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Sam honestly hadn’t meant to be a dick, but he was on edge and hated being a target. All he wanted to do was live his life in peace, not have hooded men trying to snatch him off the street because they wanted to use him against his father.
But he wasn’t going to relax around Jesse. The guy still wore an expression that said he would rather be anywhere else than here, guarding Sam. Sam had grown up being told that shifters were savages and to never trust one. The fact that his father had hired a wolf shifter—and knowing Malcolm, the service hadn’t come cheap—he was shocked his father allowed a shifter near him.
That was another reason Sam was on edge. If you’d been told for centuries about how brutal and barbarian shifters were, you’d be leery too. Sam had a crazy image in his head of Jesse baring his canines and attacking.
Sam was not looking forward to going home, where he would be alone with Jesse. The thought made him nervous as hell.
It had been six months since Sam had had sex. His last boyfriend, Brett, had been sweet at first, charming. He knew how to make Sam feel important. Then things started to go downhill once they’d had sex. Brett thought, since Sam ran a lingerie shop, Sam was into all kinds of kinky things. Sam wasn’t afraid to experiment, but Brett had taken things too far when he wanted to tie Sam up and use one of the whips Sam sold. Most of his merchandise was softcore. Things to spice things up in the bedroom, but Brett had wanted Sam to order a dog collar, a latex bondage suit, and other things that Sam refused to buy.
He wasn’t a prude. Was he? Even though he’d teased Jesse about vibrators, Sam hadn’t honesty ever used one. God, that really did make him sound so vanilla. What did it say about a guy who ran a lingerie shop with adult items who really hadn’t used any of the stuff except lube?
He glanced back at Jesse, but the guy was looking at his phone, as if completely bored.
“I think you should go for it,” Gloria whispered to him. “That is one fine man right there.”
Sam groaned. Even though they were across the store, he knew Jesse could hear them.
“Behave, Gloria,” he warned. “He’s my father’s employee, nothing more. He’ll probably report everything I say and do back to Malcolm.”
Gloria slapped him on the shoulder. “So give him something to tell daddy.” She bounced her brows. “I’d rock that man’s world and do so many kinky things to him that he’d be too embarrassed to repeat any of it to anyone.”
“You need to get laid,” Sam harrumphed.
“I’m not the only one, Mr. Dry Spell. Take some products home and let him knock those curls out of your hair.”
Sam chuckled. “I don’t have curly hair.”
“It’s an expression.” Gloria looked exasperated. “You know I care about you, boo. I just want to see you happy.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “Or at least happy with a healthy sex life. You deserve it. No one said you had to commit to Mr. Sexy. Let him rock your world then move on.”
Gloria knew Sam wasn’t built that way. He didn’t do one-night stands. That was one of Sam’s flaws. He couldn’t do casual hookups like most men with a pulse. He wanted commitment, wanted the happily ever after. Unfortunately that was hard to achieve when you lived for centuries. Try explaining that to a guy. Sam had tried to date his own kind, demons, but with every species, there were a ton of assholes.
That was why Sam had broken it off with Brett. His ex-boyfriend had wanted to push Sam sexually, further than he wanted to go. He didn’t gently coax him into anything. Brett had tried to demand Sam get kinkier, and that had pissed Sam off.
He glanced at Jesse again. Fuck, the guy was too damn gorgeous. What would it be like to sleep with a shifter? Sam wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. Not after growing up thinking they were all savages, being taught that they were nothing more than wild animals who barely held on to their humanity.
“I’ll pass.”
Gloria made a noise in the back of her throat. “Sometimes you make me want to shake some sense into you.”
She walked away, leaving Sam there to stare at a display of warming lube. He shook his head at the ridiculous thought and tidied up the store, bored out of his mind. He normally wasn’t in the shop all day. Not when it was this slow. He liked going home and curling up with a good book or tending to his million plants scattered all through his house.
But Sam didn’t want to go home, knowing Jesse would also be there. Maybe he should get it over with. Show Jesse his room and tell the guy not to invade his space at home. Sam could curl up in his reading room and let the day slip away.
Yes, his life was boring, but when you’d lived for over five hundred years, you’d pretty much seen and done everything. When he was younger, Sam had been a bit wild. Now he liked his quiet time. He bitched and moaned about attending his father’s functions, but in truth, Sam loved them because it was an excuse to dress up and mingle. He just didn’t like the fact that he had to listen to his father critique him, from not joining the company to his choice of attire.
How the hell did you go wrong with a suit and tie? Clearly Sam had found a way because his father always found something wrong with what he was wearing at the functions. His father also disliked the way he mingled too freely. Malcolm thought Sam talked too much with the guests and felt he needed to be more sedate like his brothers.
In Malcolm’s eyes, Sam would never be good enough.
And that was the most depressing thought of all.
The only reason he mingled the way he did, talked too much, was because Sam was trying his best to be an extrovert like his brothers, but clearly he couldn’t even do that right.
Sam looked up when customers walked in. He thought it would be a great distraction, but Gloria was on them, using her charms as a female spoke softly, clearly embarrassed to be in there, but she didn’t let that stop her. The guy she was with simply looked around, a spark of interest in his eyes.
“You ever get used to that look?”
Jesse had startled the crap out of him. Sam hadn’t heard him move from his spot, but now he stood right next to him. “What look?”
