Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 87943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Everyone knows you like ’em big and strong. Should have known you’d find yourself a Viking.”
“Not fucking. Just friends,” he repeated. Forcing a smile, he shrugged off Brendon’s arm, leaning into Kody on his left. “Now smile!” he shouted, forcing a carefree laugh he didn’t feel.
Sven took enough time to snap several pictures on his phone. As everyone was getting settled in their seats, Geoffrey checked his own phone when he felt it buzz. Sven had sent him one of the pictures of them all gathered together. A light breeze off the river stirred their hair and the dark overhead awning was shielding them from the bright August sun. Smiles and laughs abounded as if they didn’t have a care in the world. The table before them was already littered with pints of beers and half-drunk glasses of Bloody Marys. But something in the picture felt off, wrong on a bone-deep level that he couldn’t explain and couldn’t shake. So he didn’t post it on social media.
“Sven,” Kody started as soon as they were all settled at the table again. Geoffrey nearly growled. Sven had barely opened his menu when Kody spoke. Couldn’t he let the poor guy have a moment? “What are you and Geoffrey working on?”
“Geoffrey would prefer to keep our project quiet until it’s ready,” Sven smoothly said, not even bothering to look up from the menu.
Geoffrey just sat back and smiled, not bothering to look at the menu. He was getting the Belgian chocolate and cream waffle. After the past few days he’d gotten through, he fucking deserved it. He’d suffer through an extra hour on his treadmill later.
“How do you and Geoffrey know each other?”
“We met through mutual friends.” Sven put his menu down in front of him and folded his hands on top of it. He focused his cold blue eyes directly on Kody. “How did you meet Geoffrey?”
“A bar.” Kody looked over at Geoffrey. “We were drinking at Shiver, right?”
Someone at the other end of the table groaned and lamented the loss of Shiver, which tended to happen anytime someone mentioned the club owned by Lucas Vallois that had burned down nearly a year ago.
Geoffrey just shrugged. He’d known Kody for a couple of years. They weren’t particularly close, but he had been a steady presence in the drinking, dancing, and clubbing scene. He was a good person to see a movie with because he didn’t talk during the good parts and was happy to share the armrest in the theater.
“Do you code?” Abby asked, picking up the thread that Kody had started.
Todd snorted from where he sat next to Abby. “Yeah, you definitely don’t look the type to spend your day behind a computer.”
“What kind of stereotype bullshit is that? Why couldn’t he code?” Geoffrey snapped. He leaned forward to look down the table at Todd. Will, Todd’s boyfriend, just sat back and shook his head.
“Don’t get all huffy, Geo,” Patrick said, his voice warm and placating. “Why don’t you order us all a round of Bloody Marys?”
“You’ve had enough already,” Geoffrey grumbled.
“We all know your type. Tall. Big.”
“Football players. Weight lifters. Those big Marines.” Abby counted off each one of her fingers.
Brendon snorted. “And that surgeon. What was his name? Frost? You were fucking all over him like a puppy whenever you saw him out.”
He could feel his cheeks turning a blistering red as heat rushed to him at the mention of Snow. Yeah, he’d made an ass of himself over the doctor, but then it had turned out that the man wasn’t just amazing to look at. He’d turned out to be a pretty amazing person as well.
“Whatever,” Geoffrey grumbled. He lowered his eyes to his untouched menu. He wanted to talk about anything but his sexual types. Particularly when the person he wanted the most was seated across from him and didn’t seem to want anything to do with him. Story of his fucking life. First Snow and now Sven. He should have known when he “caught” Brendon that he was a mistake, and now it seemed like he couldn’t get rid of the man.
“Look, I’m just saying that Sven doesn’t seem like the computer type,” Todd continued. Geoffrey glared up the table at Todd, grinding his teeth together. “You’re more like…the big, silent type. And Geoffrey just needs you—”
Geoffrey jumped to his feet, knocking his chair backward with a loud crash. He didn’t care that Todd was teasing him about his sex life. Yeah, he’d made the enormous mistake of fucking Todd once a few years ago when they were both drunk and lonely. And Geoffrey had told him that he liked to be held down, that he liked the feel of a strong body pinning him. He felt no shame over his sexual preferences.
But the word that Todd was carefully not mentioning was “dumb” when it came to describing Sven. And after spending just a few hours with Sven, he knew the man wasn’t dumb. He was quiet and reserved, but he was fucking smart.