“Good,” Max said. “Whatever his angle is, I don’t want anything to do with it.”
His phone rang again. Max groaned even louder than before and wrestled it back out. “How do I block someone? I’ve never done it before.”
Noah looked over at Benji expectantly. Surprisingly enough, Benji looked just as clueless.
“I’ll show you,” Noah offered.
Max handed his phone over. Noah turned the screen to show him, then walked him through it.
The phone stopped ringing. Max sighed in relief.
“Good riddance,” he said, grabbing his phone back. “Okay, I’m gonna go call my friends.”
Noah watched Benji as Max disappeared around the corner. Benji was chewing on his thumbnail, frowning after him.
Noah touched his arm. “What’s the game plan? Want to go in and talk to him?”
“What?” Benji made a face. “No. Not everything needs to betalkedabout. Situation’s handled. No problems.”
“No problems,” Noah echoed uncertainly. Both boys were obviously unsettled, but maybe they needed time to process. Noah heard that was healthy. In his own family, they stuffed everything down, ignored it, and called it “moving on.” He’d only started changing that in his twenties.
Benji caught him looking and narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“Nothing,” Noah said quickly. Max wasn’t the problem; Chet was the problem. Noah would find a way to handle it. But Benji knew how to deal with Max. Noah wasn’t about to interfere.
He stepped closer, slipping an arm around Benji’s waist and rubbing his skin through the threadbare sleep shirt he'd stolen off Noah. “Are you sure you don’t want a bath? I did dirty you up.”
Benji let out a breathy laugh. For a moment, he even smiled, and Noah thought he might really turn this night around.
Then Benji’s smile shrank. He scratched his mouth, frowning when his bitten thumbnail caught on his lip.
“I might go to bed,” he said.
He pulled out of Noah’s grip. The apartment was warm as ever, but to Noah it was like a sudden winter breeze had blown in.
Benji headed toward their bedroom, slouchy and beautiful in Noah’s old sleep shirt and the slacks Noah had brought him. It filled Noah with a hot possessiveness, but more than that:protectiveness.
Benji trusted him to make him feel good. He’d overstepped his boundaries with Benji before, and he was almost certain this was the time to step in, not step back.
He closed the distance and turned him around, hand closing around Benji’s chin.
“Hey,” he said, holding him still when he tried to twist away. “You’re too far in your head, baby. If you want to stay there, you go ahead. But I can get you out of it, if you want.”
Benji had already stopped trying to pull away. He stared up at Noah with those big brown eyes, the guardedness finally draining out of them.
Mostly.
“Okay,” Benji said. “But not with a bath.”
Ten minutes later, he had Benji naked and face-down on the bed. His hands were bound above him in soft red silk.
Noah lingered on the color and made a mental note to buy something gold later. Like Benji’s painting, liquid and dripping.
Benji twisted on the mattress, his cheek pillowed against the sheets. “What are you waiting for?”
“Admiring the view,” Noah replied, swatting his ass cheek. He kept it light, but Benji gasped like it was a proper hit, his cock twitching between his legs.
Noah rubbed Benji’s ass, considering. He needed to overwhelm him. He obviously hadn’t done a good enough job back at the car, but they hadn’t had enough time. They had all the time in the world here.
