Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 85682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
The silence on the line went on for so long, I started fidgeting, uncomfortable.
“You like him,” Charles finally said.
“He’s sexy as hell. You’d like him too.”
“You want to fuck him, clearly. That’s not what I meant and you know it. You care about him.”
Discomfort snaked its way through me, swelling as it went. “I’ve spent three weekends with him. Don’t go getting ahead of yourself.”
“Yes, but you’ve been seeing him off and on for how long now? A while, it sounds like. He intrigued you, and you saw something different in him from the start. Otherwise you never would have asked him to be your toy.”
“Can you not make it sound so gross?” I asked, even though he was right.
“That’s not like you—to have someone in your home like that. To want to spend that much time with them. Especially not now. Maybe this would have made sense years ago if there had been no…”
“Daniel? You can say his name.” My stomach twisted, the pressure radiating out and suffocating my heart.
“The idea of easy sex. I could see it from you back then, but not now. You’re so closed off. You’re not the same man, Bent, and if you want to spend time with him, it’s because you like him. Plus, all day and night? That’s a lot of getting to know someone. You want to take care of him. That’s a classic Bentley trait. It’s why you stayed with Daniel for so long—you didn’t want to hurt him, you wanted to take care of him and be who he wanted you to be, and he took advantage of that. Now you’re trying to take care of your mailman.”
“I have to go.” He was wrong. He had no right to say Daniel had taken advantage of anything. Daniel had loved me. I’d stayed with him because I’d cared about him. What I was doing with Sam wasn’t the same thing. I didn’t care for him, not the way Charles made it sound. Sure, I hated his situation, and if I could help while getting something out of the arrangement, why wouldn’t I? But that’s all it was.
“Bent…”
“I have to go, Charles. He’ll be here soon.” Before he could say anything else, I disconnected the call and went into the house.
I was sitting on the couch when Sam knocked.
“Come in.” I listened to the knob turn, the soft creak as the door opened, then him coming inside and setting his bag down.
“Oh, hey. You’re never just sittin’ around when I get here. What’s up? Wait, before you answer that, I have a good one for you today. Why do seagulls fly over the ocean?” I raised a brow, watching him and waiting. “Because if they flew over the bay, we’d call them bagels.”
The urge to chuckle was there, even though it was the most ridiculous joke I had ever heard. Actually, all of his were, but they were endearing too. If I were honest, I’d admit to myself that each time I saw him, I wondered what he would say. That I filed those silly jokes away, and sometimes, when he was gone and I was alone, I’d think about them, or tell them to the horses and goats. But all I said to him was, “Take off your clothes.”
“Yessir.” Sam had his backward baseball cap on today. He didn’t wear it every weekend, but I liked it when he did. It felt like him, this country boy who made me want him when I hadn’t wanted anything in a long time.
He took it off, then his shirt followed.
“The hat goes back on, please.”
“Well, look at you. You’re feelin’ all kinds a somethin’ today, aren’t you?” He shoved his hat back down on his head, then removed his shoes, socks, pants, and underwear. He was already hard at just the thought of what was to come. His cock bobbed, pointing upward. His balls high and tight. “You’re lookin’ at me like you wanna eat me up,” he said, and damned if he wasn’t right. “It feels good, bein’ looked at that way. Bein’ wanted. But I gotta say, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do here. Are we playin’ a sex game where I have to do what you say? If so, are you gonna tell me to come over there so you can finally touch me? Because if you don’t ask, then I’m not sure I’m gonna follow the rules. That might be a little fun, though? Then you can think of some way to punish me, which I’d be okay with as long as it was a sexy kinda punishment that also got me off.”
I smiled. Christ, I couldn’t hold it back even if I wanted to. I didn’t understand it, what he had done to me in such a short time. How he made me feel in ways I didn’t think were possible for me again. I’d been numb for years, but now my skin tingled and I felt the heat of my blood run through me. I laughed, and I listened, and I wanted to fix all the shit in his life. Not to be absolved of my sins, but just because he deserved it.