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Ian’s new disposable phone rang. “It’s my manager. They should be closing down, so I have to take this.” He walked into the living room, ready to tackle any problems over the phone.###
An hour later, Hollis stared at the darkened ceiling in his room, still wide awake because of his nap on Vallois’s couch earlier. He’d brought a book to read, but he felt ready to crawl out of his skin. He’d wanted to kiss Ian goodnight, but he’d known that if he put his mouth or hands anywhere on that man, he’d have trouble stopping. He’d wanted him for so damn long and if he hadn’t been so concerned about Ian’s past, he would have made stronger moves on him a while ago. Overprotective friends or not.
And speaking of his damn friends, Hollis wasn’t too keen on sharing a place with Ian with any of his controlling older brothers around. Or maybe they were more like a bunch of old hens, clucking and pecking at him to stay away from Ian. A smirk crossed his lips at the thought of Lucas Vallois as a fluffy white hen. Rowe seemed better, or at least easier to deal with, than the other two, but still. After kissing Ian in his office, he now knew what he was missing. It was all he could do not to sneak down the hall into his room like some randy teenager.
Ian surprised him and had from day one. He looked nothing like the men Hollis normally went for—he was smaller, leaner, and a hell of a lot prettier. He looked younger than he actually was and dressed like he belonged on the pages of GQ. Hollis had never gone for anyone even remotely like him. Yet the moment he’d walked into Lucas Vallois’s penthouse, Hollis had felt like someone had pulled the floor out from beneath him.
With other men, Hollis never hesitated to go after what he wanted. Hell, the man he’d moved to Cincinnati with had been the perfect example. He’d seen him, wanted him, and had him in bed within two days.
But he’d hesitated with Ian, and he wasn’t sure why. Yeah, they were different. So different, it was like they came from separate fucking planets. Ian’s was fancier and full of pretty people and expensive things. He was skilled—could fucking cook. And he was…sweet. The first time they’d met, he’d seen Hollis fighting a cold and hadn’t hesitated to share his food with a stranger. Avgolemono soup. Something Hollis had never heard of and it had rocked. He’d actually gone out to find it at other Greek restaurants, and none had come close to what Ian had created.
Around Ian, Hollis felt like a boring, regular, well…guy. He felt like just a guy around him. He liked old cars, couldn’t give a shit about his clothes as long as they didn’t smell like they’d been bummed off a hog farmer. He couldn’t cook anything that didn’t have Helper attached to the label and most of the time, his blond hair was a shaggy nightmare. Hell, the only time he’d ever had gel in it, he’d been roped into a high school play by his sister and he’d let her mess with it, then swore never again. He’d looked like a jacked-up, greaser Ken doll.
But the main reason he’d kept back from Ian had been the vibe he’d picked up off his friends—something that had made him think Ian was taken at first. He’d started eating at that expensive restaurant constantly, trying to catch sight of the person in Ian’s life, while marveling that such a young man could run it so successfully.
By the time he’d realized there was no one, that his friends had other reasons to be so protective, Ian had been hurt badly in that accident. Then Hollis had gotten mixed up in undercover work. Plus…he worried about scaring Ian once he’d learned of his past. Hollis had the same build as Boris Jagger, and he couldn’t imagine the kind of baggage Ian probably carried from being a victim of that asshole.
Again, that knowledge ripped through him. He snarled and got out of bed. He normally slept in the buff but had brought sweatpants to sleep in here, so all he had to do was walk out of the room for the glass of water he needed.
He found Rowe slipping on a jacket in the kitchen.
“Hey,” Hollis said quietly as he pulled a glass down from the cabinet. “Since I’m awake, you want me to do the perimeter check?”
Rowe shook his head. “Nah, I can’t sleep anyway. Too much restless energy.”
A clanging noise from the basement had Hollis glancing at the open door.
“Ian’s down there,” Rowe informed him. “Seems we all suffer from too much on the brain. Well, except Noah. It hasn’t been that long since he left the service, so he’s still in that drop and sleep whenever and wherever you can mode. Man flips off like a switch. Sometimes while I’m still talking to him.”
