Feel My Pain (Curse Bound 1)

And now, Roach wanted nothing more than to go back home and drink himself into a stupor without acknowledging that Zane had seen him make an idiot out of himself.

Why had he taken that goddamn cat?

It was close to midnight when they sped through a large town, but he ignored the neons inviting him for beer and music, and maneuvered between cars, eager to leave behind this terrible night.

Until Zane started tapping him as if he thought a wheel was about to fall off. As much as Roach wanted to ignore it, he slowed down and stopped at the side of the empty road.

“What is it?”

Zane rested his chin on Roach’s shoulder and grinned. “Need a leak, and we just passed a bar.”

Roach glanced to the nearby bushes. There wasn’t even that much traffic. “Just go here.”

Zane rolled his eyes. “I can’t do it out in the open. Come on, they even had their own parking lot,” he said, waving toward the red brick building they’d left behind.

Roach stayed quiet for a while. Zane didn’t strike him as a neat freak, and he was hardly shy, but he didn’t have the energy to argue about it if the bar was so close. They still had half an hour drive ahead, so getting this out of the way would be best.

He made a turn and drove back to the parking lot, but as he faced the bar, his gaze captured the large rainbow flag above the entrance, and he stiffened, unsure what to do. Zane must have done this on purpose.

“I think there’s a burger joint up ahead. We could go there, eat something too,” Roach said, trying to entice Zane with free food, but the shithead had already slid off the seat and stretched his tight, muscular form.

“Nah. Not hungry. But a nice cold beer? Yes, sir,” he said and pulled off the helmet before shaking his mane back into shape.

Motherfucker wasn’t even in a hurry to reach the restroom.

And yet the thought that this was a gay place, with gay men who could hit on Zane had Roach break out in hives. He wouldn’t leave Zane here on his own. The bar stared at him with big neon eyes, and the music, of a homey rock and roll kind, sounded like a trap to lure in careless straight guys.

“You brought me here on purpose.” As long as Roach’s ass stayed glued to the bike, they could still leave.

Zane smirked and rolled his hips. “Time for another lesson, my gay apprentice,” he said just as two men walked out of the building, heading for a car. One of them held his hand on the small of the other’s back, and anxiety squeezed Roach’s stomach from their sheer closeness. Anyone passing by would assume he was part of the rainbow tribe as well.

“This is not okay. It’s enough that half my co-workers hate me now. Can we please just go home?”

Zane glanced at the bar and breathed out a cloud of vapor that drew Roach’s gaze to his plump lips. “Nobody’s gonna hate you here. Let’s just have a beer and people-watch. You need to relax about who you are,” he said and patted Roach’s back.

The couple’s car pulled out of its spot and rolled toward them.

Roach bit his lips, but got up, parking the motorcycle. “Since when are you my therapist, huh? I’m not even dressed right for this place!”

“You look good to me!” Someone said with a laugh, instantly putting Roach on high alert. But he got flustered when he spotted a handsome man leaning against the wall of the building with a cigarette in hand. Had he been here this whole time? No. No, he couldn’t have. The bastard looked as if he’d stepped straight out of an underwear ad, with straight long hair that appeared reddish in the neon glow.

Zane adjusted Roach’s hair as soon as the helmet was off.

“He’s a gay bar virgin,” he told the model.

Roach huffed his annoyance, more self-conscious than he’d been during his last strip-search.

The stranger smiled. “It’s not that scary. You’ve got that bad boy vibe going on. I dig it with the suit. Is he a criminal? Is he a banker? That kind of thing, you know?”

Roach gave an awkward laugh, unsure what to do about the onslaught of compliments. Were guys really so desperate to bone that they’d go for any sucker?

The handsome stranger stared back at him, his slender yet muscular body perfectly dressed in an oversized sweater and narrow jeans. Would this guy… want to have sex with him? Or was he just being nice? Throwing a bone to someone obviously new to the scene so their first evening here wasn’t too awkward.

Zane’s hand slid into his and squeezed it, making the fresh cut sting. It served as a reminder of who he was bound to. Was that something Zane cared about? Judging by the way he’d boasted about taking part in an orgy back at Karla von Ecker’s place, Roach doubted he was that special. The only thing he had going for him was literally black magic.