“Remind me againwhy we’re here?” Zach accepted a beer from the bartender, then stood with his back to the bar. Sam was busy with Darius, checking out the security system like he’d promised.
“Because you love and miss me.” Marcus smirked over the rim of his glass of scotch. He searched the club until he found what—or rather who—he was looking for, and his smile faded. A party of regulars, whom Marcus knew had money to burn, surrounded a bare-chested Tyler, whose perfectly sculpted abdomen and powerfully muscled thighs gleamed when the lights hit his exposed, lightly oiled skin.
“Yeah, but I can barely hear you over the music, and I just saw you at breakfast today.”
“What?” He couldn’t concentrate with Tyler flirting and grinding his ass to whatever tune the DJ cranked out.
Wide-eyed, Zach leaned over to whisper in his ear. “Oh, is that Tyler? The guy you’re interested in?”
Deliberately turning his back on Tyler’s perfectly shaped ass, Marcus protested. “I’m not interested in him. He’s my employee, and it’s my duty to make sure he’s safe from anyone who may try and hurt him again.”
“Tell me, though.” Zach nudged him, and from behind his glasses, his blue eyes danced with unrestrained glee. “Who’s going to protect him from you?”
“You bastards have made a game of my sex life, and I’ve been going to bed every night for months now with the worst case of blue balls since I was a teenager and discovered how good sex was.” Marcus drained his glass, and once again Antonio, the cute bartender, stood at the ready with a fresh one. Damn, he was very well trained.
“I’m surprised your dick hasn’t fallen off from overuse all these years.” Zach cracked up laughing, and Marcus peered at him with disgust.
“Go ahead and laugh. Just because you’re finally getting it regularly you think you can hold it over me.”
With a sympathetic smile, Zach patted Marcus on his cheek. “It’s not that. I thought by now maybe you’d have learned to see things differently. That a loving and stable relationship was something you’d want to have instead of run away from.”
“Why?” Whistles and clapping sounded from behind him, in the area where he knew Tyler danced. It took considerable fortitude for Marcus not to turn around and instead, continue his conversation with Zach. “Why do you think you and Julian have all the answers to what makes me happy?”
At once serious, Zach placed his beer bottle on the bar and gazed up at him. “Because you’re not. Happy I mean. Happiness isn’t about endless guys and drinking every night to forget whatever it is that made you so gun-shy of relationships.”
“Why is your definition of happy the right one?”
“Because you watch us when you think no one’s looking, and I see the sadness in your eyes. Don’t forget I know you better than anyone here, maybe even better than you know yourself.”
Marcus couldn’t dispute that fact, so instead he remained stubbornly silent.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be loved, Marcus. Or with loving yourself.”
Sam joined them then, and Marcus watched Zach light up in ways he never had in all the years he’d known him. The two of them made each other happy now, but for how long? How long would it take until Sam decided his way was the only way, pressuring Zach to follow or tossing him aside?
A love like they had made a person weak, bending to the will of someone else instead of taking control. Even Julian, who Marcus always believed put business before the personal, had signed over half his company to his assistant Melanie. None of these changes had taken place until his friends fell in love.
Love was the culprit; the enemy of independence and self-reliance. He didn’t have to look far—his own mother had spent her life waiting patiently every night for his father to come home, making herself sick to keep the house and everything in it perfect. Marcus was glad he wasn’t dependent on such sentiments and enjoyed his own company.
Love, Marcus decided, seeing Tyler pressed between two men as he danced, was for the weak. Lucky for him, he was strong and focused.
The touch of skin damp with sweat, a hot, wet mouth against his—that was his reality. All he required was a willing body, and right now, that was Tyler. The palpable sensuality rolling off Tyler’s body called to him, and Marcus, already frustrated by the man’s don’t-touch-me attitude, couldn’t see the need to hold back any longer. He downed half his drink and with purposeful strides pushed his way through the dancing crowd, moving away from the sweaty writhing bodies until he reached the group surrounding Tyler.
“We were wondering if you were ever going to join us.” Jerry Connelly pulled him close for a quick bear hug. “Not that the entertainment isn’t keeping us busy.”
The flash of lights hit Tyler’s face, and Marcus lost his concentration. With his eyes closed and a slight smile tipping up the corners of his sensuous mouth, Tyler’s face was a study of the raw passion he held so tightly in check when he wasn’t on the dance floor.
“He’s hot and eager. You hired a winner.”
Marcus paid Jerry no attention, deciding if everyone else had a taste of Tyler, he, the boss, should have one too.
“Step aside, gentlemen, and watch the professional at work.” Marcus took the place of the man grinding behind Tyler and easily fell into the sway of the music. He rested his hands lightly on Tyler’s hips and pressed his rapidly stiffening cock into the cleft of Tyler’s ass. He didn’t count this as cheating on the bet. He wasn’t having sex, although his poor neglected cock was hard and ready to bust loose.
Holding Tyler’s pliant body, Marcus drifted; the pounding music and din of the crowded club faded in the background until all he could hear was the beating of his heart. Tyler leaned back and hummed into Marcus’s neck, and Marcus couldn’t help but slide his arms around Tyler’s sweat-slicked body to hold him close.
Tyler arched up against him, thrusting Marcus’s cock deeper between the globes of that round, perfect ass of his. “Umm, baby, you smell better than any man I’ve ever had. Go on and rub yourself up on me.”
The fight for self-control was an epic battle Marcus was more than willing to lose at this point. Uncaring that they were on the dance floor and in full public view, Marcus knew he had to kiss Tyler right then.
