Chapter 31
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
Haz
Have you ever worn jeans without underwear? If you have, you probably regretted it, right?
Because, Ow.
These seams were rubbing places no seams should be permitted.
“Why are you fidgeting? Are you afraid to stay here without me? Let’s go.”
Forgetting the rubbage happening in my pants, I looked at Kieran. My boyfriend. You already knew that, but I wanted to say it anyway because I have a boyfriend. That is so much better than saying the mob is trying to kill me.
My boyfriend liked to say that one.
Lame. Just like these jeans.
“Haz.” Kieran snapped his fingers. “Come on. We’re leaving.”
“I am not a dog.” I glared at his snapping fingers. Leaning in, I whispered, “But you can still tell me I’m a good boy.”
His eyes rolled. He was doing that a lot lately. I mean, I was happy his eyebrow was getting a breather, but now his eyeballs were overworked.
“And I’m not leaving. I already called Rett to come hang out during my break,” I said. Kinda blew my mind that now I had a friend to have pizza with and hang out.
“What are you two whispering about over here?”
Ghost was waiting outside the Neon Reef when we pulled up.
I didn’t mind him hanging out this afternoon.
I probably didn’t need to say it, but I was kinda freaked out about all the attempted murder.
Especially after being ambushed at the impound lot and seeing that dent in the back fender of my car.
My accident that night wasn’t because of the rain.
“He’s stressed because he has to stay here with you. I’m bringing him with,” Kieran announced.
“I am not!” I burst out. I glanced at Ghost apologetically. “I can’t believe you’re friends with him.”
Kieran opened his mouth to no doubt deny any friendship, and I gave him the evil eye. It was really good because he stopped talking.
Ghost cackled. “He saved my life.”
“You’ve paid back that debt ten times over just listening to him insult you,” I told him.
“True that,” Ghost said, pulling yet another bag of nuts from his pocket.
They were pistachios this time. The kind he had to pull the shells off, which he did, dropping them onto the customer checkout counter as he ate.
I glanced at Kieran, expecting him to be near a seizure, but he was surprisingly relaxed. He must have seen my surprise because he shrugged. “Not my house.”
“I wanna see this pleco you were going on about.” Chomp. Crunch. Ghost’s lips smacked. “Might have to get me one.”
Excitement made me turn to face him completely. “You want to get a pleco?”
“You aren’t ever home,” Kieran put in.
“I’ll feed it for you when you’re gone,” I volunteered.
“My man,” Ghost praised. Well, I guess it was praise. Who knows?
Kieran wrapped his arm around my middle and pulled my back against his front. “He’s not showing you anything. We’re leaving.”
“I’m staying here like we talked about,” I told him. “I’m not scared to stay with Ghost. I’m fine.”
“Then why are you squirming around?” Kieran asked.
“Because you bought me these jeans and wouldn’t let me put on the new boxers with them,” I bemoaned, yanking at the crotch. “Have you ever worn jeans without underwear?”
“That’s just asking for a rash,” Ghost quipped.
“You cannot wear boxers that haven’t been washed,” Kieran said as though he hadn’t already given me that lecture when we left the store.
After what happened at the impound lot, he wouldn’t let me go back to my place. But I couldn’t wear his old sweats and dress shirt to work. That was ridiculous. So he took me to a nearby store to grab a couple packs of boxers, some jeans, and a few basic T-shirts.
“These jeans haven’t been washed either, but here they are, rubbing all over my—”
Kieran cut me off with the sharp bite of my name. “Hazard.”
Heaven forbid I say dick in front of Ghost.
“The seam is uncomfortable,” I announced, leaving them to each other as I went into the back room to look for a Neon Reef shirt. I was pretty sure I had one stashed back here from when I used to go straight to my job at the Blue Orchid. Excuse me, my former job.
“Ah-ha!” I sang, finding the black shirt. I set it on the small round table and pulled off the new T-shirt, draping it over a chair.
Kieran was behind me, glaring like I was stripping for cash, and when Ghost walked in, he legit growled. Like a beast.
Ghost cackled and went back out into the store.
I tugged the work shirt on, and Kieran sighed. Reaching into the black trench he wore, he pulled out a pair of orange boxers with purple eggplants all over them. “Here.”
“Why do you have my boxers in your pocket?” I asked, eyeing the fun print.
“Well, I wasn’t going to leave them in the car for perverts to see them through the window.”
I made a face. “Aren’t the windows tinted?”
Turns out that car we’d been driving around in was Kieran’s. He was so rich that he stashed a Jaguar at a random parking garage in case he ever needed a getaway car.
I mean, I would say it was a hitman thing, but it’s not like it was a Honda.
“Perverts don’t care about window tint,” he grumbled.
“Yes, because they have X-ray vision.”
His face pinched. “Do you want the damn things or not?”
I unbuttoned my pants and dropped them in two seconds.
Kieran acted like a bomb had gone off, shooting across the room, his coat flapping dramatically behind him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he roared.
“Putting on my boxers.” I glanced down. “Pretty sure I already have a rash.”
Kieran forgot he was mad that I whipped it out in the breakroom and dropped to his knees with a sound. “Let me see.”
I jutted my hips in his direction and pointed to the red mark from the vicious seam.
“What the hell kind of jeans are these? I’ll kill the CEO of the company who makes them.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I retorted, getting a little distracted because he was like two inches from my dick. “I just need the—ungh.” My words completely fell away when Kieran’s lips brushed my cock.
My fingers instantly pushed through his dark locks, and I arched even closer toward him. He kissed me again, then dragged his tongue over the sore spot. Sighing, I tightened my grip.
He kissed it again, then pulled back, wrapping his hand around it instead. “You’ll be okay,” he murmured. “Put the boxers on.”
“B-but—”
His hand swatted my bare ass cheek as he stood. “You’re at work, and anyone could walk in here.”
Sighing, I kicked off my sneakers to pull the jeans off the rest of the way and tug on the boxers. Kieran tried to buy all black, but I grabbed a pack of the multi-patterned. Life was too short to wear boring boxers.
Though, Kieran sure looked good in them.
“You’re standing so close I can feel you breathing,” I told him.
“If someone walks in here and sees you half naked, I’ll kill them. Still want me to step back?”
“You are so dramatic.”
“I’m honest,” he replied and started to move away. Gasping, I reached for him, pitching over because my jeans were only around my knees.
Kieran caught me—of course he did—and then I leaned against his wide frame while he pulled my pants up the rest of the way.
“Thank you,” I said, stretching up on my toes to kiss his scruffy jaw after he buttoned them.
Gruff, he asked, “Does that feel better?”
I nodded and jammed my feet into my shoes.
His thumb and forefinger caught my chin, gently forcing my face up. “You sure you want to stay here?”
“Are you worried about me?” I asked, cheeky.
“Yes.”
My stomach dipped because he was not cheeky but straightforward, and in order for him to be worried, that meant he really cared about me. And yeah, he told me he loved me, but now he was worried too.
Let me enjoy someone fussing over me. I never knew how good it would be.
I rushed forward, wrapping my arms around his waist and laying my cheek against his chest. “Thank you.”
“For worrying about you?”
“Yes.”
“It’s annoying.”
I smiled. “Want me to come with you? I can just wait in the car.”
He was silent a moment, his arms tightening around me. “No. Just stay here with Ghost.”
“You sure?”
“No.” Then, “Take me to see the fish you like.”
Grabbing his hand, I tugged him out of the small break room and into the store. All our tanks were on the left side (when you came in through the front). The entire side wall was filled with three long shelves that went from the floor to almost the ceiling. Each shelf had a row of tanks.
“The lighting in here is not great, and honestly, the shelving is pretty basic. But they are able to support the weight of the tanks, so that’s all that really matters,” I said, towing him down the row, which was created by another stack of shelves with tanks.
The carpet was the indoor/outdoor kind, so it wasn’t very plush beneath your feet, but it dried quickly when spills happened. Kieran suddenly became less easy to tug, and when I glanced around, I noticed him staring at the drop ceiling and the water stain on one of the tiles.
“That’s always been there,” I told him. “C’mon, look here.”
He started walking again, and I stopped partway down the row at a tank on the center shelf. It was a thirty-gallon, which wasn’t ideal for the four plecos in it.
“This tank is actually too small for so many plecos, but it was the best I could do,” I explained.
“Mr. Wasashi wanted to put some other fish in here with them, but I refused.” I went on, getting angry all over again.
“I put some rocks in here because this type of fish loves places to hide. I made three different little caves, and then I added some of the plants so they could go behind there too.”
“There’s dirt in the bottom,” Kieran said, inspecting the tank.
“It’s substrate.” I corrected him. “There,” I said, excitement making my voice slightly high. I pointed to one of the rocks. “It’s Scop!”
Kieran stepped forward and leaned in, his face near mine. My stomach fluttered a little just at his closeness and because he really seemed interested in what I wanted to show him.
“I don’t see anything,” he said.