Joe grinned. “For now,” he said. “I wouldn’t get used to it.”
BeforeCal could ask if that was a come-on or something to do with his new suit, the woman was back with three suits draped over her arm and more shirts than Cal owned dangling from her other hand.
“Here.” She thrust a dark blue cotton shirt at him. “Try this one first.”
They stared at him expectantly and Cal gave in and pulled the shirt on. All those years and those people who tried to teach him howto behave, and all they’d needed to do was to make it uncomfortable to make a scene.
“It’s a bit small,” he said. The fabric was tight over his shoulders, and the collar pinched across his Adam’s apple. “I feel like I’m wearing my brother’s shirt to go to court.”
The woman snorted at him and brushed his hands away from the buttons. She did them up, top to bottom, with brisk efficiency. “It’smeant to be fitted,” she said. “Did you really do all that work on those muscles not to show them off?”
She stepped back and looked at Joe with raised eyebrows. “What do you think?” she asked.
“Maybe something with a grandad collar?” Joe suggested. “Show off his ink.”
“Oh, yes,” the woman said. “Lean in. Good idea.”
She disappeared again. Cal figured he didn’t want to know what she thoughthe was meant to lean in to. He hooked his finger into the collar of the shirt and gave in to the absurdity of the whole situation.
“So what?” He winked saucily at Joe in the mirror. “You want to go the fullPretty Womanhere? I could be into that, I guess.”
“No.” Joe pushed himself off the table and walked over to stand behind Cal, one hand casually on his shoulder. “You were right. No morepretending to go out. It wasn’t fair. On either of us.”
The collar of the shirt tightened around Cal’s throat as he swallowed. It usually felt better to be right. He let the disappointment settle.
“So we’re clear,” he said as he twisted to look over his shoulder at Joe. “Sex is still very fair. You give. I take. We both get off.”
Joe leaned in and kissed him. He tightened his arm around Cal’sshoulder, knuckles tucked up under Cal’s chin to hold him in place. Warmth spilled over Cal’s tongue and down his throat and then spread through his stomach and down into his thighs. It made the heavy muscles tense and tremble in anticipation.
After a second, Joe leaned back. He was still close enough that Cal could feel his breath, the heavy rise of Joe’s cock pressed hard and insistent againstCal’s ass through the pointless barrier of thin cotton. There were people in the shop outside, sales staff and clientele, and the woman was going to be back any moment with the replacement shirt. The threat of discovery sparked off Cal’s nerve endings and prickled his skin with eager goose bumps.
“I’m going to one of the fund-raisers my mother used to support,” Joe said. “There’s a chance theycan point me in the right direction. I want you to come with me.”
Cal frowned. He thought he might have missed something, but it was hard to focus with Joe’s cock nearly—not nearly enough—in his ass.
“Well, how else would you get there?” he asked. “You don’t drive, and I can’t see your posh ass on the underground.”
Joe rolled his eyes and kissed him again. A laugh trembled between their lipsas their tongues tangled.
“I want you to come with me as my date, you idiot,” Joe muttered into Cal’s mouth, between soft, nipped bites. He strayed down to Cal’s jaw and scraped his teeth over the freshly shaven skin. “Out where everyone can see. Where anyone can see.”
“Even Edward?”
Joe rested his head against Cal’s shoulder and sighed into the corner of his neck. “Edward doesn’t want to see,”he admitted. “He has to know, but he doesn’t have to admit. Well? Do you want to go out with me, Cal Tate?”
It was the sort of answer that should have been easy. Cal wanted to. He wanted a nice life, stable, on the right side of the law. It was too good to be true. If you were too happy, there was no way it was real. It was the rug over the pit, ready to be yanked out from under your feet.
“So the suit’s so I don’t show you up?” he said roughly.
Joe pressed closer against his back. He slid his hands down to Cal’s hips, spread across the bare flat of his stomach under the loose shirt. “Wear shorts if you want.” He lifted his head and smiled wickedly at Cal in the mirror. “I want to see you in a nice suit and then take it off you. If it bothers you, you can pay me back for it.”
“Fuck off,” Cal snorted. He felt as though he’d stepped back onto solid ground. The precarious happiness was still there, but being a dick made him feel better about it. “I’m not paying for some monkey suit so you can get off on it.”
The curtain tugged back, and the woman, shirts dangling from both hands on hangers, stepped in.
“Here we go…. Oh.” Her eyebrows shot up as she got an eyeful andshe quickly stepped back out. The curtain rattled shut behind. “Sorry, but that’s not—”
“I asked him out,” Joe said as he stepped back. He straightened his cuffs and collar. “He said yes.”
