Keyes pulled Alec tightly against him. Even though he was playing, he made the commitment with zero hesitation. As much as Alec continued to say the last several weeks were hard on him, Keyes had been going insane. He got they weren’t boyfriends, that this arrangement was based on the hot sex they shared, but it was more of a relationship than he’d ever had with anyone in his entire life. Honestly, he could see how he might work out all of these feelings of inadequacy by focusing on how Alec truly seemed to want him. Keyes had been alone his whole damn life, even surrounded by his loud and rowdy MC family, he was still alone. It was nice to share these simple moments with someone else.
Yeah, maybe he was in a little over his head, and agreeing to monogamy wasn’t the best idea so early in their deal, but things he’d never considered for himself before were beginning to take shape, and it was more than just sex with Alec that he wanted. This moment right here wasn’t a strip off your clothes and fuck like rabbits on the kitchen floor moment. They were talking, communicating, getting to know one another, and he wanted to be right here, spending this time with Alec.
Alec’s fingers ran through his hair and slid along his scalp, pulling him down to those fleshy, parted lips. The kiss felt binding, a sweet, warm assurance, like a signature on a promissory note. Something he’d never experienced before.
He pulled back, studying Alec’s handsome face.
“Twenty-seven,” he said, almost losing himself in those mesmerizing eyes. They were fascinating, jewel-like in their depth and sparkle.
“Age?” Alec asked, his brow crinkled and eyes narrowed as he stared back at him.
Keyes nodded, moving his hands up Alec’s smooth skin, resting his palms on the dimples right above Alec’s ass. “You?”
“Twenty-nine.”
“Mmm…an older man.” Keyes growled.
“Don’t get too excited. I’m not that much older,” Alec said and gave him a quick peck before ducking to the side. “I have something to show you. Stay here.”
Alec padded across the floor, and Keyes watched that bare ass flex until he disappeared down the hall to his bedroom. He waited there, looking around the kitchen as if seeing it all for the first time. It had everything. A built-in refrigerator that matched a built-in oven that matched a huge stovetop. Two sinks. Why anyone needed two, he had no idea.
Keyes gave in to curiosity and walked toward the doorway on the other side of the kitchen. He’d never ventured to this side of the house. There was a very formal dining room with a long, elegant table. The room was big, almost as big as church at the club. His uncle’s house had a formal dining room, but it had become an office to give Keyes the extra bedroom when he was younger and needed a place to stay.
The kitchen now seemed small by comparison to this room. He kept going, walking through the dining room which sat directly off the large foyer where a big sweeping staircase led to the upstairs. Why did Alec need all this room? Luckily, before curiosity got the best of him, Alec came from the back of the house, robe on, and a pair of slide-on sandals on his feet. He held a second pair of sandals in his hand before dropping them at Keyes’s feet. “See if these fit.”
“We’re goin’ outside?”
Alec nodded and held out his hand for support. Keyes didn’t give it a second thought and automatically clasped the offering. He toed on his shoes, thinking about the warm gentle caress Alec gave as his fingers touched Keyes’s skin, adjusting the grasp to better hold his hand. Like everything else between them, there was a moment of figuring out what was their best way, something that pacified them both. The intertwining of fingers worked best.
When the shoes were on, Alec gave a firm tug, drawing Keyes through the house to the garage through another side door. They skirted a large swimming pool and cabana then followed a path to another part of the property. Alec retrieved a key from his robe’s pocket and unlocked the door. Once inside, they had another door that had a security pad. Alec entered a code. The door opened and the lights flashed on automatically. The detached building was huge and climate controlled, based on the cool air hitting him as they stepped inside. The spectacular part was the two vehicles sitting side by side.
“A Shelby Cobra?” Keyes asked, instantly releasing Alec’s fingers as he went straight for the car.
“A ’65 427. Only so many of this model built.”
“I’ve never seen one up close,” Keyes said, hearing the wonder in his own voice as he circled the vintage sports car. “My God.”
“My sentiment too.”
Keyes shifted his gaze to Alec who came to a stop at the hood of the car while Keyes stood closer to the trunk. “How do you have this?”
“My grandfather gave it to me after a particularly ugly family struggle. He had bought it new when they first came out,” Alec explained. Keyes was in utter awe. He scanned the vehicle again. The thing looked brand new, clearly not driven much at all.
“They can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Alec,” Keyes said. Alec had no idea how much Keyes loved this car. He loved the back story on this model. Some in this 427 series had been discontinued shortly after production due to poor sales. Yet, all these years later, they were coveted by most automobile enthusiasts. Keyes carefully placed a palm on the side door panel. It was almost too much, the reverence too steep, and Keyes removed his hand, balling his fist to keep from touching again.
“I know. I’ve heard. I was the only grandchild that ever got to ride in it. My grandfather would take me to the coast, and we’d spend the day riding around having fun. Those were very freeing moments for me. Good memories. It was an incredibly generous gift,” he said, beaming at Keyes.
Keyes focused on Alec. The car fit Alec—the owner as shiny as this car’s well-preserved finish. They were very well suited for one another. Of course, he didn’t know Alec’s grandfather, but the man had done stunningly well at matching automobile to person.
“Do you drive it?” Keyes asked, crossing his arms over his chest to keep from touching the car again.
“Enough to keep him healthy. The engine’s original—well, everything’s original. I own a couple of homes. This is the only thing I move from place to place with me. Not even my clothing all comes, but that vehicle does. It’s another reason in a long list of reasons I chose this house. My grandfather loved this car, taught me how to take care of it. He was a great man.”
Keyes nodded at Alec who stayed a few feet away, giving Keyes all the room he needed to absorb such a surprise.
“Wow.” Keyes took a step back to better take in the car and bumped into a second vehicle behind him, a car he hadn’t paid any attention to once his gaze had landed on the Shelby. With a glance over his shoulder, he then turned an immediate one-eighty. “A Maybach? Are you kiddin’ me?”
“Get inside. Pull the hood latch,” Alec encouraged, grinning broadly. These were two badass cars for very different reasons. The almost reverent respect he had for the Shelby turned to sheer worship over the Maybach.
“Seriously?” Keyes might have asked the question, but he was already opening the driver’s side door, checking out the interior as he looked for the hood latch. This was fucking amazing. His mind was completely blown. He got out, rounded the front, and carefully lifted the hood to stare down at the V-12 engine. “This is why you handled your car so well that first night. I watched you in the mirror, expectin’ the worst. I’d’ve thought you’d’ve flipped the Ferrari.”
“My grandfather took me to the Grand Prix. Eventually, he got me lessons with James Hunt for a couple of summers.”
Keyes left the hood up as he stepped back to take in the beauty of both vehicles. “Thank you.”
“For what?” Alec asked, coming closer to where Keyes stood.
This was just such a private, personal collection. To have Alec sharing them with Keyes seemed such a generous act, which had to mean Alec trusted him. Maybe because Alec saw past his rough biker persona to the man he was on the inside… Wait.
Fancy cars, multiple houses. Keyes scowled as he cut his gaze to Alec in a sideways stare.
“How much money do you have?”
Alec’s grin grew as he ducked his head and moved toward the Maybach and closed the hood. “I see your walls falling back in place. Don’t do that. You’ll make me regret showing you.”
With a roll of the shoulders, Keyes released the sudden tension that had formed. He’d let Alec’s explanation be enough. He completed another once-over on the AC Cobra, committing all the details to memory. Alec was right, any info about his wealth would put impenetrable concrete barriers between them. With herculean effort, he did what he’d done earlier today and pushed away that mountain of differences between them, not letting it bring him down. “I have a shop no one knows about. No one but my uncle. It’s at his place.”
“You work on motorcycles there?” Alec asked, taking several steps backward, giving Keyes the room he needed with the cars.
“Yeah. Restore them. My uncle’s a teacher. He kept me in school when no one else really cared what I was doin’. Helped me get my mechanic’s certification. I have a couple of bikes there now,” Keyes said, moving closer to Alec. He could admire the cars from ten or so steps away, and he liked being closer to Alec.
“Like the crotch rocket outside right now?” Alec asked, seeming truly interested.
Keyes chuckled at the use of the name crotch rocket and kicked at nonexistent dirt with his toe. “Yeah, I forgot I was riding that. I barely take her out. My club requires a Harley. It’s a rule.”
“The bike’s a female?”
“Yeah, I guess. It’s how I think of her. Strong, always dependable, pretty, a badass. The prez’s wife and daughter are like that, so she became a girl,” Keyes said, explaining his reasoning, revealing information he’d never told another living soul.
“Is that the personal connection for the tattoo going up your side? The DNA strand. Does it represent your uncle?” Alec asked, stepping forward, lifting his arm to touch the foot-long metallic-looking DNA strand inked up the side of his body.
“You’re insightful,” he said, looking down at Alec’s fingers gliding across the tattoo. Dev had done an incredible job with the 3-D effect on this particular design. The ends appeared to be burying into his skin. No one had ever asked about that one. His old man only gave him shit about inking a ladder on his body. “Is insightful the right word?”
“Maybe,” Alec said, bending his head to get a better look. “Your tattoo artist is amazing. The detail’s incredible.” Alec ghosted his fingertips over the top of the tattoo then moved around to his hip where a tangled vine of skulls wove together—a tatt Dev designed when he began creating his own art. “Maybe you can take them both out for a ride sometime,” Alec said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder toward his cars as he stood straight and looked Keyes in the eye. “I’m sure you know places we can go that we won’t be seen.”
“I can’t drive that,” Keyes said, throwing a hand toward the Cobra. What a seriously crazy notion to think anyone was trustworthy enough to get behind the wheel of that vehicle. Of course, he couldn’t drive that car.
Alec chuckled and didn’t argue, showing he had lost all of his senses with such a crazy thought. He dropped his hands in his robe’s pockets and started back toward the door they’d entered through.
“Do you take her to shows? She needs to be shown off.”
“I refer to the roadster as a he, and he’s been in a few movies. Rarely truly driven for long periods of time, though,” Alec said when Keyes finally turned to follow him out.
“So what’s the bad shit that happened to get you that car?” Keyes asked, going through the door Alec held open.
“One particularly painful event…” Alec trailed off and didn’t say more as he went for the security pad.
“You don’t have to talk about it,” he said, except he kind of wanted to know.
“No, I’m long over those years. My father ran for vice president about twentyish years ago. He was young, mid-forties, and was considered the fresh face in congress.” Alec stopped speaking as he pressed the four numbers into the keypad then listened for the alarm to set. Keyes pushed through the outside door, holding it open when Alec turned to leave. “My father ran on the ticket opposing Avery Adams, do you remember him?” Alec asked, letting that door shut before pulling the key and locking the deadbolts.
“The gay one, right?” Keyes asked, hating that he used the man’s sexual orientation to identify him, but he literally only knew one vice president, and that was the gay one.
“Yes, him. I was ten or so, just figuring out I was different, but my family must have guessed before then. For those couple of years, during every school break, I was sent to my grandparents’. I never went home. I was given no choice in the plan, but I’d have rather been with my grandparents than home, so at the time, there was no harm, no foul until the night my father gave his acceptance speech for the candidacy nomination. He bashed homosexuality as a crime against civilization. We were watching, me and my grandparents, and my grandfather immediately turned off the television and diverted my attention. I had always loved his cars, and that night, he taught me to drive in an old truck he had.” Alec walked slowly beside Keyes toward the house and turned to give him a grin when he added, “I’ve restored that truck, a 1965 F-series. It’s at my home in New England. My granddad must have sensed my melancholy even with being excited to learn to drive, because he also told me the Shelby was mine when the time came. I’ve loved that car since that night.”
“Your old man didn’t win, right? The Adams guy won.” The rain had stopped, and regardless of what Alec said and the smile he just gave, Keyes sensed the hurt Alec still carried. Instinct more than any well thought out plan had Keyes wrapping an arm around Alec’s waist, drawing him closer as they walked side by side around the house toward the back door.
“Correct. My father’s in his sixties and has his sights fixed on the presidency. But things have changed socially. He’s going to have to make amends for those things he said. I’m his tool to prove his newfound tolerance.”
Keyes had no idea what to say. His father hadn’t liked him either, but the gay thing was just a small portion of a much bigger hatred. His old man couldn’t stand that Keyes breathed. He had questioned Keyes’s legitimacy most of his life. Alec’s situation seemed just as cruel even though he was certain Alec had never had a rib broken by the steel toe of his old man’s boot. “I’m sorry.”
Alec bumped him in the shoulder, which sent them both off course with the way they were locked arm in arm.
“Is it enticing to say I have five other classics at my home in Massachusetts?”
“What are they?” Keyes asked, letting Alec divert them from such a painful topic.
“I can’t let all my secrets out. I gotta keep you guessing, or you’ll get bored too fast,” Alec teased. Keyes busted out a laugh as lightning sizzled nearby, the loud boom of thunder following.
“Come on!” Alec took off running toward the back door as the clouds opened wide again.