Nick gave him a crooked smile, rubbing his scruffy jawline tiredly. “Yeah, whatever.” He clapped Tyler on his back, and it was all very manly and very bro-like.
So of course Tyler had to ruin it.
He lunged at Nick and kissed him sloppily, burying his hand in Nick’s thick bed-hair that had been driving him crazy for the past hour. He pushed his tongue inside Nick’s mouth, sighing a little at the delicious contrast between Nick’s soft, wet mouth and rough, unshaven jaw.
After a moment, Nick finally responded, his hand coming up to cradle Tyler’s face as he kissed Tyler back, deep and hard. Tyler heard himself moan and then he remembered pretty much nothing.
He had no clue how much time passed before Nick broke the kiss. Nick pulled back, his eyes dark, soft, and intense. “Goddammit, Ty.” He shook his head with a pinched expression and then turned and disappeared back into the kitchen without so much as a goodbye.
Tyler sagged back against the wall, his whole body singing with pleasure, his lips sore, and his mind in utter panic.
Fuck.
What was he doing?
Chapter 18
After arriving at the pub, Tyler disappeared into the back and started doing the task he usually didn’t mind—restocking of shelves—but even such an easy, repetitive job proved to be difficult that day.
He couldn’t focus on anything. He kept catching himself staring off into space, his mind elsewhere.
“What’s wrong with you today, boss?” Zoe said.
Flinching, Tyler glared at her half-heartedly. “Nothing.”
She snorted. “If you say so, boss.”
One day he was going to sack her for having no respect for him. Even her “boss” was mocking, Tyler was sure of it. Not that he blamed her for secretly mocking him. He would probably mock himself too if he had a loser like him as his boss.
Zoe raised her eyebrows with a smirk. “You just seem very distracted today. That’s all I’m saying.” Her words were perfectly ordinary, but there was little doubt as to what she was implying.
Women were fucking scary. How did she know?
Tyler scowled at her and said in his most authoritative voice (which he suspected wasn’t very authoritative), “Get back to work, Zoe.”
Rolling her eyes, Zoe did get back to work.
Tyler… Tyler tried to. He still couldn’t focus for shit. He kept thinking about the most stupid, ridiculous things like Nick’s mouth, Nick’s hands, Nick’s dark gaze, and Nick’s muscular body on top of him. He kept getting a boner remembering all the sex they’d had last night, the filth Nick whispered into his ear as he fucked Tyler hard, his scent, the feel of his stubble against his skin, his arms around him—
“Get a fucking grip,” Tyler said as he dropped another can because of his distracted state. He was a fucking mess. He was acting like a fifteen-year-old girl who’d had her first cock and now couldn’t get enough. This was ridiculous. He needed to focus on his work, not daydream about his best mate’s various body parts. He really was acting like a schoolgirl with a crush. A very horny schoolgirl with a crush.
Enough.
Nodding resolutely to himself, Tyler reached for another box.
He wondered what Nick was doing.
Tyler groaned. This was really ridiculous. It had been two and a half hours since he’d left the Hardaways’ house, for fuck’s sake. He was acting like those clingy girlfriends who couldn’t live without checking on their boyfriend every hour. Not that Nick was his boyfriend—which was the point. Nick wasn’t his boyfriend, because Tyler wasn’t gay.
“At least tell me if she’s hot, boss,” Zoe said, grinning. “Do I know her?”
Tyler glowered at her. “Get back to work.”
“Come on, boss, I’m curious!” Zoe said. “I’ve never seen you like that.”
“Like what?” he gritted out.
She smirked. “All dreamy-eyed.”
To Tyler’s mortification, he felt himself blush. “I’m not dreamy-eyed.”
Zoe’s smirk was still there. “So who is she? Come on, maybe I can help you out. I’m a woman, too. I can give you a woman’s perspective.”
Tyler snorted and muttered, “I don’t need a woman’s perspective.”
When her eyes widened, he deeply regretted his careless words.
“Blimey. You’re mooning over a bloke?”
“I’m not mooning,” Tyler gritted out.
Her smile was coy. “But it is a bloke. Wow. I thought you were totally straight. The straightest bloke to ever straight.”
“It’s not funny,” Tyler grumbled, looking away. He felt…oddly not panicked that someone else had found out. It was weird. He kind of expected to be freaking out, but he felt nothing but mild annoyance and embarrassment. Maybe the fact that Zoe was lesbian made him more comfortable talking about it with her.
For the first time in all the time he’d known her, Zoe seemed totally serious as she said, “I’m sorry, you’re right. Are you okay?” Something like discomfort flashed across her face. “I know your parents are…conservative.”
“They don’t know,” Tyler said. “There’s no reason for them to know. Because I’m straight.” He hated how defensive he sounded.