“You okay?” He looked up. His stomach roiled with anxiety as he forced himself to meet Arik’s caring gaze. There was a brief pause as a slight, tentative grin slowly started to spread across Arik’s face, and then the man’s hand came to rest on his back. “I owe you. I know my family would have gone on and on about my life. They like to do that to me. That was an excellent diversion.”
Kellus laughed, a hollow sound escaping from his dry throat as he looked down at his trembling hands.
“Come back inside.” The hand resting on his back slid up and squeezed his shoulder. “We all have baggage.” That one gesture of kindness helped in easing his nerves.
“Yeah? Well, mine never seems to end.” He turned to begin one of many apologies he owed everyone. “I’m truly sorry about this.”
“No apology necessary. I wasn’t exaggerating. You saved me, so I owe you one.” Arik winked and used the hand at his back to draw him toward the gallery. “I know my dad would have eventually pulled out the picture of the last guy I…went out with. We all have interesting people in our past. You truly rescued me from that embarrassment. Come on back inside. Let’s get you a drink,” Arik said, guiding him forward, his hand never leaving Kellus’s back.
Inside, Arik drew the bartender’s attention, lifting two fingers in his direction. Kellus took a deep breath, hoping he could salvage what was left of the night then get the hell out of there. John couldn’t have been any more effective at reminding him of his place in life. As much as Kellus wished things were different, the fact was they just weren’t.
~?~
Even with his family on property and their obnoxious display tonight, Arik decided to stay the night at the resort. He was certain this week couldn’t have been any longer. His exhaustion levels were off the charts.
Technically, the resort had had no real issues this week, which was surprising. Gregory had pulled the operation together. Arik wasn’t needed. With a property breaking ground in Florida and another in the final stages of architectural design in France, he should be moving on, letting this property do what the others had—take care of itself, thus becoming little more than a boardroom discussion.
Except, he didn’t have a board or room for discussion. His investors were pleased, his projects were running on target, and he needed a break. Clearly a big fucking break. He pushed his finger through the knot in his tie and loosened it as he waited somewhat patiently for the elevator to open.
If he were being honest with himself, he’d secretly hoped to have the artist accompanying him to his room tonight. Things hadn’t gone as planned so he stood there waiting for the elevator all alone.
Reaching for the small buttons at his neck, he lifted his chin and mentally chastised himself. He’d been more on point while talking to his mother—Kellus wasn’t interested. That should be enough to wash his hands of the guy, but the hell if it was. After witnessing everything that went down tonight, he would be willing to bet that pensive look on the sculpture he’d bought had something to do with that guy who’d crashed the showing.
Lord, that whole scene had been hard to watch. While most eyes stayed on the creep, his had focused on Kellus. He’d gone in a matter of seconds from happy and jovial, even accepting his flirtatious advances, to a man destroyed and guarded. Kellus had never recovered, which meant that loser had once held an important role in Kellus’s life.
He couldn’t wrap his mind around that one. Those two couldn’t be more different if they tried.
As Arik rode the elevator up, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He ignored it and stepped off the elevator at his floor. Not more than a second or two later his cell vibrated again, then again. Walking the length of the hall, he finally palmed his device and checked the messages. The latest one came from Gage and the four before that were BT. Talk about being different. BT was tenacious; he’d give that to him. Ignoring BT, he opened Gage’s message.
On his approach, he heard the door lock unclick. He loved that feature. Opening the door, he read Gage’s text.
A week stay in his suite was the most trended hashtag of the night. Hmm, that couldn’t be a bad thing. The family that won had six children under the age of ten. He let out a deep sigh as he began to undress and head toward the bar.
He poured a double shot of Crown because that was the first bottle he grabbed, then he tugged his shirttails free and stood at the bar, downing his drink in all his aloneness. He hadn’t had sex in a week. That had to be his problem. He needed company tonight. Kellus wasn’t the only guy in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.