“Wait until you eat his food,” Gabe said proudly like our guest had commented about something as docile as the weather and not propositioning him.
I turned away from my guests, intending to make my way to the kitchen to start carrying food to the table. I pinned Gabe with a glare that let him know I wasn’t happy that he left out the parts about Slick Silver trying to steal my man. I was busy planning my retaliation tactics when his arms snaked around my waist and pulled me back against his chest.
“Don’t spit in his food,” Gabe whispered in my ear.
“It was your food that was in jeopardy, not his,” I confessed, although I’d never do anything so tacky. I turned in his arms so that I could look up into his beautiful eyes. The thing was, I knew Gabe was a good-looking guy and when you added in his personality and character, he became devastatingly sexy. I couldn’t blame Oversexed Silver, or anyone else for that matter, from wanting a piece of my man. I just didn’t like being caught off guard in my home. “I’m planning more devious ways of torturing you.”
“Ohhhh, the chair and cuffs again?” he asked hopefully. Someone cleared their throat, letting us know Gabe wasn’t as quiet as he probably intended.
I leaned closer and pressed my lips to his ear. “Much worse, baby. Think restrained handsanda cock ring that won’t let you come no matter how badly you ache.” I couldn’t get the image out of my mind once the words left my lips and I knew for sure that I’d be making a special stop to purchase a cock ring on my way home from my interview with Channel Eleven in Cincinnati.
Gabe closed his eyes briefly and whimpered softly. “Evil,” he said, but his wicked smile told me how much he loved the idea. His confident gaze said he could take whatever I dished out, but we’d just have to see about that. I took his smile as a challenge; one I would not fail.
“Should we leave?” Meredith asked good-naturedly.
“Speak for yourself. I’m not leaving here until I get some of that ham.”
I tore my eyes away from Gabe and turned to look at Kyle. I was so dialed into Gabe that I hadn’t heard the doorbell ring. “You made it after all,” I said happily.
“You sound a little too eager, Sunshine.” Gabe peered at me through eyes that were narrowed into slits, as if he just learned thatIwas the one fighting them off instead ofhim.
“I hope you wore pants with an elastic waistband on them,” I told Kyle. “I bought a second ham just for you.”
“Yeah?” he asked hopefully. “These jeans might be a little too tight.” Chaz was standing behind Kyle and doing his best not to stare at his ass, but failing miserably. “I should’ve worn maternity pants like Chandler onFriendsin the Christmas episode.”
“It was Joey and Thanksgiving,” Chaz said suddenly, then turned bright red.
Kyle turned to face Chaz, who luckily had shifted his eyes upward in time, so Kyle didn’t catch him ogling his ass. “Yeah, it was Joey at Thanksgiving.”
“Let me help you get the food on the table while it’s still hot,” Meredith suggested. She grabbed my arm and tugged me away from Gabe. “You have some serious explaining to do. I feel like I’m in an episode of a soap opera or something.”
“Yeah,” Chaz hissed from behind us. “What’s up with Striker Ramoray in there?” he asked, continuing with theFriendstheme.
“Or maybe it’s Nate with a brain transplant like Dr. Drake Ramoray,” I replied sarcastically before I changed my voice to a pleading tone. “Come on, guys. Gabe found out about him during his investigation into Nate’s death. I very well couldn’t blab his secrets.”
“So much for besties before testies,” Chaz said with an exaggerated eye roll.
Meredith and I burst into raucous laughter, earning the stares from everyone else. We laughed until we had to lean on him for support. I was so happy to see that he hadn’t lost his sense of humor due to the awkwardness of having Kyle there. Chaz began repeating some of Drake Ramoray’s best lines as we carried the food to the table.
I was even happier to see the smile on Chaz’s face when Kyle joined in on the fun. I glanced over at Gabe, and he winked playfully at me. I thought that maybe my scheme wasn’t so harebrained after all. I puckered up my lips at him in a mock kiss, but he need not think I forgot about the bomb Silver Ramoray dropped on me.
RELATIONSHIPS WERE NOT NEWto me, I mean, my ex-boyfriend had joined us for Easter dinner for Christ’s sake.Believe it or not, and I was sure that Josh fell into theor notcategory, I didn’t have dudes flashing their cocks at me all the damn time or propositioning me. Was I supposed to tell Josh about that stupid shit? Was he supposed to tell me every time a guy sized him up like he was thinking about trying Josh’s ass on for size? I had seen it with my own eyes so he need not pretend that guys didn’t find him attractive. I trusted him, and I didn’t need to hear how other guys wanted him.
Josh was new to relationships and just because something didn’t bother me didn’t mean that it wouldn’t annoy him. It wasn’t my place to tell him what should or shouldn’t be an issue for him, but I could assure him that it made no difference how many guys wagged their cocks in my direction. I had the one that I wanted. Although I’d been in relationships before, I had never been in one with so much at stake. Josh was my be-all and end-all, and I wouldn’t risk fucking it up. So, if he wanted me to tell him every time I rejected a dude, I’d do it.
Although, I’d gladly take the punishment he was cooking up for me. He wanted to see how many times I could make him come before I busted a nut and I wasupfor that. Thankfully, Kyle showed up and provided the distraction I needed to get my mind off sex with a house full of people, two of whom were new to our little circle.
Josh and his two cohorts giggling in the kitchen made me smile, and I was happy that Chaz recovered from his initial shock at seeing that Kyle had shown up. It tickled me when Kyle and Chaz started saying lines from a TV show to one another. Maybe Josh was onto something with them.
The smells coming from the kitchen had me salivating so much that I almost missed how Emory kept glancing at Jonathon with a worried expression on his face. I wouldn’t say that I put a lot of stock in psychic phenomenon, but Emory clearly believed in it. Did he see something? Was Jonathon in trouble? I wanted to ask, but it wasn’t exactly the right time or place.
Josh made enough food to feed more than twice the number of people who arrived for dinner. His fancy china was pretty, but I wished the plates were bigger and held more food. Kyle elbowed his way to the ham, not caring who was in his way. I noticed that Meredith lingered around the food longer than normal and thought it was odd until I saw her glance to see where Chaz and Kyle sat. Normally, Meredith sat across from Chaz, but it looked like she was hoping Kyle would sit across from him instead. She was wrong; Kyle sat directly next to Chaz. She did a happy little shimmy that she thought no one saw until I chuckled softly. She took her normal seat, Emory sat beside her, and Jonathon surprised me by sitting next to Emory. The seat on the other side of Kyle was empty, and I wondered if Josh had schemes to fill it on the next holiday gathering.
Meredith said grace, as she did every Sunday, and everyone dug in. God, the food my man could make was out of this world. No one had time to do any talking for the first few minutes because we were too busy shoveling food into our mouths. We acted like cavepeople, grunting our appreciation for Josh’s efforts.
Emory recovered his manners first and said, “So, how did the two of you meet?” He looked at Josh and me, so I knew he was talking about us. Josh was the better storyteller, so I gestured for him to tell it.
“Once upon a time, a boorish, brute for a detective walked into a salon owned by a sweet and sensitive man.” Meredith snorted, earning a brief glare from Josh. “Detective Tall, Dark, and Dickish had stopped by to ask the sweetheart questions about a crime he potentially witnessed.” We all listened as Josh wildly embellished our first encounters, although I noticed he didn’t mention the time he came to my house with cookies and rode me like I was his favorite carnival ride. I didn’t add anything or correct him until he said, “I was trying to fight the assailant off when Gabe came to my rescue. He hollered for the man to freeze, but he kept pushing the knife closer to my chest. Gabe shot the mirror, and it pulled my would-be killer’s attention off stabbing me long enough for Gabe to shoot him.”
