“Somewhere…I don’t know. Somewhere private, maybe.”
Nowit was Ethan’s turn to swallow around the lust that had tried to escape as soonas Beau said the words. Not wanting to risk what might come out of his mouth,Ethan nodded his head.
Grabbinghis keys from the small office, Ethan followed Beau to the door, his heartpicking up a strange pounding rhythm that he felt as well as heard.
Oncethey were outside, Ethan turned to lock the door only to be stopped when he rememberedthe toolbox still sitting on the flatbed wrecker. He’d left it on the truck thenight before, only because he had completely forgotten it was there, what withall of the evading Beau he’d been doing during the day.
“Thinkwe should get the toolbox down first?”
“Howabout we just drive the wrecker inside?” Beau suggested.
Goodidea. With one of the heavy duty bays empty, the wrecker would easily pullinside without a problem. Reversing his direction, Ethan went back inside tograb the wrecker keys and tossed them to Beau while he went to the controlsthat would open the bay door.
Severalminutes later, Beau had the wrecker pulled inside, and Ethan closed the doorbehind him. Both anxious and nervous, he turned to face Beau, wondering ifthings had changed in the last few minutes. Had Beau come to his senses? Ethandamn sure hadn’t, but he’d realized when it came to Beau, he didn’t thinkclearly most of the time anyway.
“Youstill looking to get out of here?” Ethan asked, trying to remind himself thatthis was Beau’s idea. Not his.
Beau’sdevilish grin sent sparks shooting through his veins. “Yeah.”
“Whatdid you have in mind, Bennett?” he asked, trying to sound more confident thanhe felt. The intense craving that burned like a roaring fire threatened to drophim to the floor any second, and he seriously needed to get his mind onsomething else quickly, or he’d run the risk of thinking this through.
Justwhen Beau was going to say something, the sound of tires on gravel broughtEthan’s attention up short. There, with the absolute worst fucking timing inthe world, was Zane, hauling ass toward them like the cops were on his ass.
Oncethe truck skidded to a halt, Zane climbed out, approaching them with amischievous grin on his face.
“What’sup? Y’all taking a vacation or what?”
Somethinglike that, Ethan thought to himself but didn’t say a word.
“Didyou get your stuff from Dillinger’s yesterday?” Zane asked Beau.
“Yeah.”
“Thanks,by the way, for helping with that,” Zane said to Ethan before turning hisattention back to Beau. “I would’ve come, but I was due for my weekly assripping from Travis.”
Beaulaughed, but to Ethan’s ears, it sounded strangled. Like he wasn’t comfortable.
Beaunodded to Ethan. “He came to the rescue.”
Ethanwatched the interaction between Beau and Zane. For as long as the two of themhad been friends, practically able to complete the other’s sentence, today theireasy camaraderie seemed slightly off. He couldn’t help but wonder whether thatwas because he was there or if it was something he just hadn’t picked up onlately.
“Where’reyou two off to?” Zane asked, glancing down at his watch.
“Nowhere,”Beau said hurriedly.
Well,there was his answer. Beau obviously didn’t want Zane to know what was going onhere. Ethan should’ve been relieved because he damn sure didn’t want hisbrothers – or anyone for that matter – in his business. The reminder that Beauwas just now experimenting with the part of himself that he recently discoveredwas a slap to the face as well.
Andan enormous reminder that Ethan was getting into something he would likelyregret in the future.
Withoutgiving it another thought, Ethan turned around and unlocked the office door.Returning to work was his only option at this point. He didn’t want to seeBeau. Didn’t want to think about what had just happened between them or what hewanted to happen between them. And it wasn’t like Ethan wanted his brother toknow that he lusted after Beau anyway.
Whatthe fuck was wrong with him?
Forhalf a second, he’d actually embraced who he was, not caring whether he hidhimself from view or not.
Fuck.
Beauwas getting to him. In ways Ethan wasn’t ready to embrace. And Ethan knew heshould just be grateful that Zane’s horrible timing might’ve just saved himfrom a world of heartache that he wasn’t at all ready to experience.
