Chapter 18
Auggie
Operation seduce Leon is … not going great. I’ve been borderline throwing myself at him all week after work, but he just gives me a sexy, bemused smile and escorts me to the door. It’d almost be funny if I wasn’t so desperate for a repeat.
The next week is the same.
Fun banter during work, lingering stares, flirty touches, and then my shift wraps up and … blue balls. A whole lot of blue balls.
I get to his place on Friday morning, and Leon answers the door the same way he has all week. Already sweaty and dirty and looking like he hasn’t slept all night.
The school build is finally wrapped up, and only a week and a bit late, thanks to me.
Leon’s house is almost completely drywalled upstairs, which is where we’ve agreed to focus our efforts to begin with, but as I climb the stairs behind him and reach the second floor, it looks different to how I left it yesterday. Again.
I clear my throat as I look around at the plastering that’s been done on the living area up here. “Good night, last night?”
“Yeah, I got a bit done before bed.”
A bit is two whole rooms of plastering. That suspicious feeling prickles over me again as I wonder whether Leon actually slept last night.
Obviously he has to have been sleeping at some point, but not enough.
He’s wrecked. And even as I survey the room, I notice him stifle a yawn out of the corner of my eye.
I’ve tried to question him a handful of times and got nowhere.
“What time did you go to bed?” I ask, trying to sound casual.
“’Bout midnight.”
“And you woke up at …”
He laughs and cuffs me about the ear. “I’m fine, killer. Worry less.”
I hum, not convinced but not sure how to tell him he’s working too hard. He worked right through the weekend while I went home to visit my parents, and if I’d known he had exactly zero self-control, I would have stayed and forced him to relax again.
Our dynamic is different now though.
I’m not sure how much to push.
Last time I did, I got rewarded with his dick, but I can’t push for that again if it’s not something he wants to give me.
Maybe Leon is a one-and-done kind of guy? That’s definitely what his actions are saying, but then I’ll catch him staring at me, checking out my ass, and it mixes up my brain. Scrambles the stuff in my gut that refuses to stay still when I’m around him.
“Here.” Leon ducks down and picks up a to-go cup I hadn’t noticed. “I ran out before you got here.”
The smell of hazelnut is strong, and my eyes fall closed as I take a sip of the coffee from Harvey’s.
For some reason, this flavor always reminds me of Sunbury. Of working and happiness and mountains dotted with green trees.
Leon shakes his head, turning away, but not before I see the corners of his lips twitch.
It takes everything in me not to swoon. Not to drop to my knees and worship this man with the sexy, thick body and sweet, warm heart.
Then I rein all that weirdness in and remind myself if I want to keep this semi-friendship, I have to play it cool.
Because sure, maybe I have some tiny, little, naggy feelings for him that make me all happy inside. Leon doesn’t need to know that though.
I finish my coffee, and we get straight into work.
This is the part I’m finding easier. To shut off and focus.
To concentrate on each piece and how it all works together to make something bigger.
To listen to Leon’s calming voice as we fit the molding and doorjambs.
To block out the smell of his sweat and deep, heavy breaths.
To ignore my body’s natural reaction to him.
We break for lunch, then visit some worksites, but the team putting in a bathroom is waiting on the pipes to arrive, and the other team has finished demolishing the old shed where the new one will go.
Leon looks confused as it hits him that neither team needs us.
I nudge him. “Afternoon off, boss?”
He leads the way back to his truck. “Not likely. Might head back home and get a jump on sanding things back.”
Of course he’s going to. “All right, let’s go.”
Thankfully he doesn’t argue, and it’s not until four o’clock that Leon makes moves to get me to leave. As usual.
“Workday’s done, Auggie.”
“Oh, you’re finished too, are you?”
He eyes me, knowing exactly what I’m doing. “What I do in my free time is none of your business.”
It so could be though. “I think we both know you’re going to keep working, so why don’t I stay, and we can order in, and we’ll work through. Two hands are better than one and all that.”
“And look at that.” He lifts his hands. “I already have two.”
“A dad joke? Cute.” I fix him with my most determined, serious stare.
“Four hands, then. Four is better than two. You know what I mean, and you’re trying to distract me and make me flustered so I’ll forget what I was saying.
” I shake a finger at him. “Not happening, mister. I have tonight free. It’s either stay here and help you, or go home to noodles and shit TV and a face mask.
One of those things is more important than the other. ”
To my total surprise, Leon steps into my personal space. He leans down a little and lightly runs a finger along my cheek. It’s barely a touch, but it sends all my nerves spiraling.
“You’re right,” he says, voice all deep. “It’s very important you keep this skin looking pretty.”
I bat my lashes playfully. “You think I’m pretty?”
Leon groans and straightens, cutting off all contact. “You’re trouble is what you are.”
“Trouble? Killer?” I step closer, almost sick at the thought of my flirting getting me fired, but not able to stop myself. “Someone’s trying to get on my good side.”
“Someone’s trying to get you out of their house.”
“Someone’s failing.”
He tries to hide his amusement which only softens me to him more.
“Come on. We’ll do an hour or two more here, order food, have some drinks, relax, which I totally know is a foreign concept to you, but you’ve done it before, and you can do it again.”
“Nope. I’m not making you work late.”
“You’re not making me do anything.” I take off my hard hat. “Look at that, it’s tools down. You’re not my boss anymore, and as you said before, ‘what I do with my free time is none of your business.’”
“Except in this case, your free time will be spent in my house.”
“With my friend Leon. Not my boss.”
“We’re friends now, are we?”
“As much as you try to scare me off, yes.”
He blows out a deep breath and runs a hand over his graying hair. “Fine. One hour. One pizza. One beer. Then you go.”
I swear there are tingles in my fingertips when he meets my eyes.
“Deal.” Because I know Leon, and once he starts drinking, he won’t do any more work, so I’ll be able to leave here knowing that at least for one night that he won’t be up pushing himself.
Have I manipulated him into doing exactly what I wanted? Well, yes. But also, Leon wouldn’t agree to anything he didn’t want to.
We end up working for another two hours, which I know will have eased up some of Leon’s anxiety, and then I put in an order for two pizzas.
Which means we’ll end up having two beers, and then, hopefully, he’ll be relaxed enough not to push me out the door.
Only, as soon as we finish up sanding, we’re covered from head to toe in plaster dust. Leon strips off his shirt and washes his hands in the kitchen, but we’re both still filthy.
And as I take in his broad chest, hair slick with sweat, the inappropriate thoughts I’ve kept out almost all day start to creep in again.
I can’t help it that I remember everything in vivid detail. His scent, the grunts, how those solid thighs felt under my palms. Running my hand over his thick stomach, cupping his heavy balls …
What would it take for that to happen again?
My gaze refuses to shift as I watch Leon fill a cup with water and start to drink. Droplets drip into his short beard, and my dick starts to plump up at the thought of him slipping, letting the water run down his chest, asking me to lick it off …
My imagination is going wild.
“I have a question,” I say before my nerves get too much and I chicken out.
Leon fills another cup with water and hands it to me. “Your tone says I don’t want to hear it.”
And yet I’m going to ask it anyway because I’m a thirsty dude who is thirsty. “Remember how you said you were attracted to bigger dudes?”
“Hmm.”
“I’m not a bigger dude.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“But you let me, umm …” I force the words out. “Suck your dick.”
His eyes lock on mine, and there’s something there. Something heavy and dark that turns my legs to jelly. “I did.”
“What is it about big guys that you like?”
“You tell me. That’s your preference, isn’t it?”
He’s got me there. “I like the idea of … of being overpowered.”
Leon clearly isn’t expecting that. His gaze runs down my body. “For me, it’s that I like it rough. With bigger guys I can let go. I don’t have to think too much. With smaller guys, I’m always worried about hurting them.”
“What if they want to be hurt?” My nerves are full-force trying to get me to stop talking, but Leon’s heated stare is giving me the opposite message. I want him. So much. As a boss, as a friend, as a fuck buddy. It might not be completely ethical, but I’m well past caring.
“Just drink your water, Auggie. The pizza will be here soon.”
I drain the glass, then, barely able to make eye contact with him, I reach back and take off my shirt. “I’m filthy though. Do you mind if I have a quick shower first?”
“A … what?” He’s breathing faster.
I want to think I’ve got him, but Leon is so good at the push and pull, I have no idea how this evening will go.
“I’ll only be a minute.” I head for the back door, to his outside shower, and as I step onto the disastrous back deck, I throw over my shoulder, “You look like you could use one too. You know, showering together would save water—you really should be more environmentally conscious.”
Then I cross his yard and don’t look back.
The last thing I want is to glance over my shoulder and see he’s stayed firmly in the house, which is the more likely scenario. The sucky, dumb, more likely scenario that I don’t want to think too much about.
If this was porn, he’d already have me bent over by now.
I reach the shower, turn the water on, and start to strip out of my dirty clothes. I have no idea what I’m going to wear, but I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’m trying not to. Because if I start to consider what I’m doing, I might actually freak out at the thought of me losing my marbles.
I kick out of my boots, my pants and underwear hit the ground, and then I step under the stream of warm water. Even beyond the thought of Leon’s eyes on me, the water feels great, and I close my eyes and duck my head under the flow, scrubbing the sweat and dust from my hair.
My back prickles, and I imagine him stepping up behind me, warm skin pressing flush against mine.
It doesn’t happen, but that doesn’t stop the image coaxing my cock from semi-interested to hard as steel.
I reach down and give it a lazy stroke, before I get in control of my willpower.
I’m not going to jerk off in Leon’s shower because apparently I have some standards, though I’m struggling to work out exactly what they are right now.
When you’re standing outside naked, using some guy’s soap so that you end up smelling like him, hoping his eyes are on you the whole time, you definitely can’t claim to be innocent.
I get my hands nice and soapy before running them over my ass, picturing Leon’s stare following the movement.
I refuse to look back at the house and discover he’s not there, because this fantasy of him watching is getting me hot.
Desperate to touch myself. To walk back in there and beg if I have to.
Turns out I have a bit of exhibitionist in me. And when it comes to Leon, apparently I’m a needy, needy whore.
I laugh softly because I’m so far past the line of desperate, I’m actually embarrassed for myself.
It’s lucky for me embarrassment is my default, so it’s a feeling I’m well used to.
And when I finally resign myself to the fact he’s not going to shower with me and turn off the water, the disappointment doesn’t hit too hard.
I turn to head back to the house, and my breath catches in surprise. I jump a little, completely unprepared to find Leon standing a few feet away, muscled arms crossed over his barrel chest.
Then, completely deliberately, his stare drops from mine. It runs down my naked body, my skin prickling in its wake, and comes to rest on my dick.
“Well, well, Auggie. You are full of surprises.”
I shift, desperately wanting to cover myself, to say something, but I’m frozen. I’m so fucking turned on my dick twitches as he looks at it.
He unleashes a crooked smile, then steps forward and wraps a towel around my shoulders. His thumbs brush my collarbones as his lips lower to my ear. “My favorite thing about bigger guys?” he asks, voice low and scratchy. “Their enormous cocks.”
An involuntary noise catches in my throat, and Leon pulls back, smirk firmly still in place. When I find my voice, the usual nervous squeak is back. “It’s not just big guys who have, umm, big dicks.”
“Oh trust me, there’s no missing that.” Leon heads for the house. “Pizzas are here. I grabbed you a shirt, but I might need to find a belt to help you restrain that thing.”
My legs tremble. He cannot expect to use words like belt and restrain in relation to my dick if he wants me to keep my sanity.
Maybe I should have jerked off in the shower, standards be damned.
Because remembering the way Leon eye fucked my body—and not being able to do anything about it—is going to kill me.