I knew it wasn’t going to be enough. Graywas quiet for a moment. “What does he model?”
He was so suspicious.
In this case, however, he was right toquestion it. “He models lingerie on a website and seems to have a blog. Heworks down the street from the shop.”
Gray was quiet for several seconds.“Lingerie as in women’s underwear? Like panties?”
“Yes, but not for women. They seem to bemade for men.”
“Interesting.” It sounded like he wastrying to figure out how to respond, so I just waited. “I always knew you’dfall for somebody different. I’m starting to think I should’ve broadened mydefinition of that.”
Me too.
“We’re going to set the job stuff aside forthe time being—but don’t think I’m not going to come back to that later. I sayjust talk to him and see what happens. Let it grow from there and don’t reallyworry about labels right now. You’ll figure that part out. For right now, seeif you want to get to know him and if you can see taking things in aromanticphysical direction.”
“That seems too easy, but it makes sense.” Grayhad a way of boiling things down to their simplest pieces.
Getting your cock sucked didn’t necessarilymean you were gay or bi—wanting to get to know the guy who was crushing on youor going to town on your dick probably did.
“You know you’re going to have to call metomorrow and let me know how it goes. Preferably earlier in the day so I don’thave to wait hours to figure out what happened.”
Gray had me shaking my head. “So you don’twant to wait until tomorrow night for the next episode in the soap opera?”
He laughed. “Absolutely not. Think of thisas binge-watching, not once-a-week traditional TV.”
“Gotcha.” Generally, I wasn’t much forsharing my personal life, but I had a feeling that if I didn’t call, he wasgoing to.
Gray would not be a quiet stalker.
Chapter 4
Lane
“You look like you just robbed a jewelrystore, Eli. What aren’t you telling me?” I knew that expression. I’d seen it athousand times, and it always meant trouble. As we entered the coffee shop, Ihad a feeling I should have noticed it sooner.
“You worry too much.” Eli smirked, ruiningtheI’m-so-innocentact.
“No, I think I should be worryingmore.”Glancing back at Eli, I frowned at him. “And don’t think I didn’t notice youignored my question.”
He’d promised not to drive me crazy like hehad on Wednesday. That was the only reason I’d let him come, but I was startingto second-guess my decision. Eli was always honest and stuck to a promise, butit was the fine print I’d always known to be mindful of when it came to him.
I’d been so careful.
We’d talked about teasing me and makingcomments about tattoo guy in the coffee shop. We’d even gone over specificrules about conversation topics. He’d been agreeable and enthusiastic—tooagreeable, I realized as I stood there looking at him.
He shrugged, not bothered about mysuspicion. “I’m going to be on my best behavior today.”
I wasn’t buying it for a minute.
For a moment I questioned myself about whyI was even there, but then as I turned around I remembered. I was a patheticstalker and my obsession was right there.
Like right there!
“Hello.”
Fuck.
He was standing in the doorway like he waswaiting for me. Not quite smiling, his eyes were crinkled up like he was tryingnot to laugh, and he was looking straight at me. Taking a step backreflexively, I bumped into Eli.
