Raja’s mouth twisted into a wide, fake-looking smile, which dropped as suddenly as it appeared. “I wanna know what’s up with that piercing. I don’t hear from you for close to a month, and I can see you’re changing.”
David leaned back, trying to pretend he wasn’t caged in with a rabid lion. “Oh, this? No big deal. I’ve been wanting one for a while. Guess that’s what happens. People move on, even if you hurt them.”
“You didn’t move on,” said Raja coolly, moving his hand over the edge of the table, as if he was close to tipping the whole thing over.
“Oh, yeah? I was here on a date. Where’s your date?” David’s heart was racing so fast he could hear the pounding in his ears. Raja still wanted him. Even though he’d won his stupid bet, even though he’d already had sex with David, he was still after him.
Raja reached out over the table. “He’s sitting right in front of me. And he’s been a shitty conversationalist lately.”
David pouted and pushed his back into the plush behind him. “What’s there to talk about? You got what you wanted.” He glanced at Raja’s hand, and his heart skipped a beat when he noticed the purity ring on Raja’s pinky.
“Really?” asked Raja, aggressively leaning forward. “What is it that I want, little boy? You think you’re so smart now that you can somehow read my mind?”
David’s stomach clenched, his palms got sweaty, yet he didn’t want to run. He wanted to make out with Raja for hours, and feel Raja’s rough hands on his skin. “You wanted to f-fuck me.” There it was. The worst moment to stumble over the f-word.
Raja sucked in his bottom lip and shifted, moving along the sofa that enveloped their table, until he was right next to David, warming him with his body heat even without touching. David’s skin broke out in goose bumps, and he was glad to see the waitress approaching with the food he and Tommy had ordered, but her presence didn’t make Raja back away. On the contrary, he pushed even closer to David and put his warm lips against David’s ear, tickling him with the beard.
“I still wanna fuck you. I want your tight, juicy ass clenching around my dick as I pound it right here, in the restrooms.”
David glanced back at him, frozen in disbelief. Was it hot? Yes. Did he miss Raja talking dirty to him? Yes. Did he miss sex? Yes. Did he miss seeing Raja naked? Yes. Had he lost all self-respect? ... No.
“You’re unbelievable!” David tried pulling away, but Raja grabbed his arm and held him right where he was. “You appear out of nowhere, after pulling that shitty stunt on me, and you think I’m going to fall for that again? Like when you appeared at my work after over a month of not speaking to me?” David’s cheeks were burning as he looked into Raja’s eyes. “Yes, I am horny for you. I have eyes and a dick, but I’m not stupid. Are you out of hookups, or something, that you chose to approach me?”
The waitress left them without a word, but Raja didn’t even seem to have noticed her, completely focused on David. “What stunt? It’s you who refused to talk to me. I’ve tried, and your new mom chased me away while you hid inside.”
That stung. “You’ve admitted you made a bet over me with your friend, with no consideration for my feelings. You were the first person I ever talked so honestly with. Turns out you weren’t who I fell in love with, that it was all a game to you.” David had to take a big gulp of air, embarrassed that he admitted to his feelings yet again.
Raja leaned back and loosened his hold on David. “If you’re in love with me, you shouldn’t be out with a manwhore like Br- Tom,” he muttered, looking away.
David sneered at him, fighting the tears that were trying to escape his eyes. “He’s the manwhore? What about you? And give me back that ring. You don’t deserve it!” David grabbed Raja’s hand, but it immediately squeezed into a fist.
Raja took a sharp breath. “Too bad you’ve already given it to me. It’s not coming back to you.”
David let go with a desperate hiss. When he’d given it to Raja, he felt they had a connection that was special enough to risk his family for. But as angry as David was, even now he felt a warmth inside knowing that Raja came back like a boomerang, trying to get him back. Even if his attempts were sloppy at best.
“Listen, I still have feelings for you.” He took a deep breath and looked into Raja’s eyes. “I know you’re more than this sexy, cocky facade. If you want me back, get real with me. Take your time, think about it.” David slid to the edge of the seat and pulled out enough money to pay for the pizza, but Raja grabbed his hand and closed it on the money, pushing it back toward David’s wallet. He looked up with his face oddly expressionless, but in his eyes, there was a raging storm, with lightning ready to strike David’s heart yet again.
David closed his wallet and got up, even though he found it hard to part with Raja. His body yearned to tangle up with Raja’s in the sheets, but he needed to be an adult about it. He was worth more than that. He had to assess Raja’s actions, not just his words.
“You’re not getting the T-shirt back,” he said.
Raja turned away and faced the pizza, visibly deflated. “Keep it.”
David licked his lips, wanting to soften the blow somehow. “I won’t be seeing anyone. Give it a week. Think about what you really want from me,” he said and turned around, because the temptation to stay and cuddle up to Raja was getting too intense.
All the way across the restaurant, he half-expected Raja to run up to him and snatch him back to the table, but nothing like that happened, so he slowly left and walked toward his bicycle without looking back.
He was both proud of the way he’d handled things and aching with need to do all the dirty things Raja had suggested. Until now, he’d never managed to resist Raja’s charm, so despite the pain in his heart, today felt like a victory of the mind over lust.
Chapter 24
David was on his last delivery for the day, all the way in Toledo, which had him thinking about Raja. He couldn’t help the bitterness seep in as he considered that a week had passed, and he hadn’t heard back from Raja. He didn’t dare say anything to Asty or Hunter, as that would put Raja in even more trouble, but the weight of this secret made him heartbroken yet again. He shouldn’t have had his hopes up, but even today, on the final streak of the seven days he’d given Raja to think things through, David was clinging to fantasies of Raja surprising him with a call. Asking David out on a real date. With it already being so late, that was unlikely to happen, and David wanted this day to be over already, so he could hide away in his room and pretend he just needed some sleep. No one would bother him, and he could cry his eyes out as an adult—without anyone else knowing.
It was already getting dark when he approached his last delivery address. The flowers were meant for a Thomas Ackerman, who was probably as boring and clean-cut as his name suggested, possibly some kind of lawyer or university professor, who’d accept the huge bouquet of daisies in his slacks and an ironed shirt. What a pathetic ending to this dreary day. Clearly Raja had his priorities straight now, and it was for the better. David could think about it as a clean slate of sorts.
He slowed down as he drove into a quiet street with a patch of trees on one side and warehouses on the other, and carefully watched the numbers. When he finally arrived at the right one, he needed to do a double take, because the building looked like a potential renovation project. The two-story place had walls of dark brick and was likely quite old. The windows were blocked with wooden planks, and the garden was hidden away behind a tall fence. Judging by a broken neon sign above the door, it used to be a bar.
David licked his lips and started walking down the alleyway in search of a door as soon as he’d parked his car. He double-checked the address and knocked half-heartedly on the ugly door covered with a remainder of green paint.
This was pathetic. He drove all the way here, only to find out someone gave the Flower Crown the wrong add—
The door twitched, and the lock clanged loudly as it opened. David half expected a builder to appear
in a cloud of dust, but when the man stepped outside, David’s breath caught in his throat. Raja stood in front of him in a white tank top, which brought out the tone of his skin perfectly, and a pair of black jeans. He was here. What was he doing here?
David rolled his eyes, fighting the trembling that was slowly but surely overtaking his body. “I’m guessing you’re not Thomas Ackerman?”
Raja stretched, and it only made the thin fabric cling to his amazing pecs. David was already salivating, despite being annoyed by yet another stunt. “I am Thomas Ackerman. What did you think my surname was? Khan?” said Raja and stepped back, showing David the darkness behind his back.
David swallowed, unsure what to do just yet. Thomas Ackerman. That was… interesting. He hadn’t even tried to guess Raja’s surname, since everything else he ever assumed about him turned out to be false. He licked his lips and took a step forward. “That’s... nice. But then why do you go by Raja?”
Raja laughed and put his hand on David’s shoulder, pulling him toward the open door of the weird abandoned building. Why would Raja call him over here? David’s brain was overheating, and he didn’t even have enough reason left in him to pull away from the touch and keep it cool.
“You really need to ask? I don’t look like someone with the name my parents gave me years ago, so people started calling me that. It pissed me off at first, but I decided to just take it as my nickname, so they couldn’t hurt me with it. Feels more like me anyway. I am a bit like a king, don’t you think?” he teased.
David couldn’t help but smile back at him. “I guess they knew you were destined for greatness.” He took a deep breath and hugged the daisies closer as he walked inside.
The sound of the door locking behind him sent a deep shiver down David’s back, so he focused on the room stretching before him. Large in size but cluttered with random trash, it had a bar area on one side and some booths that still had seats, as those were built into the walls, but no tables. There was a corridor leading off into the darkness, and another that promised more rooms farther down, but David couldn’t think of any of it anymore once Raja’s palm touched his nape.
“Those flowers are for you. You can even put them all in my beard if you want. Or make some flower crowns.”
David looked down at the daisies and smelled them, a warm feeling blooming in his chest. Raja must have chosen them remembering how David put them in his beard. That was… really sweet. “Thank you.” He pulled one daisy out of the large bouquet and slipped it into the pocket of Raja’s jeans. It didn’t escape his attention that Raja didn’t try to kiss him yet. He wasn’t pulling any of his ‘you know you want it’ stunts either.
“What is this place?”
It was as if his question set Raja’s eyes on fire. “It’s great, isn’t it? Built traditionally, so it has strong walls, and there is a lot of space,” he said, pulling David closer to his chest, which had the same aroma that never failed to soften David’s knees. Raja went on, pointing with his hand. “It has all the necessary facilities to open the bar again, and that would bring revenue to the club, and there is enough space to build additional rooms if the ones on the second floor aren’t enough to fit our needs.”
David smiled and looked around, only now seeing more than a destitute building. “This is yours?” It felt as if Raja was inviting him to witness something truly personal. David had to fight his urge to kiss Raja’s shoulder which was so close he could almost taste the naked skin.
Raja blinked. “No, but I’m thinking about buying. This place is owned by several members of the same family, who hate each other, so instead of making a plan and profiting from this place, they just let it rot. What do you think, will I be able to bring them back on speaking terms?” asked Raja with a wide grin.
David smiled up at him shyly. This meeting felt so different to the way Raja had crashed his date. Like he was seeing the real Raja, not the cocky facade that was both attractive and not entirely honest. He even knew Raja’s real name now.
“I believe you can.”
Raja’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he looked down at David, without the confident smile that was usually plastered to his face. “You do?”
David pressed his arm against Raja’s chest to be closer. “I think you’re an amazing guy. So resilient and resourceful under all the BS.”
Raja smiled and ruffled David’s hair. “What happened to the real David? Since when are you so sweet to me again?”
David stepped back to establish some distance. “If we are to be back together in any way, I need to know the truth about the bet. And don’t try to lie to me. It’ll come back and bite you in the ass of you do.”
Raja slouched and combed back his thick black hair. “Not lying bit me in the ass in the first place, remember? I could have denied it all, but I didn’t, because I thought you deserved the truth. And then you didn’t even let me explain myself.”
“What could you say, really? You lied to me from the start. It made me feel like I wasn’t even a person in your eyes. Like I was just a challenge to pass the time.”
Raja rubbed his face. “That was only the first time! What did you expect me to do? Randomly tell you that the thing we’d had at Hunter’s was on a bet?”
“That’s not cool. Who does that?” David groaned and hid his face behind the bouquet in embarrassment. Truth was that back then he’d been so horny for Raja he didn’t care to even ask for his name, let alone why he was doing what he was doing. “And then at your club, you hid me like a dirty secret, and Blade said it was all to spite Hunter anyway.”
Raja frowned. “What? No! I have no beef with Hunter. Blade… that son of a bitch,” he growled, pacing around the room. He kicked a stray piece of wood, and it rolled almost halfway across the floor. “He was the one to bet with me. I was telling him that gay guys have it easier with getting laid, and he told me to prove it to him. It had nothing to do with Hunter. I only found out who you were when he introduced you to us later.”
David’s heart sank. “You think I’m easy?”
Raja walked up to him and grabbed his arms as if he were afraid David would run. “No! Jesus... you’re just... a guy.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You surprised me, that was all. I probably wouldn’t have… If I’d only gotten some time to think…” The truth was David had never before been approached by a man so confident, so full of charisma and presence. He wouldn’t have been able to deny himself that experience, no matter what.
Raja kissed him. It felt as if his intention was just to give David a little smooch, but as heat filled David’s body, he leaned in and opened up to Raja. It was as if the universe was telling him he was where he belonged, even if that place was a dirty old building. When Raja withdrew, they stared at each other in the darkness, as if the sensations wiped their brains clean.
Raja scowled, looking away. “So I freaked out when I found out who you were, but then we had this vote, and Blade bet me again... for his vote.”
David’s eyes went wider. “You made a bet over me twice?” he hissed and pushed on Raja’s chest, but it wasn’t enough to pull out of Raja’s sturdy arms. “I guess you already knew I was easy.” He squinted at Raja.
“You clearly weren’t,” muttered Raja and swiped his thumbs over David’s arms where he still held him. “But I thought you were hot, and I knew you were repressed, so I thought I could kill two birds with one stone. Get the vote and have us enjoy this whole thing. But then I was at Hunter’s place with you, and we talked, and I felt like a scumbag. I lost that bet even though I could have pushed.”
That did make David feel a little better. Raja lost the bet for him? He swallowed and leaned closer, only now realizing just how much he missed Raja’s touch, the heat of his body, and the smell of his cologne.
“So you really like me.”
Raja rolled his eyes. “Well, I’m here with you, am I not?”
“And you won’t lie to me again?” David couldn’t believe this was happening.
He’d be getting Raja back? It did pay to stand his ground and show Raja he wasn’t a pushover. He wrapped his arms around Raja’s waist and stood on his toes for another kiss.
Raja groaned and held him tight, playing David’s tongue with growing fervor, but once again, he eventually pulled back and pressed his cheek to David’s, panting. “No, I won’t be lying. Everything that happened later wasn’t on a bet. That is the truth.”
David groaned and nudged Raja’s arm with his forehead. “Hunter’s gonna kill me,” he said, but wouldn’t loosen his hold around Raja.
Raja smirked and pressed his lips to David’s forehead. “No he won’t. You’re his beloved little brother. He’s gonna kill me for hunting you down again.”
David exhaled and tightened his hug around the brawny body that he wanted to melt with. He’d thought his whole relationship with Raja had been a big fat joke, yet here he was, listening to things he realized he wanted to hear all along. “I thought I was just another number in your phone. And I gave you my… ring. I mean, that was very special to me.”
Raja frowned. “You mean the thing that you said I wasn’t worthy of getting?”
“You wouldn’t have been if you didn’t care about me, would you?”
“You tell me. You were pretty eager back in Hunter’s bathroom,” said Raja, wiggling his eyebrows.
David groaned but gave Raja’s arm a kiss anyway. “I’m not proud of that,” he mumbled.
“You should be. It was a great blowjob for a first-timer.”
David snorted. “Always the charmer.” He slid his free hand to Raja’s arm, admiring the thick muscle underneath.
Raja leaned closer to David’s ear and pulled on it with his teeth. “You used so much spit I felt it dribbling down my balls. It was fucking glorious.”
David curled his toes and groaned into Raja’s beard. The memory went straight down to his dick, making thinking much harder than he would like. He’d love to suck Raja all over again and then smell the daisies in the afterglow. “It turned me on,” he whispered.
Heart Ripper Page 24
