Probably repeating himself for the second or third time, Eli started again. “Drive-thru and then BJ’s, or real restaurant and then go someplace uptown, or some combination of those?”
They’d dragged me to one of the uptown clubs after my first day at work. It was not something I wanted to repeat. “Not that boring one with the guys sitting around too cool to dance. If you want music, we can go to that other one, it wasn’t as bad, but if you just want to drink and bullshit, then let’s just go to BJ’s, that one was okay. And for god’s sake, none of us are dressed for a sit-down restaurant. Drive-thru, Hannah, so we don’t get arrested.”
She giggled and nodded. “We’re not too bad, but naked boy over here would totally get our butts hauled into jail. And I for one don’t want to have to call someone to come bail us out.”
Eli wasn’t exactly naked, but his tight jeans had strategic holes in them so his pink panties showed, and the outline of his cock and ass played peek-a-boo with anyone walking by. Yeah, we weren’t taking him to Applebee’s. “I’m not calling Preston and asking him for the name of a lawyer.”
“You could call Houston,” Eli teased, his inner brat coming to the surface. “I bet he’d love to help you, but only after you promised to pay him back with sexual favors—naughty, dirty ones.”
“Dude, we need to get you laid.” But yeah, the idea had merit. I bet Houston could think up some fabulous punishments.
Hannah gave an excited squeal. “Oh, that could be a new idea for the blog…Eli’s wicked wanderings…Eli’s fantastic fantasies…Eli’s—”
I couldn’t help interrupting her while Eli groaned. “Eli’s masturbatory musings!”
Hannah beamed and started the car. “That’s perfect!”
“Preston would laugh his ass off.” Eli's eyes were lit up, and it was clear he loved the idea. He was a bit of an exhibitionist, and driving people insane seemed to turn him on.
“I’m not sure he wants us all to end up on the news, though, so blog away—but we’re not going out in public with you.” But BJ’s wasn’t exactly public. And I didn’t think they’d mind what we were wearing. Although those pink panties Eli was wearing might make a few of the men give us some odd looks.
He didn’t seem concerned, however, so I wasn’t going to worry about it. I had better things to obsess over. Houston. I was like some kind of pathetic teenager with a crush on the cool kid who’d never notice them.
Well, he’d noticed me—knowing what to do next was the problem.
After grabbing food and making our way across town, we parked and headed into BJ’s. We got a few teasing grins, and some comments about Eli waving a red flag in front of the bulls, but overall it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Like the first time Eli had dragged me in, most of the guys looked rough, but they seemed to be a live-and-let-live group.
Except for the little server who’d had the hard-on last time we’d seen him; leaving him alone hadn’t seemed to be part of the game.
I’d nearly fallen out of the booth the first time I’d seen him walk in. Yeah, he’d been sexy, but that hadn’t been what was so surprising. It had been the way the guys had cheered and the crazy comments that started flying that had really shocked me. He’d just blushed, and the snake in his pants had gotten even harder. When his boyfriend/Dom showed up, things had really heated up.
Evidently,his work schedule was a pretty big secret, but Eli evidently had an in with the owner’s partner and had wanted to surprise the new guy. Me.
As we made our way across the room to a booth that had just opened up, Eli’s smile turned into a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin. “Guess who decided to get out of the house for the night?”
“Huh?” The table was still filled with bottles, but I knew someone would come by to clean it before long. They might overlook someone having sex in the bathroom, but not the cleanliness of the tables. It was all a bit odd.
When they both started laughing, I started to look around.
Shit.
“What’s he doing here?” Houston was sitting over at the bar. I wasn’t sure if he’d seen us yet because he was hunched over the bar looking at some guy’s phone.
“Getting drunk?” Eli gave me a look like I was crazy.
“He said he was staying home.” Hadn’t he? Thinking back, I couldn’t remember.
“Does it matter? Didn’t you say he wasjustyour roommate?” Hannah gave me a too-innocent look but ruined it when she grinned.
“He is.” I wasn’t lying.
Eli snorted. “But that’s not what you want.”
“We don’t always get what we want.” I shrugged, trying to look casual and keep my gaze away from Houston. “I don’t think he’s interested.”
“Yeah, keep saying that. It’s not going to make it more believable,” Eli teased.
“What?” Something in his eyes had me looking over at Houston.
