by Ariel Tachna
“Do you need extra hands?”
“Not at this stage. Kit and Phillip have been a huge help. Kit and Owen have really hit it off.”
“I noticed he talked about the man a lot. Is he developing a crush?”
“He said no. I think it’s more like finding a new role model. Someone a little closer to his age than you and Blake.”
“Maybe I should switch places with you tomorrow. If Kit’s going to look up to the guy, I should check him out.”
“Or you could send Blake to discuss books with him. You’d learn as much or more and wouldn’t run the risk of an angry Kit.” Derek didn’t analyze the tension in his gut at the thought of Thane taking over at the bookstore.
He should have known better than to think Thane wouldn’t notice. “Oh, so it’s like that, is it? Is he cute?”
“He’s… unique.”
“Last time I asked, you said out-there. Is unique an improvement or not?”
“Oh, he’s still out-there, but after a while you get used to that. He’s got turquoise hair today. It was pink when we did the bid. I don’t know what color it is naturally, but he’s got these big brown doe eyes.”
“Cute.”
“And he does yoga.”
“Cute and flexible. Even better.”
“I’m going to tell Blake you said that.”
“We have an agreement. Window-shopping is fine as long as we both come home for dinner.”
“I saw him first.”
“Now I really have to meet him,” Thane said. “I haven’t seen you react like this to someone in a while. Attracted, yes, but not to the point of warning me away.”
“I kissed him,” Derek blurted out. “Just on the cheek, but….”
“But?”
“I can’t figure him out. One minute he’s so shy he’s stumbling over his words, but one mention of his family and he’s all prickles and spines.”
“You’ve got your share of issues too,” Thane said. “Cut him a little slack.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Derek ignored the comment about his own issues. He didn’t deny them. He just didn’t see where they came into play right now. He hadn’t even convinced Owen to go out with him yet.
“You said you’ve finished the plumbing?”
Derek nodded.
“That’s as good a time as any for me to come do a walk-through with the client, make sure everything is going well and he’s satisfied.”
“Just don’t run him off,” Derek said.
“If he’s what you want, that’s good enough for me. I just want to meet him.”
Chapter Six
OWEN would deny taking extra time with his morning routine or splashing a little extra cologne on after his shower, mostly because if he admitted he wanted to catch Derek’s eye, then he had to examine the interest and the stupid flutters that hadn’t stopped since Derek kissed his cheek before leaving the day before. When he went downstairs to let Derek in, though, he found a different man with Kit and Phillip.
“Hi, Owen,” Kit said as soon as Owen opened the door. “This is Uncle Thane. Derek will be here later, but Uncle Thane wanted to come see how things were going.”
“Kit, I can introduce myself,” the unknown man—Thane Dalton, presumably—chided. He offered a hand to Owen. “Thane Dalton, nice to meet you. I hope my boys haven’t been driving you crazy.”
“Not at all,” Owen replied. “I’ve enjoyed talking to them when they’re taking a break from work.”
“I’m glad to hear it. They usually work on my crew so I can keep an eye on them, but Derek needed them more than I did for this job. Do you mind if I take a look at the progress? I try to be around more than I have been with your remodel because I’m in the middle of another job.”
“Of course. Kit and Phillip can probably tell you what’s what better than I can. Derek has explained all the steps to me, but a lot of it is over my head. I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of experience in construction.”
“Most of our clients don’t,” Thane replied smoothly. Owen could see why Thane had the reputation he did. He exuded confidence in a way designed to set a customer at ease. Whatever questions Owen had about the job, this man had the answers. That combined with a barely harnessed aura of predator made him a potent presence. Owen couldn’t help but wonder about Thane’s husband. What kind of man did it take to tame someone like Thane? Owen hoped they’d get a chance to meet. Maybe it would give him some idea of how to go about intriguing Derek.
“We can take Uncle Thane down if you need to get ready to open,” Phillip offered.
“Do you need me on the tour?” Owen asked Thane.
“Only if you have questions or concerns you want to point out to me.”
“No, Derek has done a great job.”
“I have no doubt, but some clients prefer to discuss things directly with me.”
“No, I’m fine with the way things have gone so far. Derek has done an exceptional job.”
Thane smiled. “I’m glad you think so. We’ll leave you to your work, then. I’ll stay and help out until Derek gets here.”
Owen watched until they disappeared down the stairs, then let out a sigh of relief. He’d been surprised initially to have a small team working in steps, but if having a larger team meant both Thane and Derek, he was glad now that he’d only had to deal with them one at a time.
“WELL?” Derek asked when he joined Thane at the bookstore at lunchtime.
“I see the attraction,” Thane replied with a shit-eating grin. “Young, but not a kid, cute with a bit of backbone underneath the shy exterior. If I weren’t a happily married man….”
“Fuck off,” Derek said. “I saw him first.”
“And we’ve never poached in each other’s preserves,” Thane finished. “More than that, Kit likes him, and I’ve never met a kid with a more developed bullshit detector. If you’re asking permission, just don’t let it interfere with the job. If you’re asking my opinion, go for it.”
“And if I’m not asking anything?”
“Then I’ll just say good taste and good luck.”
“Any advice?”
“Be yourself, but you know that. If he doesn’t want you as you are, then it won’t work in the long run, no matter how tight his ass or how bendy his legs are. You might get a few good fucks out of it, but it won’t last.”
“TMI!” Phillip said as he walked into the room. “No talking about old people sex around impressionable teenagers.”
“No? Should we talk about impressionable teenagers sleeping around and starting to get a reputation?” Thane fired back.
Phillip clapped his hands over his ears and walked right back out the door.
“Nice to see some things never change.”
Thane snorted. “You should see Blake when he decides to rile them up. They’ve stopped trying to embarrass him because he always turns it back on them tenfold. I’ve fallen for a monster.”
Derek laughed at the image of prim and proper Blake hazing Thane’s nephews, but he was married to Thane, so he couldn’t be nearly as prim as he looked. Plus anyone who worked at a high school had to be beyond being shocked or they wouldn’t last a day.
“Now I just have to convince him to go out with me. Most nights by the time we finish here, the thought of going home, cleaning up, and going back out to dinner just doesn’t appeal.”
“Leave early one afternoon and make up the hours on the weekend. Or let me know ahead of time and I’ll cover for you like you did when I was dating Blake. This isn’t rocket science.”
“So you say,” Derek retorted. Besides, Owen still hadn’t said yes.
“OWEN?”
Derek’s voice drew Owen out of his contemplation of the newest Tor catalogue. He only had so much space on his shelves, and selecting which new releases to feature was always a bit of a crap shoot. And focusing on that was better than thinking about Derek having asked him out. “Are you done for the day?”
“Mostly. Kit and Phillip a
re cleaning up for the night, but I wanted to catch you before we left. What are you working on?”
Owen flipped the catalogue around so Derek could see. “Trying to decide what to order. Too many good books, not enough space.”
“Not yet,” Derek said. “When we’re done, you’ll have doubled your public space, maybe even a little more. That’ll give you room to add more titles. Do you sell a lot of sci-fi/fantasy?”
“It does pretty well,” Owen replied, “although we sell more mysteries and romances than we do fantasy.”
“Romances? Not what I would have expected.”
Owen shrugged. “Everyone loves a happy ending, and over the past few years, the number of LGBT romances has increased exponentially, which lets me carry books a lot of other stores don’t have on their shelves. And that draws customers in.”
“Interesting. I like to read, but I don’t exactly follow book trends. Are you up to teaching me? Maybe over that dinner we talked about last night? There’s a little place on Short called the Village Idiot. We could grab a bite there some night after you close. That would give me time to run home and take a quick shower so you aren’t stuck going out with me sweaty and dusty.”
Images of Derek stripping his shirt off to wipe away the sweat flashed through Owen’s mind, but he pushed them aside. Derek was talking about going out to dinner so he could get to know Owen better, not upstairs to bed so he could… get to know him better. “I love the Village Idiot. I eat there at least once a month.”
“We could go somewhere else if you’d prefer,” Derek offered. “I want it to be a treat for you.”
“It’ll be a treat,” Owen assured him. “I love their pulled pork mac-n-cheese. I keep saying I’m going to try the duck and waffles, but I always go back to the mac-n-cheese instead. Usually Mel closes on Thursday and I close on Friday, but I could see if she can switch if you’d rather go out on Friday night.”
“If you go that often, you know how crowded they are on Fridays. Thursday would be better,” Derek replied. “It’s a date, then?”
Owen flushed to the roots of his hair, but he met Derek’s eyes, determined to hold his own. “It’s a date.”
“Good.” Derek leaned in like he’d done the night before, clearly intending to kiss Owen’s cheek again, but Owen turned his head so their lips met instead. He didn’t know where the boldness came from—and he’d probably regret it later—but he needed Derek to see him as an equal, someone who could take as active a role in their burgeoning relationship as Derek could.
Derek’s lips were rough against his, chapped and surrounded with more stubble in a day than Owen was likely to grow in a month. If anything, it electrified the contact even more. Owen felt the moment Derek recovered from his surprise at Owen’s move and took control of the kiss. He swept Owen into his arms, tipping him back so he could plunder Owen’s mouth in a deep, mind-blowing kiss that left Owen hard and panting in seconds. Owen arched against him in tacit invitation, but Derek left his hands firmly on Owen’s waist rather than sliding them down to grope his ass. He kept Owen tucked snugly against him and explored Owen’s mouth with his tongue like it was the only thing that mattered. Like kissing him was a gift, not a given.
Owen melted a little more. No one had ever taken such care with him.
“Good gravy, you shouldn’t do things like that,” he said as he broke the kiss.
“Like what?” Derek rumbled.
“Make me want you so badly I can’t think straight.”
Derek used his grip on Owen’s hip to bring their bodies into alignment, letting Owen feel the hardness in his groin. “Why not, when it’s mutual?”
“Mutual doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.”
Derek stepped back, only adding to Owen’s interest in him. Real gentlemen were far too rare. “Why is it a bad idea?”
“I don’t know you that well. I don’t rush into things. I can’t.” Memories of all the mistakes he’d made with past exes haunted him. Leroy in particular had done a real number on him.
“Then we’ll have dinner and get to know each other better,” Derek said firmly. “I won’t deny I find you attractive and would walk right up those steps and into your bed if you wanted me there, but I’m not just here for sex. If that was all I wanted, there are clubs where I could pick someone up or Grindr to avoid dancing. There’s something to the sparks between us, and I want to see where else it could lead besides just to bed.”
“Thank you,” Owen said softly.
“One of these days you’ll tell me what idiot made you have to thank me for being a decent human being, but for now, I’ll just say have a good evening and I’ll see you tomorrow the same time as usual.”
“Bye,” Owen said, glued to his spot as Derek walked out the door of his office. He lifted a hand to his lips, chafed from the stubble and still damp from Derek’s tongue. He was such a goner….
He forced his mind back to the catalogue and order in front of him. There would be plenty of time for dreaming about Derek tonight when he was alone in his bed.
Chapter Seven
DEREK stepped out of the shower, letting the cooler air from the bedroom dry the last of the moisture on his skin. He’d put clothes on when he was sure he wouldn’t immediately sweat through them again. In the meantime he still had to shave. He rubbed his towel over his hair again to get the worst of the water out of it. As short as he kept it, styling it wasn’t really an issue, but he combed it so it wouldn’t stick up in different directions. That might be somewhat the fashion these days, but he never claimed to be fashionable.
He scraped the razor across his face as he wondered what Owen would wear to dinner—whether he’d wear the same purple button-down he’d worn during the day or if he’d change into something different. Whatever he wore, Derek was sure it would be colorful and stylish and something Derek would never consider combining the way Owen did. He hoped Owen wouldn’t be bothered by Derek’s more conservative wardrobe. Thane had always been the flashy one of the two of them, not that his version of flashy was the same as Owen’s. No, Thane tended more toward leather than toward bright colors, but he could still turn heads when he wanted to.
None of that mattered right now. Owen had agreed to the date after only ever seeing Derek in work clothes. Anything would be an improvement on the cargo pants or jeans and T-shirts he wore on a daily basis.
Shaving done and skin dry, Derek pulled on a pair of boxer briefs—because commando was a little presumptuous for a first date—and stared at the contents of his closet. Fuck, he should have taken Blake up on his offer to go shopping during the Memorial Day sales, but at the time he didn’t have any date prospects, and what he had was fine for work and hanging out with Blake and Thane.
Christ, he was being ridiculous. They were going to the Village Idiot, not to Merrick Inn or any of the fancy restaurants Thane liked to take Blake to on date nights. Derek could show up straight from work and nobody would look twice at him.
Kicking himself for being an idiot, he grabbed his lone pair of khakis and a black short-sleeved sweater that fit snugly across his chest and around his arms. His last girlfriend had always liked the sweater, so hopefully Owen would too. He tucked his feet into the pair of dress shoes he’d bought for Blake and Thane’s wedding and hoped he’d pass muster.
Derek’s phone beeped at him, the alarm he’d set so he would know he had ten minutes until he needed to leave. He checked himself in the mirror one more time, grabbed his wallet and keys, and headed downstairs. He’d borrowed Blake’s car because his truck was a disaster area and he didn’t have time to clean it. He’d hear it from the boys tomorrow, he was sure, but it would be worth it to have a presentable vehicle to take Owen to dinner. Since he didn’t trust them—and they’d dropped the car off that afternoon—he checked the back seat and trunk for booby traps, but they hadn’t messed with him. Probably because it was Blake’s car, and Blake would have their heads if they did anything to it. If it had been Thane’s truck, they would ha
ve done something for sure.
Derek glanced at his phone again. If he left now, he’d still be a couple of minutes early picking up Owen, but he didn’t want to be late for their first date. Let Owen see how eager he was. It couldn’t hurt his chances. Not that he expected anything to happen tonight other than dinner and conversation, but Derek hated it when his dates acted casual about getting together, whether it was real or feigned to get his attention. If he was dating someone, he wanted to be with them and showed it.
By the time he got from Fairway to Jefferson Street, most of the shops had closed, leaving only the restaurants and bars open, so Derek found a spot in front of the bookstore with no problem. Figuring this was a date, not business, he walked around to the side porch that led directly upstairs to Owen’s living quarters. He rang the bell and waited. Not even a minute later, Owen opened the door with a big smile on his face. “You’re early.”
“I hope you don’t mind. I was ready and wanted to see you again.”
Owen’s cheeks turned that delightful shade of pink, and he ducked his head bashfully.
Derek put an arm around his shoulders. “Ready to go?”
“Let me just lock the door. Mel will take care of the front when she leaves, but she doesn’t always remember to check the side door,” Owen said.
Owen locked up quickly and put his arm around Derek’s waist as they walked out to the car. “I was expecting your truck.”
“Not for a date,” Derek replied. “I have a little more class than that.”
Owen chuckled. “I’m from the holler, remember? Everyone drives pickups. You don’t have to work to impress me. You’re already several huge steps up from them.”
Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t, but Derek would make the effort anyway, if only because Owen looked so happy he had. He opened the passenger door for Owen and waited for him to get settled before closing it. When he climbed into his own seat, Owen reached for his hand. Derek squeezed it gently.