Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 103637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Where there should have been anger, Mike experienced a sense of loss so rapid and painful he struggled to keep his face in check. Did Arden not care? Was he not missing Mike already? Had he realized Mike couldn’t give him what he wanted and was ready to move on?
Mike had not thought through this whole open relationship thing.
He did want to know how the stripper tasted, but he didn’t need to. Not when this stranger, who likely didn’t care for boys like Arden and just wanted to experiment, was about to take Arden into his comically thick arms and carry him off somewhere where they could be alone.
He was so upset he couldn’t even keep his mouth shut for the duration of his way across the yard and shouted. “Theo, right? That’s not how we do things here!”
Arden looked up at him from Theo’s lap, and Mike could swear his blasé expression was one composed to wreck most damage. In his gothic outfit, perched in Theo’s lap, he was a little demon out for Mike’s blood.
Theo’s bread loaf-sized hand on Arden’s nape was only making the agitation in Mike worse. “Hm? What’s the problem?”
“Yeah, Mike? What’s the problem?” Arden echoed, knowing the answer damn well.
Zolt drank his beer, and Mike could have sworn he was hiding a grin behind a full glass. The traitor.
Mike ignored the boy and focused on the guest, whom he was ready to give the benefit of the doubt. For now. “The problem is that you saw me with him half an hour ago.”
Arden crossed his legs and pursed his lips, still in the bastard’s lap. “Theo was very polite, but I told him we’ve got an open relationship, so it’s all good.”
Shit. Fuck.
Mike could sense the burning heat of eyes on him. If he wanted to get out of this situation without permanent scalds, he needed to act fast. “You clearly misunderstood what I said. Now come here,” he said and offered his hand to Arden, itching to hold the delicate fingers in his.
The endless seconds of hesitation were the cruelest torture, but eventually Arden slid his hand into Mike’s. He mumbled an apology to Theo—who didn’t deserve one—and let Mike pull him up from the fucker’s lap and away from his dick.
Mike hated Zolt watching him like a hawk with his glass of whiskey in hand. Did he fashion himself Arden’s protector now? The fuck was that?
“So what’s the misunderstanding?” Arden asked innocently, but Mike was not having this conversation out in the open and dragged him away, past Leo, who watched it all with a grin that was about to dislocate his jaw, and toward the garage, where he hoped to find more peace. He spotted Dad in the corner of his eye, but since he was the last person whose judgment Mike wanted to hear right now, he just walked forward, squeezing Arden’s hand until they entered the shadow of the building, hiding from prying gazes.
Only then, did he trust himself to let go of Arden’s hand and look at him again. “You only did it to make me jealous!”
Arden opened his lips, as if to deny it, but took a few more seconds before he spoke. He wrapped his arms on his gorgeous flat chest that was so confusing, and so sexy. “Did it work?”
Mike stilled, no longer hearing music over the frantic pulsing in his ears. There was no denying it anymore. He was lost, and every road led to Arden.
He slowly sank to his knees and rested his head against the boy’s stomach, wrapping his arms around the tempting hips.
“It did,” he whispered.
Chapter 13 – Arden
So maybe testing Mike’s jealousy had been a dirty move, but all was fair in love and war. Arden had been drinking to celebrate his triumph, and might have had one—or three—shots too many, but he felt too safe to care. Not only in the clubhouse, surrounded by people he knew, but with Mike watching his every step. They had become inseparable, and Mike even followed him into the bar’s restrooms where they joked about dick sizes while pissing.
They rather liked each other’s dick sizes. And Mike got excited about Arden lifting his skirt to urinate.
Mike clearly wasn’t in it just for the sex, because he could have had that anywhere, yet he deserted the pretty stripper the moment someone told him his neglected kitten crawled into another man’s lap.
He didn’t know whether Mike’s unwillingness to start a relationship was habitual and he didn’t want to give up on the option of sleeping with other people, or if it was an element of his identity, but he wasn’t disdainful over others forming couples. There was something to work on there.
Only that Arden shouldn’t attempt it. The booze in his veins suggested all the things he could do with Mike, how Mike just needed a nudge, but he found it hard to decide whether those thoughts were produced by reason or Arden’s misguided lust. Mike was sex on a stick, and Arden was dying to lick him.