Take My Body (Curse Bound 2)

“Hey,” he tried when Mike hadn’t noticed him standing there for at least half a minute.

Brown eyes looked up, but the handsome face that always had broad smiles for Gunner froze in a neutral expression. “Can I help you?” Mike asked, straightening up, as if he wanted to show off his superior height. Now what he was available to Gunner, it was impossible to miss the sexy way his upper lip protruded ever-so slightly.

Gunner glanced over his shoulder, suddenly self-conscious about what he was about to do. Not just because this was the first time he intended to approach a guy he wanted to hook up with but because he didn’t want to out Mike to customers. But no one was close enough to hear a hushed conversation at the counter, so he raised his chin and met Mike’s gaze to the intense drumming of his heart.

“You look like the kind of guy who knows about all these protein powders and workouts. Do you offer personal training?”

So it was suggestive. And bold. But also dressed up in enough lies to keep Gunner from running off in embarrassment.

Mike’s brows rose, and he let the silence hang in the air as if it were a dead mouse stinking up the place. “Sorry, I’m not a trainer. But if you tell me what you want to achieve, I can tell you which products to use.”

He clearly didn’t catch the suggestion, which meant that hiding behind indirect propositions was dead in the water.

Gunner licked his lips and leaned against the counter. Even the fresh hole in his ear seemed to throb with worry and excitement, but in this body, he could do such things. He could pursue these illicit needs. Nobody would recognize him behind the big blue eyes and blond hair. In this body, he was safe to truly be himself. “I’d like to achieve you on top of me,” he whispered, too nervous to blink.

Mike snorted, then tried to compose himself, only to laugh again, hiding behind the notebook he’d been writing in. “What? Is this a joke? Have you seen yourself in the mirror, kid?”

Gunner stared back, not sure what to make of this. Yes, he’d glanced in the mirror hundreds of times today, and he was super fucking cute. And he hadn’t been called kid since his early teens. Caspian was twenty-three!

“No. And I know you’re gay, so I don’t see what your problem is.” It came out more harshly than he’d wished, but while he looked very different on the outside, this new body hadn’t changed his personality.

“There is a problem. You’d break in two if I poked you with a finger, and you look like you’ve stolen those clothes from your younger brother. Come back when you grow some muscle, and then maybe I’ll consider taking another look at you,” Mike said, staring straight at Gunner, as if he wanted to see him crushed.

The body that attracted such vicious words wasn’t even his, yet it still stung. Clearly, just because he thought he was a cute twink, didn’t mean everyone shared the sentiment.

Someone behind him snorted. “Won’t you even give his mouth a test drive, Mike?”

Gunner’s lips parted in shock at the indignity of it all, but Mike answered first.

“Nah, he wouldn’t fit it all in.”

Gunner squared his shoulders and turned to face the other guy. “The fuck did you say?” As much as he enjoyed being compact, having to look up to meet the bastard’s eyes doused him with a sense of humiliation.

He vaguely knew this guy but wasn’t sure of his name. Doherty?

Whatever Doherty’s actual name was, he wasn’t hesitant about showing his true colors to someone weaker than him. “She’s a feisty one, isn’t she? Is that a sock?” he asked, gesturing at Gunner’s crotch with a leer that told him that perhaps this guy would have been up for giving Gunner a go, were they alone. But only as long as no one found out.

Gunner wasn’t a blowjob vending machine.

Mike shook his head. “Get lost. Don’t proposition people in my store. Gays like you give us all a bad name,” Mike said in a low voice, staring at Gunner from under lowered brows.

Gunner opened his mouth, but someone grabbed his arm and pulled him back. His first instinct was to lash out, so he swung his fist and hit someone’s pec.

“Ow!” Noah scowled at him, and a lock of brown, coily hair fell into his face as he took a step back. “I was just gonna ask if you’re okay…”

Mike spread his massive arms. “Psychoslut-boy is clearly fucked in the head. Get him out of here!”

Gunner stilled, staring at his half-sibling with a growing sense of doom. He’d been found out. His little brother, the only family Gunner still had left, had seen him proposition another guy, and their relationship would be ruined forever.