Chapter 4
Kai groaned, flopping onto his back as consciousness came for him again.
His eyes were gritty, and his mouth felt like he’d been mouthing on cotton balls all night.
His head still swirled as though all of the alcohol hadn’t managed to work its way out of his system just yet.
How much had he drank last night, and where was he?
He lifted his head, his brain trying to piece together the events of the night before.
The room was huge and dim. He was fully dressed, lying star-fished on a massive bed, complete with a fluffy, white duvet.
The heavy curtains over the windows on either side of the bed blocked out most of the light, but bright sunshine peeked through the cracks like it had been out for a while.
His gaze landed on the bedside table where a bottle of water and some painkillers sat beside a folded note. Kai reached for it.
Drink this. Bathroom’s on your left – Nolan.
Nolan’s scrawl was big but tidy and suited him perfectly.
Mortification flooded through him as the first part of the night came back to him and he flopped back down on the bed, eyes screwed shut.
He’d been so off his game last night, but Nolan had taken him by surprise in so many ways.
Yeah, he’d seen a picture of the man, and he’d known that Nolan checked all of his favourite boxes.
He was big and broad, taller than Kai’s five-foot-eleven frame by several inches, with tan skin and a strong jaw covered in black scruff.
He’d known that Nolan was hot before he’d even stepped into the club, but nothing could have prepared him for the visceral reaction he’d had when he’d turned around at the bar and seen the other man standing there, coffee brown eyes fixed on him like he was something worth looking at.
Something in his belly had jerked towards him and the sensation had thrown his brain offline.
And then he’d fucked it all up with that move on the couch.
In fairness to him, that move had never failed.
No one ever turned Kai down when it came to sex.
Boundaries? What were those? The truth was, he should have been able to come back from it, said something slick and flashed a dimple, but Nolan’s response had shaken him and he didn’t know why. So, he’d run.
Despite that, he’d just woken up in the man’s house.
Open your eyes for me, baby.
Kai’s eyes popped open, his insides swooping just like they had last night. Man, that worked for him. His cock thickened, a shiver of excitement racing through him just thinking about it. He couldn’t have fucked it up all that bad if Nolan had brought him back to his house and put him to bed.
Kai dragged himself up, still mildly disoriented. He wanted that water like crack, but more than that he wanted to brush his teeth. Then he had to figure out how to face the music.
Nolan’s house was huge. Like mansion huge.
This guy might have been a mechanic on paper, but that was definitely not all he was.
Then again, his brother was Christian Laurent, the fourteenth richest man in North America.
Kai took his time and looked around because, well, he was an opportunist and this was an opportunity.
Eventually he made his way downstairs, and a girl about his age, wearing an actual apron with a feather duster in it, told him Mr. Laurent was in the kitchen.
It was late morning, but when Kai poked his head around the corner, he found Nolan frying bacon while he flipped real, homemade pancakes on a griddle.
He took a second to admire the view. Nolan really was just so unreasonably hot, and the scene before him was enticingly domestic.
Kai could imagine himself waking up to this.
Walking in and wrapping himself all over Nolan.
Who would he have to be to deserve something like that?
He thought about what he was supposed to be doing, and it left a sick feeling in his gut that had nothing to do with the remnants of last night’s bad decisions.
His reaction to Nolan from last night hadn’t been a one-off thing.
Even now, something squeezed tight in his belly.
Maybe it was hunger. Those pancakes did smell amazing.
No, that wasn’t it. It was definitely the man.
Nolan glanced up, catching Kai staring, the corner of his lip quirking up in an almost smile.
“Was wondering when I’d see you,” he drawled.
Kai shoved his hand through his hair, his face flushing as he stood awkwardly in the entryway.
“Yeah, um, sorry about last night. That’s not something I normally do.”
Nolan took him in silently, shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the barstool in front of him with his spatula, which Kai guessed was an invitation to sit. “Coffee?”
Kai nodded. He fixed his coffee with cream and more sugar than he normally would as Nolan continued flipping stacks of perfectly neat, evenly sized pancakes. “Tried charging your phone for you. There a trick to that?”
“Nah.” He wasn’t going to explain that he kept a busted phone as some kind of weird keepsake from his dead grandmother. “If I can use yours, I can call Liam to come grab me.”
“Put that on pause for a second. Have some breakfast first. Well, brunch, really.”
“It’ll probably take him a while to get out here anyway.”
A frown compressed Nolan’s lips, disapproval creasing his forehead. Kai didn’t know why, but it made him nervous.
“I haven’t had pancakes since I was a kid,” he said, quickly changing the subject.
“So a couple years ago?” Nolan joked.
Kai remembered the joke Nolan had cracked the night before about carding him. “You’re real sensitive about my age, huh?”
Nolan met his gaze, amused and mildly chagrined. “A little,” he admitted.
“Why’s that?”
“Because I’ve spent the last year and a half taking the piss out of my brother for the way his girl has him all tied up in knots.”
Kai grinned. “I don’t understand what the big deal is. Relationships are just about who you connect with, no?”
“Sure, if you don’t take into account power dynamics in relationships. Katie runs circles around those three, which evens out the playing field a little. For me, it wouldn’t be that way.”
“You wouldn’t let me run circles around you?” Kai teased, even as excitement flickered through him. He liked this topic. He wanted desperately to know what Nolan liked and what it would be like to be the one who got to please him.
“No.” The corner of Nolan’s mouth turned up again in that half smile Kai was already becoming obsessed with.
“I like control.” Nolan met his gaze, and the heat simmering in his eyes was a fan to the flame already licking at Kai’s skin.
“Especially when it comes to sex. That’s why I date guys with a little more life experience. ”
“Oh, I have life experience. I think you’d be impressed with how much life experience I have.
” He was being sarcastic, but it wasn’t a lie.
Kai had spent eight years on and off the streets, and while there was some debate about whether or not he had actually survived, whether all of his broken pieces still collectively made a whole human being, that had to count for something. A few orgasms at the very least.
“I’d like to hear about it sometime.”
“You would?” Kai asked, but the question he really wanted to ask was why?
“I told you last night, I’d like to get to know you.”
Warmth flooded Kai’s face as he remembered what had happened immediately after that.
“I’m sorry about… after,” Kai muttered, his eyes dancing away from Nolan’s.
“Don’t worry about it. You didn’t know there were rules.”
Rules? Enquiring minds needed to know. The way Nolan said it made Kai think they were sexy rules, and if there were sexy rules that meant sexy games.
Kai’s whole focus was on how he could get on Nolan’s team.
Sure, technically Nolan was supposed to be a mark, but even if Kai wasn’t in the mood for the games that he and Liam played, the sexual pull he felt towards the other man had him reshuffling his priorities.
Right now, he was in the mood for games of an entirely different kind.
“Eggs are here.” A sing-song voice came from behind him, putting a high-pitched emphasis on the last word.
Kai turned around to see the newcomer round the corner: a platinum blond, makeup flawless and understated, dressed elegantly in a white sleeveless blouse, high-waisted black trousers and someone’s grandmother’s pearls around his throat.
“Oh, hello,” he said, coming to a sudden stop, an assessing eye taking in every inch of Kai, one hand fluttering towards his pearls, not quite making contact, while the other balanced a heavy-looking casserole dish.
“Dion, this is Kai. Kai, Dion. Bring those over here, Dee.”
Dion skirted past Kai and deposited the casserole dish on the island, standing close to Nolan in a clearly territorial move. Kai’s eyes narrowed as he tried to get a read on their relationship.
“I didn’t know you had company. Is Kai a friend of Katie’s?”
Nolan glanced up, meeting Kai’s gaze, clearly amused. “No, Kai is a friend of mine.”
“And I thought I knew all of your friends after all of these years. You are always so full of surprises.” Dion pressed even closer, resting a proprietary hand on Nolan’s arm.
Nolan looked down at him with raised eyebrows, which Dion ignored, finally acknowledging Kai.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Kai,” he said, reaching a dainty hand across the island to squeeze Kai’s fingers lightly.
It was Kai’s turn to feel amused. Obviously, whatever interest Dion had in Nolan was not reciprocated, but that didn’t seem to faze Dion at all.
Another commotion from the doorway cut off any response from Kai.
“Dessert is here!”
“It’s a cheesecake, Uncle Nolan,” Katie said, her eyes wide and her voice pitched like a little girl.
“Cheesecake and pancakes. That sounds about right, Girl.”