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That was a road I shouldn’t go down. Not that I couldn’t, but it wasn’t smart. The Lynx brothers were tight and had formed a family. Junior was in a serious relationship with Peyton Lynx, his bodyguard, and Dominic Summit, his ex-assistant now full-time exotic dancer. Greer, Peyton, and Junior had lived together since Greer and Junior graduated college.
I didn’t have the energy to put into a relationship. The best I could do was hookups in bar bathrooms. I didn’t bring men back here anymore, now that Val lived with me. He wouldn’t care. I just didn’t want to make him uncomfortable listening to me fuck someone. I liked to get loud, and I liked to talk dirty.
“I don’t know why you don’t bend him over and get it out of your system,” Val said around a mouthful of cinnamon cereal. Of course, he noticed my thing for Greer. Everyone on my team did. I went stupid when he was around, not my normal sharp-tongued, hard-ass self.
“How do you know I’m not the one who wants to get bent over?” I shouldn’t have said it. I should have denied my attraction to Greer like I usually did.
“Whatever, Jay. Just wrap it up.” I lifted my hand to ruffle his hair. He quickly dodged out of reach. “Don’t mess this up. I spent five minutes trying to get it to lay flat.” He had a cowlick on the front of his head toward the right side. If his hair was in between being too short and on the longer side, his hair twirled oddly.
“Got someone you want to impress at the office?”
He scoffed. “Yeah, everyone’s banging down my door.” I knew Val was gay, but as far as I was aware, I was the only one he’d told. The kid was wound tighter than a timing chain. He needed a way to blow off steam. Nothing did that better than getting off with someone.
“You’re cute.” I tried to ruffle his hair again, but this time he stood and took his bowl and mug over to the sink.
“I don’t want to be cute. That’s something you call a child or a dog.”
I shrugged. “I love you, but you’re not my type, hence the cute factor.”
Val rolled his eyes. “Are you eating? We should get going.”
“I’m grabbing a bagel at work.” On Monday mornings Stefen, who was the head of R&D, brought in fresh bagels for our department. I always made sure I had my appetite going in. Give me an onion bagel with veggie cream cheese and I was a happy man.
We grabbed our stuff and headed out the door. I missed my bike. I had it stored in my shop for safekeeping. I rode it more over the summer at night and on the weekends. It wasn’t easy to do so in a suit. I opted for my truck instead.
Pacific Green Metallic was the official color name of the paint on my Ford. It had faded over the years. Wasn’t shiny and bright. I still lovingly caressed my hand over the dashboard every time I got inside.
“Are you going to fuck it or drive it? We’re going to be late.”
I glared at him. “I’m your boss. You think I’m going to fire you for coming in late when I drove your ass? You know you have to treat your vehicles right, so they perform well for you.”
“You could say the same for a partner.”
“Jackass,” I muttered.
My truck started with a throaty rumble, thanks to the aftermarket dual exhaust I installed on it. I loved that sound, unlike the quiet purr of newer vehicles. The rumble from the truck wasn’t quite as nice as the one that came from my Harley, but it would do.
East Dremest went by the truck’s windows like it did every weekday morning as we drove through it. The city wasn’t full of garbage and graffiti. It was cleaned up thanks to my dad. I’d like to say he kept it this way out of the goodness of his heart, but that thing had shriveled up and turned black in his chest a long time ago. No, East Dremest looked like it did because it was a reflection of him. Like me. Except I wasn’t something as easy to shape as the city and its residents were. I didn’t bow down at my dad’s feet. Given the chance, I’d sever his fucking toes.
Blood and violence. Just what I should be thinking about on my way to work. Such was my life. No matter how much I wished it weren’t, there was no escaping my DNA.
2
GREER
The rough feel of the tennis ball leaving my palm as it bounced off the wall and back to me did little to quell the nervous energy running through my system. I wasn’t usually like this. When I was, I’d workout or have sex. I’d worked out so much lately, it wasn’t doing a damn thing anymore, except adding more muscle. And sex… Dexen was my go-to and he kept his dick in his pants now, at least around me. I didn’t want to think about him fucking anyone else.
When did everything get so screwed up? We had a good thing going. Sure, I wanted more with him. I thought I could be the guy who kept sex casual. Turned out, I wasn’t. The more I slept with Dexen, the more I felt his strong hands move over my skin, the more I wanted him outside of sex. I wanted a relationship, though I didn’t voice it.
Dexen shut it down between us. I hadn’t been to Untouchable in a while. The last time I was there, he was still sweet to me, like always. He caressed his hand along my back. He stayed near me for a while. But he didn’t invite me back like he used to. The reason I went there was for him, not the dancers, although they were a nice bonus.
Forward. Back. The tennis ball was my only outlet at work. There was no heavy bag for me to pummel. No weights for me to lift.
A knock on my open door drew my gaze to it. There stood Perry, my boss, but also one of my closest friends. Of course, my brother, was right behind him. Peyton always watched Perry’s back. Since they became an item, he’d gotten even more protective, which I hadn’t thought was possible.
“What’s up, brother?” I asked Perry. We weren’t related by blood, but that didn’t matter. He was family through and through.
Perry sat in one of the chairs on the opposite side of my desk. I was a minimalist when it came to furnishings, especially at work. I had a big office, thanks to my title as CSO. There was a large, black metal desk that sat close to the wall to my left. Not against it. I wanted to be able to bounce the tennis balls off it. I had a long table on the other wall filled with computer screens, equipment, basically anything I needed. I could roll my chair over there and work just as easily as I could at my desk. My desk only housed two monitors, my laptop which docked to them, and that was it. Pencils, pens, paper, all that shit was in the drawers. Oh, there was a coffee mug on the desk. Almost forgot about that. The less clutter, the more at ease I was, except recently. No matter what I did, I couldn’t shake this restlessness.
