Chapter Six
~Nolan~
Since suggesting Bailey go for a shower he had gotten unexpectedly quiet, especially while we ate and cleaned up, which he insisted on helping with even after I protested. He seemed away in thought, his attention elsewhere.
“You have hardly spoken a word,” the therapist in me knew something was bothering Bailey. “You want to talk?”
“No… maybe… sure,” he finally agreed, his eyes following me as I took the seat on the sofa across from him. “Who’s the guy in the picture, the one in your drawer?” Bailey asked in a rush. “Are you still together? Is it a recent break up? Because I don’t think I can handle being the rebound or the other guy.”
“No, we broke up years ago. It would be fair to say there has been adequate time apart,” I leaned forward with my elbows on my knees. “His name is Erik and he means absolutely nothing to me, anymore. You are the farthest thing from a rebound, not even close.”
“Hmm…” Bailey hummed, lacking emotion. “He’s good looking.”
“At one time, I thought the same thing,” I told Bailey in all honesty. “And then his true colors came to the surface and I didn’t like what I saw anymore. I suspected for a long time that he was cheating… when I saw it with my own eyes I ended it and I never looked back.”
Bailey gnawed on the inside of his cheek before asking, “But you still have his picture years later.”
“Would it make you feel better if I got rid of it?” I asked.
“Do as you please,” Bailey answered, with a faux indifferent shrug. “But we all have a past, chucking out a few pictures won’t change history and it would be pretty shitty of me to ask you to forget him. You really should pack his picture away though, for your own good. Don’t get me wrong, the last thing I am is the insecure type. All I wanted was to make sure you were completely free with no attachments or shit. I’m not interested in some disgruntled ex-boyfriend going postal on me when I least expect it.”
“Believe me, Erik’s too pretty to do postal, his looks are his world. He’s a model. Yes, he’s good looking and he knows how to attract attention, but his balls don’t match his oversized ego.”
I looked away shame-faced, remembering Erik and Claudios tangled together in a kiss at Dyson and Harley’s party. When I discovered Erik kissing Fletcher’s ex, the French stud, I had pulled my own disgusting form of postal on Claudios’ face. Not one of my most shining moments. What I should have done was shook his hand and thanked him for opening my eyes, but that was history that did not need rehashed.
“Bailey,” I reached for his hand. “Somewhere in this conversation I get the feeling you want to pursue a relationship with me?”
Bailey comically stretched out his neck, locking his fingers together and extending his arms in the air as if readying himself for some massive event. Out of nowhere he dropped to his knees, placing his head onto my lap and hilariously fluttered his eyelashes up at me. “Want to be my boyfriend, Doc?”
My crazy commitment issues dashed into my head, causing a gray cloud of fear to loom. How stupid was it of me to give Erik that kind of power? After all this time, I knew better than allow my past to rule my future, screw that idea, I was getting too old for that shit.
“Hmmm…,” I teased Bailey’s hair with my fingertips, enjoying the silken feel of each lock. “There’s nothing I would like more. Nothing.”
“Pheeewww…” Bailey amusingly swept the back of his arm across his forehead. “For a minute there, I thought I was going to be going home with my tail between my legs.”
“I would never send you off in that condition,” I winked and Bailey shoved me back as he climbed onto my lap.
“Remember that thing you said about taking our time and going slow?” Bailey asked, the heat from his breath scorching my cheek as his face drew closer, and he gently kissed the tip of my nose. “I can live with that, but I’m not opposed to heavy petting and sweaty make out sessions.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I smirked, toppling Bailey onto his side and tucking him against my chest as we cozied up on the couch together. “How long has it been since your last relationship?”
I figured that as long as we were talking about the past why not delve in head first and get it over with. Besides, I needed something to occupy my mind, to keep my focus off of what I really wanted, Bailey between my sheets again, buck-naked and sweaty.
“Never had one,” Bailey openly admitted. “I dated plenty, but there was no one I wanted a relationship with. Plus, after I lost my leg most guys I met weren’t interested. I had a lot of first dates, not so many second ones… I did have a lot of dark sex.”
“Dark sex? Are you into the kinky stuff?” I joked, using it as an excuse to squeeze Bailey closer. In a way, I was thrilled by the idea of indulging in a little kink I’d been missing from my life for so long.
“Dark sex… as in lights off so they didn’t have to see me, sex.”
“You’re kidding me. You don’t need anyone in your life if they aren’t willing to accept you as you are. Sometimes you just have to ignore what others think,” I raised up on my elbow in order to see Bailey’s face, peering over his shoulder. “Look at you, you’re gorgeous. I mean on a scale out of ten, you, Kitten, are a twenty.”
Bailey harrumphed and rolled his eyes. I knew it was because of the nickname. As he tried to awkwardly roll over to face me, he fell to the floor pulling me with him and rolling me onto my back. He lay on top of me and smiled, stroking his hand through my hair.
“You know what I like most about you? You’re an anomaly,” he praised. “You survive in a domain all your own. You don’t see the things others do, not right away anyway, the things they can’t see past. You look for good before noticing the bad. It’s just who you, it’s what makes you special. It also makes you the target, the one who’s easily broken… now I sound pathetic, like some want-to-be philosopher who knows jack shit about jack shit.”
I latched onto Bailey as he attempted to roll off of me, scraping the coffee table loudly across the hardwood with our bodies, trading places and holding his beautiful face in my hands.
“Sounds like you got me pegged, professor,” I scrubbed the heavy stubble on his jaw with the pads of my thumbs, his day-old growth ruff and sexy to the touch. “Tell me more.”
He clucked his tongue and I laughed, he was younger than me and displayed it well in his behavior. Not that I was complaining. Bailey made me feel younger, alive, and I wanted more of that, more of him.
“Remember that slow thing?” I whispered, against the corner of his mouth as our lips brushed together.
“Yeah,” he answered, his hands grazing back and forth on the outside of my thighs.
“Fuck it!”
“No shit?”
I snorted as Bailey brought up his hands and clasped my cheeks against his palms, his tongue touching my bottom lip before he sucked it between his teeth. His kisses were sensual, mind blowing; the kind you dreamt of. My lips parted to take a breath as his moved away, trailing gentle kisses across my cheek, his hands directing my face as he kissed one eyelid then the other.
Bailey’s hips shifted, grinding his erection against mine as his lips found residence and he kissed me deeper than I’d ever been kissed before. I stuffed my hands under his shirt, my fingers combing the mass of manly fur trailing over his stomach and chest. I had never been with a bear, not that Bailey was even remotely close to being categorized as a bear. But he was furry, warm and cuddly like one. My bear, I officially staked claim in my heart.
“Mmm…” Bailey hummed with pleasure just as the doorbell rang and a rattle of fists drummed against the locked door.
“Urgh,” I dropped my head to Bailey’s chest. “It’s Saturday night, isn’t it?”
“Uh huh, why?” Bailey asked, pressing his palm to my forehead, forcing me to look at him. “Is something wrong? Should I leave?”
Ignoring the door was not going to make them go away, but I was trying valiantly.
“Stay. I’m sorry,” I told Bailey, as I rose to my feet and offered him my hand. “It’s movie night.”
Bailey’s brow rounded as he unraveled his shirt and tucked it into his sweats, adjusting a substantial bulge. Sweats certainly left nothing to the imagination. At this moment, I couldn’t despise my friends more. As much as it had become a ritual to have Saturday movie nights and poker at my place, I was wishing the guys had forgotten for one night.
“There was this gray period after Erik and I split,” I began to explain as I walked towards the front door. “The guys would come over and we’d have a few beers and watch a movie. What can I say? It turned into a habit none of us have bothered to shake.”
“Do you have room for one more?” Bailey winked.
“Are you sure? I can get rid of them.”
“Sure, I’m sure,” Bailey shrugged, reaching out and yanking me to his chest. “We can pick up where we left off later.” Bailey kissed the tip of my nose and slapped my ass with his open palm as the pounding on the door grew louder. “Best let them in before they tear the door off its hinges.”
“What the fuck?” Pete scowled, shaking a blue cooler, the rattle of glass bottles and ice tinkling together inside. “What took you so long?”
Pete stepped around me before I could say anything, followed closely by Jeff, Dyson, Harley, and Tag who was carrying a pizza box and chewing on a slice. Noticing Bailey, they all stopped in their tracks, looking between us like an audience front and center at a tennis match.
“Hey, you’re the guy from the coffee place,” Jeff pointed out. “Is Sierra here?”
“No,” Bailey laughed. “She’s working tonight.”
“This is Bailey.” My introduction was quick and to the point.
He shook each of their hands as they introduced themselves, stopping at Tag, who opened the lid of the pizza box and smiled.
“Nice to see you again, do you like pepperoni?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Bailey took a slice as well as a beer Pete offered and they settled onto the living room sectional.
“So?” Jeff tapped his beer bottle to Bailey’s. “Sierra seeing anyone?”
“I think so,” Bailey tipped his head side to side, taking a swig from his bottle. “She likes this guy, well, actually, it’s her brother’s best friend-“
“Oh, shit,” Pete laughed. “And her brother hasn’t separated his head from his shoulders yet?”
“I tried to warn her,” Bailey wiped his mouth with a paper napkin before wrapping the crust of his pizza inside and setting it on the table. “But the girl can’t be told.”
“You know what I think,” Jeff said, picking pepperoni off of his slice and tossing it into the open pizza box. “She needs a distraction. You should introduce us. I’d take her mind off of the best friend.”
“I should probably mention,” Bailey’s face turned serious. “Jason works out with me at the same gym and he’s very protective of his little sister. I should say overly protective.”
Everyone burst into laughter except of course Jeff, who was closely checking out Bailey, measuring him up. He visibly cringed when he realized this Jason guy was probably the size of a tree trunk.
“Sorry, Jeff,” I pat him on the shoulder with a sympathetic laugh. “Does admiring Sierra from afar suddenly sound more appealing? Safer for your health anyway?”
“Fuck you,” he grumbled, sinking into the back of the couch with his beer bottle tucked into his crossed arms. “Fuck all of you.”
“Take it easy, killer,” Pete handed him a blank Blu-ray case. “Make yourself useful and put the movie in.”
Jeff snatched the Blu-ray from Pete’s hand with a death piercing scowl and proceeded over to the entertainment center, spouting a garbled accumulation of verbal battering.
“Where did Nolan end up taking you to eat?” Tag directed his question towards Bailey.
Bailey pointed over Tag’s shoulder. “The kitchen.”
“Oh, you cheap fuck, couldn’t even spring for a nice breakfast, eh? But the man can cook, right?” Dyson snuggled into his husband, Harley’s side, in the corner of the L-shaped couch. “He makes the best seven-layer lasagna on the planet and killer cheesecake.”
“My wife can’t cook to save her life,” Pete announced with a grimace. “Maybe I’ll send her over for some cooking lessons.”
“Anytime,” I nodded.
Pete’s wife, Mandy, was a sweetheart and he knew it, he treated her like a delicate orchid. He came off all gruff and snarly around the guys, but never around her. He never raised his voice, swearing around her was completely taboo, and anything she needed he was quick to deliver.
“Where’s Fletcher?” I asked Tag, as he retrieved Jeff’s discarded pepperoni from the empty box and layered it onto his pizza slice before folding it in half and taking a large bite.
“He had a private charter book at the last minute and, as usual, he was the only pilot that could do it. He’s gone until Wednesday.”
“He always gets the shit end of the stick,” Pete said.
“Fletcher loves flying, so it’s no hardship to him, believe me. It’s the time away that I hate,” Tag admitted. “I probably should wait for him to be here, but I want to tell you while I’ve got you all in one place.”
“Everything alright?” I couldn’t help asking.
Tag and Fletcher had had such an eventful beginning to their relationship, and not as in wonderful, rather being complicated and taxing. They had survived so much and even while the storm clouds loomed over their heads, there was always the tiniest crack of light seeping in to remind them that their love was made to last. I often envied what they had. Every so often, I was invited over for dinners because Tag hated me being alone, and he and Fletcher were a huge help when Erik and I split, as well as with the renovations. Each offered their services or at least kept me company while I did the work or cried on their shoulders. I couldn’t ask for better friends.
Tag took a deep breath and grinned. “We set a date for the wedding.”
“About fucking time,” Harley gave him a congratulatory whack on the shoulder. “We should be celebrating, break out the champagne!”
Fletcher and Tag’s engagement had been the longest in the history of procrastination. I was convinced it would never happen during this decade. Tonight, we would celebrate. I grabbed my bottle of champagne and seven glasses and took them into the living room, where everyone was hugging and shaking hands.
“Champagne?” I tore the foil from the top of the bottle and twisted off the metal ring.
“What about the reno?” Tag asked, with an annoying grin.
“Screw it, I’ll buy another bottle.” The cork burst into the air hitting the ceiling with such force that it left a tiny dimple in the drywall. “I’ve got so much to do still, there’s plenty of time to replace it.”
We toasted everything from the upcoming nuptials to keeping Fletcher’s flight safe and just about anything else the guys could come up with in between. Then Tag looked to Bailey and lifted his glass, Bailey looked at me curiously, his brow twitching.
“To Nolan and his new squeeze,” Tag revealed, throwing his arm over Bailey’s shoulder. “Thanks for putting a smile back on the N-man’s face.”
“Really?” Jeff waved his hand between Bailey and me. “You two are like a couple? No kidding?”
“Yep,” Tag merrily broadcast. “Caught the two of them swapping spit in the pool this morning, and I don’t mean lifesaving mouth to mouth either. You weren’t going to try keeping it a secret from your oldest buddies, were ya?”
“Sorry, Bailey,” I sat at his side. “Allow me to apologize for my friends.”
“N-man, you know I’m fucking with you,” Tag confessed. “I just wanted to say, it’s about fucking time… and I still want to know what it is about you that attracts gorgeous men like flies?”
“Now I get it,” Pete nodded, pleased with himself. “All those times you volunteered to get the coffee… and here I thought you were just being a nice guy.”
“Nope,” I shook my head, grinning at Bailey. “I had an ulterior motive.”
“Yeah,” Bailey tittered. “A few hundred coffee cards to fill.”
“Who’s the bottom?” Jeff boldly asked unexpectedly, with a hint of amusement in his tone and the room went silent.
“Mind your business, asshole,” I snarled.
Bailey was staring at me with a bemused look on his face. It had not come up in conversation. I had no idea if Bailey bottomed, but I hoped so, because bottoming sure as hell wasn’t for me.
“I thought you all came here to watch a movie,” I jumping to my feet in need of some space. “Who wants popcorn and who wants chips?”
I was watching as the popcorn bag rotated inside the microwave, making a sizzling sound and several pops as the paper bag expanded with each exploding kernel. Two large arms caged me in, soft gentle lips tracing the shell of my ear, hot breath sweeping past my cheek. I attempted to turn, but his large frame pressed my body tight to the counter as all the air escaped my lungs.
“Just to put your mind at ease,” Bailey trailed kisses along the side of my neck as I tipped my head to the side to allow him better access. “I’ve always bottomed… but for you I’d be willing to top it up if I had to.”
Reaching my arm up and back, I wrapped it around Bailey’s neck and turned enough to place a kiss at the corner of his sweet mouth.
“You don’t have to change for me, in fact, don’t ever change,” I whispered, pushing back against his warm chest. “I want you just the way you are.”
“Despite the fact I’m broken?”
“Kitten, we’re all a little bit broken,” I declared with a chuckle as I turned in his arms until we were face to face. “And I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
“Never bottomed, right?” Bailey laughed.
“Uh uh,” I smiled as I slowly shook my head.
“Hmm… seems I’m always interrupting something,” Tag leaned against the door frame. “Movie’s starting, that is if you feel like joining us. If not, I get it.”
“We’ll be right there,” I announced as Tag left the room with the two bowls filled with potato chips.
Bailey rested his forehead to mine and kissed the tip of my nose. “Later?”
“Most definitely later,” I agreed, entwining our fingers before turning out the kitchen light.