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He rolls his eyes. "No. You haven't."
"Well…" I start, then look over at Ryde. "Help me out here, mate. How awesome does Linus's arse look in those tight pants he's wearing."
"I, uh…haven't been… I don't…"
"Wilby," Linus snaps his fingers to get my attention. "Leave Ryde out of this. If you want to suck up to me, do it on your own. Now, tell me…" The fucker leans back in his chair, hands behind his head, and smiles. "How amazing does my arse look today?"
I grit my teeth. I did start this, s'pose I should finish it. "Good enough to eat," I murmur.
"Sorry. Didn't quite catch that."
Fitz and Muir are already cracking up, while poor Ryde still looks like a deer caught in headlights.
"I said it looks good enough to eat."
"Damn straight it does. I may be turning forty next year, but my arse is just as hot as yours. Isn't it, Wilby?"
"No, Linus." I drop my voice.Thisis how desperate I am. "It's hotter."
"Attaboy."
He's smiling, and despite the humiliation, after a few moments, I start smiling, too. This is par for the course for us. Giving and taking shit. We've perfected it to a beautiful symbiosis.
I lift my head. "Would now be a good time to put it out there that I have the biggest dick in the room?"
"That's an unnecessary observation for the task you're currently engaged in," Linus whips back. "And also debatable, since we haven't seen everyone in this room naked."
It takes my brain a moment to understand what he means. Muir, Fitz, Linus, and I have all changed in front of one another, hence my factual observation—and not a boast—about my dick size. Iamthe biggest in the room.
But then my eyes land on Ryde. "Oh, right."
He does the whole towel around the waist thing whenever he gets changed. Which is cool. Each to their own. But, yeah, means we haven't been able to size him up.
He's blushing so hard I decide to not rib him about it. Instead, I turn my focus back to Linus and the massive ask I need to make of him. "Can Ipleasehave a few days off? I know we're swamped, but I promise I'll make it up and then some when I get back?"
Linus takes a long, noisy slurp of his tea. "Of course." Then he smirks. "All you had to do was ask. I would've said yes right away."
"You fucker." I look around for something to throw at him, but there's nothing nearby, at least nothing that wouldn't cause serious damage or require stitches if it made contact.
He gets up and pats me on the back. "Thank you for the compliment about my arse, but really, Wilby, that's slightly inappropriate."
"Why? Because we're in a work environment and meant to be professional?" Fitz bursts out laughing at his own question, and the rest of us join in.
Yep, even Ryde, which I like to see.
We've been breaking him in the past few months. We can be a lot, I'll be the first to admit it, so we've all told him multiple times that if anything we say or do ever crosses a line for him, to let us know. We want him to feel safe, and if he's laughing along with us afterthatconversation, it's starting to feel like he's becoming one of us. He's a good kid. A little shy, but with time, he'll come out of his shell. And hopefully crawl into Linus's shell, if you catch my drift.
"That's not what I meant," Linus says, then looks at me. "I mean stop checking out my arse when you have a hot American dude you're interested in."
I reach over and grab some ketchup, squirting it over the remainder of my meat pie. "Fellas, for once, I'm thinking with this guy." I tap my temple. "And not the big guy downstairs. Yes, I have feelings for Col, but I am not doing shit about them untilafter I catch up with Dunlop and Travis to see if there's some way out of this mess."
"How are you going to do that?" Muir asks. "Isn't Col in town specifically to work with you? If you leave…"
I polish off the rest of my pie and dust the crumbs off my fingers. "Exactly. If I leave Scuttlebutt, he won't be able to do shit."
"So you're going to avoid him?"
"You better believe it." I take my plate over to the sink. "I am going to be the king of avoidance."
