The Imperfection of Swans (17 page)

Scott shook his head. “Nope. You’ve got to give me something. You wouldn’t let me take you to dinner tonight or come to family dinner tomorrow—”

“I told you, I had to work out, and my moms would probably poison your food if you came over to family dinner.”

“I still think it would help. Right now I’m just the big bad wolf who hurt their son. Maybe if they see I’m still just Scott and that I lo—”

Kevin cut him off. Scott was going to make him need a Xanax, even with all the endorphins from cardio still surging pleasantly through his body. “Let’s get out of the cold, then, at least.”

“Got it. Too soon.” Scott tapped Kevin’s chin with a gloved finger. “Too soon for dinner with the moms and too soon for the L word. Got it.”

Not knowing how to respond, Kevin turned his attention back to unlocking the door.

He stepped through, flicking on the lights as he moved into the room.

“Holy crap!” Scott stepped around him, walking in a large circle around the room, his beautiful mouth open in awe. At last he paused to stare at Kevin. “Kev. This is gorgeous. And you’ve just gotten started. No wonder you were dead set on getting this building.”

Kevin stood a little straighter, Scott’s praise of his hard work lessening the damage his reflection had done earlier in the evening. “Yeah, it’s looking good. Taking longer than I thought, but I’m pleased.”

Scott continued to inspect. “You’re lucky that this place still had the original ceilings. And they were in such great shape.” He motioned to the exposed brick. “Not your typical style. But I like it.”

Kevin almost gave credit to Charu and Casper, but didn’t want to bring Casper up, for some reason. “You’re not the only one who’s done some growing and changing.”

“I can see that.”

Watching Scott remove his jacket as he crossed the room made Kevin’s breathing quicken.

From him just taking off his jacket. For crying out loud.

Reaching him, Scott bent down and placed a slow kiss on Kevin’s lips before pulling away. Only slightly. “I like this new Kevin. He’s daring and confident. He’s got guts.”

Oh, yeah, he felt really confident.

“It’s sexy.” Another kiss. Another pulling away. “
You’re
sexy.”

Kevin stood there awkwardly. Both turned-on and overwhelmed.

Scott unzipped Kevin’s jacket. “I don’t want you to answer this right now. I know you seem to feel like we’re moving too fast.” He slid the jacket off and let it fall to the floor, then started on the buttons of Kevin’s shirt. “In my way of thinking, we’ve already done all this. We’ve been through all the dating and getting to know each other.”

Scott slipped his hand inside the unbuttoned shirt and moved over Kevin’s bare chest and down his stomach. Kevin tried not to groan.

“We already know we’re great together.”

Kevin’s shirt followed the way of his jacket.

Scott pulled his own shirt over his head.

Those muscles flexing and moving—no matter how many times Kevin had seen Scott without clothes, each time it seemed unreal that anyone could look like him in real life.

Scott began unbuckling Kevin’s belt. “I think you should move back in.”

Kevin flinched, ripped from his growing arousal. “We’ve just—”

Scott cut him off with a kiss, his hands finishing Kevin’s belt and moving on to his jeans.

“Don’t answer now. Just think about it. You can get out of your moms’ again, back into your own space. Our space.” He slid Kevin’s jeans over his hips. “We can do
this
anytime we want.”

Kevin desperately wished he’d gotten a pill out of his pocket before his jeans had gathered around his ankles. He looked toward the windows of the brownstone that looked out onto Tremont. They might as well have been spotlit on a stage. He placed a hand on Scott’s chest, not even feeling the bunched muscles in his panic. “Stop, everyone can see us.”

Scott glanced toward the windows. “Should we charge? We put on quite a show.”

“I’m serious!”

Scott’s hand had dipped inside Kevin’s underwear. “It’s late, Kevin, no one is out there.”

Kevin gripped the band of his underwear, keeping them up. Mostly. He looked around the room. Totally empty. Nothing to even partially hide them. If only they’d left the paper covering the window.

“If you’re really that uncomfortable, let’s go up to the next level. If people see in there, they have to really be trying.” Scott pulled his hand out and within mere moments had his own pants off. “Let’s christen this place the right way!”

CASPER

CASPER HAD
gone to bed early. Ten thirty was early. Despite his back becoming stiffer with each night spent on the floor, sleep had turned into a wonderful thing once more, and he couldn’t get enough of it. It was like he’d been living on stale bread and moldy cheese for the past couple of years and suddenly had been given a smorgasbord of hot, fresh food. To sleep without scales being sung or played. To have silence without the incessant clicking of a metronome. To not have any voice humming or singing or whistling. He was in heaven!

Sure, there were sirens, drunks yelling at times, the squealing of tires, but they were all city sounds. Sounds of Boston. Sounds of everyone else. Out there. Outside the walls. Away from him. Heaven!

He’d grown so accustomed to having silence, that at first Casper thought the noises were coming from outside.

And if he were going to be awakened by noises, these were a good kind of noises to have. He lay there for a bit, the sounds making him hard. It had been a while since he’d been involved in those kind of noises. His activities with Brent rarely produced similar noises, at least not any that weren’t forced out of obligation on his part.

He’d just begun to stroke himself in a matching rhythm when he woke enough to realize the noises weren’t outside the building, but below him.

For a second, a spike of terror shot through him. Someone was in the brownstone! He shoved that aside instantly, feeling stupid.

People didn’t break into a store to fuck.

Fairly quickly, given the foggy, sleepy state of his mind, he realized who it must be. Though in all honesty, he couldn’t picture Kevin coming to the building to fuck either. Casper had him pegged for a satin sheets and rose petals kind of guy. Newly washed and starched satin sheets at that.

Maybe it was his sleep-addled brain that caused him to choose what he did next. Maybe it was because he’d been starved for sex for way too long. Brent didn’t qualify as sex, not really. Maybe it was just because he could.

Slipping out of the sleeping bag, he tugged up his boxers, felt around until he found his glasses, and then padded toward the stairs. He’d already learned by now which boards squeaked, and he easily avoided them. Same with the stairs.

Luck was on his side.

Casper was able to get a fourth of the way down the stairway, low enough to be able to see through the banister, without being seen.

It took all of his willpower to not gasp.

A blond giant had Kevin pressed up against the far wall. At least, he assumed it was Kevin; the blond blocked all view, save for a smaller man’s feet spread apart on the wood floor and hands pressed against the brick wall.

Casper couldn’t see the blond’s face, but he didn’t need to. He’d only seen a body like that in porn or in those naked rugby player books. All tall, lean, bulging muscles.

Holy shit. Those muscles!

The way the man’s ass clenched and curved as he thrust. Fuck.

Without realizing he was doing so, Casper slipped his hand inside the waistband of his boxers and began to stroke, quickly catching up to the timing the giant was so forcibly setting.

From the sounds the blond was making, it wouldn’t be too much longer, and Casper was fine with that. It wouldn’t be too much longer for him either.

The giant lowered his left arm and wrapped it around the other man’s waist. From the new perspective, over the man’s massive shoulder, Casper could just make out Kevin’s profile, his face seemingly pressed against the wall, eyes shut tight.

The stroking instantly stopped, as did any arousal he felt.

He rushed back up the stairs, not as careful about making noise. It wasn’t like they’d hear him anyway.

He felt sick. Disgusted. He’d been turned on by that. Nearly orgasmed to it.

He felt angry.

It was then that it hit him.

He was jealous.

Then he felt sick all over again.

Suddenly the whistling, clacking, and humming didn’t sound so bad.

“I’VE SO
been looking forward to this part!”

Casper grinned at Kevin but avoided eye contact, like he’d done all day. “You’ve been looking forward to shopping for commercial ovens?”

“Well, no, not exactly, but we get to do something besides cleaning and dreaming!” Kevin ran a finger over a stainless steel handle. “They’re all so sleek and smooth. Rather comforting, actually.”

“And expensive.” Casper had known getting started from the ground up was going to be daunting, but he was starting to feel a little sick to the stomach.

“Well, everything is going to be expensive. I say we do as much of the essentials as we can, at as good a quality as we can, and go from there. It’s not like we’re ready to order them anyway, but almost!” Kevin clapped his hands in his excitement. “Want to go look at lighting next? It would be cool if we could find something that would work for both levels, keep it as unified as possible.”

Man, Kevin was beautiful. It was really starting to eat at him, and he had to get hold of himself. There was no reason to be jealous. And it was the last thing he should be feeling for a business partner.

He kept telling himself that.

It didn’t seem to be sinking in yet.

“Yeah. Lighting will be fun, and cheaper than this, hopefully. As long as you’re not planning on florescent tube lighting, I’m sure we can find something we both agree on.”

“Shut up! There’s no need to be gross.” Kevin slapped his arm. It actually kinda hurt.

“Hey, there’s no cause for pain either!” Casper clasped his hand over his stinging arm. He looked over at Kevin, getting ready to tease him about domestic violence, when he noticed the light scrape on the right side of Kevin’s forehead. He looked away quickly. If he hadn’t seen where the wound had come from, he might not have even noticed it. Given how forceful the giant had been, Casper was actually surprised that was all Kevin had walked away with.

CASPER WAS
driving them to the lighting store, when, from the corner of his eye, he saw Kevin swivel around in his seat to face him.

“Okay. Out with it.”

He kept his eyes on the road, but his palms grew instantly damp against the steering wheel. “Out with what?”

“Don’t play games with me, Casper James. We may not have known each other long, but I can tell when something is wrong with the co-owner of Bella Dolce. You’ve been distant and strange all day long.”

At that, Casper did glance over. “Strange! That’s not nice.”

Kevin shrugged unapologetically. “I’m not the one acting strange. And keep your eyes on the road. I’m rather looking forward to arriving in one piece to pick out lighting.”

“Bossy,” Casper muttered grumpily, but couldn’t keep the half grin off his face. Though Kevin had a point—the roads were slick with a light coating of snow.

“You have no idea. I’m not Renata’s son for nothing. Now, out with it.”

Dear Lord, this was embarrassing. Casper tapped his forehead. “Well, I might have been with you when you were… uhm… receiving
that
Saturday night.”

“When I was receiving wha—” Kevin’s voice dropped. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

They sat in awkward silence, both of their gazes focused on the winter road.

At last Kevin spoke up, his voice strained. “How much did you see?”

“Well, I know there was a wall involved, and you apparently like to be ramrodded by porn stars.”

“That was Scott.”

“Yeah. Figured.”

“My ex.”

Casper nodded, wanting to die. “Yeah. Figured he was.” Actually, he wanted to kill.

“And,
ramrodded
, really?”

“Hey, if you can take it, own up to it. That was impressive, and nothing to be ashamed of.” Even as he joked about it, a picture of Kevin taking it from him instead of stupid Scott rose into his mind. He shoved it away, reminding himself of his own assessment. Kevin’s not-so-ex was total porn-star material. That was the kind of guy Kevin went for. Not the short, four-eyed, baker types.

Again.
Business partner
. What was his brain not getting about that?

“I, ah….” He cleared his throat. “I just want you to know I didn’t see the end. I mean, I didn’t hang around for—”

Kevin held out his hands. “Oh God, stop! Seriously, stop.”

He had heard it, though.

How he wished he hadn’t. He’d kept hearing it. For the past day and a half that was all he could hear.

More awkward silence.

“I didn’t even think about you sleeping there. I’m so sorry.”

Casper just shrugged.