Feel My Pain (Curse Bound 1)

Roach winked at him. “Yep, can’t resist your asshole.” He shoved the bucket away with his foot and walked over to the half-finished bottle of bourbon on the sparkly clean bar counter.

Zane watched him, turned on by the idea that they could fuck work and literally fuck over the bar counter, but he was also uncertain about the future. Roach had been so ready to go all alpha jealous on Joe a few hours back, but how long would that last? He’d gotten a taste of man meat, but the fact that he adored Zane now didn’t necessarily mean much in the long run. They were stuck because of magic, but once they worked out how to get rid of the curse, what would be left of their relationship?

“Sounds like you’re almost ready to go out into the world and start cruising.”

Roach took a big sip of bourbon. “Isn’t that an old people thing?”

Zane chuckled at the ridiculousness of the misunderstanding and shook his head, meeting Roach’s gaze. “No, I mean looking for hook-ups.”

Roach’s face fell. “Are you going somewhere?”

The miserable expression alone was a warm flame under Zane’s ego, but he pulled closer a chair and sat in it. He’d been around far too long to trust easily.

“I don’t have any plans, but that’s how life works. You’re thirsty, and you finally got to be with a guy, but you’re likely to get bored of me. There’s a whole buffet of men out there, and you will realize you’re missing out by staying with just one.”

Roach squinted and had a bigger gulp of the booze. “What is this intervention, Professor Gay? Why are you saying this?”

Zane wanted to be ready, because the pull he felt to Roach was undeniable—always there at the back of his mind as if Roach had rubbed his scent on Zane’s raw flesh and covered it back up with skin.

“Because we all eventually realize the guy who felt like the Holy Grail isn’t really Prince Charming. So it’s best to take whatever you can out of a good relationship before it turns sour, and move on.”

“I know you’re not Prince Charming. We both have scars to prove it. Are you trying to tell me you want to fuck other guys? Don’t piss me off, Zane.” Roach’s frown deepened, his attention closing in on Zane like molten lava surrounding a man on a rock.

The puppy was getting territorial. And Zane liked it, even though the rational part of his brain was telling him to err on the side of caution, that Roach’s behavior was toxic not endearing.

“My first boyfriend also wanted to be exclusive and all that jazz. And then I found out he was fucking other people that whole time. I actually once came to a room smelling of cum and found some other boy in his closet. The irony, right? Mom told me to get used to it if I wanna mess up my life,” he said, laughing through his tightening throat.

Roach made the amber alcohol in his bottle swish. “Hm. I still don’t get your point.”

Zane huffed. “My point is that you don’t have much experience, and you will want more. More guys, you will want to experiment with things I might not want to do, and I want to have the right mindset for when that happens.”

He could see he was prodding a bull, but why the fuck was he supposed to be the one to back down? He needed this out in the open before things between them got any messier than they already were.

“What do you not want to do? Am I not enough for you and you’re trying to push that decision on me?” Roach took a step closer, bottle in hand.

“I don’t know. Something. How can you expect me to just blindly go all in when you haven’t even told me anything about your ex!”

Roach spread his arms. “What ex?”

Zane rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. You’ve clearly been with at least one guy long enough to learn how to deep throat. That’s what I’m talking about!”

Ha. Roach went silent. Of course.

“There’s no ex,” he said once he regained his voice, and took a big gulp of bourbon. Zane would have preferred he drank from the flask. The worn leather felt comfortingly familiar now, and at least it was much smaller than a bottle, which limited Roach’s alcohol intake.

Everything about his stiff body language told Zane that there was in fact an ex, and one so important, that Roach didn’t even want to talk about him. Not knowing this bit of information about Roach was driving Zane up the wall.

“Fine. So maybe you weren’t together, maybe he has a wife now and doesn’t want any more blowjobs from you, but you’re still hoping he might change his mind, because you’d have told me otherwise, wouldn’t you?” Zane asked, frowning at him.