Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 145088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Hammer struggled to keep his face straight. “I’m afraid he sees you as his teenage nephew.”
Dex leaned on the table until his forehead hit the coffee-stained surface. “I know. But he’s gotta let me live my life and suck the dick I want to suck. He doesn’t even know you, but you’re bad because you killed a couple of people. Whatever. They had it coming. You were right to tell him to get off his high horse, because his hands are dirty too.”
Hammer felt tension rise at the back of his neck when he remembered his own stormy relationship with his parents. There were days when he regretted how it had ended. “It can be frustrating, but I can see he is trying to be a part of your life no matter what. That really is a lot. My parents would never do that.”
Dex cocked his head. “Is it because of the biker club thing?
“No. I was a problem kid, and after I went to juvie... well, they basically only gave me ultimatums. So I left and never spoke to them since.”
Dex kicked him under the table. “Do you not regret it?”
Hammer hadn’t talked about this to anyone. Ever. So it was odd to have this cute kid prodding at him, but being asked probing questions sometimes brought unexpectedly good results by taking Hammer out of his usual thinking patterns. Most people were afraid they might agitate him and kept their mouths shut. But not Dex.
“Of course I do. But it is what it is. They are decent people, and they don’t want a criminal for a son,” Hammer muttered.
Dex sighed. “At least in that way Frank is more like us. He just needs to catch on that I won’t only do what he wants me to. And he needs to get laid. Maybe then he’d stop bitching at me.”
Hammer drank some more coffee. “Are you telling me he’s celibate, or something? He’s tall, muscular, overall not bad-looking, even if completely not my type.”
Dex whistled and grinned at Hammer, straightening in his seat. “Oooh, so you have a ‘type’ now?”
Did he?
Hammer stalled with his mouth open when he realized what he’d said.
Lowering his gaze to the mug of dark brew warming his hands, he wrestled with the inevitability of the confrontation between the things he thought he knew about himself and those he was discovering.
And the one thing he had to somehow fit in with how he saw himself was that Dex wasn’t a convenient hole he used just because.
Hammer liked him.
Wanted to fuck him. To make him lose his mind. To kiss him, and hold him, and laugh with him.
He just didn’t yet know how all that fit in with the life Hammer had established for himself.
“I do.”
Dex was so giddy he wiggled in his seat and put his hands under his chin, presenting his face to Hammer in profile. “Is it me? Cute, tattooed, blond, and horny?”
Hammer leaned back into the padded seat and locked eyes with him. “A slutty bimbo.”
Dex laughed out loud, and Hammer liked this about him too. He laughed too loudly, and didn’t give a shit that people stared. He was bold, and unafraid. Even when he should be, like when he’d decided it was a great idea to flirt with the guy who killed people with a sledgehammer. And when taken hostage, he’d found a way to endear himself to his captor.
“Okay, that’s the competition I’ll be looking out for, but I can assure you, I’m one of a kind. I’m afraid I’ll never grow boobs or a pussy though.”
Hammer froze, his mind going blank as he waded it for the perfect answer. “I... know?”
Dex licked the salt from his fingers, but just as it seemed he’d continue with his thought, his gaze darted away. “Oh my God, look at that fluffmaster!”
Hammer turned his head and smiled at the sight of a massive dog reminiscent of a wolf with gray fur and white markings in a couple of places.
“I just… I’ll be back in a sec.” Dex winked at Hammer and was off.
Zero impulse control.
Dex approached the canine and its owners, who sat at the bar. Only then did Hammer notice some more details of the situation. The two young men in matching plaid shirts in the same style but different colors were… a couple? Maybe? Hammer wasn’t all that great at telling, and the dullness of his social sensitivity was becoming clearer as he spent more time around Dex. But one of the men had his arm over the other’s shoulder, which could be casual and friend—nope. Dude gave the other a peck on the cheek.
Hammer took a deep breath and looked around, but he couldn’t see any of the other patrons staring at the couple. Maybe it was a matter of people only paying attention to things they found of interest? In his former life, before sampling what sex with a man was like, Hammer had barely ever seen gay men, but they were surely around, like that inconspicuous couple, who looked so much like everyone else it would have been easy to miss the tender gestures they exchanged.