Chapter Three
Keyes
“We have a delicious ground turkey and vegetable scramble,” Alec said, his head stuck inside the refrigerator. “It looks good. It has baby bok choy, Broccolini, edamame, mushrooms, the spicy red peppers you like so much, onions, pomegranate seeds, and sunflower seeds. You like Broccolini…” Alec paused, poking his head past the door, waiting for Keyes’s response as if he didn’t already know the answer.
Keyes sat in his usual spot on top of a tall barstool on the other side of the kitchen island.
“Pass,” he said, knowing Alec had a wealth of dinners inside the refrigerator, which allowed him to pick a dish he liked better.
This was their way every night. Keyes watched Alec prepare their dinner or on nights like this, the housekeeper made the recipes Alec instructed then played surprised at what he found inside the fridge. Though, all that was usually done to encourage Keyes to eat a healthier meal.
Honestly, he was getting there, but he still enjoyed his beef. Ground turkey didn’t classify as real meat. No poultry is categorized as hearty. He didn’t make the rules about real meat but absolutely lived by them with his whole heart.
“But she made the coconut rice you like to go with it,” Alec said to sweeten the pot. The nightly negotiations had begun. His lawyer was a dog with a bone when he tried to get what he wanted.
“Pass,” Keyes said again and started a rolling hand motion for Alec to move on.
“Keyes…” Alec said with a lecture sure to follow.
“Alec…” Keyes said back.
Alec wrinkled his brow, giving him a stern look as if he didn’t see that same expression many times a day from his mister. Keyes wasn’t sure what effect Alec would hope that had in the present moment.
Luckily, Alec relented without more of a fight. His head disappeared back around the refrigerator door. “Looks like we have spaghetti sauce with tortellini. Olivia makes those fresh, usually with ground beef, I believe.”
“With ground beef in the sauce?” Keyes asked. Alec had tricked him by using ground veggie crumbles a time or two, passing them off as ground beef. They never fooled Keyes, not one single time.
“Mmm hmm…”
“Sounds good. I like you in those skintight workout clothes,” Keyes added to shift the topic before Alec attempted to go back to the Broccolini idea. Alec squared his shoulders and wiggled his ass in appreciation. The move was designed to be alluring and playful and made Keyes smile. When Alec brought both plates from the refrigerator, a large helping of Broccolini took up a third of Keyes’s spaghetti plate.
One comment about the vegetable and that was only said in an attempt at foreplay, and now he ate Broccolini a couple of times a week.
Keyes blamed Cash’s influence for Alec’s redirection of their food intake.
“You’re trying to distract me. But it won’t work. I want you to live a long life with me.” Alec’s words were becoming akin to a broken record as he set each plate in the fancy new warming drawer. He claimed it would better heat their food.
“You’re gettin’ more muscular,” Keyes added casually. He rested his forearms on the granite countertop as he pushed up from the bottom rung to better check out Alec’s hot body.
“Now you’re just being silly,” Alec drawled, reaching for the oven mitts.
“No, I’m not. I’m bein’ honest.”
Alec smiled the smile Keyes liked so much and tossed the mitts on the counter in easy reach of the warmer. He went for the glass of wine he’d poured earlier.
“Tell me the progress you’ve made on the prototype.”
Keyes smirked and lifted his gaze to look Alec directly in the eyes. They exchanged something in the stare. Probably Alec’s growing frustration with being left out of this phase of the bike-building process. He repeated Alec’s words from earlier. “You handle your end, and I’ll handle my end. Isn’t that what you always say?”
Alec narrowed his eyes as he tilted back the wineglass, draining the contents in one long swallow. A single dropped brow gave away his irritation.
His guy spoke of their love being soulmate-worthy. Something special and unique. They understood one another on a different plane. Secrets didn’t exist between them. That was until Alec found out Keyes wasn’t working from the shop on their property every day. Questions flew with no answer appeasing his guy.
Alec was a hard one to keep secrets from, and the holidays were still months away. Maybe if he stayed on his toes, having a ready arsenal of answers… Yeah, it’d still be damned hard.
The completion of Alec’s bike hinged on Dev finishing the art. Keyes had requested some sort of play on the kneeling angel back tattoo Dev had inked on him almost a year ago. Dev had outdone himself and was sure to hit the mark this time too.
Alec would shit when he saw the finished product.
