Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 103008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Trav is cut off by another guy clearing his throat and putting his hand up.
“Okay, most of us do,” Trav corrects. “Except Domino, but we served together, and I know for sure he doesn’t give a shit who any of us fuck. Being queer in the military is still a big deal. Maybe not as much as it once was, which is great, but I got sick of the mistrust between squad members. It’s why I wanted to start my own team in the private sector.”
“Oh. Umm, cool.” Shit, my cheek is probably twitching like crazy. “Like, I don’t have a problem with … that.”
It totally sounds like I do, but it’s the opposite. Well, I do have one major problem.
My bodyguard? The one I’ve been drooling over since the minute he stepped into my house and tackled me to the ground? The guy I’ve been checking out and thinking he had to be straight this whole time? He’s into guys. And I take it back. When I thought the universe was unfair because Brix was straight, it’s even more unfair that he’s into guys.
Before he was unattainable.
Now he’s just … off-limits.
Fuck, my cock responds to that like it’s been served a platter of ass to pick from.
Now that I know how not straight Brix is, my life just became a whole lot harder.
Literally.
I shift in my seat.
Wait.
“Iris has a girlfriend,” I say stupidly.
Ryder would kick my ass for that.
Iris makes a noise like in a game show when you get the answer wrong. “Try again. I had a girlfriend. She broke up with me today. Thanks to this.” He waves around the room. “Got sick of me always being called into work and being away.” He raises his voice two octaves higher to mimic his now ex-girlfriend. “And now you’re gone Sundays too. Wah, wah, wah.”
Guess that explains his shitty attitude when he came in earlier today.
“But that’s probably not what you mean when you say I have a girlfriend like I’m the worst queer guy ever for sleeping with a woman.” He mockingly gasps. “They better take my card away.”
“No, sorry. I realized that was a stupid thing to say the second I said it. A friend of mine always tells me there’s a B in LGBTQ for a reason.”
“I like them already,” Iris says. “Are they fuckable?”
I laugh. “No. Not for you anyway.”
When Ryder became a father, he insisted he needed to focus on Kaylee’s life. As far as I’m aware, he hasn’t dated anyone, of any gender, since Kaylee was born.
That’s a bigger stretch than me. I haven’t been with someone since … I count back. It’s been about eighteen months since Eleven broke up, and it was a few months before that when Jay and I split … so that’s … hard. Sex math is hard. And depressing.
“The pop star is brutal,” Angel says. “I like him.”
Brix smirks at me. “He’s a’ight.”
“Just a’ight?” I exclaim.
There’s that thing in his eyes again—that knowing suspicion I’ve been trying to kill by exaggerating what Evah and I have and trying to hide the truth.
I don’t understand him. I don’t understand the point.
Is this all to taunt me because he knows? What was the plan? Put me in a room with a bunch of hot gay guys and see if I’d crack?
We continue to play poker, but my head’s no longer in it, and I end up losing all the chips I’d already won.
I force amusement at the group’s shenanigans, which remind me a lot of my Eleven days. Yeah, we fought a lot, but what brothers don’t? I’m sure these guys have been at each other’s throats at some point too.
We all wanted out of Eleven to do our own things, but the longer we’re apart, the more I realize those guys were there for me in ways others never have been. We were in the same situation together, and yeah, a lot of the time we hated it because we had no creative control, and as I explained to Brix, we were all manufactured. But we were in it together.
Now I feel like I’m stuck in the same loop but doing it alone.
I miss them.
Especially Ryder, who understood me on a deeper level because of our shared need to remain closeted even though we were both desperate to break free.
Brix’s foot brushes against mine, and I glance at him. “You all right?”
I nod. “Tired. I might head to bed.”
“Aren’t all you Hollywood types known for partying?” Angel asks.
Brix scoffs. “Harley is the least Hollywood person I know.”
I tap my chin. “I kind of feel like there’s an insult in there somewhere.”
“Not at all,” Brix says. “I thought I was going to be chasing around a superstar diva all over LA, dragging him out of nightclubs, confiscating drugs, and hiding it from the media. You’re slightly easier to handle than that.”