Chapter 6
Reece
“That probably could’ve gone better.” Shaking my head, I watched Houston head into the building. Turning to Eli, as the rest of the group started heading for their cars, I frowned. “What the hell? Were you trying to make him uncomfortable?”
Eli shrugged, clearly not concerned with my frustration. “What? He’s into you. And barking those orders? Total Dom and you know it.”
“He’s my roommate! He’s off-limits unless you want me living on your couch when he throws me out.” There were just so many ways it could go horribly wrong. “And he’s not into me, and not all bossy men are Doms.”
I’d made that mistake before and wasn’t going to fall for it again.
Eli huffed, giving me a look that said I was insane. “He had every one of us jumping and trying to hold back ‘Yes, Sir,’ even Dillon, and he isn’t even gay.”
So Houston was hot when he was all in charge and bossy.
“He thought you were nuts and making fun of him or something.” My stress level couldn’t handle drama at work and at home.
Eli popped out one hip and wagged a finger back and forth dramatically, letting his inner queen out to play. “Honey, he didn’t even deny it. He knew exactly what I was saying. If he wasn’t at least familiar with the scene, he would have backpedaled so fast our heads would’ve spun. Happens all the time.”
Maybe.
Not that I was going to admit it. “You’re insane.”
Eli smirked.
“And turn down the camp. Roman’s not around to hear it.” I’d only seen Eli turn on the flamboyant stereotypical behavior when Roman was close enough to hear.
It’d taken meentirelytoo long to figure that out.
He shrugged. “I have to practice staying in character. It makes him fabulously crazy. Did you hear what he said earlier?”
Unfortunately.
Roman had gone storming past my office earlier, loudly muttering aboutthe queenwho couldn’t keep his dick under control enough to do a professional shoot.
“No.” There was no way I was going to repeat that. If I didn’t know for a fact Roman was gay as well, I would have said he was homophobic. In this case, he was just Eli-phobic. Not that Eli was trying to help the situation any.
“Let’s just say he’s on the edge of exploding, and I’ll get a new photographer soon.” Eli leaned against his car casually, but his smirk wasn’t as pleased as it had been. “Someone reasonable and not as judgmental.”
Their fighting was entirely too passionate for him to be that nonchalant about the whole thing. Anger wasn’t the opposite of attraction, indifference was. And those two were nowhere near indifferent. Still, it wasn’t my place to say anything.
“I’m sure…” I’d started to say that I was sure they’d work it out, but yeah, that wasn’t believable. “Your photos always turn out great. And the traffic to your blog has tripled in the last month.”
People loved seeing Eli’s little comments about “that photographer” and the vague mentions that “he” didn’t think the outfit looked good enough. Every time Eli said that Roman even hinted that his reactions during a photo shoot weren’t professional, the blog went crazy defending Eli.
Not to mention the sales of anything that Eli wore during one of their fiery photo shoots skyrocketed.
And no one wanted to point that out to the two men until they’d figured their shit out.
“My photos turn out great because I’m fabulous, and the clothes that they’ve been getting lately are top-notch.” He smiled, honestly excited then. “There are so many more options now than there were when I first started the blog. Back then, I had to find women’s stuff that I could make do with. Now there’s all kinds of panties and nighties that are designed for men. It’s incredible to see the changes.”
“I’ll have to admit, I probably wouldn’t have noticed before, but since coming to work here, I know what you mean.” When I’d first started researching the company, I hadn’t expected the market for fetish wear and male lingerie to be such a growing sector.
“I can’t wait to see how the new lines keep everything growing.” Eli's eyes lit up, and I could see the business mind that he tried to hide coming out. “We’ve got some great partnerships, and I think they’re going to work out fabulously.”
Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about any of it. “Not my job, but you guys are doing great. You and Preston have put together a fabulous company.”
Eli brought a finger up to his lips. “Shh.”
