“Thank you for introducing me to Charlotte,” I told him once we were both tucked back into our pants and presentable to be seen in public.
“It’s a big deal, you know. First Charlotte and then my parents.” Gabe waggled his eyebrows then dropped a kiss on my lips and slid his fingers between mine before he tugged me toward the door.
“I can’t wait to drive her once the weather turns nice,” I said, knowing full well he wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
“No one drives Charlotte but me,” Gabe predictably said.
“Fine, Detective Butt Breath, but that means you can never ever take a spin on my pole.” The thought of Gabe’s much larger body spinning on my pole nearly had me laughing out loud. I adored him, but graceful and fluid weren’t words I associated with Gabe, not even during sex.
Gabe stopped and turned to face me once we were outside his rental unit. “Which pole are you talking about?” His question caught me off guard. Did he mean that he wanted to bottom? For me? Gabe opened his mouth to answer me, but the loud, rumbling sound of a diesel pickup truck stopped him. We turned our heads sharply and watched as a dark truck with tinted windows drove between rows of units a few buildings down from his. I could tell his mind was in a place far away from sex.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” he replied.
I could tell by the grim line his lips formed on his face and the way that he gripped the steering wheel that his good humor and post-coital bliss seemed to have evaporated. He looked tense and coiled to react to something, but it didn’t take me long to figure out why once we were on the road heading back toward Blissville.
The large black or dark gray truck came speeding up behind us and nearly hit us as it went around us, blowing black smoke all over the front of Gabe’s car so that we choked on the fumes that came through the vents.
“I can’t believe you had sex with that guy,” Gabe said angrily.
“Who?”
“That’s Sampson’s truck,” Gabe informed me. “I saw it parked outside your salon yesterday.”
“Oh,” I replied. “Hey, you can’t blame me for who I slept with ten or eleven years ago. I was a dumb kid who wanted to be loved.” In some ways, not a lot had changed. I was no longer dumb, or a kid, but I really wanted to be loved–especially by the man sitting to the left of me.
“I know, babe, and I’m sorry that I said that.” Gabe blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t trust him or the fact that he happened to be at the same storage units as us at the exact same time.”
“You think he followed us?” I asked. That seemed like way too much effort from the Billy I knew.
“I saw the look in his eye and heard the determination in his voice when he said it wasn’t over,” Gabe replied fiercely. He glanced over at me before returning his eyes to the road. “He can’t have you because you’re mine.” I was about to preen in my seat until he said, “Even though you called me Detective Butt Breath after I made you come so hard you sang soprano.”
“Well, you did just have your tongue in my ass,” I told him.
“Which I later put in your mouth, so that makes you a Butt Breath too.” He had a valid point and… eww. I hadn’t thought about it until he said something. “So that means you kind of licked your own asshole.”
“I hate you.”
Gabe laughed because he knew it was the furthest thing from the truth.
JOSH MADE ME FEELa bevy of new emotions and most of them were amazing, but I really could do without the jealousy. How had I lived thirty-six years and not been jealous prior to meeting him? I never had a problem sharing my toys with my older brother when we were little. I never got jealous when one of my friends picked up a new buddy and started spending time with them. I never got jealous when a guy I was involved with noticed other men nor did I resent that they had a past prior to me coming into their lives. Why now? Why Josh?
Because you’re crazy in love for the first time.I had only known Josh for such a short period of time, and most of that was spent hissing and spitting at one another or fucking, yet I had never been more certain of my feelings for anyone as I was with him. The thought of him with someone other than me made me ill and it didn’t matter how unreasonable my feelings were. Hell, my ex lived in the same damn town as us and Josh wasn’t insanely jealous–or at least not that he showed me. So why couldn’t I get past a relationship that ended almost a decade before I met Josh?
Because there’s something really off about Billy Sampson.I knew it the moment I met him that he was a jerk and it took me all of a minute or less to learn he was a homophobic jerk–or so I thought. It turned out that he really hated himself and the fact that he was attracted to other men. Those types of people were often more violent than a regular homophobe. I should’ve pitied him rather than been jealous of his existence, but I was angry that he got to see an innocent Josh that the world hadn’t turned cynical and even angrier that he was part of the reason for Josh building walls around his heart.
I wanted that heart all to myself and I wanted it given to me freely. I needed Josh to be able to look into my eyes and tell me exactly how he felt about me without hiding his emotions behind snarky comments and sex. I craved the moment that Josh could be completely real with me and not worry that he would be let down and disappointed again. I also knew that I needed to earn that privilege with more than just words, which was why I pushed aside all of my irrational jealous feelings over his past with Billy Sampson so that I wouldn’t ruin our day with a foul mood–especially after the sexy moment we shared in my storage unit.
I ended up taking Josh to run his errands rather than drop him off back at his house because I wanted to spend more time with him. I enjoyed our trip to Brook’s Pets, but I could go the rest of my life without returning to the grocery story on a Sunday afternoon.
“What the hell is going on here?” I asked in disbelief. The parking lot was packed with cars and there were only two grocery carts left in the corral inside the store. “Is there a blizzard coming?” Every time the forecaster mentioned snow, regardless if it was a dusting or two feet, people ran to the store and bought out the bread and milk. Ohioans were strange individuals sometimes.
“It’s Sunday at noon,” Josh replied, as if that made any sense at all. He rolled his eyes when I just looked at him like he was from another planet. “All of thegoodpeople have just left church and they’re grabbing their groceries before they go home. If I wasn’t still blissed out from the O you gave me then I might be a little upset with you for making me arrive later than normal. I always get here and back home before the madness.”
“You think we’re bad because we don’t attend church?” I asked him curiously.
“Not at all,” he replied. “It was just something that was stressed by the older generation when I was younger. If you didn’t go to church, then you were going to hell. Now, I get to go to hell for a much better reason.” He rolled his eyes again at me and said, “No, I don’t really believe that either. I’m just once again repeating the shit I’ve heard over the years, and not necessarily from people in my community.” I wasn’t overly religious, but I was glad to hear that Josh didn’t think he was unworthy of His love like he had in the past with the men He created. “God loves everyone,” he said confidently before he added, “especially those who make the world a more beautiful place.” I knew when he pointed to himself he was referring to his career and not his looks, well, that was until he licked his finger and ran it over his eyebrow.
