“Entirely,” the guy corrected, beaming up at him.
“Gage,” John agreed, giving him a fond look. He dragged the man up against his side. “He’s my new boyfriend.”
My stomach cramped like a giant had clenched it in his enormous fist and squeezed tightly. To the best of my knowledge, John hadn’t dated anyone since last December, and they’d never gotten serious enough for him to invite the guy over to our place. The man had been history by Christmas, and John had spent New Year’s Eve withme. So to hear him call this other guy his boyfriend was… horrifying.
“He’s what?” I repeated softly.
“Oh, John,” the Goodman person simpered in this cloying,utterly fake sort of way as my sweet pure John smiled down at him, steady and calm and unshakable as ever.
What. the. fuck? Could John not see that this guy wasn’t really into him? My protective instincts—yes, it turned out I had some—kicked in, and I set my jaw.
“Did you get him drunk on purpose?” I demanded of Goodman, probably way too loudly. “Are you trying to take advantage of him?”
Goodman acted all shocked and innocent, but I knew better.
“Goodman,” Knox said impatiently, coming up on the man’s other side. “What the hell are you doing?”
Precisely what I wanted to know.
“Knox!” The little asshole sounded way too happy. “Hey! Meet John. He’s my… we’re… boyfriends, so…”
He droned on and on about whatever the fuck, but I wasn’t listening. I was too busy staring at John, who looked miserable, and defiant, and… andmiserable.
“—Grindr hookup?” Knox said, looking from John to Goodman.
I gasped. “John! You were on Grindr?” The betrayal of it all! “You said you weren’t doing that anymore. You pinky promised.”
“I…” John looked at Goodman guiltily. “It’s…”
“We didn’t meet on Grindr,” Goodman said. “We met at the bar earlier. The specifics are all a blur, but we’re very committed. Aren’t we, honey bear?”
I pressed a hand to my stomach.Honey bear?
“Committed,” John agreed, looking at me sadly. Then he let Goodman spin him back into the crush of dancing bodies.
Oh, God, how mortifying. John clearly hadn’t been that upset about the idea of me being with Other-John if he’d moved on this quickly, and yet here I was, practically stalking him at the bar. I needed to leave, immediately, before I did something that really would ruin my friendshipwith John far more than a declaration of affection would have.
I turned to leave… and Knox blocked my path.
“Let’s dance,” he said again. “Trust me.”
I didn’t really want to, but I was obviously a glutton for punishment, because I let him take my hand and spin me through the crowd until we were standing next to John and Goodman again.
We got there just in time to see John spin the man around and hold him so that John’s broad chest was plastered to Goodman’s back and John’s big hand was on the man’s hip as they swayed.
Knox was a decent dancer, and he kept our bodies moving in time, which I was distantly grateful for. Meanwhile, the entire focus of my consciousness was centered on John’s hand where it held Goodman in place. It was so wrong, so fuckingwrong, to see him holding someone else while feeling in my bones that it should have been me in his arms instead.
The flashing lights caught on John’s soulful eyes, highlighted the fine filaments of his beard, caught a drop of sweat that rolled from his temple to his cheek. Goodman reached behind him, wrapping his arm around the back of my John’s neck, pulling John down to whisper something in his ear that made John’s eyelids flutter momentarily.
It felt unbearably intimate, watching him like this, and I knew that if John looked at me, there’d be no way to hide my hurt, let alone my overwhelming jealousy.
I lifted up on my tiptoes and pulled Knox’s head down. “Sorry, but I think I need to go. I?—”
Goodman stumbled into me, knocking me sideways. “Oops! My bad!” He smirked at me, but his gaze kept straying to the place where I was touching Knox.
Oh, really.
I narrowed my eyes and very deliberately ran a hand through Knox’s hair.
