“Always adopting strays.”
That was Kai. A stray that never belonged anywhere. He curled into himself, giving in to the dark and the sad and the silence. The last shred of consciousness warned him letting himself be taken anywhere like this was a bad idea, but fuck it, if this was how he died, it was fine. He’d put in all the time he had in him to give, and now, he was just done.
3
It had been a challenge getting Kai back to Nolan’s and tossed onto the bed. He’d barely been able to use the bathroom before he’d passed all the way out again. Now Nolan stood over him, watching him, trying to figure out for the millionth time tonight what it was about the younger man that called to him. Like, suddenly, he spoke the language of Kai and he intuitively knew the boy needed someone to take care of him. He just didn’t understand why. All thoughts of leaving him alone had evaporated the second he’d seen Kai slumped on the ground, apparently ditched by his so-called friend. He’d known he didn’t like that asshole. Anything could have happened to Kai if Nolan hadn’t found him.
Even now his instinct was to strip Kai out of the heavy denim he wore, tuck him into bed and crawl in beside him in case Kai needed something during the night. He had to remind himself that Kai wasn’t his to take care of, but if he had his way, he’d change that soon.
Nolan compromised by gently removing the worn Converses from his feet, pushing a garbage can beside the bed in case he got sick during the night and leaving some water and painkillerson the nightstand for the wicked hangover Kai was sure to have in the morning. If he stood there for a few extra minutes just taking him in, maybe worrying, just a little, about how Kai’s forehead still looked pinched and his mouth turned down at the corners, even in his sleep, well, that was nobody’s business but his.
4
Kai groaned, flopping onto his back as consciousness came for him again. His eyes were gritty, and his mouth felt like he’d been mouthing on cotton balls all night. His head still swirled as though all of the alcohol hadn’t managed to work its way out of his system just yet. How much had he drank last night, and where was he?
He lifted his head, his brain trying to piece together the events of the night before. The room was huge and dim. He was fully dressed, lying star-fished on a massive bed, complete with a fluffy, white duvet. The heavy curtains over the windows on either side of the bed blocked out most of the light, but bright sunshine peeked through the cracks like it had been out for a while. His gaze landed on the bedside table where a bottle of water and some painkillers sat beside a folded note. Kai reached for it.
Drink this. Bathroom’s on your left – Nolan.
Nolan’s scrawl was big but tidy and suited him perfectly.
Mortification flooded through him as the first part of the night came back to him and he flopped back down on the bed, eyes screwed shut. He’d been so off his game last night, butNolan had taken him by surprise in so many ways. Yeah, he’d seen a picture of the man, and he’d known that Nolan checked all of his favourite boxes. He was big and broad, taller than Kai’s five-foot-eleven frame by several inches, with tan skin and a strong jaw covered in black scruff. He’d known that Nolan was hot before he’d even stepped into the club, but nothing could have prepared him for the visceral reaction he’d had when he’d turned around at the bar and seen the other man standing there, coffee brown eyes fixed on him like he was something worth looking at. Something in his belly had jerked towards him and the sensation had thrown his brain offline.
And then he’d fucked it all up with that move on the couch. In fairness to him, that move had never failed. No one ever turned Kai down when it came to sex. Boundaries? What were those? The truth was, he should have been able to come back from it, said something slick and flashed a dimple, but Nolan’s response had shaken him and he didn’t know why. So, he’d run.
Despite that, he’d just woken up in the man’s house.
Open your eyes for me, baby.
Kai’s eyes popped open, his insides swooping just like they had last night. Man, that worked for him. His cock thickened, a shiver of excitement racing through him just thinking about it. He couldn’t have fucked it up all that bad if Nolan had brought him back to his house and put him to bed.
Kai dragged himself up, still mildly disoriented. He wanted that water like crack, but more than that he wanted to brush his teeth. Then he had to figure out how to face the music.
Nolan’s house was huge. Like mansion huge. This guy might have been a mechanic on paper, but that was definitely not all he was. Then again, his brother was Christian Laurent, the fourteenth richest man in North America. Kai took his time and looked around because, well, he was an opportunist and this was an opportunity.
Eventually he made his way downstairs, and a girl about his age, wearing an actual apron with a feather duster in it, told him Mr. Laurent was in the kitchen. It was late morning, but when Kai poked his head around the corner, he found Nolan frying bacon while he flipped real, homemade pancakes on a griddle. He took a second to admire the view. Nolan really was just so unreasonably hot, and the scene before him was enticingly domestic. Kai could imagine himself waking up to this. Walking in and wrapping himself all over Nolan. Who would he have to be to deserve something like that? He thought about what he was supposed to be doing, and it left a sick feeling in his gut that had nothing to do with the remnants of last night’s bad decisions.
His reaction to Nolan from last night hadn’t been a one-off thing. Even now, something squeezed tight in his belly. Maybe it was hunger. Those pancakes did smell amazing. No, that wasn’t it. It was definitely the man. Nolan glanced up, catching Kai staring, the corner of his lip quirking up in an almost smile.
“Was wondering when I’d see you,” he drawled.
Kai shoved his hand through his hair, his face flushing as he stood awkwardly in the entryway.
“Yeah, um, sorry about last night. That’s not something I normally do.”
Nolan took him in silently, shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the barstool in front of him with his spatula, which Kai guessed was an invitation to sit. “Coffee?”
Kai nodded. He fixed his coffee with cream and more sugar than he normally would as Nolan continued flipping stacks of perfectly neat, evenly sized pancakes. “Tried charging your phone for you. There a trick to that?”
“Nah.” He wasn’t going to explain that he kept a busted phone as some kind of weird keepsake from his dead grandmother. “If I can use yours, I can call Liam to come grab me.”
“Put that on pause for a second. Have some breakfast first. Well, brunch, really.”
“It’ll probably take him a while to get out here anyway.”
A frown compressed Nolan’s lips, disapproval creasing his forehead. Kai didn’t know why, but it made him nervous.
“I haven’t had pancakes since I was a kid,” he said, quickly changing the subject.
