Why had he gone out with Adam? It had been a dumb mistake. He couldn't be around Adam. Aside from the fact that Adam could barely be civil to him, every time he looked at his stepbrother desire burned deep inside him.
"I thought it would be fun to hang out with you," he lied. "I was wrong." Luc gestured towards the darkroom door. "I didn't expect you to fuck off for half the night."
Adam narrowed his eyes. "What's your problem?"
"What's my problem?" Luc stabbed his finger against his chest. "I guess you only asked me out tonight to score Brownie points with Mum and Dad. That's low, Adam, really fucking low."
"Fuck you," Adam hissed.
Yes please. All night long.
Adam stood up so fast his barstool wobbled dangerously. "You're a big boy, Luc. What did you think? That we'd hold hands all fucking night and act like we were best friends again?"
Luc wasn't sure what to say to that, so he kept his mouth shut. Adam was right, their friendship couldn't be rekindled after one lousy night out.
"I came out tonight to relax and have a bit of fun," Adam growled. "I thought you might want to do the same, rather than being cooped up in the house all the time. I guess I was wrong." He began to stride away.
Luc made a grab for his arm. God, his stepbrother had strong muscles, which tensed in response to Luc's touch.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Home. Because getting grief from you sure as hell isn't any fun." Adam wrenched his arm away from Luc. "You lost the right to tell me what I could and couldn't do when you were fourteen and decided you couldn't be bothered with me anymore."
Luc watched him go. He wanted to stop Adam so he could explain everything, but thankfully his head overruled his heart and he let Adam go. They both needed some time to cool off. Luc needed a stiff drink. Several stiff drinks, for preference. Maybe cruising the darkroom would help, too. If he had a good orgasm, it might just blow his feelings for Adam out of his system. He twisted on his stool, so he was facing the bartender.
"Tequila shots, please," he said. "Line them up."
***
Luc regretted the tequila in the morning. After sending a quick email to Adrianna to tell her he was sick, he spent the rest of the morning in bed, with his pillow over his eyes. Everything hurt, especially his head. He had a vague memory of throwing up on the street, whilst stumbling to find a taxi. He wasn't even sure how he'd made it home and up the stairs to his room, but somehow, he had, because that's where he'd woken up. He'd even managed to strip himself down to his boxer shorts.
It was past lunchtime before he felt able to get out of bed, brush his teeth and take a shower. He wished he had a pair of sunglasses to wear, because daylight was making his eyes burn. A quick glance in the mirror told him that he looked like shit. He had dark bags under his eyes and his skin had a sickly green pallor to it. He trudged down the stairs to make himself some toast. His stomach was both rumbling and queasy, which was not a fun combination.
Adam was sat at the kitchen table, scribbling in a notebook. He glanced up, his expression neutral. Luc had half expected his stepbrother to lash out with some kind of sarcastic remark, or at least to have an amused expression on his face. He couldn't be sure, but it was possible he even saw sympathy in Adam’s dark eyes.
"How are you feeling?" Adam asked.
"Rough." Luc's voice was unexpectedly gruff as he grated the word out. He tried to clear his throat. "Drank too much last night." It hadn't helped make his words sound any clearer.
"I know." Adam tapped his pen back and forth on his pad.
Luc frowned at him, before stooping to grab the bread out of the cupboard.
"I waited up for you, to apologise for being an idiot. When you staggered home, you were in no fit state to do anything, let alone argue with me again, so I helped you upstairs."
Luc froze halfway through taking a couple of slices of bread out of the plastic wrapper. "You... put me to bed?"
"Yeah."
Oh, God. Luc turned his back on Adam, hoping his stepbrother hadn't seen the red heat that flushed his face. Fuck. Adam had not only dragged his sorry ass up the stairs, but he'd undressed him? Fuck. He was torn between regret that he couldn't remember that happening—because the thought of Adam's hands undressing him was a huge turn-on—and being mad at Adam for doing something so intimate. But Adam probably hadn't given it a second thought.
"Thank you," he managed to mumble, before stuffing the slices of bread in the toaster.
"So, err... I was going to apologise."
"No need." Luc hunched his shoulders. All he could think about was Adam taking his clothes off.
"Yes, there is. You were right. I shouldn't have dumped you like that. I was pissed off, but it was still a crap thing to do. So, I'm sorry."
