Havoc (Tattoos and Ties 1)

Alec drew back so he could take in Key’s whole expression. It took a second of Alec studying Key, trying to detect a possible lie, before he conceded the truth of Key’s statement. With a decisive nod, Alec finally smiled.

“Good. You better not.” Relieved, Alec kissed those lips, then pulled from Key’s arms to give his perfect ass a quick swat as he left the laundry room. “Let’s eat.”

Finally, they sat on the sofa. Key had refused to participate in anything until that room’s furniture had been sorted from the mess they’d made earlier. Key had run the vacuum and discarded the remains of the broken picture frame and the lamp. He had also made Alec partake in the cleanup. Another thing Alec didn’t often do.

For a house so large, it seemed surprising how cozy it felt—how life seemed right with Key there. Alec remembered a similar feeling when he had done his first walk-through before purchasing the home. Instinctively, Alec had known this house was his, and Key seemed to provoke those same kinds of possessive thoughts. Maybe Alec was still wrung out over the amazing sex they’d shared, but he doubted it. The big burly biker made the large home feel more intimate. Key’s easygoing demeanor fit the flow of the space and its furnishings.

Alec sat so he faced Key, his leg tucked underneath him, his arm draped over the back of the couch, his knee touching Key’s thigh. His head rested on the heel of his palm as he stared at Key who regarded him with the same intensity. They’d had this intense connection since first entering the back door: from the shower, to the living room cleanup, through ordering dinner, then eating their selections—and boy could Key put away the food—to now sitting quietly together, talking about nothing really with only the sound of soft music playing in the background and Key’s rough, calloused hand caressing the skin beneath Alec’s lounge capris. Through it all, they had seemed to stay in tune to one another. They’d discarded their takeout containers on the coffee table, and even the overly orderly Key didn’t appear to want to break the mood to clean up their mess.

Alec’s heart had connected. It had. He knew it shouldn’t. Without question, no one in his life could know about Key. They’d never understand. His parents would more than likely disown him. His employment would cease if Twiford caught wind of his association, no matter how remote, to the gang she was determined to destroy, and he couldn’t see Key being willing to move across country…

Wait. Slow down. You’ve spent three hours with the man, and you’re moving him across country with you? Alec was setting himself up for a hard fall. He could see it coming.

This is a first date. An exceptional one, but still only a first date. Be reasonable. Alec tried. He truly did.

Alec’s free hand found his, lifting it before pressing their palms together. Alec’s skin wasn’t as soft as Keyes would have thought. Those hands were hands of a man who used them. Maybe not as Keyes used his, but Alec wasn’t unfamiliar with the elements of physical labor. In most situations, Alec would probably be the tallest man there. Well, not compared to Keyes.

He bent the tips of his fingers, and Alec finished the action by threading their fingers together. The angle was awkward, and Keyes was so far out of his element that he had to just ride along with his instinct. Before tonight, he couldn’t remember ever holding another man’s hand. Hell, he’d never held anyone’s hand before. So, adjusting his thumb and drawing circles with the tip of his finger on Alec’s palm might have been the most intimate moment of Keyes’s entire life to that point, and that said a lot, because being with Alec had produced a series of strikingly intimate moments, one right after another.

As natural as it felt with Alec, Keyes had instances of daunting confusion by having Alec’s unwavering attention focused solely on him. That was how it had been since the second Alec’s gaze landed on him when rounding the corner into his driveway. Not one minute had passed that Alec’s concentration hadn’t stayed squarely on him. Despite their differences, as weird as it was to say, the two of them were very in sync with one another.

All this connection caused anxiety to ignite inside Keyes. Several times, he’d had to force himself to calm down and go with the fucking flow before some sort of panic attack took over. Funny, up until meeting Alec, Keyes would have deemed himself emotionless. Man, what a joke that had been. Now the running anthem in his head reminded him to just enjoy the night, stop making this more than what it was.