by Ella Frank
“Wait,” Robbie said. “Jack’s here? Are you kidding me? He has some fucking balls. I mean, I assume. You would know better than me.”
“Stop talking. And don’t worry,” Penny said. “Your man here saved me from the awkwardness.”
Robbie looked at Julien, and his eyes softened a little. “Did he?”
“He did.”
Julien chuckled. “Non. I think I actually saved Jack from a swift death, but—”
Penny shoved Julien in the arm, and Robbie’s mouth split into a wide grin at the familiar move. It was clear their budding relationship pleased him.
“So, okay,” Penny said. “You know who we’re hiding from. Why did you think I was hiding from Valerie?”
“Because she’s drunk,” Robbie said.
Felicity snorted. “So drunk. And you know how she gets. She wants everyone around her to be just as merry, and Robbie made me promise to only allow this slight buzz he has right now.”
Julien grinned at his bright-eyed princesse. Oh, oui. He was definitely buzzed, but not quite as inebriated as the last time Felicity had been tasked to look after him.
Robbie winked at Julien. “I’m trying to behave myself around the parents.”
“Uh huh,” Julien said, and got to his feet, and Robbie followed him before they both turned to Penny and held their hands out.
She accepted their help, and once she was standing, Robbie said, “By the way, where’s Priest? I haven’t seen him in forever.”
The four of them fell silent, and it didn’t take them long to come to the same conclusion. They all turned in the direction the throbbing music was coming from, and Julien heard, “I’m going to kill her,” right before Robbie headed off in the direction of the dancing partygoers in search of the her he planned to murder.
Chapter Eleven
A flirty drunk.
I didn’t see that coming ~ Robbie
ALL NIGHT I behaved myself, Robbie thought, as he walked toward the laughter and loud music. I behaved myself at my birthday, while Valerie is off doing God knows—
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Robbie came to a standstill on the outskirts of the makeshift dance area and tried to process what exactly he was looking at.
He’d been out there on the dance floor a few times himself tonight, dragged into a dance-off here and there with cousins he hadn’t seen in years who actually thought they could beat him—please—but as he stood there now, his eyes latched on to Valerie, and he was about two seconds away from saying, To hell with behaving.
“Well,” Felicity drawled, as she came up beside him. “You did say you wanted to find her.”
Robbie scoffed and turned his head to her. “She’s not exactly hard to miss.” And the reason for that had nothing to do with Valerie.
No. Valerie was several inches shorter than most of the people moving around on the dance floor, but the person she had draped herself all over—he was not.
“Princesse? Did you find— Oh.” As Julien came to a stop, a chuckle escaped him, and Robbie just shook his head.
He should’ve known better. He should’ve kept a better eye on Val. But no, he’d left her alone with the one thing he knew she couldn’t resist—the redhead.
“I can’t believe this,” Robbie said, as Julien laughed a little harder, then he dragged his eyes away from what they—and they was every single person in the near vicinity—were looking at, and said, “Non?”
“No,” Robbie said. “This isn’t funny. This is… I can’t even think of a word because I don’t even know what this is.”
Robbie looked back out to the scene he was trying to comprehend, and Felicity chimed in, helpful as ever. “I can think of a few words: hot as fuck. Who knew Priest could dance?”
Me, Robbie thought. But not like that, that’s for damn sure.
Yes, it was Priest. And yes, he was dancing. But not the smooth, charming foxtrot around the kitchen. No. Priest was out there looking drop-dead gorgeous under the twinkling lights getting down to some sexed-up song Robbie couldn’t even place right now. He had his arms around Valerie’s waist as she hung off his neck, and every now and then they both stumbled into one another and started to laugh uproariously.
As Robbie stood there with his mouth hanging open, someone walked by them with a tray of bright pink birthday cake shots, and Valerie grabbed two, handed one to Priest, and, without letting go of each other, they clinked their glasses, like co-conspirators, and downed the alcohol.
Priest then pivoted and turned Valerie so he was now looking across the dance floor, and when he spotted Robbie and Julien, his mouth kicked up in an inebriated smile so unlike Priest that it was difficult to comprehend.
Valerie had officially stolen one of Robbie’s men tonight and was letting her ginger freak flag fly. Unfortunately for Robbie, it just happened to be up his ginger pole.
Right. That’s it.
But just as Robbie was about to shove his way onto the dance floor and pull Valerie’s gorgeous blonde hair out of her head, Julien took hold of his arm and said in his ear, “Where are you going?”
“Out there to pry her damn hands off him,” Robbie said. “Look at them. He’s actually laughing, smiling, for God’s sake. Who knows how many drinks she had to give him to do that.”
“A lot, I’m thinking,” Julien said. “I haven’t seen him dance like that for a long time.”
“I didn’t even know he could dance like that.” Robbie pouted, and then said in his best Priest imitation, “I have to behave in front of your parents, Robert. That’s what he said. To me. I’m going to kill her.”
Cue “It’s My Party,” because I’m one drink away from crying because I want to.
“Aw, don’t be too hard on her, princesse. When was the last time you ever saw Priest that…relaxed?”
Umm, how about never? If someone had asked him before tonight if Priest ever got drunk, Robbie would’ve laughed them out of the building. But that was exactly what he was seeing right now. He knew it as well as he knew his sister was absolutely going to pay for this.
“So what you’re saying is I should just let her dance all over our man?”
“What I’m saying”—Julien slipped his hand into Robbie’s—“is that you should come and dance like that with me. We’ll get our turn with Priest eventually, and more so than Valerie.”
Julien winked as he walked out into the crowd and tugged Robbie along with him, and Robbie shifted his attention to that plan and found his irritation left as quickly as it had appeared.
Really, there was no need for crying when Julien was pulling him into his arms. There was no need for anything at all except losing himself in the scent of Julien’s cologne, and the delicious way Julien felt as he spent the rest of the party dancing the night away.
After all, he couldn’t exactly blame Valerie, but that didn’t mean Robbie wasn’t going to keep a watchful eye on his handsy sister who just so happened to share his and Julien’s affections for a certain Priest.
“YOU’RE SO WASTED,” Robbie said as he pushed opened the door to the guesthouse and Priest came to a standstill in front of him.
It was closing in on one thirty, and everyone had left for the night except Robbie’s immediate family. His parents had headed off to bed around half an hour ago, and left him—along with his sisters—to lock up.
Priest tapped a finger on Robbie’s chest and nodded. “I think you might be right. Buuuut I made it up the stairs, didn’t I?”
Priest turned to walk into the room, and as he did, he veered to the left. Julien reached out, hooked an arm through his elbow, and chuckled.
“Actually,” Julien said, “I got you up the stairs. But who needs facts?”
“Me.” Priest aimed a megawatt smile in Julien’s direction. “I need facts because I’m a lawyer. Facts are my life.” Priest stopped talking, seemingly distracted by Julien’s face, and then ran his fingertips down Julien’s cheek. “Nope. That’s not right. You. You and R
obert.” Priest looked at Robbie and pointed at him. “You and Robert are my life. My loves…” Priest drawled. “And my life.”
Robbie snorted and closed the door, then headed to his open suitcase for his pajamas. When a loud thump met his ears, he looked over his shoulder to see that Priest had just run into the end of the bed.
“Whoops,” Priest said, and laughed a throaty chuckle, and Robbie had to bite down on his lip to hold back his own laughter.
“Perhaps you should sit down, mon amour,” Julien suggested. “Before you fall down.”
“Mmm, keep talking,” Priest said, and ran a finger along Julien’s lower lip. “You have the sexiest voice. Have I ever told you that?”
“Oui, you have,” Julien said, and urged Priest toward the bed, but he wasn’t budging.
Priest leaned in and replaced his finger with his lips, and said against Julien’s mouth, “Especially when you’re turned on. It gets all raspy, and fuck, Julien—it makes me so hard. Doesn’t it make you hard, Robert?”
Um, always. But Robbie was too busy trying to process what he was witnessing to answer. Who would’ve guessed that Priest was such a flirty drunk? The intoxicating control he usually wielded was currently replaced by a smooth seducer’s charm.
Julien shook his head and slapped at Priest’s hands, as he reached for the buttons at the bottom of Julien’s shirt. “How about you let me and Robbie get you undressed, and then you can—”
“Fuck you both?”
“Non,” Julien said, and really started laughing as Priest wound his arms around his waist, grabbed Julien’s ass, and pressed his lips to his cheek. “Mon Dieu. You’re like an octopus tonight. All hands. Everywhere.”
“Let me take you to bed. Both of you,” Priest said, as he looked at Robbie. “Take off your clothes, sweetheart. I want to look at you.”
“Do not take off your clothes,” Julien said. “You do that, it’s all over.”
Robbie pouted, because really, there was nothing he wanted more than to take off his clothes.
“But look at him, mon cœur,” Priest said in Julien’s ear. “Don’t you want to see what’s under that shirt? Those pants…? He wants us to undress him.”
I really do, Robbie thought. But then he remembered what Priest had said before the party about respecting his parents, and how that meant a lot to him—and also, apparently, to Julien.
“What happened to making a good impression on the Bianchis?” Julien asked as he took hold of Priest’s face, a hand on either cheek.
“Nothing,” Priest said, and nipped Julien’s thumb. “But they’re not here, and what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Like how much I want to suck their son’s co—”
“How many drinks did you have tonight?” Julien interrupted.
“Umm.” Priest frowned. “I don’t know. Val kept—”
“He’s calling her Val now?” Robbie said.
But Priest went on undeterred. “She kept bringing them to me and was asking me to guess what she put in them.”
“Other than a shit-ton of alcohol?” Robbie said, and rolled his eyes. “Have you ever heard of the word no?”
Priest turned his heavy-lidded gaze on Robbie and grinned. “Yes. But I wanted her to like me, for you.”
Okay, really? How am I supposed to argue with that? Robbie couldn’t, so instead he directed his ire where it was well deserved. “She’s so paying for this when I see her.”
“Nooo…don’t do that,” Priest said, and shook his head. “She’s so much fun. Just like you.”
Robbie’s eyes widened, and he shook his finger at Priest. “No, no. Not like me. I don’t have to get you drunk to be all over me. Wanna know why? Because I have something you like a whole lot more than her pretty blonde hair.”
“Mhmm.” Priest’s lips curved into that lazy smile again. “Prove it. Take off your clothes.”
“Aaand we’re back where we started,” Julien said. “That’s it—you are getting changed, Joel, and then going to sleep. You’re going to have a terrible hangover tomorrow.”
Julien directed Priest toward his bag, and as he bent down to rifle through it, Robbie turned his attention to Julien, who was staring at his husband as though he’d morphed into a totally different person.
“Jules,” Robbie whispered across the room, and when Julien glanced his way, Robbie waved him over. Julien checked on Priest again, but when he haphazardly tossed a pair of jeans over his shoulder, Julien chuckled and made his way to Robbie’s side of the bed.
“Have you ever seen him like this?” Robbie asked, and when Priest said, “Ah ha. I knew I packed them,” and held up his lounge pants in triumph, Julien’s shoulders shook with the laughter he was trying to contain.
“Non.”
“Never?” Robbie said. “Do you think he’s had some kind of allergic reaction to the alcohol?”
“Non,” Julien said as he turned his eyes to Robbie’s. “I think he’s one hundred percent relaxed and one hundred and fifty percent drunk. It’s quite wonderful. Isn’t it?”
Priest got to his feet and reached for his shirt, and just as he was about to pull it off, he turned around, zeroed in on the two of them, and aimed a lackadaisical grin their way.
Julien was right: those grey eyes were glassy as they tried to focus. But that loose-lipped smile on Priest’s usually stern lips was a killer. Damn. Even one hundred and fifty percent drunk, Priest’s magnetic pull was as strong as ever.
Robbie leaned into Julien’s shoulder and said under his breath, “Make him stop looking at us like that.”
“And how do you propose I do that?” Julien asked, as Priest pulled his shirt over his head.
“Uhh…” Robbie had forgotten what he’d said, and when Priest undid the top of his jeans and unzipped, Robbie swallowed and reached down to massage his ever-growing hard-on. “I don’t know, but you better work it out fast. Because if he takes his pants off, I’m getting naked. I don’t care if my parents are sleeping in the house across from us.”
AS PRIEST STARED at the two of them from the opposite side of the queen-sized bed, Julien had to admit he was tempted to see how quiet the three of them could be if they all stripped down and got in that bed.
But he knew Priest would be mortified if for some reason they were caught and jeopardized the relationship they were starting to build with Robbie’s parents.
Luckily for Priest, Robbie’s parents hadn’t borne witness to his rediscovered dance moves tonight. And by the time they’d come outside to say goodbye to their guests, the music had been shut off and all dancing had ceased.
Now, how in the world he was going to get a determined Priest not to seduce them, Julien had no clue. All he knew was that Robbie had way more faith in him than he really probably should.
“Joel?” Julien knew the second his voice found his husband, because Priest took a step closer to the bed and pushed a hand into the open zipper of his jeans.
Putain. He is not going to make this easy on us.
“Oui, Julien?”
Julien reached for the buttons of his shirt and undid it, and Priest watched avidly as Julien shrugged out of it and draped it over the small accent chair beside Robbie.
Priest’s gaze then travelled to their princess, who also had a hand pressed between his legs, and when Priest licked his lips, everyone in the room knew exactly what he wanted.
“Joel?” Julien said, then crooked a finger. “Viens ici.”
Priest didn’t even hesitate. He put a knee on the mattress, and when Julien mirrored him, Priest smirked, thinking he’d won.
As Julien moved closer, he noticed Priest sway a little, and he could tell the alcohol was starting to slow him down, the buzz having turned to more of a hum as Priest aimed his sex-drunk eyes up at Robbie and said, “You should come too, pretty princess.”
“Shit,” Robbie whispered.
Julien was about to tell Priest to quit it and lie down. But before he could, Priest’s eyes fluttered shut and he pitched to the s
ide, and before Julien could grab him, he fell on the mattress.
“Oh my God,” Robbie said as he scrambled up onto the bed. “Is he okay?”
Julien studied Priest’s closed eyes and relaxed face. Somehow, Priest had managed not to face-plant into the mattress, and his cheek was now squished into the pillow. His breathing was even, and he looked so peaceful that Julien couldn’t help but run his fingers across the hair now flopping down on Priest’s forehead.
“I think he’s just fine,” Julien said. “But tomorrow might be a whole other story.”
“Right?” Robbie said, a grin spreading. “Priest is a total flirt when he drinks. Who knew?”
Julien chuckled. “He is, isn’t he?”
“Uh, yeah.” Robbie let out a sigh and looked down at his lap. “Falling asleep is not going to be the easiest thing right now.”
Julien kissed Robbie and said, “No, it’s going to be very hard. For the both of us.”
Robbie’s gaze roamed down to the erection Julien didn’t even bother trying to hide. “He so owes us for this.”
“I think you might be right,” Julien said. “How about we get in bed and dream up ways to make him pay.”
“I like the way you think,” Robbie said, and wound his arms around Julien’s neck. “And the way you smell, and taste, and feel.”
Julien pulled back and shook his head. “You’re as bad as he is. Sleep. Now. Allez!”
“Fine,” Robbie said, and got out of bed and quickly changed into his pajamas. “But let it be noted that I don’t like this no-sexy-time rule when we’re around my family. We need to work on that.”
“Noted,” Julien said as he got beneath the covers in the middle of the bed.
Robbie flicked off the light and scooted in until he was plastered up against Julien with a leg slung over his thigh. “I do, however, love this queen-sized bed.”
Julien prayed for patience as his cock kicked in response to Robbie, who was squirming up against his side. Dieu, between these two, he’d be lucky if he got an hour’s sleep. “Bonne nuit, princesse.”