“Stay. Let’s go to my office, and we’ll talk.”
He expected her to argue, so it took a moment for him to realize she was nodding in agreement.
Without a second of hesitation, he took her hand, linking their fingers, and led her out of the dining room.
“Can you keep an eye on the girls?” he asked his mother as he passed the kitchen.
“Of course.” Kaye flashed a smile, the kind that told him she was well aware of the progress they were making.
As they walked through the living room, neither girl looked up from the television as they talked animatedly about what was happening. Evan kept going, leading Becs to his office/man cave, which was the only place in the house where he could find any solitude whatsoever.
Once inside, he closed and locked the door before releasing Becs’s hand. He wanted to hold her again, but he resisted the urge. Making out with this woman was high on his wish list, too, but they needed to talk.
It was, after all, the responsible thing to do.
Chapter Fourteen
After Slade dropped him off at JJ’s, Atticus got in his truck and headed for McDonald’s. He ate what turned out to be breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the parking lot alone. When he was finished, he sat some more, trying to convince himself that he would be better off going to Dallas tonight rather than sticking around. He knew if he stayed, he would likely end up doing something that he was going to regret in the morning.
For example, ignore all the warning bells and go to Carson’s tonight for a replay of last night.
Or … worse than that … he would ignore thenewwarning bells that told him he needed to steer clear of Slade Elliott before he found himself wanting to fuck the guy.
Oh, who was he kidding? He wanted that now.
At the same time, Atticus didn’t want the complications that came along with either of these men. They had a history together. They lived across the street from one another. Atticus worked with Slade. Those were more than enough reasons to walk away now and not get tangled in their mess.
This was the reason he didn’t do relationships. Shit had the ability to get complicated fast. Too fast.
And to think, for a second, he’d thought Carson would be different. Teach him to get his fucking hopes up.
Now, he had to wonder whether his regret would be related to Carson or Slade. That was the direction his mind was wandering, to not only one of them butboth. And the more he thought about them, the more he wanted to confront them. Not because he was jealous. It started that way, but now he was consumed by a wicked curiosity. He couldn’t stop thinking about Slade’s comment earlier.
Carson wanted to watch me fuck other guys.
Atticus had so many questions about that. For starters, how could Carson be okay with having a guy he was with fucking strangers? Atticus would’ve shit monkeys. Although he wasn’t big on relationships, he appreciated the concept of monogamy. So asking someone he was with to fuck someone else while hewatched… That didn’t sit right with him.
Of course, the thought of Carson fucking Slade while Atticus was present … yeah, okay, so he could see the appeal. But it was more like a taboo porn movie than anything. Two hot guys getting down and dirty … just his cup of tea.
Thinking about that led to him thinking about Carson’s question last night when he asked if Atticus was thinking about him or Slade. He’d been so taken aback by it that he hadn’t considered what it really meant.
You like the idea of me fuckin’ Slade?
He’d be damned if he wasn’t thinking about it now as he sat in his truck in the parking lot of Moonshiners. At first, he’d been wasting time waiting for the bar to open. Then, when it did, he’d continued to sit there, staring out the windshield because he hadn’t gotten up the nerve to go inside.
It was a bad idea all around to entertain the notion of talking to Carson. Atticus knew himself. He knew that if Carson whispered one dirty word in his ear, he’d be naked in under a minute. He was a slut. There was no other way to put it, and he was even more of a slut when he knew how good it would feel to be at the man’s mercy.
And it would feel so fucking good. Last night, Carson had rocked his fucking world. Despite the fact he was twisted with confusion, Atticus wanted to feel that again.
Lucky for him, he hadn’t seen Carson or Slade go inside, so he assumed they weren’t there. The parking lot was mostly empty this early, and the vehicles that were there didn’t belong to either man.
One beer.
He could have one beer and then be on his merry way. If Carson didn’t show up, he could get in his truck and head to Dallas.
But if Carson did show.
Fuck.
