Havoc (Tattoos and Ties 1)

Reaching for the shampoo, Alec scrubbed his head and started on his body with the loofah. Alec stopped in mid-swipe and stared unseeing at the intricate tile pattern on the other side of the wall.

No way.

Yes, totally way and it was happening.

Alec knew exactly how many times he’d been with Key. From the time they met until right this minute, they’d spent eight overnights together where Alec had slept like a baby with Key’s body wrapped tightly around his.

Normally, Alec couldn’t stand to be touched when he slept.

“Don’t say it. Don’t think it. Go with the flow.” You say it, and define it, you’ll push him away. Alec didn’t want that.

Moreover, if Alec acknowledged the way his heart was flipping in his chest, his strong personality would start pushing Key in that direction, and Key wasn’t someone for him to toy with.

“Hold your horses. See what happens. Stop overthinking.” Alec wasn’t fully convinced that was possible, but he went with it and finished washing himself.

Once he toweled off, he finally went for his cell phone which rattled like crazy from the pocket of his discarded shorts. He ran his finger over the screen to see loads of texts from Blaine. He started from the first one and quickly scanned each message.

“I thought you and the biker would be a one and done.”

“I googled bikers. I bet that’s some hot, grungy fucking.”

Of course, his friend would perv on that.

“So like he comes to your house and you kiss him?”

What the fuck was wrong with Blaine? Hell yeah, Key came to his house.

“Does that mustache hair get in your mouth when you kiss?”

Alec rolled his eyes at that one. Seriously, this bitch was just jealous.

“You know I hate fishing hair out of my mouth.”

“That’s why it’s better to just shave it all.”

“What do you do with all that long silky hair?”

Alec scowled. Seriously? That made him think less of Blaine. He’d have thought that was obvious for someone like Blaine who claimed to have a ton of sex.

“If you ever get a chance at his ass, I could totally see you yanking that head back. That would be a total Alec thing to do.”

Alec smirked at the text. Yeah, Key had really liked that, and he thought better of Blaine that he was able to figure that out.

“That’s hot.”

“Dammit, I got myself all hot and bothered.”

“I’m going for a cold shower. Thanks a lot.”

Fucker. Alec shook his head and chuckled. Blaine managed to do this to him all the time. Alec had just had the full range of every possible emotion in this stalker text session.

“Bye.”

“Oh, if you don’t show, you’ll owe me money. I’ll send you an accounting.”

“We can find you some biker types here. Hey, what about Jesus from the TWD? He’s got that same look.”

Alec just shook his head at the Walking Dead reference. Jesus would love to look like Key.

“I’m not even reading these,” Alec texted back, even though he’d read a bunch of them and they were kind of funny, but mostly annoying. “Stop texting me.”

“I’ve got so much more to say.”

Alec could see the blinking dots to show Blaine typing on the other end, and he quickly texted, “You’re a dick.” Then blocked Blaine’s number, hoping he remembered to unblock him in the morning.

Good. He’d gotten the last word. As dumb as Blaine was, maybe Alec had needed that exchange. He did have strong feelings for Key—no question—but they were also very different people. At some point, their differences would have to naturally get in the way. Until then, he’d just keep going.

On that note, he looked down at the time—almost ten o’clock—and headed into the bedroom. He could sleep. He hadn’t done a lot of that. He could also read the case briefs that had arrived right before he’d left the office. Neither sounded appealing. Key was supposed to call when he left his buddy’s house, but with the late hour, it now seemed doubtful. Alec grabbed the remote and turned on the television as he crawled in bed and placed his phone on the charger, making sure the volume was up, just in case it rang.

Keyes shoved open the front door of Dev’s apartment and flipped on the light switch. He stopped short at the mess greeting him. He hadn’t expected anything different, but it was still a lot to take in. His buddy was a slob. There were leftover pizza boxes on the coffee table, kitchen table, and kitchen counter. Those were stacked with other takeout boxes, drink cans, ashtrays, dirty napkins—just discarded trash everywhere. Keyes wondered how much of Dev’s nature Holly had truly seen. Maybe Dev would change for her. He seemed pretty taken with her. Stranger things had happened.

Keyes closed the door behind him. He tossed the keys on the kitchen counter and started gathering the dirty clothes. Clearly, Dev still used the place. Maybe Dev came there to clean up, but his brother clearly wasn’t washing any of his own clothes. He plucked a shirt off the lamp and dumped the clothes in the already full laundry basket in Dev’s room. A big sigh escaped him when he flipped on the light switch in the bedroom and caught the condition of the bed. Of course, the bed wasn’t made. He wasn’t sure Dev even knew how to make a bed, but even beyond that…the bedding looked grungy. Hesitantly, he moved closer to the mattress, lifting the blanket to inspect the sheets. Yep, they had to go too.