“Beatin’ somethin’ on ya is exactly what you’re anglin’ for,” Cade said with a chuckle as he drained the last of his drink witha wet slurp. “We’re just tryin’ to make sure the new guy knows the score.”
“Sounds like he already knows what’s up,” Clay told him with a scowl. “And in case you didn’t notice, he didn’t tell me no.”
“Oh, does that work? Then, no,” I told him, trying not to laugh when I saw his expression falter for a moment.
“Yeah, well, I’ve heard that before, and sometimes all it takes is for them to linger in this place, get bored and horny enough, and then suddenly I’ve got someone at my door looking for something they said no to previously,” he said with a shrug. “And sometimes they don’t.”
“Sometimes they even get to be your best friend,” Cade said with a snort. “He really tried gettin’ with me the first few weeks we were here.”
“Okay, but can you blame me?” Clay asked with a huff, gesturing toward Cade. “Wall of friendly muscle. I was getting mixed messages. But no, he had to be straight, so now I’ve got a Labrador in human form for a friend. Or maybe a mastiff is better.”
“You are quite handsome,” I told Cade, who beamed at the praise.
“See? That’s how ya tell someone you’re into ’em,” Cade said, poking Clay, making him yelp and jerk back from the touch. “Not...well, I ain’t repeatin’ what ya said the one time.”
“That was a joke,” Clay protested. “I wouldn’t say that to someone seriously!”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, not someone who wasn’t interested in me to begin with. I’d save saying something like that for someone who was down for that sort of thing.”
I squinted. “Now I want to know.”
Cade grimaced. “It ain’t very polite.”
“Fun fact; you aren’t going to offend me easily,” I told him.
“And why’s that?” Clay asked, looking at me curiously.
“Don’t,” Luka muttered.
“I was an escort for over five years. There aren’t many things you could be into or say that would bother me,” I said with a shake of my head, watching with amusement as Clay’s annoyed expression at Cade snapped back to me with interest.
“I told him if he didn’t stop messing with me, I was going to find a way to hold him down and suck his soul out through his dick and give it back to him through his ass,” Clay said, watching my reaction carefully.
“A bold claim,” I said, appreciating the confidence with which he said it. I hoped, for his sake, he could back that ‘threat’ up if someone called him out on it; otherwise he was going to end up being nothing but talk at the end of the day.
“One I’m more than happy to back up if you’re going to be a skeptic,” he shot back with a smirk.
“You wouldn’t be the first man I’ve turned down an offer like that from,” I said with a shrug. “And unless I happen to keel over before the next one, you won’t be the last.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” he said, then cocked his head. “Or do you?”
“Clay,” Luka said in a grave voice. “Don’t start making jokes about his previous job, that’s tacky.”
“And rude,” Cade told him, pushing him hard enough that Clay had to flail to stay in his seat.
“And not helping your attempt to get in my pants either,” I said, raising a brow. Not that I had any intention of letting him sleep with me, or that I was all that bothered by his joke. Thick skin was the name of the game when you dealt with people intimately, and mine was thick enough that a rhino would be envious. Still, it was fun to watch him keep whipping back and forth between having a flicker of horny hope and falling back into respectful disappointment. I had already told him no, buthope, as they said, sprang eternal, and he was clearly not one to let go of hope easily.
“Ohhhh, so there is a chance then?” he asked, making me snort because that was absolutely on brand for him.
Cade shook his head. “Ya should probably walk away now before he starts gettin’ any more ideas that he don’t need to be havin’.”
“Good idea,” Luka said with a roll of his eyes. “C’mon, I can show you some of the facilities we have. We’ll probably run into some of the other guys around here, and thankfully, most of them are like Cade, not Clay.”
“Hey, as a Guide, are you supposed to say stuff that could hurt my self-esteem?” Clay asked with a hand to his chest.
“Your self-esteem can survive the hit, I’m sure,” Luka told him with a shake of his head. “C’mon.”
