Cameron let his lips twitch into a smile, as if there was anything he could find even remotely funny about the situation.“Are they kinky—that usually costs extra, you know?”
Franklin clenched his jaw.For several seconds, he was silent.Finally, he seemed to find his voice.“I invited you to have dinner with us, not to…”
“Not to whore myself out to make damn well sure you get the deal?”Cameron finished for him.“You wouldn’t be the first man to want to do that.Corporate hospitality, isn’t that what they call it?”
Franklin’s free hand tightened into a fist at his side as he hung up his suit bag.“We need to set some ground rules.”
“Oh?”Cameron arched his back, casually displaying his body for Franklin’s appreciation as he simultaneously made himself a little more comfortable on the bed and made it very clear he was already thoroughly bored with that topic.
Franklin’s eyes lingered on the movement, as if he was helpless to look away.Still, once he’d cleared his throat, he pushed forward with the same bloody stupid topic.
“If we are to have some sort of arrangement with each other, I’ll expect you to refrain from…” He didn’t seem entirely sure what the most suitable term would be.“Dating other men,” he finally finished.
“Unless it’s in your businesses’ best interests, right?”Cameron sneered.
“I’m quite capable of taking care of my business interests without pimping out my boyfriends,” Franklin snapped.
“So what, I just lie naked in your bed every day waiting for the big important businessman to come home?”Cameron jeered, as confusion and uncertainty swirled inside him, faster than ever.“Thanks, sweetheart, but I’ll decide who I do and don’t screw.I’m no Kefir to be kept collared by any human.”Contempt filled every word—Cameron made sure of that.
If Franklin clenched his teeth any harder, he was going to break a couple of molars.
While part of him writhed with anger, Cameron found another side of himself watching Franklin’s actions with interest, wondering how much it would take to make him lose control, wondering what would happen when he did.
“I don’t have time for this,” Franklin ground out.“Are you joining us for dinner or not?”
“Sure,” Cameron jeered.“What shall I wear, the jeans I was wearing when I left the club in or those leather shorts from the first time you saw me dance?”
Franklin stormed over to the wardrobe and snatched the suit bag from the where he’d hung it on the door.Grabbing the shopping bag on the way past, he tossed both on the bed in front of Cameron.
“Payment for services you hope I’ll render after I take them off?”Cameron snapped.
“No.”
“What then?”Cameron demanded.
“A choice.”
“What?”
“I wanted you to have the choice,” Franklin threw at him.“I wanted you to have something suitable to wear, so you could choose to go out to dinner with me if you wanted to, and not have to worry if you’d be able to blend in.”
He turned away and strode into the en-suite bathroom without another word.A moment later, Cameron heard the shower start.The sound wasn’t followed by any sort of invitation for Cameron to join him in there.
Left alone in the bedroom, Cameron reached out and undid the zip on the front of the suit bag without really thinking about what he was doing.
He ran his fingertips down one of the jacket’s lapels but quickly snatched his hand away then, before his claws could ruin it.It was a good suit—the kind of thing a wealthy man might buy for himself.It couldn’t have been further from the kind of clothes he’d worn in the clubs.It must have cost Franklin a fortune.
As he stared down at it, more and more confusion poured into Cameron’s veins.It didn’t look like the kind of suit a man would buy his whore.He took it out of the bag very carefully and laid it out neatly on the bed.A pair of leather shoes were soon unearthed from the shopping bag.A shirt followed, then a tie, then socks.There was even a pair of boxer briefs in there.
Franklin certainly seemed to have thought of everything…
Cameron stood up.He took several steps away from both the bed and the clothing laid out there.
Standing in the middle of the room, he stilled.His attention went to the en-suite door, then back to the clothes.He took a deep breath.
The chances of a man like Franklin seeing him as anything other than a whore were miniscule.But if there wasanychance…
The same instinct that had drawn Cameron to Franklin from the very first time he sensed his presence in the crowded club screamed inside him again, demanding that, if there was even the remotest possibility, he had to take it.
