“If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?” I ask, and a dreamy look comes over his face, momentarily washing away the weary one that was there when I walked in.
“Oh gosh, anywhere,” he answers, leaning on the bar, bringing himself closer to me seemingly unconsciously. “I’ve always wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. But, heck, I’d be just as glad to see snow, or to dip my feet in the Atlantic Ocean.” I make a mental note to make every single one of those things happen for him and then some. “What about you?”
“I’ve been most everywhere,” I admit. “So, I’m more worried these days about who I’m with rather than where I am.” His eyes flicker to mine, unconcealed hope shining in them. I want to lean over and press a kiss against his lips. It’s too tempting to imagine his eyes going wide with surprise before sinking into the kiss, parting his lips to let me in, softening under my commanding touch.
“Do you…” he pauses, wetting his lips and dropping his eyes to the floor. “Um…if you still wanted to take me to dinner, I don’t work tomorrow night.”
A jolt of excitement rushes through me. “It’s a date.”
His smile widens and he looks up again. “Okay.”
We stare at each other for a few weighted, charged seconds before he asks what my favorite movie is, and we fall into another evening of conversation. Customers come and go, and I notice most of them hardly look at Sterling, let alone talk to him, outside of barking their order. Each time he goes to help someone new, I catch the same rounding of his shoulders and angling of his body that he did when I first walked in here the other day. It seems like he does it without thinking, trying to somehow shield people from having to see his face, as if it’s somehow offensive rather than uniquely him and utterly captivating.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out to find a text from my sister.
Lorna: What’s this I hear about a new boyfriend?
I roll my eyes. Kiernan is a great friend, but the man can’t keep his mouth shut to save his life.
Barrett: Not exactly a boyfriend, but I did score a date.
I look up at Sterling, pouring a drink. He glances in my direction at the same time like he can feel my eyes on him. My heart surges, and the giddy feeling returns to the pit of my stomach.
Lorna: Of course, you did, you’re a Russell. Russells always get what they want ;)
That we do. If for no other reason than that we stubbornly refuse to have it any other way.
Lorna: Is he into all that kinky shit you love so much?
Barrett: Christ, I need to get a muzzle for Kiernan.
Lorna: Sounds hot.
I snort and shake my head.
“What’s so funny?” Sterling asks.
“My sister.” I slip my phone back into my pocket so I can give him my full attention again.
As for whether he’s into all that kinky shit, I suppose time will tell.
Chapter 5
Sterling
I stare helplessly at the meager pile of painfully plain clothes. I never thought there was anything wrong with my worn-out jeans and dingy white t-shirts before, but I’ve also never been on a date before, so there’s that. Barrett didn’t say where he was taking me, but I’m betting it ain’t Ruthie’s place at the edge of town.
There’s a knock at the door, and I have the brief notion of crawling under my covers and hiding out until he goes away and takes all these silly butterflies and wild fantasies with him. I’m a simple man with a simple life, and I’m not so sure it’s supposed to be any other way, no matter how much Barrett is tempting me to believe it could be.
Since new clothes aren’t about to magically appear, I pull on the nearest thing and then go to answer the front door. My heart sinks when I see what he’s wearing— a tailored navy blue suit that has to have cost a pretty penny. I glance down at my own clothes and grimace.
“I brought you something,” Barrett says, holding up a flat box. “And before you say anything, it’s not charity. It’s the kind of thing I would bring to pamper any of my dates, so please indulge me and take it without argument.”
I eye him warily, but take the box. Easing the lid off, I find a lavender dress shirt, along with a suit jacket and matching slacks inside. I run my fingers along the fabric. I’ve never felt anything so soft in my life.
“I had to guess at your size, so I hope they fit.”
“Thank you, why don’t you come in, and I’ll get changed.”
I lead Barrett into the living room, trying my hardest not to imagine what he must think of the place. He settles himself into my favorite armchair, crossing his ankle over his knee and getting comfortable. How on God’s green Earth does the man manage to even sit better than anyone else I’ve ever laid eyes on? It’s unfair is what it is.
Taking the present, I hurry back to my room and strip out of my clothes in favor of the ones he bought. If I thought they felt soft when I ran my finger along them, it’s nothing compared to how they feel all wrapped around me. Barrett must have an eye for sizes because they fit perfectly, the pants hugging the curve of my butt in a downright scandalous way and the shirt sitting comfortably, highlighting my slim frame. I smooth my hands over the them and then return to the living room to show off my gift.
He sits up straighter in the chair when he sees me, making an appreciative sound in his throat. “You look absolutely stunning.”
I dip my head, my cheeks heating at the compliment. “The clothes look great,” I agree. “Thank you for them.”
Barrett plants his feet on the floor and stands up, stepping in front of me and putting his hand under my chin to tilt my face up to meet his gaze. “You look stunning,” he repeats, and my heart aches, unsure of how to take such a statement.
“Thank you,” I manage to rasp, even though more denials force their way to my lips. He rewards me with a smile, and I swear my whole body feels like it could melt into a puddle right at his feet.
His eyes drop to my lips, and I quiver under his attention, darting my tongue out to wet my lips. Is he going to kiss me? Will I be any good at it if he does? Needless to say, nobody’s ever kissed me before, but I would sell every one of my meager possessions in exchange for a kiss from him. Just one and I could die a happy man.
He doesn’t kiss me, but he does drag his thumb along my bottom lip, making me gasp at the shockingly sensual feel of it. I lean in closer, my eyelids drooping and my groin tightening as I flick my tongue against the pad of his thumb.
“You are pure temptation,” he says in a low, deep voice. It doesn’t sound like a complaint.
“Yes,” I surprise myself by agreeing.
Barrett
If it was anyone else, I’d think the guilelessness was an act. But I’m convinced Sterling truly has no idea how utterly and perfectly irresistible he is.
I help him into the car and buckle his seatbelt again without a word of protest from him.
“Where are we going?” he asks once we’re on the road.
“I have reservations at Le Poisson in Dallas.”
“Wow,” he murmurs. “That’s…wow.”
I smile to myself, pleased that I’ve impressed him. If a simple seafood dinner is enough to awe him, just wait until I get him to Vegas and show him all the things I can give him.
It’s over an hour drive there, and we pass the time by talking just like we have the past three nights at the bar. I soak up all the information Sterling gives me about his life and store it away like pieces of treasure.
When we reach the restaurant, I park and hurry around to open Sterling’s door for him, offering a hand to help him out. When I don’t drop it once he’s out, he squirms a little, looking around anxiously.
“Does it make you uncomfortable?” I ask, squeezing his hand in preparation to release it.
“No,” he answers in a hurry, tightening his fingers against mine. “I’m not used to it, is all. Nobody back in Billow is…well, you know, that way.”
“Gay?” I guess, and he no
ds.
“I’ve known as long as I could remember, but I never told nobody. I figured it didn’t matter either way since I never exactly had people lining up to take me out.”
I lift his hand to my lips, pressing a kiss to his knuckles. Sterling’s eyes go wide, and he gasps quietly, swaying toward me at the small gesture. He’s so starved for touch, it makes my heart hurt for him. I want to wrap him up in my arms and never let him go. I want to make up for every touch he’s ever missed until he can’t even remember a time when he wasn’t lighting up under my caress. My cock aches…no, my whole body aches, to take care of him the way he needs. But I’ll be patient. If I come on too strong, too fast, it’ll scare him away.
I lower his hand, but keep a grasp on it, leading him into the restaurant.
The hostess gives me a friendly smile as we step inside, the expression wavering when her eyes land on Sterling. She stares just a few seconds too long, and he starts to squirm beside me, ducking his head to hide his face. That’s all it takes for the hostess to realize she was staring, but her apologetic smile is too little too late.
Sterling keeps his head down, sticking close to me as she leads us to our table. No one else gives him a second look, but it’s obvious that the hostess’ rudeness was more than enough to make him feel like he didn’t belong here.
I give her a curt nod when we reach the table, and receive another awkward smile in return before she scurries away.
“Maybe this was a mistake,” Sterling says quietly, shuffling his feet and angling himself in the direction we just came from like he’s considering bolting back to my car.
I almost want to march back to the hostess station and let her know exactly how rude she was. But it’s obvious I’ll be much more useful to Sterling right here. Putting my hand under his chin, I gently turn his face toward me. He doesn’t resist, but the way he fidgets is a dead giveaway that he’s nervous that I’ll suddenly decide he isn’t worthy of this date.
Insecurity clouds his pretty blue eyes, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip, making it red and puffy. I tug his lip free with my thumb, holding his gaze as I slowly lean forward. He holds incredibly still, not breathing a single breath or making a sound until my lips press against his cheek where his skin is a shade of purple-ish red. The strangled gasp that he makes sounds like a near sob, and my heart breaks for him all over again. I make myself a silent vow to do everything in my power to show him exactly how he deserves to be cherished.
“If you’re uncomfortable, we can go. Pick any restaurant in the world, and I’ll take you there,” I promise.
He pulls his eyebrows together, his eyes searching mine until a half-smile forms on his lips. “You really would, wouldn’t you?” he asks. “If I told you I wanted to go to some place in Rome or New York, you’d find a way to take me there right now.”
“Say the word.”
“You are…” He bites his bottom lip again, but this time he’s still grinning, the worry in his eyes replaced with what I can only describe as disbelieving awe. “You are somethin’ else,” he concludes.
“So, what will it be? Rome?” I suggest playfully. He chuckles and shakes his head, looking at the table in front of us.
“I think this’ll do,” he decides, reaching to pull out his own chair. I tsk and stop him. He’s going to have to learn that being with me means letting me treat him like the treasure he is.
Once we’re both seated, the waiter arrives with the bottle of wine I requested ahead of time and then tells us he’ll be back shortly for our order.
Sterling opens the menu and, after a few seconds of scanning it, starts to look worried again. I can’t have that. I reach over and coax him to lower the menu.
“Do you have any allergies or foods you absolutely detest?” I ask, and he shakes his head. “Let me order for you? I’ve been here before and have a few favorites.”
I don’t miss the relief that flashes through his expression. “Thank you.”
He reaches for his wine, lifting it to his lips and taking a small sip before grimacing. I try to hide my own amusement behind my glass, watching with increasing affection as he tries to pretend to like it, taking another sip and keeping his face perfectly blank this time.
“What do you prefer to drink?” I ask.
“Oh, this is great,” he says in a hurry, making a move to drink more. I reach out and pluck the glass from between his fingers, setting it down closer to me and fixing him with a look that tells him he’s not fooling anyone. A pretty pink blush creeps over his cheeks and the tips of his ears. “I’ve never liked alcohol much.”
“What do you like?”
“Sweet tea?” he answers, making it sound more like a question.
When the waiter returns, I order Sterling a glass of sweet tea and our entrees.
“You didn’t have to do that. I’m sure the wine was expensive. I can drink it.” He reaches for the wine glass again, and I once again snatch it out of his way. If he truly was my boy, I’d warn him that he’s angling for a spanking. The thought alone makes my cock swell against my thigh.
“I promise you, I can afford to buy thousands of bottles of expensive wine and waste them all.”
“It must be wild havin’ so much money,” he muses. “Where, um, did you always have it?”
“I come from a long line of rich, greedy bastards,” I answer, seeming to surprise Sterling with my harsh tone. “I’ve never felt like any one person deserves so much. That’s why, when I turned twenty-five and got my trust fund, I decided I wanted to do something good with it. My closest friends and I run an investment firm, focusing on philanthropic endeavors and funding projects that will hopefully bring some good into the world.”
“Russell,” he says my last name like something’s finally clicking into place. “That’s why I knew your name. You been in the paper.”
“A few times,” I confirm with a smirk.
“Did you really pay to have the water in Ford, Missouri cleaned up?”
“Someone had to do it. Clearly the government didn’t give enough of a fuck to bother.”
“That’s…” He stares at me in awe for a few seconds. “Wow, that was a kind thing for you to do for all those people. I bet they were real grateful.”
“I don’t need anyone to feel grateful. It’s enough for me to know they have safe drinking water again.”
He gives me a warm, shy smile, and his foot bumps against my leg under the table like he subconsciously wants to touch me but isn’t ready to just reach for me yet. I ache to reach over and pull him into my lap.
One day.
Hopefully.
Chapter 6
Sterling
If I thought Barrett was out of his dang mind to ask me on a date in the first place, this just confirms it. There’s no way on God’s green Earth that a man with enough money to fix an entire city’s water crisis and sweet enough to worry about the way the hostess stared at me couldn’t get anybody he wanted. And anybody who could get whoever they wanted, wouldn’t choose me.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, reaching across the table and putting his hand over mine.
“Nothin’,” I lie. “This is just perfect.” That part’s true at least. I couldn’t a dreamed up a better first date if I had a whole lifetime to try to do it. And our food hasn’t even come yet.
“Are you sure? You looked kind of worn down when I got to the bar yesterday too.”
“Oh, that.” I reach for the sweet tea the waiter dropped off and take a sip, trying to decide how much to tell him about the situation with my mama. I suppose that’s the kind of thing you do on a date, but maybe this is too heavy for a first date? I meet Barrett’s eyes and see genuine concern in them, which loosens my lips. “It’s nothin’ really, just that my mama ran off with some man I ain’t never met.” His brows furrow, so I rush to reassure him. “It’s fine, she does this. She’ll be back eventually. I tend to worry when she’s gone, and it gets a bit lonely, but it always works out okay.”
He studies me for what feels like forever, and I fight the urge to squirm in my seat.
“What would you say if I asked you to come back to Vegas with me?”
“What?” A startled laugh bursts from me. He can’t mean that. “Why would you do a thing like that? You don’t even know me.”
“I know plenty about you. I know about your favorite foods and your family, I know about the stray cat you snuck food to when you were eight, and that you don’t like wine.”
I shake my head, looking away from Barrett. “You know trivia, that don’t mean I should drop my entire life and follow you to a whole different state.”
“I know that town doesn’t deserve you,” he continues. “And I know that I want to learn everything else there is to know about you.”
I drag my teeth back and forth over my bottom lip, trying to get my thoughts in order. “You’re cracked. You know that, right?” I ask, finally looking at him again.
He chuckles, never taking his eyes off of me. “I’ve been told I can be a bit eccentric, yes. The thing is, I know what I want, and I’m relentless until I get it.”
“What do you want?” I ask warily. What’s the catch I’m missing? Because last I checked, handsome billionaires don’t often waltz into backwoods towns and sweep ugly bartenders off their feet.
“Right this second, I want you,” he answers, and the qualifier makes me feel a touch better. He’s not saying anything crazy like he’s fallen madly in love with me in the course of two days or that he’s going to keep me forever. He’s offering me a way out of this town, and then who knows what. When he eventually gets bored with whatever all this is, at least I’ll be somewhere new with different opportunities. This could be my chance to start fresh. I just have to be brave enough to take it.
“I have a lot of loose ends to tie up,” I tell him, in case he has some idea about driving straight to Vegas once we finish our dinner. “I’d have to quit my job, pack my stuff, leave a note at the house for mama so she knows where I went when she gets back into town.”
Pretty Boy Page 4