“Keegan.”
“Don’t Keegan me!” Noah slid to his feet and stepped in front of Rowe’s bench. Placing one hand on the back of the seat and the other on the table, he leaned down, trapping his friend in the booth. “You can’t look me in the eye and honestly tell me you can’t use my help.”
Rowe paused, looking up at his friend. “You learn anything interesting after I left the Army?”
“You know I did.”
That slow, wicked grin spread across Rowe’s lips and Noah felt his heart speed up. He was sure Rowe had no clue how sexy he was when he tapped into his devilish side—which was most of the time when Noah had been around him.
“Would you like to see my toys?” Rowe said in a low, rough voice that sent Noah’s heated blood straight to his dick. Rowe could fucking obliterate all common sense from his brain with just a goddamn grin. The man had two channels—sex and violence—and for a moment, Noah couldn’t decide which toys Rowe might be talking about.
“Tease,” Noah muttered before pushing away from Rowe to lead the way back out of the restaurant. Too bad the man was joking.Chapter 6Rowe leaned against the back wall of the elevator, his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, trying to ignore the uneasiness twisting in his stomach. He couldn’t understand why he was so unnerved about introducing Keegan to his friends. Well, other than the fact that Lucas was probably still in a mood and Snow…fuck…Snow was just a lot for anyone to adjust to. It wasn’t that the man didn’t have a filter—that was Rowe’s problem—it was that Snow took pleasure in pushing a person until they finally punched him. Ian wasn’t an issue. Everyone loved Ian upon meeting him.
Glancing over, Rowe took in Noah’s dark slacks and deep-blue button-down shirt that seemed to enhance the startling blue of his eyes. His blondish-brown hair hung loose around his face, nearly hiding the frown tugging at his full lips, making him look like some renegade California surfer. Fuck, ever since breakfast, Rowe had found himself staring at Noah’s mouth and remembering that night he wasn’t supposed to be thinking about at all. He’d felt those lips on every part of his body but they had simply rocked when wrapped around his cock. He shut his eyes and willed his body to settle.
Common sense said that Rowe had nothing to worry about. Keegan was ex-army. The man had likely easily passed through dozens of dangerous situations, thinking fast on his feet and sneaking through far too much with that easy grin. Keegan could handle this.
But Rowe didn’t want Noah faking this. As soon as he’d agreed to bring Keegan over to meet the boys, it had become important that Noah like his friends and vice versa. He wanted Keegan to be a regular part of his life; he wanted to pull him into this family he’d made.
Why he wanted that so much was still in question, but the feeling was there. Strongly there.
“Whose place is this again?” Noah asked, breaking the silence that had stretched since they stepped into the elevator.
Rowe lifted his eyes back to the numbers, watching as they climbed higher. “Lucas’s.”
“His boyfriend live with him?”
Giving a half shrug, Rowe looked over at Noah, one corner of his mouth tugging higher. “They’re working on it.”
“Why do you look so amused by that?”
“Because it annoys the hell out of Lucas.” Andrei confided in Rowe that he’d moved several boxes of his stuff over from his old apartment to Lucas’s penthouse the past couple of days. Lucas wanted to hire a mover to get Andrei completely moved in now, but Andrei was taking it slow since he was already paid through the end of the month. With Lucas’s frustrating need to take charge, the slow move was driving him insane. Rowe personally felt that maybe Andrei got off on making his boyfriend squirm.
When they reached the top floor and the silver doors slid silently open to reveal a small hallway with a pair of white double doors, Noah gave a low whistle, drawing Rowe’s gaze back to him.
“Penthouse?”
“Oh yeah. Lucas likes being king.” Rowe snickered.
“Fabulous,” Keegan groaned.
Rowe paused, narrowing his eyes on his friend. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who was worried about this meeting. “You’re going to love them. They’re crazy, but that makes them fun.”
“Hell, if they’re anything like you, I’ll be surprised if I survive the night.”
Rather than knocking, Rowe pulled his keys out of his pocket and used one to unlock Lucas’s door. He strolled in as if he lived there as well, shrugging out of his jacket. Something in him relaxed just a little walking into the gorgeous penthouse. Lucas didn’t have it set up as someplace too fancy—he’d created a space for comfort and Rowe loved it. Too often it was his second home, with Snow’s place being his third. He’d crashed enough on their sofas and in their guest beds after a night of hard drinking. He didn’t venture to Ian’s too much simply because the young man was likely to be found at Lucas’s or Snow’s as well.