“You have. It’s obvious that you both like each other.”
“We don’t,” I argued, albeit weakly. “He said we can’t do this.”
He nodded. “He said youcan’tdo this, not that he didn’t want to.”
Wasn’t that the same thing? I frowned at Vic and brought my hands out of my thigh trap to smooth them over my legs. “His boss hates me.”
“Elwood?” Vic snorted. “He’s a dick.”
I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped my mouth.
He smiled. “There it is. Isn’t that laugh the prettiest?”
Flushing, I ducked my head and mumbled a thank-you. I wasn’t usually this shy, but it wasn’t often anyone paid attention to me.
“So his boss hates you.” He leaned forward toward his desk, his elbows resting on the black metal. “Is that a reason not to have a relationship?”
I picked at my fingernail before I realized what I was doing and stopped. I didn’t want to get pieces of nail on his floor. Glancing up at him, I considered how much of the truth I should tell him. It wasn’t like I had a reason to lie. “I tried to blackmail Deputy Mayor Elwood when he was having sex with his now partner, Jaxson. He couldn’t fire me without making a bigger mess, so they decided to torture me while I worked for them instead.”
“How did that pan out for them?”
I laughed quietly. “Well, JP fucked me.”
He joined in on the laughter but made no attempt to keep it quiet. “And Elwood doesn’t know.”
I shook my head. “He found out today that I was staying with JP.”
“Why is that?” he asked. “How did you go from him torturing you at work to you staying with him in his home?”
“It’s a bit of a long story,” I mumbled, my cheeks growing hotter. “But I kind of left home, and I had nowhere to go, so I was staying at the office. He caught me and offered me a room in his house.”
“Are you still staying with him?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been meaning to look for another place to stay. I can’t….” Dropping my head into my hands so he couldn’t see how red my face probably looked, I groaned. “I really like him. I think about him a lot, about him being my Daddy. But he made it clear he can’t do this.”
Vic made a noise I couldn’t interpret, so I made myself glance at him. He had his hands clasped under his chin, an interested expression on his face. “Let me tell you something, Maxwell. I’ve owned this club for a long time. I’ve played in a lot of different ways with a lot of different kinks. Lots of couples who are very different from each other, but also very much the same, come in here, and I watch them. When you watch these couples, you realize which ones are going to last and which ones aren’t.”
I listened intently, leaning forward.
“What I saw in JP tonight was a man who didn’t want to give you up. He was jealous of you being in that room with me.”
I shook my head and laughed. “That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” Vic raised his eyebrows. “I disagree.”
Frowning, I fell back into my chair and pursed my lips. I thought about JP and his actions today. He’d pretty much ignored me at work, other than lunch, and we’d barely spoken at his house. I’d waited for him to say something, to tell me how much he wanted me, but it hadn’t looked like he was anywhere near close to confessing any feelings.
Vic smirked again. “I have a spare room in my house if you’d like to live somewhere else. I’d expect you to pay some rent and bills. Not much, just some to help.”
I stared at him with wide eyes, thoughts of what else he wanted from me flashing through my mind. An expression must have crossed my face because he laughed.
“I don’t expect sex as payment, Maxwell. It’s clear that you have feelings for JP, and I don’t get involved with boys who like another Daddy. So what we have will be friendship, if you wish to take me up on the offer.”
It sounded like a great idea, but the thought of leaving JP made me twitch in discomfort. I’d only been living with him for a few days, and he’d gone out of his way to make me comfortable. I didn’t miss the way he’d learned how I organized things and kept it like that. My family had made fun of me for my quirk more than once, but JP hadn’t.
“I’m OCD,” I said, stuffing my hands between my thighs again. “I like to unplug all the power cords not in use and reorganize different things in alphabetical order and color code them.”
“Oh.” Vic actually looked surprised before understanding slid across his face. “That’s why you didn’t like the playroom.”
