“More than one at a time?” I couldn’t resist teasing him a little.
“No! Jeez, no. Why would you think that?”
“You said you hooked up with guys, plural, so again, just making sure. You do you, sweetheart. I’ve seen it all, and I don’t judge.”
No truer words had been spoken, and I meant every one of them. As long as it was between consenting adults—and consent to me did involve a little more than not being drunk or high off your arse—it was all fine with me.
Hell, I’d participated in my fair share of threesomes and even a few gang bangs over the years, and they’d been grand fun at the time. I wasn’t picky as long as everyone involved was enthusiastic and of sound mind. Three hundred years gives you plenty of opportunity to explore, and I’d taken advantage of most of them. Though I had to admit, watching Charles blush like a virgin schoolboy was making me think I might prefer something a bit more…intimate these days.
“Oh, okay. No, just one guy at a time. I hook up with one guy at a time.”
“And your type?”
“Erm, my type would be…” The blush returned in full force. “I don’t think I really have a type. Small towns, you know? Not exactly a lot of options. So if a guy is willing and available, as in not married, I’m good.”
That was an awfully low bar. “So you’d hook up with an eighteen-year-old?”
He looked horrified, his eyes widening in shock,and he actually leaned back in his chair as if physically recoiling from the very idea. “Absolutely not! He’d have to be at least twenty-two. That’s ten years younger and about the max for me.”
“And you use the same gap the other way, so ten years older max?”
“Not really. I’ve had sex with older guys, and it has its benefits, you know. Maturity can be sexy, and there’s something to be said for staying power.”
Christ almighty, the lad had no idea what he was doing to me. The way he said “staying power” with that innocent little blush made my cock twitch in a way that was highly inappropriate for a professional setting. He had no clue he was sitting across from someone who could show him exactly what centuries of practice could accomplish. My mind went straight to all the ways I could demonstrate my particular brand of maturity, and none of them involved keeping my hands to myself.
Focus. “So maybe twenty years older?”
He nodded.
“And you said he had to be unmarried.”
“Yes. Well, I mean single. You can be unmarried and not single, so let’s go with single.”
“Gotcha.” I was pleased to find he drew that line. El wasn’t a fan of adultery—and neither was I. “And does he need to have a certain kind of job?”
He waved his hand in a vague gesture. “Not really. I mean, I do appreciate a man who knows how to use his hands, you know? They’re often a little more…intense.”
Intense? “Rough. You mean rough.”
I didn’t think I’d ever grow tired of watching him blush. “I suppose so. Yes, I do prefer a more…vigorous lover.”
Vigorous. He was killing me here. The way he kept finding these polite, innocent words for what he clearly wanted—a good, hard fuck—was doing things to me that had nothing to do with professional duty. I shifted in my chair, trying to ignore the way my cock was responding to the mental image of showing this sweet baker exactly how vigorous I could be. Three hundred years, and I’d never wanted to corrupt someone quite this badly.
“So you do have a type. You like guys who are roughly between twenty-two and fifty-two who work with their hands. That’s a type, sweetheart.”
He looked surprised. “If you put it like that, I guess I do.”
“Well, the age shouldn’t be an issue, but unless you consider police work to be a blue-collar manual job. Although technically, our uniforms are blue, so we do have literal blue collars. And?—”
“A cop is fine,” Charles said. “If he’s within that age group and single, he’s fine.”
“Single?” I quirked an eyebrow. “He’ll be pretending to be your boyfriend, not actually hooking up with you, so why would he need to be single?”
Strawberries had nothing on Charles’s cheeks now. “I meant… Of course I know that. I thought that, you know, his partner wouldn’t approve of him spending so much time with another guy while also pretending to be his boyfriend?”
I decided to let him off the hook. As much as I enjoyed watching him squirm, I needed to stay on his good side. “Sure, sure. All good. Well, I’d say it’s your lucky day because I have someone who fits the bill, but of course, the whole situation is anythingbut lucky.”
“Yes, lucky is not how I would describe it.” His eyes narrowed. “Who’s the cop?”
