“Just online games so that I can get back on my feet.”
“No way, that’s not a good idea. You should consider getting out of that world while you’re still young,” I said, shaking my head.
I adjusted the glasses on my eyes. I thought back to all the mistakes I made while I was his age. I wished more than anything that someone who knew better would tell me what to do when I was that young and impressionable.
“It’s my life, professor,” Adrian smirked. “There’s no getting out of it now.”
I didn’t want to argue with him any further. I didn’t want him to make any rash decisions that evening.
“We’ll talk about it in the morning. I’ll prepare the guest bedroom for you.”
After having put away the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, I headed up the spiral staircase to the second floor.
I had kept the guest bedroom door closed ever since I had renovated it. In fact, it was the only room in the house I renovated since my wife died.
It was going to be the nursery for the baby we were expecting. Now, instead of a crib, there was a double bed.
I noticed that it was a lot colder in that room than the rest of the house. I realized that the window in the bedroom was left open a tiny bit and probably had been since the last time I stepped foot in there months ago.
I went into the closet and pulled out the set of sheets and made the bed.
Everything was still in its original packaging from when I bought it. I figured that there was no point in actually making the bed if I didn’t have any guests.
Adrian showing up this evening was definitely unexpected.
Chapter Four
Dominic
I woke up later than usual.
It was around noon. The sunlight coming in from a slit between the curtains drew a warm line down the length of my body.
I could hear some of the boys downstairs chatting. Adrian popped up in my mind again. It was going to be different without him around.
There were quite a few things I needed to do that day, and I was a bit pissed that I woke up so late.
For one, I had to find a replacement for Adrian. I had scouted a couple of guys as possible replacements, and had invited one of them to an interview to see if he would be a good fit.
I got out from under the covers and leaned against the headboard of my bed.
I palmed the top of my bedside table to find the remote for the blinds and I opened them all at once. The warm light flooded into my master bedroom, causing me to close my eyes to adjust to the brightness.
I had never been a morning person, I was my most productive during evenings and late into the night. Though I had been told my whole life that I wouldn’t be successful if I didn’t get up early, I was able to prove everyone wrong.
After stretching my arms, I walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows that presented the city to me. It glowed with an orange sunlit tinge, like a camera filter. A new fucking day.
I loved being naked in my bedroom.
The feeling of waking up naked and standing up high above everyone else made me feel so fucking alive. I sniffed my pits and damn…I needed a shower.
I walked to my master bathroom and ran the water for a bit.
Billowing clouds of hot steam escaped from the top of the glass shower, and I went in. The steam enveloped me, and the scalding hot water hit my back making me groan in pleasure.
I loved the pain of heat against my body, it made me feel alive.
Pain, in general, was something I had always been fascinated with. To me, pain was growth. Pain was power.
I adjusted to the hot temperature of the water.
The waterfall shower-head massaged my back muscles that were tight from my workout at three in the morning. I treated my body like a shrine, and I took care of it each and every day.
Luckily, I was blessed with my height. At six-foot-five and ripped with muscle, I had the confidence to outshine everyone else, especially at the poker table.
By the end of my workout, I was so sore and drenched in sweat that I’d passed out as soon as I got back into my bedroom.
It was the only way I could take my mind off of letting Adrian go. Get him out of my fucking head, for good.
I got out of the shower and put on some sweatpants. I never wore underwear, I didn’t understand the point of them except to constrict my ball sack. After draping the damp towel around my neck, I headed downstairs.
The boys were all in their individual rooms, and I could hear that they were already getting to work.
I poured myself some coffee from the pot that had already been made. It was going to be the first cup of many.
There was a doors open policy at my house so that I could enter into the boys’ room freely to check up on them. Though, Adrian had always thought that rule didn’t apply to him.
I walked into Harold’s room, and he smiled at me.
“Morning,” he greeted.
I pulled a tight smile on my face and walked up behind him to see how he was doing.
I calculated his daily totals from each of the four poker games he was playing on his monitor. It was about three-thousand dollars net winning.
“Not bad,” I said. “But could be better.”
“Yeah, boss. Played a few bad hands earlier then got greedy. Total should go up by the end of the day.”
I nodded and walked into the next room. Riley was in there. I did the same thing and checked his total, which was a meager two-thousand net.
I could sense his nervousness as I walked in because he wasn’t doing so great. Maybe it also had to do with the fact that I was walking around shirtless.
In one of his monitors, I saw that he was about to lose a tournament with a five hundred dollar buy-in. His daily total was only going to get worse.
“Riley, what’s going on?” I asked, resting one of my palms on his desk.
“Noth...nothing,” he said. “Just having a bad day. That’s all.”
“Bad day? What does that mean?”
“Just a lot on my mind after last night.”
“What?” I asked. “After our club meeting?”
“No, before that. When Adrian left.”
“Why is that on your mind?”
“Because…Adrian was my buddy. He helped me play better.”
“Well, you have three other guys in the house who you can talk to.”
“Adrian was different. I could talk to him easily. He was so chill.”
“Adrian was bad for you guys, and it was time for him to go. There’s no time for fooling around here. Adrian isn’t coming back, so you’re going to have to deal with it. If you need any help, you can ask me or one of the boys. Got it?”
He hesitated and then looked up at me. “Got it, sir.”
I left his room, headed to the living room and sat down to watch the poker game that was playing on the TV.
I thought about what Riley said about Adrian. Why did I miss that bastard, Adrian, so much?
The energy this morning felt different. Someone was missing.
There was something about Adrian’s carefree nature that lightened up the mood. But this club was too serious to me for there to be any monkeying around. There were other clubs for that. This one was teaching young men how to win despite the obstacles that they faced early in their life.
My phone rang and I pulled it from the pocket of my sweatpants.
“Hello?” I greeted.
“Hey, this is concierge calling. There’s a young man by the name of Josh who says you’re expecting him?”
“Yes, please send him up,” I said.
I jogged up the stairs to my room to put a black t-shirt on. When I came back downstairs, one of the boys had let Josh in.
He was dark-haired and pale.
The clothes he was wearing had small holes near the hem, and his hair was disheveled and unwashed. His eyes were wide with awe while he looked around the whole house, admiring how luxurious it was.
I walk
ed up to him to shake his hand.
“Hey, you must be Josh,” I said.
He nodded and gave me a weak handshake.
“Come on in,” I said, trying to be a good host.
I always made an effort to be nice to potential recruits.
Josh followed me to the kitchen.
“You want any coffee?” I asked.
“Yeah, coffee would be great,” he said.
I poured him a cup and slid him some cream and sugar.
He put a few cubes of sugar in, then a few more. He poured some cream into the mug, and when I thought he was done, he put a few more sugar cubes in.
“Sweet enough for you?” I asked, smirking.
He smiled politely and took the coffee in his hands, which were trembling as he drank it. I could tell that he hadn’t been eating or drinking enough.
“Tell me a bit about yourself,” I said, leaning across the kitchen island where he was sitting on the stool. “How do you know Greg?”
“I was in the foster care system with him. We lived together when we were sixteen.”
Greg, one of the guys who were already in the club, had recommended Josh as a potential replacement for Adrian.
The foster care system was brutal. It was unforgiving to young teenage boys who’d come into contact with the law. They were given the least priority out of everyone.
No one wanted to take them in. So by the time they got out, they had no chance in life. If I could, I’d take them all into my home, but it was only big enough to house five at a time.
“What are you doing now?” I asked, taking a sip of coffee. I walked to the fridge and pulled out a box of pizza and opened the box in front of him.
He eagerly took a slice.
“I am looking for a job,” he said, with a mouthful of pizza. “But no one wants to hire me because I have no experience.”
“I see,” I said. “Do you know much about poker?”
“No. I’ve never played before.”
“It’s easy to pick up. Anyone can do it, if you dedicate all of your energy to it.”
“I am willing to do that,” he said.
I considered his words, trying to judge his sincerity. Sure, he sounded eager. But I figured that had more to do with his current desperation, rather than any real desire to play and win at poker.
Almost without wanting to, I compared Josh’s attitude to that of Adrian’s, when I had taken him in.
Adrian had also been in a bad spot when he was invited in. But I couldn’t forget the passion in his eyes. His eagerness to learn whatever it took to play the game well. The countless amount of times he would knock on my door at four in the morning just to talk about poker.
“How old are you?” I asked Josh.
“Just turned nineteen,” he answered.
That was the average age of the house. It was the age where boys were the most impressionable. It was a pivotal age when things could go really good or really bad.
Josh was eating his second slice of pizza now.
“I’ll tell you a bit about the club. If you decide to join, you’ll sign a contract and you will follow every line on that contract. If you break any of the rules, you’re out. Your only focus is poker in this club. However long you decide to stay, you will commit your life to it. You will learn the ins and outs of the game, and when you’ve learned all you can, you’ll learn even more.”
“What happens to the money if I win?”
“I hope you mean when you win,” I corrected. “There are no losers in this club, there are only winners. I will open a joint bank account with you, and give you your own card. You are welcome to spend your own winnings as you please, but only after I take the ten percent cut. Should you decide to leave, you get to take whatever is in there and keep it for yourself.”
Now that Josh wasn’t starving like he was when he first walked in, I could see that he was more focused. He nodded at everything I was saying.
“I’ll try my best,” he said.
“This club is exclusive, and it’s one of five spots that you’re taking. So don’t take it for granted. The other boys here will tell you that it won’t be tolerated if you do.”
“Okay,” he said.
I closed the box of pizza and put it back in the fridge, then I walked around and gave him a tour of the house. I showed his new bedroom, which was originally Adrian’s. The cleaner had come in that morning to change all the sheets and vacuum the floor.
Josh had a smile on his face as if he had struck gold. I knew that he probably had a fucked up history like all the other boys who were here and that this opportunity meant a lot to him.
He couldn’t stop looking at his bed.
“Go on,” I smiled. “See if it’s comfortable.”
Josh eagerly sat down on it and sank into the plush mattress.
“Do I get to have this room all to myself?” He asked.
“You sure do,” I said.
I didn’t think his eyes could get any wider, or his smile any bigger. He was on cloud nine.
“There will be someone coming in later today to take your measurements and get you a new wardrobe. For now, there’s a fresh towel and toothbrush waiting in the bathroom. Get cleaned up, and mingle with the boys who will tell you a bit about the game. I want you to be well-rested for your first day of training tomorrow. You have any questions?”
“No. Everything’s very clear. Thank you, so much. I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”
“Everyone deserves this. With enough hard work and persistence, you’ll achieve whatever you want in your life,” I said. “I’ll let you make yourself comfortable.”
I left the room and went to check up on how the other boys were doing.
Chapter Five
Adrian
It was weird waking up in a professor’s house. It was even weirder that I was no longer in the club.
There was a bit of emptiness as I sat up on the bed. It was way past when I usually woke up.
Usually, Dominic woke me up because I had slept in way past my alarm.
It was fun seeing him all angry and worked up every single day as if I’d suddenly become a morning person. Of all people, he should know that I hated mornings.
But there was absolutely none of that this morning.
The house was…quiet, empty. I wondered if the professor was even home.
I got out of bed and stretched.
It was nice getting to sleep completely naked for once. At Dominic’s club, the open doors policy meant it’d be awkward if the other guys saw my morning wood while I was sleeping.
I missed the boys and Dominic more than anything.
I missed sharing breakfast and talking about poker. I felt my hands, they were warm and wet with my sweat. I figured it was a symptom of withdrawal from playing poker.
It was going to be different now that I was here, and I needed to figure out a plan for what I was going to do next.
I put on the only clothes I had and walked downstairs. The professor was sitting on the couch drinking tea and reading something.
He had his glasses on, but he wasn’t in his usual spiffy get-up. A white t-shirt hugged his toned muscles. I didn’t expect his body to be so ripped, but I could tell that he worked out.
I walked down the stairs and he stood up to greet me, which was a bit more formal than I expected. He was probably as tall as Dominic, I didn’t know many people who were six-foot-five.
“Look who finally decided to wake up,” he said.
I looked at the time, and it was past noon.
“I’m a night owl,” I smiled. “I guess from…where I lived before.”
For some reason, I still felt the need to keep the club a secret even though I was no longer in it.
“That’s fair,” the professor said. “I used to be like that when I was your age.”
“Don’t you need to be at the university or something?”
“Not today. Today’s my only day where I don’t teach a class,
so I keep it free for myself. Usually, I’d be somewhere else doing research but I figured I’d stay at home because you’re here.”
I sat down on the couch across from him. There were sheets of paper scattered on the coffee table.
I took a closer at them and saw equations written in black ink.
“Are you working on something?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he smiled. “Well, it’s been quite a project, I guess.”
“Can I take a look?”
He nodded. “Yeah, for sure.”
I picked up one of the sheets closest to me and could see that what he was working on was not as easy as I thought it’d be.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I’ve been working towards solving this problem. I’d done some research on solar energy. Solving these equations would make solar energy twenty-times more efficient. I’m coming close to finishing...but the further I get, the more time it takes.”
I studied the equations a bit more. I could see that much of what the professor was working on went in circles. He was getting stuck in the same spot. But I was able to get an idea of what he was trying to solve.
“Do you have anyone helping you?” I asked.
“I’ve tried to see if some of my brightest students can solve it, even asking some of my colleagues. But no one seems to understand where I’m trying to go with it.”
“It’s complicated,” I said. “But I might have an idea of how to help.”
The professor leaned in closer. “You mean, you understand it?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it looks like you need two of these equations to match. But so far, you’ve been leading to different answers over and over again.”
He took off his glasses and looked me in the eyes. “I’m…honestly impressed. Not even my fourth-year students know what I’m trying to do.”
I smirked.
“It’s not that hard to grasp,” I said, putting my hands behind my head and leaning back.
“Have you always been that good at math?” He asked.
“I guess so. Both my parents are scientists, so I guess they passed on the math and science gene to me.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” he said. “I’m not sure what you have planned for the near future. But I’m currently looking for a new teaching assistant for one of my third-year classes.”
Kings of Hearts (An M/M/M Romance Novel) Page 3