Chapter 38 Theo
THEO
TALK ABOUT A buzzkill.
There wasn’t much that could wilt my dick when I had Shep’s in my mouth, but Tyrone Kingston—Shep’s ex and our boss—walking in on us had just skyrocketed to the top spot.
A feeling I assumed Shep shared as he wrenched free of my lips and shoved me off him in an effort to cover himself—but King had seen all of him anyway. If anyone should’ve been scrambling for cover, it was me, considering the dark, murderous glare currently aimed my way.
“Living room. Now,” King barely managed to spit out through his gnashed teeth before he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.
“Fuck,” Shep said as he rolled off the bed and snatched up the shirt he’d tossed away in his haste to get naked with me minutes earlier.
“Sorry, but I think that’s out now. Unless you were joking about inviting him into our bed?”
Shep’s head whipped around so fast that I was surprised it didn’t fly off his shoulders, the man I’d been in bed with now long gone.
“You think this is funny?” he asked as he pulled his shirt on, yanking it so hard over his head that I was shocked it didn’t rip in two.
“Non, but you have to admit the timing was crazy coincidental. If not a little bit scary. You think he planned it?”
“Planned it?” Shep’s eyes narrowed. “Did that look like a man who expected to walk in and find us…us…”
“Fucking?” I supplied when Shep seemed incapable of even saying what we’d been doing.
“We weren’t fucking.”
“Yet.” My eyes trailed down to where Shep’s cock was still visible. “But a few minutes more…”
He zipped and buttoned his shorts. “Cut it out, Theo.”
“Cut what out? I’m just stating facts.”
“Well, now’s not really the time, is it?”
“Because King walked in? So the fuck what? He was going to find out sooner or later.”
Shep ran an agitated hand over his face, and when he said nothing in response, my own irritation began to rise.
“You were going to tell him about us, right? That was what we’d decided.”
“We don’t have time to talk about this right now.” Shep walked around the bed, heading for the door—heading out to King—but before he stepped through it, I grabbed his arm, halting him.
“Answer me,” I demanded, needing to know for some inexplicable reason that Shep and I were on the same page before we faced off with King.
“Not now, Theo.” He pulled his arm free and marched off down the hall to the living room.
I glared after him, wishing I had something I could throw at the stubborn ass’s head.
Not that it would do me any good, since in the last five minutes I’d watched the Shep I’d spent the last few weeks getting to know—in and out of bed—disappear.
In his place was the second-in-command with the stick up his ass.
No wonder he and King didn’t work out. They brought the absolute worst out in each other. It was as clear as the nose on my face that our illustrious leader was jealous of what he’d walked in on.
Hell, I’d been telling Shep that from the second we ended the call days ago.
But non, apparently King was fine with the idea of Shep moving on.
Bullshit.
Knowing there was no way out of this, I ran a hand through my hair and grabbed a kretek from the top of the chest of drawers.
After lighting up, I made my way to the living room, where I found Shep sitting in one of the clubman chairs on the opposite side to King, who was standing in front of the windows staring out at the jungle.
Up until now, I’d thought that thick, vast void out there was the most dangerous thing to my wellbeing. But as I came into the room and sat in the chair farthest from Shep, I decided that maybe it was King.
“Nice of you to join us.” King’s voice was low, so low I barely heard him as I settled in and got ready for my dressing-down.
“Sorry, just wanted to grab a smoke. You know how it is.” I looked over to see Shep was laser focused on King, and it took everything I had to not strangle him.
King turned around, notepad still in hand, and I was surprised he hadn’t brought up my little love note to Shep—but then again, it wasn’t as if King was going to outright say he was jealous that Shep and I were obviously together.
Even if it was currently the elephant in the room.
“Well if you’re ready,” King said, and finally turned to face us, “then maybe one of you could explain why you missed your check-in this week.”
“It was an oversight on my part,” Shep said, ever the good soldier. “I apologize. The days got away from me.”
I flirted with the idea of telling King we’d been too busy enjoying each other, but I was pretty sure he’d already come to that conclusion with the way he was white-knuckling the notepad. It wasn’t like my message had been subtle.
“Yes, I can see that,” King said, his eyes shifting to me, and while most might cower under that direct, accusatory stare, it merely emboldened me.
I took a draw of my kretek and let out a lazy swirl of smoke. “What can I say? We were just so busy enjoying…nature.”
King walked closer to me and tossed the notepad on the coffee table. “You were definitely busy doing something.”
If he was hoping to intimidate me, he was in for disappointment. King might be my boss, and I might be beholden to him when it came to Libertine and any missions we went on, but I owed him zero explanations about whom I fucked, and I’d be damned if I apologized for sleeping with Shep.
“Or someone—” King added.
“We were going to check in today,” Shep said, shooting up from his seat and more than likely saving me from a brush with death.
King pivoted in Shep’s direction. “Yes, it was clear that was a priority when I arrived.”
“Ty, don’t—”
“But while you two were busy forgetting to check in and let us all know you were alive, those of us back at home who have been trying to work out who is trying to hurt Theo were worried for your safety.”
Way to pack on the guilt trip. But it was difficult to feel too bad when this same man had questioned my loyalties only a few days ago.
“I know,” Shep said. “There’s no excuse. But we’ve been going through a list of people that might want to hurt Theo. People that might want to hurt us. All of us.”
King’s nostrils flared as he turned to pick up the damning evidence against me, then looked back to Shep. “This looks like a list of Theo’s boyfriends.”
“Ex-boyfriends,” I said, drawing King’s attention back to me.
Did I take a little too much pleasure in emphasizing that one word? Oui. But he deserved it. He had two—not one, but two—boyfriends waiting for him back home. So he could just deal with the fact that I’d stolen this delicious specimen right out from under his nose.
“And you think one of them might want to kill you?”
I could see he thought that highly possible, since he was probably thinking of all the ways he wanted to do so himself right then.
“Non.” I took another draw of my cigarette, enjoying the spicy taste of the cloves almost as much as King’s annoyance. Then I got to my feet and walked over to him. “My exes generally remember me fondly. Can you say the same?”
“Theo,” Shep growled from across the room.
But I was too busy facing off with King to pay him any mind. Shep might need a minute—or five—to work out what to say to our leader, but I sure as fuck didn’t.
“You know what, it’s getting a little cold in here for my liking. I think I’m going to step outside and let you two work this out.”
I walked around King, ready to be done with this conversation, and was almost at the door when I heard my name. I stopped, thinking he was about to forbid me from going outside.
“Stay close,” he ordered me.
Not. A. Problem.
I might’ve wanted to get out of the frigid air that had just descended inside the house, but I wasn’t stupid enough to go traipsing off through the jungle.
So for now, I’d risk the psychotic monkeys and mosquitos the size of my head, and let the two inside hash out whatever issues they were both trying so desperately to pretend they didn’t have.