Page 20 of Fallen Rook

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Enzo peered around, making sure we were alone before dropping his voice to a whisper.

“I dunno…it was still just a kiss. Nothing more. Maybe I’m just experimenting?” he asked hopefully, staring up at me with those heavily lashed amber eyes. “Ya know, like dudes getting bro-jobs in college?”

“They’re probably bi, too.”

“So it’s not possible?” he croaked. “That I’m just…curious?”

“Listen, kid, you get curious—you google shit. You get horny—you let a stranger suck your dick in public. That’s not curiosity. That’s metaphysical certitude.” I paused, sighing. “Anyway, why do you need to label shit? You’re not a product on a fucking supermarket shelf.”

He finished his set, sliding sideways to make way for me. “That blowie sucked ass, but the kiss was good.” He ignored my words, the chaotic little ray of demonic sunshine that he was.

Wait…good?

Just good?

That kiss was imprinted into my fucking DNA now. It was a permanent love bite on my genetic makeup.

I took position. Grabbed the bar. Fuck. This shit was heavy. What did Chiara Ferrante feed her kids to build them this way?

If I didn’t pop a damn artery by the end of this, I’d consider it an accomplishment.

Enzo settled behind me, oblivious to my struggle. “So…I’m definitely gay?”

“I don’t know what you are.” Sweat formed around my temples, and my muscles trembled. “Other than fucking annoying. I do know that with one-hundred-percent certainty.”

He tapped his mouth, and my gaze immediately shifted to those pillowy lips. It was a simple movement, and yet it sucked me into a lustful vortex to a point that I nearly crushed myself to death.

Whatever went through his mind, he decided to keep it to himself. A welcome change, if you ask me.

“Hey, why didn’t you answer my texts?” He frowned.

“Blocked you.”

He pouted. “That’s rude. I was just being friendly.”

“You were being a pest.” I finished my set after twelve reps, not my usual fifteen, slipping under the bar carefully from fear I’d vomit. “I’ll unblock you, though.”

“Oh, yeah?” He curved an eyebrow. “What’s changed?”

I’m just desperate enough to ruin your life to ruin my own in the process.

This meant inserting myself into the eye of the shitstorm, and breaking bread with the man who flayed people for a living.

“It’s no longer a conflict of interest for me to socialize with you.”

“Oh? Shit. I figured you were bad at your job, what with your failure to get us arrested, but I hadn’t realized they would fire you.”

His flawless face twisted in genuine concern. Un-fucking-believable. I stopped myself from pointing out I surpassed all Code of Excellence metrics, and was, in fact, a fine supervisory special agent, not some mindless idiot pushing papers.

“I wasn’t fired. We dropped the Ferrante case.”

Not the exact truth, but it was a form of it. Zeke had declared the case all but dead. This last-ditch effort to connect with Enzo had me grasping at straws.

“Really?” He rubbed his lower lip.

“Really.”