His eyes widened and he looked up before taking a tentative step toward me. “You aren’t upset?”
“Are you kidding? Where is this coming from? You’re beautiful and sexy, successful and smart. Why in the world, besides pissing off my boss, would I regret what we did together?”
He came even closer until he stood between my legs again. I put my arms around him and rested my chin on his stomach while looking up at his pretty hazel eyes. Augie’s hands threaded into my hair almost without him realizing it.
“Will you get in trouble with Lanny?” he asked. “I won’t tell anyone. You don’t have to say anything. I’m good at keeping secrets.”
The sour feeling in my stomach worsened. I hated knowing he was so used to keeping his liaisons a secret. And I despised the implication he didn’t think he was good enough for a regular guy like me. But I also couldn’t afford for Lanny to hear that only a few days after benching me for inappropriate behavior toward a client, I’d dived right in to do it again.
“He certainly wouldn’t be happy about it,” I explained. “But I can’t say I’m sorry we did this. Are you?”
“Pfft. Are you crazy? Have you seen you?” His cheeks flamed. “I don’t do this kind of thing very often.”
I pulled him forward to straddle me again so I could hold him a little longer. “So you said. Why is that?”
Augie’s jaw tightened. “My family. If they found out…” He shook his head from side to side. “You know what? No. I’m sick and fucking tired of keeping part of myself locked away. I swore I wasn’t going to do this shit anymore. I’m twenty-eight fucking years old. Why do I turn into a wayward child when I think of coming out again to my family?”
“I can’t say I understand what it’s like to be in the closet with family. Hell, I have the queerest family around. But I do know that coming out is complicated and emotional regardless of your family situation. So you have to go easy on yourself. You don’t owe anyone anything, especially me.”
I rubbed my hands along his slender back, enjoying the smooth warm skin under my fingers. Augie’s arms were wrapped around my neck, and I took the opportunity to lean in and kiss the worry marks on his forehead.
“I hate seeing you worry,” I murmured against his skin. He moved his head down to tuck into my neck, and we just stayed there like that, wrapped up in each other for comfort more than anything else.
It was something I wasn’t sure I’d ever had with another person. Cuddling and embracing like that wasn’t something you did with one-nighters and quick hookups.
After a few minutes, I could sense Augie getting hard again. He wasn’t the only one.
“Come home with me?” Augie whispered. It was so soft, I barely made it out.
I knew I shouldn’t. It was an irresponsible choice considering the damage I could be doing to my job.
He shifted so he could meet my eyes. “Please, Saint. I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
If there was a person alive who could resist that plea, it certainly wasn’t me.
“Let’s go,” I said, gently nudging him off my lap. “I’ll follow you there.”
Chapter 13
Augie
I had no idea what had come over me. Where the hell had I come up with the balls to come on to Saint Wilde? One minute I’d been salivating over him in the showers, and the next minute, I’d been climbing all over him half-naked and shooting my load down his freaking throat.
Even though we’d held on to each other and calmed down, I still felt my heart thundering wildly in his company. And now that I knew he was coming home with me? I thought maybe I was going to lose my mind.
I’d never had anal sex. Not because I hadn’t wanted to, but more because I hadn’t trusted a random stranger enough to try it. But Saint wasn’t a random stranger. And I wanted him to fuck me pretty damned badly.
We walked to our cars side by side, and just as we were about to separate, Saint grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me behind a large truck I assumed was his at the same time he stepped in front of me to shield me from view.
My heart stuttered from the sudden movement, and I opened my mouth to ask him what the fuck was happening. I couldn’t see past the wide expanse of his back, and he had one arm holding me in place behind him while he pulled a gun from who-the-hell-knew-where.
Nerves lit up my entire body, and my eyes locked on the weapon with sudden tunnel vision. “Saint—”
“Shh,” he snapped.
I felt the cold metal of the truck against my back and the warm fibers of Saint’s shirt under my palms where they’d landed on his waist. He shifted his weight, inadvertently pressing me back farther into the cold metal of the truck’s door until my entire front was plastered against him. He felt amazing, and I could smell the shampoo wafting off his still-damp hair.