Just a Bit Ruthless (Straight Guys 6)

Ryan was the first to cross the distance. He hauled Tyler off of Luke and slammed him against the wall so hard Tyler groaned in pain.

“When someone says no, it means no, you dickhead,” Ryan said before punching the guy in the stomach. Tyler folded in half, whimpering. It looked painful as hell—Ryan’s fists were enormous—but James didn’t feel sorry for the guy in the least.

“Ryan, let him go,” Luke said hoarsely, sliding down the wall and wrapping his arms around his knees. “He’s a dick, but I did lead him on. I’m not entirely blameless.”

“But—”

“Get him out of my sight,” Luke whispered, looking at the ground. “Please.”

Frowning, Ryan looked at James.

James knew there were things Luke would never talk about in front of Ryan. His boyfriend and Luke got along well enough, but they weren’t really close. Luke was James’s childhood friend, not Ryan’s.

James eyed Luke’s bowed head. “Give us a few minutes, babe? Wait for us by the car?”

Nodding, Ryan left, hauling Tyler away by the collar.

Once they were alone, James sat down next to Luke and put a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?” he said, squeezing Luke’s shoulder. “He’s gone. You’re safe now.”

A brittle laugh left Luke’s throat. “Yeah,” he said, his head sagging back against the wall. “I’m safe. So bloody safe.”

James’s brows furrowed. “Why did you let it get so far with that prick? You looked uncomfortable when he was groping you at the table.”

Luke didn’t answer for a while, his eyes dull and red.

At long last, he said, “Sometimes I liked to pretend I didn’t want it, so I thought…I thought maybe what I needed to stop feeling so—so itchy—was to have that guy force me to do what I don’t want.” Luke laughed again. It was an awful sound: empty and uncomprehending. It terrified James. Something was wrong, horribly wrong.

“But it was so different,” Luke whispered, looking at the ground. “Why was it so different? I kept waiting and hoping that…Hoped I was just a pervert.”

Now James was completely confused. Luke wasn’t making any sense.

“He looked so much like him,” Luke mumbled, something hateful, obsessed, and desperate about his expression. “Though the eyes were all wrong.”

Goosebumps ran up James’s spine, a sinking feeling appearing in his stomach. He knew why Tyler had seemed so familiar to him: he looked like that Russian tycoon with cruel blue eyes—the man Luke had gone to meet before he was kidnapped. But Luke had denied Roman Demidov’s involvement in his kidnapping. Luke had claimed he had no idea who his captors were or what they wanted. Why?

“You know the person responsible for kidnapping you,” James stated. He didn’t like the implications of it. “Why did you lie to MI6? To your dad? To all of us?”

Luke’s eyes shifted to him, dark, wide, and lost. “If I told the truth, I’d have to face him again,” he said, barely moving his lips. “I just want to forget it ever happened. I don’t wanna see him or think about him or—” He cut himself off, pressing his knuckles to his eyes. “I wanna forget it ever happened. Please?”

His heart heavy, James pulled Luke to his chest, hugging him close. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to think.

“But what about Tyler?” he said, because he had to. Burying one’s head in the sand could be dangerous. “What if it happens again, mate?”

“It won’t,” Luke said tightly, his voice ringing with conviction. “That wasn’t what I came here for tonight. I wanted to meet a nice guy—not—not this. I wasn’t looking for his lookalike. I hate him, I swear.”

James stroked Luke’s wavy hair. It had gotten long while Luke had been gone.

“He’s everything I hate,” Luke said.

“Okay.”

“He was all wrong for me.”

James said nothing, because of course a man like Roman Demidov was all wrong for such a sweetheart like Luke.

“I’m glad I’ll never see him again.” Luke’s voice cracked.

“Okay,” James said, hugging him tighter.

He pretended he didn’t notice the wetness against his chest.

Chapter 19

“I like you, Luke.”

Luke lifted his gaze from his plate and swept it around the restaurant before settling it on the man seated across the table. The calm, dark eyes of Dominic Bommer met his and held.

Dominic had a strong, handsome face, with fashionably cut brown hair, dark eyes, and a firm, sensual mouth. His olive skin hinted at some Mediterranean roots. He was only four years older than Luke, twenty-seven, but he had such an air of calmness, straight-forwardness, and quiet confidence about him that he seemed older.

It was James who had introduced them. He and James…they hadn’t really spoken about what happened a week ago (Luke liked to pretend his breakdown in the alley had never happened), but James seemed determined to take Luke’s mind off of it and had set him up with Dominic, one of his many distant cousins. Despite coming from an obscure, impoverished branch of James’s family, Dominic had made quite a career by the age of twenty-seven and had earned himself a fancy office one floor up from Luke at Grayguard.