Keyes shoved open the front door of Dev’s apartment and flipped on the light switch. He stopped short at the mess greeting him. He hadn’t expected anything different, but it was still a lot to take in. His buddy was a slob. There were leftover pizza boxes on the coffee table, kitchen table, and kitchen counter. Those were stacked with other takeout boxes, drink cans, ashtrays, dirty napkins—just discarded trash everywhere. Keyes wondered how much of Dev’s nature Holly had truly seen. Maybe Dev would change for her. He seemed pretty taken with her. Stranger things had happened.
Keyes closed the door behind him. He tossed the keys on the kitchen counter and started gathering the dirty clothes. Clearly, Dev still used the place. Maybe Dev came there to clean up, but his brother clearly wasn’t washing any of his own clothes. He plucked a shirt off the lamp and dumped the clothes in the already full laundry basket in Dev’s room. A big sigh escaped him when he flipped on the light switch in the bedroom and caught the condition of the bed. Of course, the bed wasn’t made. He wasn’t sure Dev even knew how to make a bed, but even beyond that…the bedding looked grungy. Hesitantly, he moved closer to the mattress, lifting the blanket to inspect the sheets. Yep, they had to go too.
He hated this fastidious side he had. Every one of the brothers would have just climbed onto the bed and gone to sleep. They’d tease him that he had OCD, but he called it a basic need for hygiene. Maybe he should have stayed at the club tonight. He’d washed those sheets himself. Tossing all the blankets in the direction of the laundry basket, he went in search of more sheets. In the end, he only found two blankets haphazardly folded in what was possibly the linen closet. He’d make do with those for now.
He had to tune out the mess of the apartment or he wouldn’t be able to sleep. Keyes undressed, turned off the lights, and put his wallet and phone on the nightstand beside the bed. He tossed his clothes on the end of the mattress and crawled under one of the blankets before reaching for the remote control that had fallen free when he’d pulled the sheets off the bed. Keyes flipped through the channels, but honestly, didn’t pay attention to what was on the TV. His thoughts lingered on the dinner he’d just had. What a serious game-changer to walk in and watch Dev with Holly. Hell, Alec and Holly made more sense together than either of them dating guys like him and Dev.
Could he and Dev have hit some sort of turning point in their lives? Did the club easing back on their business show Keyes there was more to life? He honestly had no answer, but that shit tonight shocked the hell out of him. Holly was as happy and as beautiful as a person could be. Dev’s little girls played in the small backyard while the grownups ate dinner outside just the way it happened in the sitcoms he’d watched as a child. Who knew that shit could really be an option for guys like them?
Instead of mindlessly channel surfing, Keyes reached for his phone. It was late. Well past midnight, but he hadn’t talked to Alec all night. Not really since lunch and that had been a quick exchange.
Alec silenced his phone while he slept, so there wouldn’t be any harm in sending a single text to check in. “You up?”
He stared at the phone, willing Alec to answer. Maybe as long as two minutes passed before he gave up and picked the remote back up. He got through maybe ten channels before the phone vibrated in his lap.
“Everything okay?” Alec asked. Funny how all the bullshit running through his head just lightened up with Alec’s simple two-word text.
“Yeah. Did I wake you?” Keyes typed back.
“Sort of. I was trying to stay up just in case you called. Can I call you?”
“Yup.”
The phone vibrated in his hand seconds after he pushed send. With a swipe of the finger, he answered, “Hello.”
“Have a nice time?” Alec’s tired voice, the one Keyes knew firsthand, sounded groggy. Yeah, he’d woken the guy up.
He waited to answer through Alec’s long, loud yawn. “I did.”
“That’s too short of an answer. I need more to know how to question you.”
Keyes chuckled. That revelation had come out this week. Alec had confessed to him how hard he was to read. He apparently perplexed and challenged Alec. His guy considered himself good at reading people’s actions and words, but Keyes always stumped him. He saw himself as such a basic guy. He wasn’t hiding anything but decided it might be in his favor to keep Alec guessing.
“Dev’s shacked up with some nursing student.” The idea sounded weirder as he said it out loud.
“And that means what?” Alec asked.
Keyes just silently shook his head, staring at the muted television screen. Alec truly didn’t see the world the way the rest of the folks on this planet did. His guy judged people on their merit, not the way they looked or where they came from. Keyes stopping the night they met and helping Alec change those tires had put him in the worthy category for Alec no matter his social rank. Now, though, as he’d gotten to know Alec, he suspected that as caring and giving as Alec was, he’d be every bit the force against those he didn’t find quality in.
“I don’t know,” he finally answered instead of trying to explain things. “Whatever. One good thing… Dev’s apartment’s empty, so I’m takin’ over the lease.”
“I thought you were staying at the club.”
“There’re rooms there, but it’s not permanent. I need a place of my own.” As filthy as it might be… He refused to let himself look around at the mess of Dev’s room. He’d clean it up tomorrow, and it would be fine.
“You can stay here,” Alec offered, causing Keyes’s heart to fall and his mind to suddenly spin with all the possibilities of what that meant.
“I can’t stay there.”
“Sure, you could. If you think it’s moving too fast, I have a whole upstairs you could use. You’d rarely have to see me.”
There it was again—Alec throwing down a random offer like it wasn’t the nicest, most inviting suggestion in the world. His uncle had been the only person to ever offer Keyes a place to stay. He’d been out on his own since he was sixteen years old. He’d only moved back in with his old man out of club obligation after the accident, and he’d hated every single minute of that shit.
On the other side of the suggestion, he could just see how Alec’s fancy neighbors would love having to see him every day. Alec’s neighbors already put their children behind them in some sort of show of protection as his bike rumbled by.
“It’s not that big a deal. We get along. You’re comfortable here. It’s an option if you need it,” Alec said in Keyes’s silence.
“I can’t stay there. What if you brought another guy home, how would you explain me? I’d be a roommate with benefits. Is that cool in your crowd?” he asked, cringing at his own words. He liked the idea of being at Alec’s so much that he had to squash the excitement and remember his place.
Alec went quiet, causing Keyes to nod his head at no one. Yeah, Alec hadn’t thought about that. When things went south with them and Alec started looking elsewhere, then Keyes living there would totally cramp his style.
“I thought we’d already decided this, but let me ask, would it be a problem for you if I brought someone home?” Goddamn, Alec was like a brain ninja. He had effectively turned the tables on him. He hadn’t expected that question or the visceral response to the mental image of Alec walking through his back door with another guy on his heels.
In his head, he saw Alec turning that heart-clenching grin back to the unknown guy that looked just as handsome and worthy as Alec. Keyes’s vision abruptly jumped to him driving his fist through those imaginary perfect teeth of the douchebag trying to make a move on his guy.
Shit! His guy? No. Remember your place, dickhead.
“I’m FaceTiming you. I hear you breathing, but you’ve gone silent again. I need to see you.”
The phone chimed, asking to change the call to video. He agreed and Alec’s face—or maybe his face, it was dark on the other end of the call—appeared on his screen. Keyes heard the shifting of material and the screen showed images zooming past, but then there was a click and lamp light lit the bedroom. He couldn’t help his grin as Alec appeared on the screen all sleepy eyed with bed tousled hair. No matter the situation, he was fucking sexy as hell.
“This whole time we could do this and you were making me fuckin’ text you?” he asked by way of a greeting. Sexy or not, he wanted an answer.
That brought an instant smile to Alec’s handsome face. “I like your texts. They brighten my day. Plus, I didn’t think you’d like anyone seeing my face.”
“Yeah. That doesn’t explain the nights when I’m alone, and you’re just textin’ all those words, making me reply back,” Keyes said, rolling his eyes for dramatic effect.
Alec only laughed out loud. “I enjoy your texts. Don’t change the subject. Would it bother you if I brought someone else home with me?”
He chose his standard non-answer as his answer as he stared in the screen, just blinking. Fuck yes it would, but he wasn’t sure how Alec felt about that revelation. Alec watched him, his eyes narrowing, the phone moving closer to his face as if he were trying for a better look. Whatever Alec decided made him nod and scoot back to lean against the headboard.
“It would bother me too if you brought someone home. Now, maybe if you invited me to join, that might help me get over it.”
Initially Keyes laughed, then with talk of a three-way, he lost that smile. “I’m not into sharing.”
Alec nodded. “I wouldn’t expect you would be. You’re very loyal. So we’ve established again we’re only having sex with one another?”
“You don’t have to… Just don’t tell me,” Keyes said, wishing he’d never texted Alec tonight. He didn’t want Alec having sex with anyone else. Just the thought pissed him off. That was his ass to tap.
“Lose the look, Rambo. I already told you. We agreed in my kitchen. We’re not having sex with anyone else. I’m possessive where you’re concerned too.” Alec’s smile was back, laughter in his tone. “I get that it’s new for us, but you can stay here as much as you like. We can respect each other’s boundaries until we get more time under us.”
Yeah, right. That made Keyes shoot back, “You aren’t good at respecting boundaries.”
“I could say the same for you, but we could try. Maybe we could say that I’d only be allowed to crawl in your bed once a day,” Alec suggested cheekily.
“Ha! Okay, then I will only be able to crawl in your bed once a day,” he added, thinking sex twice a day wasn’t a bad thing at all.
“Oh no, I have no boundaries, remember? You’re welcome in my bed anytime you want. I’m a giver,” Alec teased, waggling his brows. Keyes busted out a laugh at the sincerity in Alec’s voice. “You’re up late. Wanna talk about your friend and his nurse?”
“Not really. He’s happy. That’s something. He says he smells good now too.”
“What’s up with you bikers and smells?” Alec’s brow lifted. Keyes’s grin grew. When did a healthy committed relationship become defined by how a person smelled? He should probably call Dr. Phil and let him know his discovery.
“I honestly don’t know.” He shrugged.
Alec laughed at him again, then that light green gaze slid over his body. “You like wearing clothes?”
Keyes looked down, running a hand over the vintage Pink Floyd T-shirt he’d found at Goodwill. “I just always had to wear them. It feels off not to. Not a lot of privacy at the club. You don’t like clothes at all.”
“No, not even a little bit. It’s how I always managed to get my own room in boarding school. Even at a young age, I’d go to bed in my nightclothes, and they’d slowly come off in the middle of the night. I think I sleep hot.”
“I don’t know about that. You’re all curled up around me when we sleep.” Clearly casting doubt on Alec’s reasoning.
“That’s new.” Alec shook his head. “I normally don’t like sleeping with anyone. I sleep on top of the blankets.” He adjusted his phone, switched the direction of the lens and what Keyes saw had him instantly hard. Alec completely naked, sprawled on top of his bed covers, his hard-on straining toward the phone.
Oh man, Keyes’s mouth watered at the sight of that pleasure-giving cock. His muscles tensed as if ready to hold on to the image when Alec switched the phone back in his direction. “Go back.”
“What?” Alec asked.
Keyes moved, knocking the blanket off his legs, shoving a hand in his underwear. “Let me look at you,” he demanded.
“This?” Alec asked as the screen flipped back to the cock he needed to see so badly. Alec moved, giving him a better shot of that tempting package.
Fucker was hot as hell. Keyes gave a murmur of approval, freeing himself from the confines of his tight-fitting underwear. He stroked himself, knowing it wouldn’t take but a few tugs on his drooling cock while looking at all that tempting flesh.
“Wait. What are you doing? You’re starting without me, Key.”
The picture moved as the camera angle changed, and Alec appeared on the screen once again. This time though, he was spread out like a porn star. Legs wide open, nothing hidden from view. His gorgeous body and face filled the screen.
Shit, fucking fire, he wanted to suck on that perfect cock and lick those damn balls so bad his teeth hurt. He slid his fist up and down his shaft. His eyes trained on everything Alec was showing him.
“Prop the phone on something so I can see you too. And I want naked,” Alec instructed.
“Shit! Hold on.” He stripped off his shirt and slid out of the rest of his clothes before grabbing a pillow to prop up the phone like Alec had suggested. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being totally exposed like this, but he was too far gone to back out now.
As soon as he was in position and had his dick in hand, he started jacking himself, enjoying the show as Alec stroked his own engorged cock from root to crown. Long lazy strokes up and down, up and down. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, so he just mimicked Alec’s movements. And it felt amazing.
Alec’s knees dropped to the side, and he got a peek at that tight pink hole, his breath hitched in his throat and his dick twitched happily in his hand. Hell yeah, he could get used to this.
“That’s it. Stroke it for me,” he all but commanded as he greedily took in the scene before him. Precome rolled down Alec’s deep colored head, snagging his attention as Alec’s fingers twitched around his shaft. He wanted to reach out and capture that salty essence. That idea made him moan out loud. He knew exactly how that rewarding little dribble would taste coating his tongue.
“Is this what you want?” Alec purred, his movements slow and seductive as he used his free hand to toy with his balls. Keyes was spellbound as Alec’s finger teased his pucker.
Bordering on filthy and completely obscene, the show on the other end of the screen had him straining and panting as his orgasm churned in his balls. Alec stroked himself harder, faster, pushing the tip of his finger in and out of his hole.
“Fuck yeah!” Keyes moved his hand faster, working himself, struggling to keep the phone propped up on the pillow between his legs with all the quaking the bed was doing. He was going to come. He couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. Caught up in ecstasy and lost to the expression in Alec’s eyes as his lover erupted with a shout, he followed right behind him.
His motions faltered, his balls drew up, and his eyes slammed shut as come shot from his twitching cock, landing against his chest and neck in warm, thick splats. The muscles in his stomach cramped from all the tensing as his cock twitched and jerked in his palm. He released his dick when it became too sensitive, but kept his eyes shut.
Struggling to calm the fuck down and get his breathing under control, Keyes felt the excitement bubbling in his heart. This had been hot as hell, another new experience with Alec. Even though he couldn’t move his legs, because they felt heavy as steel, he was truly blissed out. With some effort, he opened his eyes to find Alec staring at him with that lazy grin lighting his face.
“Yeah, I may have to rethink the texting thing.” Alec’s grin widened.