Chapter Thirty-Four
Emmett
HE LEANED back in his chair, stifling a yawn. The screen in front of him was starting to get blurry. As much as he liked the graphics side of his job, he’d always hated the screen time it required. He preferred painting and drawing.
He looked across the room at Ezra. He was typing away at his keyboard, his attention on the code or whatever he was creating.
He might be hacking into some bad guy’s bank accounts and donating the money to the local animal rescue, or he could be messing with his foster brothers in their endless war of who’s the better hacker. You never knew with Ezra.
The light coming through the windows was starting to dim. A surge of excitement rushed through him because he knew that meant Wilder would be home soon.
“I’m done for the day,” he said and pushed his chair back to stand, stretching his back until he heard a few relieving pops.
Ezra grunted.
“You coming?”
Ezra was, in general, better at taking care of himself as he worked than he was, but Ezra was also a workaholic if he’d ever met one.
Another grunt of an answer had him taking the few steps across the office to stand in front of Ezra. Pale blue eyes rose to meet his gaze.
“What’s going on?”
Ezra sighed, lips twitching for a moment before he said, “It’s your fault.”
A snort escaped Emmett, and he ignored Ezra’s eyeroll as he pulled himself up onto Ezra’s desk, a brow arched in question.
“With you moving into Wilder’s room, it opened up your bed for someone else.”
“Oh?”
Ezra dropped his head into his hands, his words muffled as he spoke. “Fucking Talon.”
Emmett pressed his lips together, though he felt the corners pick up.
Ezra looked up at him through his fingers and, seeing Emmett’s expression, he groaned and dropped his hands.
“I take it he’s an awful roommate?”
“What’s awful is an asshole like him having a body like that,” Ezra said with a groan. “I want to climb him like a tree, but I also want to push him down the stairs.”
Emmett huffed out a laugh and only laughed harder when Ezra pinched him in the thigh.
“Climb him first, then push him down the stairs?” he suggested, jumping off the desk before Ezra could pinch him again. “Why is he staying in your room anyway? I thought he had his own?”
“He did. Does. His and Spencer’s room is being renovated and, as I said, thanks to you, I had an empty bed in mine.”
“How horrible,” he teased, wagging his brows at Ezra.
“Go away.”
He held up his hands.
“Going.” He headed toward the staircase, a smile teasing his lips. He turned around, gaze meeting Ezra’s. “Don’t push me down the stairs.”
He ducked, running down the first few steps, something hitting the wall above his head with a dull thud. He didn’t stick around to find out what Ezra had just broken. He could take that up with Kaz himself.
Walking into the clubhouse living room, he smiled when he caught sight of Miles sitting at the dining table with his phone in hand, a glass in front of him, as well as an untouched plate of food.
“Everything alright?”
He pulled out the chair across from Miles and sat down, watching his friend with a raised brow.
Miles looked up from his phone, lips pulling into a grimace. “They’re late.”
“I’m sure they’re fine.”
Miles nodded, though he didn’t look convinced, fingers tapping the tabletop.
“How are you coping with what they do and not knowing what’s going on?”
Miles narrowed his eyes.
“I’m not asking for myself. I know what Wilder does and why he does it.
It’s who he is, and I wouldn’t want him to change for anything in the world.
I don’t care about not knowing where they’re going and what they’ll be doing because I know why they do it.
You, on the other hand? Mr. Has-To-Know-Everything? How are you coping with it?”
Miles’s lips twitched, and he leaned back, the chair creaking under him.
“A few months ago, I would’ve said not at all.
Now? I don’t need details because I know, if I ask, Kaz will tell me.
That’s the part I struggled with. Him not telling me, and once I could trust that he would, my worries got smaller and smaller.
” Miles shrugged, smiling for a moment before he turned serious again.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m still terrified that something’s going to happen to him.
I just don’t worry about details and things I can’t control. ”
The rumble of a whole lot of motorcycles coming up the driveway had Miles snapping his head up, Emmett laughing at him under his breath.
“You don’t worry?”
Miles flipped him off with a low mutter that only made him laugh harder.
“Oh, he worries,” Kian yelled out, stepping into the living room and making a beeline for the kitchen. That man and his food. Emmett shook his head, a smile on his lips.
“Fuck off, both of you,” Miles said, his lip thrust out in a pout.
Others started milling into the room, Emmett’s gaze catching on Kaz for a moment before his heart took flight.
Wilder’s face split in a wide smile when he saw him, and he was across the room in mere seconds.
Emmett tilted his head back for a kiss, grinning against Wilder’s lips when big hands cupped his face.
“You look good,” Wilder said, his voice a deep hum.
He pulled back to look up at Wilder, taking in the flush in his cheeks and the hair flattened by his helmet.
“You look delightfully rumpled.”
Wilder chuckled and stole a quick kiss before straightening with a soft sigh.
Low voices made him look toward Miles and Kaz, unsurprised to find Kaz with a hand on the back of Miles’s chair as he leaned down.
Kaz pressed a kiss to Miles’s cheek, moving back only to get jerked down by Miles’s hand fisted in his shirt.
Emmett looked away before he could catch a glimpse of tongues, turning his attention to Wilder.
“Everything good?”
Wilder nodded and leaned back against the table, facing Emmett.
“Yeah. We stopped by the gym. Kaz wants everyone there tomorrow to make sure everything is set and ready for the opening on Monday.”
Emmett pursed his lips, nodding slowly.
“I might want to do a few touch-ups.”
“I’ll bring you tomorrow,” Wilder said, reaching out to run his fingertips down the side of Emmett’s face before leaning in for a much too chaste kiss.
When Wilder pulled back, he followed only to be stopped by a hand sliding into his hair and gently jerking his head back. He looked up at Wilder, a fire starting inside him at how Wilder watched him, green-flecked eyes dark and filled with wicked promises.
“Later, Darlin’,” Wilder drawled, a smile pulling at his lips.
He wasn’t even embarrassed by the sigh that escaped him.
He watched Wilder walk away, crossing the room to talk to Kaz and a few of the others. He shook his head with another sigh and turned his gaze on Miles.
“I’m glad you’re happy,” Miles said, his smile soft.
Emmett grinned back at him. “Oh, I’m happy.”
“Oh?” Miles’s brows lifted, and he scooted his chair closer, lifting his glass to his mouth.
“Let’s just say he’s, uh… ribbed for my pleasure.”
Miles inhaled his drink and spat it all over the table. His laughter earned him a glare from Miles, but it was soon forgotten.
“So, he’s…?”
“Pierced?” he supplied with a wiggle of his brows. “Oh, yeah.”
A gleam entered Miles’s eyes, and he leaned conspiratorially closer. “What kind of piercing?”
“Barbells. Six of them.”
Miles’s eyes widened comically.
“Six?” Miles muttered. “How is it?”
“It’s fucking amazing.”
Miles pursed his lips, eyes going hazy for a long moment, and then he pushed out of his chair. “Kaz?”
Emmett spluttered out a laugh as he watched Miles trudge after Kaz.
“What’s that about?”
Emmett looked up at the man he couldn’t get out of his head. The man who could turn him on with a look. The man who owned his fucking heart.
A grin spread across his face.
“I think he’s gonna ask Kaz to get his dick pierced.”
Wilder blanched, eyes blinking his only movement for a long second. He cleared his throat, gaze snapping onto Emmett.
“Say what now?”
He shrugged. “Miles asked about you, so I told him about your piercings.”
Wilder’s lips quirked up on one side, and he slid into Miles’s vacant chair, green flecks sparkling in the overhead light.
“Oh?” Wilder mused, eyes dark as he trailed them over Emmett’s face. “And what did you tell him about it?”
Emmett licked his lips and leaned closer, gaze holding Wilder’s as he spoke low. “I told him how fucking good it feels to have you inside me.”
A hand found his knee under the table, and he had to bite his tongue as it slid further up his thigh. Hot breath fanned across his face, and then Wilder’s teeth skimmed the top of his ear.
“I could bend you over this table right here. Fuck you in front of everyone so they could see just how fucking desperate you are for me. They could hear those uncontrollable sounds you make when you’re close. They’d hear you screaming my name over and over and over, because I wouldn’t stop.”
Emmett dug his fingers into the arms of his chair, one of those sounds threatening to escape his lips.
“But I won’t,” Wilder said, nose brushing the side of Emmett’s neck.
“Wilder,” he croaked out, eyes snapping open when the hand disappeared as well as the heat from Wilder’s body against his.
Wilder was looking mighty proud of himself, and he was on the cusp of cursing him out when Emma sat down across from them.
“You good?” she asked, brows creased. “You look a little flushed. Don’t tell me you’ve got a fever?”
The concern in her voice brought the fire down to a simmer, and he had to swallow hard before any kind of words would form on his lips.
“Just a little hot. I’m fine.”
Emma narrowed her eyes. “You sure?”
“Yes, mom.”
The middle finger he received was well-deserved, but he only chuckled. Emma shook her head at him and turned her attention to her phone, and from the smile spreading on her lips, he was sure he knew exactly who she was texting.