“I’ll get this round. More of the same?”
“Beer is fine with me,” Baer murmured.
Lucien’s elbow bumped his arm, rocking him slightly on the stool. “Another Shirley Temple for you?”
Calder looked up to see a tightness in his smile. It was almost a grimace. Calder clenched his teeth and matched his harsh smile. “Gin and tonic, thanks. And not well, please.”
Lucien sniffed and rose to his feet, tipping his chin up so that he could further stare down on Calder. “As if I’d get you well gin.” Like the idea of supplying him with well alcohol was simply beneath him.
As he walked away, Calder could only roll his eyes. Longest fucking night of his life.
Wiley patted his hand, drawing Calder’s gaze to him. “Don’t give up. You’ve got to keep trying.”
At least the artist could see how close he was to strangling the man. But he was right. They had to keep trying if they all wanted to live in the house together. He didn’t want his fighting with Lucien to be the reason any of them got hurt.
Calder looked up, his eyes naturally following Lucien’s progress up to the bar…and him standing right next to the hot guy with the beautiful hair and amazing smile. A smile that was now directed at Lucien.
Rage bubbled in Calder’s gut. Possessive, angry need had him wanting to march right up to the bar and insert himself between Lucien and the stranger. He wanted to stake his claim.
But he had zero claim.
Lucien was well within his rights to sleep with everyone in that bar, and Calder couldn’t say one word about it.
“I think I’ll go up and help Lucien carry all the drinks,” Baer offered as he started to rise.
“No! I’ll help.” Calder was out of his chair and heading toward the bar before Baer or Wiley could say anything to the contrary. Didn’t matter. Nothing was going to stop him.
Now that he was weaving through the crowd, though, his eyes unwaveringly locked on Lucien’s broad back and the sexy man at the bar, he had no idea what he was doing or what he was going to say.
Yeah, maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe he should have let Baer help Lucien.
But it was too late. He was already at the bar, standing right next to Lucien. It wasn’t as if he could sidle between Lucien and Sexy. That would have been way too obvious. The two men were both standing with their hips leaning on the bar as they faced each other. There wasn’t enough room for Calder to slip between them unless he was determined to grind against both men.
A soft whimper escaped him as an electric shock went straight to his dick at the thought of being sandwiched between them, hands and mouths everywhere on all that naked skin.
Bad brain!
No hot, sweaty threesomes.
Of course, now that he was standing there, he felt like a fucking idiot. He looked like Lucien’s annoying kid brother. Ten inches separated him and Lucien in height. And, of course, it seemed like a good three or four inches separated him and Sexy. God, it sucked being short.
“What do you want? I already put the orders in,” Lucien snapped when he spotted him.
Calder desperately held on to his smile and tried to keep his voice friendly. “I thought I’d help you carry the drinks.”
“Well, isn’t that nice of him,” a new voice said before Lucien could reply.
Calder’s gaze snapped to Sexy, and part of his brain melted. The man was even hotter up close, and the smile he was directing at Calder was making him hard. How did he even do that? At least he was sure Sexy was smiling at him this time, not Lucien.
“What’s your friend’s name?” he continued.
“Calder. This is my friend, Calder,” Lucien introduced, needlessly emphasizing that they were just friends.
Calder couldn’t tear his eyes away as Lucien placed one finger under the guy’s chin and turned his head back to face Lucien. The taller man leaned down so their lips were barely inches apart. “Now where were we? I think we were discussing getting out of here and having a little fun in private.”
Some small part of his brain that was still working was boggled at how fast Lucien worked. He couldn’t have been more than two minutes behind him, and yet he’d already propositioned him? What the ever-loving fuck?
The rest of his brain couldn’t get over the hotness of it all. There was no tearing his eyes away, no thought to giving Lucien privacy in which to work. And for once, there was no burning jealousy. He wanted to see it all. Wanted to see Lucien kiss this guy. Wanted to see this man melt into Lucien. None of it made sense, but he was way beyond caring.
The stranger smiled broadly and pulled away just enough so that Lucien’s finger slipped from under his chin, but he caught it between his full lips. Lucien’s eyes flared, and Calder swore he could feel the man’s tongue caressing the tip like he was licking Calder’s dick. Fuck. Could he come from simply watching them?