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My skin crawled with annoyance at the rude internet stranger who tried to claim more of Kev than I could. If someone was lucky enough to get close to Kevin Rogers in any kind of relationship, they should have been treating that privilege like a gift.
“Everything…” My voice didn’t sound quite right, so I cleared my throat. “Everything okay?”
Kev looked away and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Yeah. He had to go do something for work.”
“What does he do for work?” I asked, trying not to sound like I cared nearly as much as I did.
“Uh. I’m not really sure? He’s a writer. I don’t know the specifics.”
I frowned. “He hasn’t told you what he does? Not once, in all your chats? Has he told you where he lives? What kind of car he drives? Any identifying information at all?”
My mind conjured images of Anomaly living in a van by the river, luring sweet, helpful gamers into his web of lies.
Asshole.
“You mean his mother’s maiden name and the last four digits of his Social Security number?” Kev scoffed. “No. You’re making it sound secretive, but it’s not like that. It’s just… never come up. I haven’t asked for details, just like he’s never asked for details about my work.” His face went pink. “He did ask for my help with an article he’s writing just now, though, so maybe I’ll ask him when I see him. In Vegas.” Kev busied himself unhooking my devices and straightening up the cables.
As if I needed another reason to dread the op in Vegas.
Noting the tension in Kev’s shoulders, though—the half-defensive, half-embarrassed way he leaned over the desk—I knew he wouldn’t appreciate my comments about Anomaly. Instead, I tried to be casual. “I guess you guys aren’t monogamous, huh?”
I pressed my lips closed in a grimace. Way to be casual, Huxley.
Kev’s head whipped toward me. “Excuse me?”
“No judgment.” I held my hands up. “Lots of people are cool with open relationships. Just… all the Grindr notifications there at the end made me wonder.”
He turned toward me fully. “What Grindr notifications?”
Unease twisted my stomach. “That brrt sound. The ones coming through Adam’s comms at the end. That’s Grindr. Surely, you…” My voice trailed off as I remembered something Carter had said that implied Kev didn’t have much dating experience. But I couldn’t imagine a gay man who hadn’t at least tried Grindr. Unless…
My heart stuttered as I remembered the way I’d pressed myself against him in the club. Had Kev never had a casual hookup before? Was I the first guy who’d ever corralled him against the wall of a bar and gotten him hard?
The idea wakened a primal, possessive, protective urge inside me that I felt more and more often around this man. One had no business feeling for a guy who was Riggs’s family, who was my coworker, who could have literally any guy in the world, the way Kev could.
“I thought that was a video game or a text chime,” Kev mumbled. Red slashes burned on his cheeks, and he wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Oh. Uh. I mean. Maybe he…” No. I refused to consider that Adam was using a Grindr sound for any reason besides the most obvious one, even to make Kev feel better. “I’m sorry,” I said instead.
“No, it’s… it’s good that you said something,” Kev said, throwing me a fake-ass smile that made my skin crawl. “I actually thought that I remembered hearing Jordan’s and Elvo’s phones make that sound, and I was gonna ask them what game they were all playing.” He laughed without humor. “So you saved me from that humiliation, anyway. Such an idiot.”
I picked my words carefully. “I’m not trying to tell you how to feel, but I think if anyone should feel like an idiot, it should be the person doing the cheating.”
Kev cut me off with a shake of his head, still not meeting my eyes. “No. It’s not like that. Adam and I aren’t exclusive. He said the other day that he wanted to be, but I… We hadn’t made anything official yet. Looks like he wasn’t willing to wait around for me to catch up.” He shrugged offhandedly.
“Fucker,” I bit out, sounding angrier than I’d intended. “He doesn’t deserve you, Kev.”
“Eh.” He waved a hand dismissively and even managed a small, sad smile. “That’s nice of you to say, but we both know the truth. I can be annoying, Huxley. A pain in the ass who’s always looking for attention, remember?”
“Stop it,” I growled. Without pausing to think, I grabbed him by the shirtfront and hauled him close, cutting off his words. I hated hearing him talk like that. Hated that he thought like that. Hated that I’d made him believe that I actually felt that way too.
Truths I’d barely acknowledged to myself fell from my lips, and for once, I didn’t try to stop them.
