ll be home, vacillating between telling him she misses him and then asking if he can bring her gas money.
From what he said, the tank was full when he left the car with her.
I’m not one who has a lot of control, and it takes every ounce of it not to deal with her in a way Shai wouldn’t like, but what the fuck, he’s twenty-two years old and doesn’t even have a life of his own.
Things are going more smoothly around the house, though. Cillian still doesn’t talk to him, but Ollie enjoys having him around, and Dean actually smoked a bowl with him yesterday, only the two of them.
I finish my cereal just as Cillian walks into the kitchen. “Where’s your pet?” he asks.
“At work. I’m going there in a little while. I have to make a couple of stops first, try and get rid of some product.”
“Why are you going there?” he asks, taking the chair across from me.
I shrug. “Because I’m obsessed with him.” There’s no reason to deny it. Denying it won’t change the fact that it’s true, and even if I could deny it to some people, I can’t to Cil.
“So it’s more than just fucking?”
“No. Kinda. I want to fuck him and I’m obsessed with him, but that’s all.” I stand, walk over, and squeeze his shoulders. “Stop trying to understand me. It’s impossible.”
Cil chuckles.
“Actually…want to go shopping with me? I want to buy something.”
“Sure. Kitten is in class for a while still. He has my car. What are we getting?”
“Panties.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Cil stands. “I thought you were only fucking him.” He says him like it’s a word he hates.
“I am.” Since we talked about it at his place that last time, Shai never brought it up again and neither have I, but I want them. “Just him, I mean.”
We put our coats on, then head out to my car. It’s cold as fuck outside, but I’m so used to it that it’s easy to ignore.
“I’m confused,” Cil says. “He wears them?”
“Nope. I will.” I pump my brows.
“No shit?” We climb in. “That’s kinda hot.”
“Right? I thought so too. I’m just trying to find that thing, ya know?” We let the car idle and warm up.
“What thing? The sex isn’t good? You said it was.”
I’m thankful for this conversation with him, that even though Cillian hasn’t come around from hating Shai yet, it doesn’t change who he is to me.
“The sex is fucking incredible. It’s just…
fuck, you know me, always searching for more, more, more.
” More feeling, more excitement, more danger, more everything.
“Yeah, I know, Ror,” he says, a tinge of worry in his voice.
“I’m fine.”
“But what if you’re not fine one day?”
“I’ll always be fine,” I lie.
He sighs but doesn’t press.
We head to campus first, pulling along the back, where people know to find us. There’s a line of five people waiting to get to the car. One at a time, they come up to the window, and Cillian gives them whatever they ask for—coke, molly, ketamine, we have it all.
The guy lingering at the back of the line is pacing, looking nervous. When everyone is gone, he comes over, bending down close to the window.
“Hey, Rory, Cillian.”
I recognize him, I’ve sold to him a lot, but don’t know his name. “We’ve got shit to do. What do you want?” I ask.
He fidgets, which puts me on high alert. “I wanted to see if you could front me a little bit? I need some shit for this guy, but I don’t have enough cash. I’m good for it. I swear. You know I am.”
Who the fuck does he think he is? “Do we look like a fucking bank?” I ask, then turn to Cillian. “He thinks we’re a fucking bank.”
“We don’t do loans,” Cil adds.
“Dude. I’ve bought a lot of shit from you over the years. You can’t front me this one time? Fuck you.”
He tries to pull away, but I grab his hair, tugging his head into the car, then hit the button for the window to go up. He tries to pull out of my grip, but he can’t, and I don’t let him go until the window is holding his head in the car.
“What the fuck did you say to us?” I ask, putting the car in Drive and starting to move.
“Rory…dude. What the fuck are you doing?”
I don’t drive too fast, but he still has to jog to keep up, feet stumbling as he tries to stay on them.
“What did he say to us?” I ask again.
Cillian says, “Fuck you. Do I have that right? Who’s fucked now?”
Bro is still fighting with the window, crying and begging to get out while I keep driving. “What do you say?” I ask.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Dunno what I was thinking.”
“You weren’t.” I thump the side of his head.
His feet slip out from under him again, his hands clawing at the window.
“Say it one more time. We couldn’t hear you.”
“I’m sorry!” he shouts. “I won’t do it again.”
I slam on the brakes, and he jerks to a stop with the car. “Don’t ever fucking talk to us again.”
I move my hand over to hit the button for the window, when Cillian adds, “You know this is our little secret, correct? Because if you don’t…well, we’d have to pay you another visit, and we wouldn’t be as nice and understanding as we were this time.”
“I know. Fuck, I know!”
I hit the button, and he gasps, stumbling backward, falling on his ass.
Without another word, I pull away. “Next stop panties?” I ask Cillian, who laughs.
“You crazy motherfucker.”
“Can’t argue with that. It’s why I have you and your kitten to keep me in line.”
Something about that sobers him up. “Not your boy?”
“Don’t know… We both get a rush from danger.” Though I don’t think it’s as strong for Shai.
“If he gets you in trouble—”
“He won’t.”
Cillian lets it go, and we drive to the mall—the fucking mall, of all places. I don’t even think I’ve ever been to a mall before.
“So where the fuck do we go?” I ask.
“Isn’t there like, a panty-and-bra store?”
There is, in fact, a panty-and-bra store, a salesperson heading straight for us. “Can I help you? Looking for something for your girlfriend?” she asks.
“Nope. It’s for me.”
Her gaze darts back and forth between Cillian and me.
“He likes to dress up for me,” Cil says.
Her face flushes, and we both bite back a laugh. “What exactly are you looking for?”
“Panties,” I answer. “Pretty ones.”
After getting over her initial embarrassment, Lavone is extremely helpful.
I’ve seen a ton of styles of underwear on women, but I didn’t know the names of any of them, like boy shorts and hipsters and whatnot, and Lavone explains it all.
We go with a combination of lace and silk, in various colors.
I end up with five pairs, which Lavone packages up, and once I pay, she hands the bag over.
“Good for you,” she tells me, and I grin.
“Thanks, Lavone.” I slip her a hundred, and then Cillian and I are gone.
“You should get yourself a couple of jocks,” he says in the car, and I ignore the tightness in his voice when he adds, “He’ll probably like those too.” He’s doing the most Cillian thing—trying to be supportive of someone he loves, regardless of his own feelings.
I drive him back to the house but keep the car idling out front. “I’m gonna go watch Shai while he works.”
Cillian cocks a brow. “Watch him while he works?”
I shrug. Like he doesn’t do that shit with Ollie, only I don’t say that because then he’ll think this thing with Shai is more than it is.
“Be good. You need anything?”
“Nah, I’m straight.”
Cillian grins. “Not so straight.”
“Guys are fun.” I pump my brows, and he laughs.
Once I’m at the Pizza Palace, I find a booth where I can see Shai easily while he works in the back. He doesn’t notice me right away, and I don’t tell him I’m here, just…watch him—the way he moves, the way he stands, the way he fucking breathes. Everything about him intrigues me.
Eventually, he notices me, gives me a small grin and an up-nod.
Chet, one of the managers, is speaking to him.
I fucking hate that guy, and he’s lucky he’s not dead.
It’s him who let Ollie walk home alone the night he was hurt earlier this year.
When their conversation is finished, Shai walks over and slides into the booth across from me.
“I’m taking a break, but I’m staying late tonight. ”
I frown. That’s no fun. Now I have to sit here even longer. “You should quit your job while we’re fucking.”
He rolls his eyes. “I can’t quit my job. We’re not all you.”
But I could take care of him. I could pay for what he needs, but then, how would that make sense? He’s screwing me to pay off what he owes me, yet I’m giving him money? My brain is doing fucked-up shit again.
I slide the bag across the table toward him. I love that even though we’re in public, when he takes it, he doesn’t try to hide what is clearly from a lingerie company. I cross my arms, leaning back against the seat while Shai sets the bag in his lap, looking through what’s inside.
“Fuuuuck. This is a nice surprise,” he says, his voice sexy and gritty.
“Are you hard?”
“Yes.”
I get out of my seat and move over so I’m beside him, pressing my hand against his growing bulge and massaging it with my palm.
“Jesus, Cherry. I’m all boned up. What are you going to do with me?”
“Bathroom,” I answer simply, then get up and walk away.
Shai doesn’t have to be asked twice. He scoops up the bag and follows me.
I grab some kid from one of the booths—I’ve seen him around campus—jerk him to his feet, and pull him along with us.
“Dude. What the fuck?” he complains.
“Shut up.” We get to the bathroom, and I push him against the wall. “Don’t let anyone go in here. Don’t walk away until we’re done.”