Why the hell did I care so much?
Tentatively, I extended my hand. Superman shook it, his eyes locked on our linked palms for a moment before he looked up to meet my gaze. A roller-coaster swoop attacked my insides, and I focused on Superman’s lips, lured by his tongue wetting the bottom one. Oh god, I knew what that tongue felt like in his mouth. And I wouldn’t protest if the man leaned in for a kiss again.
“Beckett,” Superman said, then cleared his throat as if hearing my thoughts. “But you can call me Beck.”
“Nice to kiss—nice to meet you, Beck.”What the fuck?!I felt my face grow so hot I wouldn’t be surprised if steam was coming out of my bat ears. Internally, I prayed for a black hole to swallow me on the spot.
Beck, however, God bless him, didn’t react to my foot-in-the-mouth moment. Maybe he didn’t hear it in the murmur of prepanel excitement surrounding us. One could hope.
“Yeah.” Beck nodded. “Same… Cay.” He said the name in a near whisper as if checking how the single syllable felt on his tongue.
Beck let go of my hand and turned toward the stage, where someone was rushing around to arrange bottles of water on the table with plaques with actors’ names on them. I tried to will my blush away just as the host entered the stage to greet us.
People around squeezed even tighter, resulting in my forearm bumping into Beck’s. A sharp inhale next to me conveyed his reaction to the contact, but I didn’t dare look at him. The backs of our hands touched, and it took everything in my power not to reach to intertwine our fingers.
Where was this coming from? What was happening to me?
Was it the excitement caused by the con, making a new friend, or the kiss that would haunt my dreams in the best possible ways?
Amid the questions, one certainty settled in my gut. I'd meet Beck again. Soon.
Chapter Three
Beck
Ihated being single.
It wasn’t the loneliness aspect. I liked spending time by myself, and I had about a thousand different hobbies from painting miniatures to cosplay that I could throw myself into. No, it was the overwhelming insistence of my friends, who wielded their affection like a battering ram that made it unbearable. Mostly because they all got excited about matchmaking as a distraction. Half avoided commitment, and the other half thought everyone should be in a relationship.
I leaned back into the sofa at Tai’s apartment, glancing to the window. Maybe three stories wasn’t that bad a drop to escape.
“Come on, babe,” Tai said, buzzing around me. The guy never stopped moving. From his bright pink hair to the glittery pink nail polish he wore, the man was a blast of color every damn day, and he changed his look just as much. “It’s been six months since your breakup. You’ve got to go.”
“Meet three different strangers?” I wrinkled my nose. “That sounds like hell.”
“Technically, you only need to focus on one of them,” Tai said, grabbing a paperback off his shelf to flip through for a second and then popping it back on as if he’d changed his mind entirely. “The other two are just window dressing.”
“Window dressing that I have to awkwardly make conversation with still,” I grumbled. “What gave you the idea I can handle one person, let alone three?”
“Oh, honey.” Tai dropped down onto the couch beside him. “Try taking four on at once, and then we’ll talk.”
“Please don’t tell me more.” I rolled my eyes. Most of my friends were geeky, queer kinksters in the overshare club. I was the rare vanilla straight guy of the bunch. I would say I was a unicorn, but apparently, that had different connotations amid my poly friends.
The door to Tai’s condo creaked as Wes swept into the room with the smooth sort of grace I envied. He was a ballet dancer in the Joffrey company, and watching the guy perform was a next-level experience. Tai sometimes joked that hewas starting a collective of successful friends so he didn’t have to call in strangers for favors, but he seemed to know the entirety of Chicago from some of the top lawyers to the sanitation guys. Not shocking, since Tai worked as an upscale stylist and talked to people all day.
“Did you start playing without me?” Wes asked, swiping his thick blond strands away from his forehead. The guy had the perfect physique, honed from years in dance, and the sort of pretty green eyes that had men and women flocking to him at the clubs. I glanced down at my chest. Maybe I should’ve done a few more reps at the gym this morning. When I wasn’t in a relationship, I tended to put more time in, and since no one ever stayed with me for long, my gym game had always been strong.
“No, because I’m busy trying to convince Beck to go on a blind double date,” Tai said, turning on his TV and then hopping up to grab controllers.
“Trying and failing,” I grumbled. “You still haven’t even told me which girl you want me to meet.”
“My friend Maisie.” Tai plunked back down beside me, nudging me over to the end. “She’s so creative and sweet. I’d try to hook you up with Alex, but I think you guys would fight too much. One of my clients is an adorable puppy, and he’d be a better choice for Alex.”
“Puppy as in…?” I asked.
Tai flicked me on the shoulder. “Not the kink kind.”
“Hey, that’s a fair ask with this crew,” I responded with a shrug as I accepted a controller. Wes settled into the seat on the opposite end, and Tai turned the system on.
