Chapter 37 Shep
SHEP
“WHAT ABOUT JACK Brady?” I said, writing his name down on my notepad. He joined the pages-long list of Libertine members Theo and I were brainstorming over, trying to suss out anyone who seemed capable of being the asshole we were searching for.
It wasn’t much, but it at least made us feel like we were doing something productive while we were forced to hide away. Maybe we’d catch something the others wouldn’t, though we both realized the likelihood of that was low.
“I doubt the busiest director in Hollywood is taking time off from filming the next Star Wars to mess with little old me.”
“You do know you’re a prince, right? And he would have access to explosives, or at least know how to pull it off.”
“I also know he loves his life, and the fifty-million-dollar mansion he just bought. He’s not going to jeopardize that by coming after me for a minor indiscretion that took place two years ago.”
“Announcing at one of his premieres that you wouldn’t date him because his boyfriend told you his dick was the size of a Vienna sausage is hardly minor.”
“Au contraire. The whole point was that it was very minor.” Theo held his thumb and index finger a few inches apart.
“Okay, so no.” I scratched the name off the list and moved on to the next. “Thomas Hendrix?”
“Non.” Theo shook his head. “That was just a misunderstanding. We arranged for a little foreign rendezvous on his upcoming movie shoot abroad, but he thought I said I’d be in Australia when I, in fact, said Austria.
We ended up on opposite ends of the earth, and he was slightly put out.
But a quick visit from me on set and a very personal apology and—”
“Okay, I get it,” I bit out, staring down at Theo’s twinkling eyes. “So not him.”
He grinned. “Not him.”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I said, scratching the actor’s name off the list with a little more force than necessary.
“You jealous?” He leaned back on the bed and waggled his brows. “I’m definitely not not enjoying it. But if it’s bothering you, I can think of other things we could do to pass the time.”
I glared at him from where I stood at the foot of my—now our—bed. “That’s not going to work.”
“What’s not?”
“Your body. It’s not going to distract me this time.”
“Non?” Theo ran a hand down his body to cup himself through his shorts, and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to toss the pad of paper aside and make him forget he’d ever visited Australia.
“No. We’re going to go through all the people you have pissed off at Libertine to see if any of them seem like a credible threat.”
“Aren’t you the one who pointed out to me how long that would take?”
“Don’t use my words against me.”
“I mean, if you want to know about my exes, Shep, you could just ask.” He gave a smirk I wanted to kiss right off his face. “There’s no need for all this pretense.”
“Be serious.”
“I am. Most of the people who are holding a grudge, I either hooked up with them and left or said no to a hookup. Hence their bitterness.”
“And just how many of our members have you slept with?”
Theo shot to his feet and snatched the pad and pen out of my hands before moving back to the bed. As he started to scribble down something—I was assuming names—I started to pace again.
“Can you think of anyone who might have a background in explosives?” I ran a frustrated hand through my hair and squeezed the back of my neck. “Maybe even computers? Tech of some sort? Programming? Someone that would be able to bypass Alessio and get to all of—”
“Here.”
I stopped and turned to see Theo holding the pad out to me. When I took it from him and looked down at what he’d been writing, I shook my head. There, on a brand-new page, in beautiful cursive writing was:
Under oath, I hereby swear that I cannot remember anyone else that I’ve had sexual relations with after experiencing Shepard Winchester the third’s big cock, which, by the way, is much bigger than a Vienna sausage.
Then the smartass had signed it, Your Serene Highness, Prince Theodore Rinaldi.
“Can’t remember them, huh?”
“What can I say?” He grinned and slipped his hand down his shorts. “You fucked them clear out of my head.”
I knew we should keep going, keep brainstorming to see what we could come up with, but there was only so much self-restraint I possessed, and watching Theo stroke himself to full mast had my own cock begging for release.
Mind made up, I tossed the pad to the floor and moved over to the bed. As I whipped my shirt over my head, Theo quickly followed. His grin was victorious as I moved up over him, but when he went to reach for me, I pinned his hands by his head.
“You ever mention Vienna sausages to me again, I just might kill you in your sleep.”
Theo craned up and nipped at my lower lip, dragging it nice and slow through his teeth. “Then I think you should make me forget about those teeny-tiny things”—he lowered his eyes down my body—“by showing me what you’re packing.”
I was about to tell him he’d forget when I used it on him. But before I could get a word out, Theo shoved up off the bed, rolling me until I was on my back and he was on top.
“Now, where was I?” he mused, a devilish light in his eyes. “Oh, right, I wanted to see what you’re packing. But I think I’ve changed my mind. It’s been at least a week since I’ve had the pleasure of being inside your tight—”
I tensed at Theo’s words, and he must’ve felt it, because he stopped talking.
“Did you just say a week?” My mind rewound to the last time Theo had taken me over the pool table. “Has it really been a week?”
“I’m not usually one to keep score, but oui. You greedy fucker.”
“Shit. We forgot to check in with King.”
As if a light bulb just switched on, Theo mouthed, Oh.
Then, just as quickly, he shrugged it off. “Well, he can wait another few minutes.”
“Minutes? I thought you had more stamina than that?”
“Hilarious.” Theo drew the infinity symbol around both my nipples, his lips pursing. “I just meant he doesn’t need to be in this bed with us. So why don’t we forget about him until…after?”
I could do that. What was another hour or so?
And the last thing I wanted to do was bring King into bed with us.
It had been all I could do to get him out of this house after the last call we’d had.
But after several days I’d somehow managed to convince Theo he was delusional when it came to King’s acting jealous.
Because that was definitely not the case.
“You’re right.”
Theo leaned down and pressed his lips to the base of my throat. “Of course I am.”
“He can wait.”
Theo hummed as he started down my body, moving over to my left nipple to flick it with the tip of his tongue. “Exactly.”
“Plus, we’re safe, and there’s nothing to report. He can check the trackers if he wants.”
“He can,” Theo agreed, scraping his teeth over my sensitive skin and moving to the other side. “And you can turn your brain off anytime now.”
Fuck. He was right. Here Theo was, about to blow my mind—among other things—and I was talking about trackers.
Jesus, Shep, get your shit together.
I closed my eyes and let the feel of Theo’s warm lips take over as he flirted his way down my torso to my navel.
He kissed, licked, and sucked on it, until I reached for his head and arched up off the bed.
That talented mouth was doing a fan-fucking-tastic job of making me forget everything but him.
“Yes, Theo…” I groaned as he nuzzled his nose against my treasure trail, inhaling my scent as he made quick work of my shorts. Then he mouthed his way down the material, his hot breath penetrating the fabric and heating my already-scorching skin.
This was exactly what I needed. To shut off my brain and just feel.
Theo lifted his head, and when I opened my eyes to see why he’d stopped, he flashed me a deviant grin and slipped his fingers into my shorts. Then he tugged them down until my cock finally sprang free.
“Hmm, I don’t see anything resembling a—”
“Don’t you fucking dare say it.”
He chuckled and wrapped a hand around my throbbing dick, then directed it into his waiting mouth. My head fell back to the pillow the second his lips closed around the sensitive head, and when he swallowed me down to the back of his throat, a shout flew out of me.
The pleasure was so intense that I squeezed my eyes shut, and with the ringing in my ears and harsh breathing distorting my reality, I didn’t notice the door to our bedroom open. Nor did I notice or hear that same person walk inside and pick up the notepad I’d thrown to the ground earlier.
It wasn’t until a rough cough that I knew didn’t belong to Theo echoed around the room that my eyes flew open.
“What the fuck is going on here?” the person demanded in a voice that both Theo and I knew in an instant.
The two of us jerked apart in shock, and when we looked to the end of the bed, we saw the one person we’d just banished from it standing there—King.