CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SEAN
I recounted the two times in my life when I’d been truly pissed off.
Once, when I was eleven because my brother had purposely broken the toy Mom had bought me for my birthday because the spoiled dick hadn’t gotten one and she brushed it off as boys will be boys.
Another, when a hook-up had robbed me of my rent money stashed in my wallet.
And now? When some idiot decided to overdose in the bathroom when he should have known better. I didn’t care if people wanted to do drugs, but they needed to do it in their own fucking house and not mine.
The hot bite of my anger wasn’t because the paramedics were swarming the bathroom or because Jere was busy answering a cop’s questions for the police report, but because I’d been interrupted.
I’d just started to get Matteo to relax and enjoy the journey and we had to stop because of some stupid queen.
I took a deep breath and let it out in a slow hiss. The important thing was that the guy was going to be okay.
Jere shook hands with the cop and made his way toward me, looking as unhappy about the whole thing as I was. He checked the bathrooms on an hourly basis to make sure this kind of thing didn’t happen and was very meticulous in making the rounds. The guy was lucky he’d been discovered in time.
“Jere,” I said tightly. “You got the guy’s identification?”
“Yeah.” He rustled around in his pocket and withdrew a piece of paper with the victim's information written on it. He offered it to me, and I accepted.
Thomas Keiger. 21 years of age. It was always the newbies that ended up in trouble. I handed it back to him.
“Good. Put him on the banned list. I’m instituting a new policy. Anyone caught doing drugs on our property gets the pink slip, no exceptions. This is going to stop.”
“Aight,” he said and left.
I hovered near the bathroom for a half hour as the paramedics left with the guy on a stretcher. I saw the police out and everything went back to normal as if nothing had happened, the music banging, patrons tearing up the dance floor. I sent Matteo a text.
ME: Everything is okay. Will be back up soon.
One in the morning came around and he didn’t respond so I figured he’d fallen asleep. He still wasn’t one-hundred percent recovered. Mostly it was the coughing flare-ups that gave him an issue. By the time the club was secured for the night, and I made my way upstairs to my place, I was yawning.
Matteo rose from the couch, his bed head adorable. He rubbed his bleary eyes. “Fell asleep.”
“I figured.” I pulled my t-shirt off and let it flutter to the floor, not giving a damn.
“How did things go?”
“Drug overdose. The guy is lucky he was found in time. Paramedics said he should be fine. I banned him because I’m tired of finding stupid kids OD’ing on the dirty floor of a bathroom.
” I bent down to pull at my shoestrings, feeling like I’d keel over.
“One of these days… It’s going to be too late. ”
He got up, hugged me and I pushed my nose into the crook of his neck. “I’m glad it turned out okay.”
“I need you to promise me something,” I said, cupping his chin to make sure he was paying attention. “If you want to experiment with drugs, do it with someone you know and trust. Someone who won’t leave you on the floor of a bathroom to die. Please, promise me that?”
“I’m not really interested in that kind of stuff, but…I promise.”
I stroked my beard, considering the sudden idea that popped into my head. “Do you want to sleep with me? Just sleep, not sex. In my bed… You get the point. It’s big and soft and–”
“Okay,” he muttered and followed me into my bedroom.
He craned his head around, taking in the small space occupied by my king-sized bed and single dresser.
I peeled back the blankets and stilled with my hands in my waistband, wondering how naked I wanted to get.
I slipped my jeans off and left my boxer-briefs on.
He did the same, tossing me a heated glance while shedding his own clothes.
Yeah, we had unfinished business that was not going to get finished tonight, but this was the next best thing.
We got comfortable, and to my surprise he cuddled up against me, his head resting on my pec as I held him close. “Well, the evening didn’t go how we’d hoped.”
“It’s fine,” he said and yawned. “I should follow your advice and take this slow. I think we're going to wake up with blue balls, however.”
“Been a while since I’d had to deal with that.”
“Okay, you sex-fiend,” he muttered sleepily. “Thanks for making blue balls a part of my first sexual experience.”
I huffed. “As if it’s my fault some idiot overdosed?”
“No, but it's your fault for getting me hot and bothered.”
“So you admit you’re crazy for me. Nice to know.”
He slapped my chest with a growl. “Okay, Narcissus.”
“Glad you think of me as a God,” I countered. “You need to start doing some proper worshipping.”
“Narcissus wasn’t a God. Just a mortal who fell in love with himself. Despite some of my father’s beliefs, he thought it was good that I was familiar with the classics just so he could detail all the reasons why the Greeks and Romans are currently burning in hell.”
“It’s okay,” I murmured and pushed my nose into his locks, getting the scent of my shampoo. “You don’t have to admit you’re nuts about me. I already know that.”
He sighed. “You’re insufferable.”
“And yet, here you are. In my arms. Nearly naked.”
He scooted up my body and peered down at me, his features in shadow. “Has it occurred to you that I’m just using you?”
I frowned. “Need I remind you that you suggested we have sex?”
“I told you. It is a proximity thing and you’re–”
“Hot. Sexy. Delicious,” I said, stealing a quick kiss. I pushed him against the mattress. “Baby, pumpkin spice has nothing on the flavor of ginger.”
His gaze darkened. “Wait until you get a taste of Latin spice.”
We burst out in laughter together and I pulled him close. The whole thing was silly, but that was the point. He buried his head in the pillow and started hacking. I hated that he wasn't fully recovered yet and made a mental note to find him a general practitioner.
When he settled down, he said, “I’m Spanish, though I don’t look like it all that much. My mother is French Canadian, so I got her fair skin. My father is Spanish and when I say that I mean my family came over from Spain in the 1800’s.”
“As far as I know, I’m full-blooded Irish,” I said. A long moment of silence stretched, sleep taking over. “Oh, hey… I had an idea. On my next day off I was thinking we could get out of here for a few hours. You’ve been stuck in my little apartment for a month and could use some fresh air.”
“Can we go to a library?” he asked with a little pep in his voice.
“A library? Sure. Have you ever been to the Harold Washington Library?”
“No. I never made it to the south part of the city.”
I gasped. “Really? Well, we will do that. Then we will check out Macys. One of my friends has a birthday coming up and I need to get him something. We can get food and see the city.”
“I’d like that,” he whispered, nuzzling my chest with his nose.
I stroked his hair for a long time, liking the way it curled around my fingers.
The evening hadn’t turned out the way we’d wanted, but this was equally as nice as fooling around, maybe even better because we both knew something was happening between us.
I had a feeling we both didn’t want to admit to it, though.