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A flicker in his face. Good. Let him know I saw it.

“Lyle was a stupid choice,” I add. “If you are going to lie to me, pick something that does not sound like a boy trying on a costume.”

Elias’s chin lifts a fraction. “I’ll remember that.”

Dangerous answer. The kind that would get another man hurt. On him it makes my blood pump.

I could take the boy into the side room right now. Shut the door. Finish what my mind started on the country road.

Rip the shirt. Make him kneel. See if he still has jokes in his mouth when I tell him to bark.

I hold his gaze a second longer than is polite. “Go back downstairs,” I say. “Finish your shift. Work hard, but don’t make it too obvious. Be efficient and do it where people can see you.”

Elias hesitates. “And if I don’t?”

I almost laugh. Almost.

“Then I will now that you are a very naughty boy and require extra supervision,” I say, my voice cold but my cock hardening and my hands reads to show this insolent boy who is boss. “Now, move. Before I take matters into my own hands.”

And with that, Elias does just as I command him.

He drops his head in an attempt to hide his blushing cheeks. For all the boy’s sass, he is a submissive at heart. But there is more to Elias than a sassy new employee with a curious mind and defiant streak.

And I’m beginning to think that he might just be of more use to me than he could ever comprehend…

4

ELIAS

An hour later and I am done.

Steven signs me off with a tight little smile that says that while I have not wrecked his night I have not exactly impressed him either.

Fine. Whatever.

I do not need Steven impressed. I need out of this building before Dmitri Pakev decides my shift is not over.

I do not go through the lobby though. I cut through the kitchens.

Heat. Steel. Someone shouting about a late ticket. A dishwasher who does not look at me because kitchen staff learn fast that the pretty boy in the wrong doorway is never their problem.

I keep my head down, grab my coat off the hook, and slip out the service door into the alley.

Cold hits my face. Good, I need it.

The street beyond is loud and ordinary and full of people who do not know my name. That is what I want. I want the city to swallow me for a few hours so I can think without that man’s eyes on my mouth.

I walk.

Fast at first.

Then normal. The kind of walk that says I have a place to be and no interest in being followed.

My apartment is twenty minutes if I do not stop. I almost make it six blocks before the thought turns…

Who the hell does he think he is? He saved my job. He also clocked my lie, followed me upstairs, and talked to me like I was already his problem to manage.

Naughty boy. Extra supervision. Move.