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Rafe slid out of the booth, straightening his clothes. “Maybe I’ll see if I can thank him properly.”
Noel got up and pushed Rafe back down. “You keep your claws and other wiles away from him. You hear me?” He headed to the door and peered outside. The door to the limousine opened, and David got out. “What are you doing here? Are you following us?”
“I wanted to make sure you were all right,” David said. “I asked Antoine to return and saw you all go into the diner.” He stepped out of the way as Noel hugged himself against the cold. David stepped back, and Noel got in the car, knowing he had an audience. David climbed in as well and closed the door.
“I’m fine, David. But we all want to thank you for helping us out.” Noel soaked in the heat.
“You’re welcome.”
“I only messaged because I didn’t know what else to do, and I didn’t really expect that you would drop what you were doing… but I’m grateful you did.” He sighed, trying to calm the butterflies in his belly. “I didn’t relish the idea of spending the night in jail. Frankie has strict rules about what’s allowed, and, well….” He didn’t want to blow the whistle on Rafe, and he figured he’d let Frankie handle that particular situation.
“I thought you’d end up closing up the club tonight.” David seemed anxious. “But you’re out with your friends, and I don’t really want to interrupt you.”
“You could join us if you want. We’re just having pancakes and stuff.”
David sighed. “No. But thank you. I should probably get on.”
Noel took that as his cue to get out of the car, but he leaned closer, inhaling David’s rich, clean scent. “Thank you again.” Noel kissed him, this time harder than he had before. Why, he had no idea. Maybe he just wanted to know if those lips were as sweet as he thought they were, or maybe he just wanted to say thank you. Either way, what he ended up doing was kissing David hard and full without really thinking about it. Fuck, in an instant he was hard and tempted to straddle David and give them both the ride of their lives right here in the damned back seat.
But Noel remembered himself and pulled away, breathing deeply, his head more than a little light as he opened the car door and climbed out. The cold air snapped him back to reality, and he hurried back into the diner as the limousine glided away into the night.
“Was that him?” Rafe asked.
“Yes. That was the guy who has a thing for our little Noel here.” Dean batted his eyes. “So, did he get any sausage?”
Noel ground his teeth at him. “Sorry. I’m not you… the sixty-second man.” He rolled his eyes and sat back down as the server brought their plates.
“So you do like him?” Jesse chimed in.
“You are like teenagers…. And don’t forget he was the one who made sure we aren’t sitting on our pert little butts in jail. He just came back to make sure we were okay.” He hit each of them with his best glare. “So you should all be nicer, or next time I’ll let the police take you.” He grinned. “Maybe Dean could share a cell with Bubba, and Jesse could get paired with Moose… or Lecter.”
“We were just kidding,” Rafe said. “And you know it.”
“Maybe, but lay off.” Noel ate his pancakes and tried not to think too much about David. There hadn’t been too many people who came when he needed something, especially that quickly. Noel lived by one simple rule: learn to do things for yourself. He had come to realize that if he wanted something, he had to get it himself, and relying on others only got him hurt and dumped out in the cold. But David gave him hope that maybe that wasn’t true… at least not for everyone.
The guys chattered away, talking about ideas for numbers or what they intended to do after they ate. Noel was already tired, and his semester hadn’t even started yet. He had one more week and then it would be classes, work on the weekends, and him trying to study any time he could.
“Where are you?” Jesse asked. “Rafe was just asking if you thought you’d be able to do what Frankie asked and put together a new routine in a day.”
“Not sure. But I think I can come up with something. It shouldn’t be all that hard, and it would be fun to come up with something different.”
“And what if he shows up?”
Noel shrugged, but the truth was he was more than a little nervous about that. Noel had long ago stopped being shy about his body, yet the thought of David being out front watching him made him nervous as all hell. “Then I’ll do the show like I normally would.”
“No. I mean will you go back to his place? Thank him personally for his help?” Sometimes, Rafe was a real pain in the ass.
“Is that what you’d do?” Noel challenged.
“Well. He did us a favor, so I say he needs to be repaid. After all, no one does anything for free, and we all need to pay our debts. And I’d think the price would be well worth it.” He leered at Noel, who wanted to smack him.
“Thank goodness not everyone thinks that way.” Noel had made things very plain on that score, yet David continued to not only show up, but make sure he was okay. Maybe there were truly good people in the world, and it pissed him off that Rafe acted this way toward someone who had been nothing but honorable. “There are a lot of ways to thank someone that don’t include lying on your back.”
“Maybe, but nothing says thank-you better than….”
Jesse smacked him on the shoulder. “We’re dancers, remember that.” The others glared at him as well, and Rafe seemed to pull in a little. He clearly wasn’t getting the support he was expecting. “And you need to behave. If you want to charge for your favors, that’s up to you, but don’t do it at the club. Didn’t you learn anything about what nearly happened tonight?” Jesse held Rafe in a glare. “What would have happened if you’d have been taken in? What sort of things would the police have been able to dig up on you once everything about you popped up on their computer screen?”
Rafe paled under his olive skin. “Okay, I got it.”
