“Wait,” I gasped.
“Was that on purpose?” he asked with his back to me and his hand on the doorknob. “It was good until… until that.” His shoulders hunched.
“Well, yeah? That’s not even anything bad. I’m sure you’ve had far worse.”
He left and didn’t bother closing the door behind himself. Stunned for a second, I stared after him. All at once I threw myself to my feet and searched madly for my swim briefs on the floor, and then spied my trousers nearby from when I’d changed earlier and pulled them on instead.
Hurrying out of the room, I spotted Corbin lounging idly where I’d left him, with his eyebrows raised and malice etched across his face.
“Which way?”
He pointed down the hall in a very unhelpful manner, and though I liked to think of myself as spry, Forrest was nowhere to be seen. Hurrying along, I cursed under my breath as the niggling sense I’d fucked up plagued me.
Was Forrest still undecided whether or not he was done with Rourke, and I’d made a bad play? Groaning, I changed course from my fruitless search. If that was the case, I needed to find Rourke first and apologize, if I didn’t want to wake up with a bullet somewhere I enjoyed just as it was. Scrubbing my hands over my face, I growled and headed for the first floor to see this through, one way or another. Fuck Rourke Tormey. If he had something that lovely and wasn’t taking care of him, maybe what he needed was a good punch to the nose to wake him up.
4
Hunter
It was taking me a long time to find Forrest’s room as I wandered the Exotic Virtue. I thought maybe I needed to go up a flight of stairs but wasn’t sure.Why didn’t I ask him his name?The question boomed through my brain, rising to the front of my mind again every time I turned another corner, so that twenty minutes later I still wasn’t paying attention to where the hell I was going. He would have known I wasn’t Forrest if I’d asked his name. Besides, I’d never see that man again—ever. My gut twisted and I wished I hadn’t left.
He’d kissed me like I meant something. One afternoon, Barnes had cornered me in the stockroom we kept full of extras for the bar. He’d backed me into a corner and mashed his lips against mine. It was bad. I’d hated it and shoved him off.
This guy hadn’t been like that. Yeah, he’d surprised me when he got a little rough, and, fine, he’d scared me some, but that wasn’t anything new. He wouldn’t want to see me again, anyway. He thought I was a pay-by-the-hour guy, and that I was garbage at my job, too, so whatever.
The taste of him lingered on my lips and I licked them, hoping the salty tang would stick around a little longer. I’d liked so much about what we’d done. Huffing out a sigh, I came to a stop in a section of hallway I thought was familiar, and was surprised when instead of finding Forrest’s room… I was back at that man’s door. His friend, who he’d talked to before we… did what we did… had a shoulder leaned against the wall while he scrolled through his phone. He glanced up at me and then straightened.
“You’re back?”
“Uh, not on purpose.” My face heated, and he tilted his head. “I’m a little lost. This is my first time here, at the… at the Exotic Virtue.”
He slid his phone back into his pocket, and the corner of his mouth twitched downward. “That’s news. I saw ya downstairs with yourmister.” He eyed me in a way that would have made Undertaker proud and had my skin crawling.
“My brother. That was my brother.” I forced myself to stand still and be stared at without dropping my gaze. “And I was trying to find him, my brother, Forrest, I mean, but… do you think he’d mind if—” I pointed at the door next to us.
“His name’s Jamie.” The man straightened to his full height and smirked at me. “Ya didn’t even know that, did ya?”
Finally I cracked and glanced at the floor. “No.” But I liked that.Jamie.So many of the men I met had names that weren’t anything real, like Reaper and Undertaker and Jester. ButJamie—that name belonged to a real person.
He let out the type of sigh I used to hear from my teachers when I sat in the back of the classroom and drew pictures instead of doing math problems. “Lord, help us. Come on, lad. You’re Forrest’s brother, then? Rourke’s man’s brother?”
“Yeah.”
He strolled over and whapped my arm in a friendly way that had me relaxing a little. “Christ, kid, you’re a dead ringer for ’im.” The man began to snicker. “Jamie’s gone, lookin’ for ya, I think. Probably looking for a whole heap of trouble as well. I’ll deliver ya home. This place is rambling.”
“Thanks.”
He gave me a friendly smile, the type that wasn’t anything except nice. I found myself relaxing further as he easily walked us around a few hallways, down one I’d missed on my last circuit of this floor, up some stairs, and then directly to a door I recognized as Forrest’s, especially since I could hear his voice rising and falling clearly on the other side. He sounded unhappy.Fuck.How was I messing up so much stuff already?
“Thanks again… uh—” I wiped my palms on my thighs and frantically tried to think.
“Corbin.” He stuck out his hand and shook with me. “And where will ya be staying? I suspect I’ll be asked to track ya down later.” His voice had that same Irish song in it that Jamie’s did.
Glancing at Forrest’s door again, I frowned back at him. “Don’t know. I’m not from here. I’m from New Gothenburg. Visiting.”
“Long way from home.”
“Yeah.”
