“Cheeky.”
“I’m only being polite to my elders.”
“You’re being bratty and we both know it.”
“Am I now?” Quinn asks as they trot along a berm between old rice paddies. Mister keeps stride with Ellis’s gray horse, and he and Ellis post up and down, up and down at the same time.
Ellis rolls his eyes. “How old are you?”
“Old enough to consent.”
“Aren’t we forward?”
“I caught your once over during the check.”
“Guilty.”
“So what do you do? Sir?” Quinn asks, just to needle him.
“Architecture, brat, and you do ride well, Quinn.”
“Thank you.” They chat about their horses for awhile, then settle into the who-knows-who, who’s-related-to-who on which greater Savannah turns. They aren’t cousins — miracle of miracles — and Ellis is too old to have gone to school with anyone’s older brothers or sisters that Quinn knows. His parents don’t know Quinn’s parents; his mother’s name doesn’t sound familiar, and neither does his father’s, who Ellis says, in a tone that makes it clear he won’t discuss it further “has passed.” When the hunt ends, Henry still hasn’t caught up. Ellis offers Quinn some of his brandy, which he doesn’t seem to take more than a small sip of. “Thanks,” Quinn says, and takes a hefty swig. “The good stuff,” he comments.
“No sense in bringing anything else.” Ellis dismounts. “Would you like to meet me for dinner sometime, Quinn?”
Quinn blinks. He doesn’t think anyone’s ever has asked him to dinner and now he can’t help but stop and try to remember if that’s true. By now, Henry has caught up and he stands behind Ellis, still mounted. “SAY YES,” Henry mouths.
“Sure.” Quinn shrugs, snapping out of it. “Why not?”
“You sure?” Ellis asks. “Took you awhile.”
“Yeah,” Quinn says, like it doesn’t matter at all. “I’ll do dinner.”
Ellis takes his phone from the case attached to his saddle and hands it to Quinn. “Text yourself,” he says. Quinn does as he asks. “Give you a call?” Ellis says. “Say tonight, if you’re not busy?”
Quinn shrugs again, bodily shorthand for “I don’t care.” He’s long perfected that look, coming out at sixteen in a prep school where most students believed in The Gay Agenda. Ellis takes his helmet off, unties his hair, and shakes it out. Oh god, that long, gorgeous hair, down past his shoulders, a light brown naturally streaked blonde. Quinn dismounts, unsnaps his own helmet, and pulls his shoulder-length hair out of its tie in all its perfection: shiny, straight to his shoulders with no crimp from the ponytail holder. God, it took him forever to find a tie that wouldn’t leave a mark. Ellis stares. Totally getting fucked tonight. Dinner, and then fucked.
Quinn thinks about it all day, this man with the long hair taking him to dinner then back to his place. Probably a nice place, too: Ellis clearly has money, family or otherwise, and will have accumulated some decent possessions at his age. Even better, it’ll be nice for once to get fucked by someone who, at his age, knows how to do it, and do it well.
The text comes around three. Drinks at The Low Man and then dinner at Oliver?
What time?
7 ok with you?
7’s great.
Quinn agonizes over his clothes. He almost calls Henry or his best friend Calhoun for help. In the end he decides to go total frat boy — Ellis seems like he’ll appreciate the type. Quinn picks a baby-blue checked button down to match his eyes, a pair of khaki shorts, easily yanked down, and sandals, but nice ones. When he walks into The Low Man at 7:15, fashionably late, he sees Ellis lounging in the low-lit bar wearing a gray linen suit with a dark green bow tie. He has a full tumbler of something in front of him that appears untouched. Fuck him. Ellis looks Quinn up and down in the half-dark.
“Cute,” he comments.
“Thanks,” Quinn says dryly. “I was unaware we were dressing for dinner.”
“I always dress for dinner.”
“Sorry about that.” Quinn hops onto a leather barstool and twirls a little. “What’re you drinking?”
Ellis holds up a hand. “I should make you go home and change.”
“Excuse me?”
“I should make you go home and change. You’ll look adorable in a suit, and I won’t look like I’m robbing the cradle. But I didn’t warn you to dress for dinner. Next time.”
The realization comes slowly. “You’re not fucking with me.”
“No. I most emphatically am not.”
Mother. Fucker. “You would send me home to change?”
“If I’d already asked you to wear a suit and you showed up in this? Yes.”
“Then fuck you, if it’s that goddamn important, I’ll go home and change so we’re matchy-matchy.”
“I would be grateful, Quinn. But hurry up, I’m hungry.”
Quinn’s pissed, but a tiny part of him’s turned on. He loves when someone orders him around, preferably an older someone. So he leaves the bar, calls another Uber, and makes it wait while he goes inside and changes quickly into his favorite seersucker suit, a bowtie with tiny pink flowers and pink striped socks, topped by white bucks. Plus a white and pink belt. Summer in Savannah, what the fuck. When else can you get away with it?
Forty-five minutes later, he arrives back at The Low Man. Ellis scrutinizes him. “Much better,” he says. “Seersucker suits you. And white bucks too. Maybe you’re not an irredeemable savage. Better worn during the day, but we’ll let it slide for now. What are you drinking, Quinn?”
“Scotch and soda.” He twirls on the stool again. Ellis grabs it, stops him, and glares.
Ellis hails the bartender and orders for him, which annoys Quinn. He can order for himself. Only fucking girls let a man order for them, and he tells Ellis so.
Ellis gives him a half-smile. “Uh-huh.”
“The fuck’s that mean?”
“You need to get over your constant use of the word ‘fuck,’” Ellis comments. He brushes some of that gorgeous brown hair behind an ear and sips at his drink.
“But it’s such a wonderful word,” Quinn says as sweetly as possible. “It’s a verb, a noun, an adjective, an adverb, an interjection, an exclamation —”
“And it’s only effective when used judiciously.”
“You’re kind of a dick,” Quinn says bluntly. “You made me go home and change and now you’re harassing me about my language like I’m a ten-year-old.”
“Mmmm,” Ellis says noncommittally. “I suggested you change. You’re the one who did it.”
This is becoming tiresome just to get what he could have by walking into Club Metro and hanging out on a barstool for ten minutes — with eyeliner, more comfortable clothes, and maybe a bump or two of coke. “Explain why I shouldn’t tell you to fuck off and walk out right now,” Quinn says.
“You’re a smart-mouthed brat,” Ellis says. “I’m the one who should walk out. I don’t know why I’m bothering to stay, except you’re adorable, I like a smart mouth, and I like a good little submissive.”
“I never said I always bottomed!” Quinn protests. His voice rises but fuck all who hears him. They’ll all be talking about who he went out with anyway. If two Savannahians meet in a bar, they buy some drinks, loosen some tongues, and walk out with gossip. Standard operating procedure in the prettiest city in the world.
About the Author
Julia McBryant is, as the saying goes, Southern born, Southern bred, and when she dies, she’ll be Southern dead. When she’s not riding her horse or writing, Julia likes to play with her German Shepherds and rescued greyhounds, make all the crafts (especially those involving glitter), and hike, especially in the North Carolina mountains. She is grateful her husband tolerates both the dogs and the glitter.
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Also by Julia McBryant
Julia McBryant’s work chronicles the interconnected lives of a group of well-off, high society young adults in Savannah, Georgia, most of whom have known each other since kindergarten. Their complicated relationships (and unconventional sexcapades) form the meat of the series, along with a careful attention to chronology, character, and prose. More than romantic erotica, her series detail a fully realized world of drama, theme, and most of all, memorable characters.
It’s Enough (Southern Seduction 1)
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Enough-Crispin-Southern-Seduction-ebook/dp/B07S3KR3LR
Crispin and Wills are high school best friends who lost their virginity together — and whose lives have since taken very different paths. When Wills returns home for break, Crispin’s still madly in love with him. But does his best friend share the same feelings?
Like Sunshine (Southern Seduction 2)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SD5V7XL
Crispin visits Wills in the liberal town of Athens, four hours from the Georgia coast. He worries their relationship won’t have changed much from their time in Savannah’s stilted high society. But without the strictures of their repressive upbringing, he and Wills find something else entirely.
Slow Dance (Southern Seduction 3)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T2SZ8CZ
Crispin and Wills, best friends turned lovers in eleventh grade, move in together during the summer after Wills’s freshman year of college. Four hours away from the homophobia and prejudice of uppercrust Savannah society, neither can wait for three months of new adult freedom — and the freedom to live publicly as a gay couple. But nothing goes as planned, and their romance falters. They worked as boyfriends. Can they work as roommates? And can their teenage love transition into the real world?
Hurricane Dreams (Low Country Lovers 1)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TTK2J8R
Audie Currell, the only son of one of the richest families in Charleston, runs off from his parent’s wine tasting with his father’s business associate’s son, Calhoun Chatterton, another well-off teenager from Savannah. They start dating in secret. But Audie’s abusive childhood stands in the way of an authentic relationship — as does their family’s homophobia. They have to hide their relationship while coping with Audie’s trauma. Can two naive teenagers manage such a difficult task?
A spin-off of the Southern Seduction series, Low Country Lovers can be read on its own.
I Wish I Were Special (Southern Scandal 1)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XWT4MN9
Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited Sept 25, 2019
The youngest of five children, Quinn is known throughout Savannah as the Rutledge oops baby, an inveterate party boy — but his wham, bam, thank you ma’am philosophy covers a deep well of loneliness. Architect Ellis Ashford has shunted his daddy kink off onto a “savior complex” for years. Can they resist the magnetic pull between them, despite their age difference? Or will the Greek chorus of Savannah gossip tear them down?
A spin-off of the Southern Seduction and Low Country Lovers series, Southern Scandal can be read on its own.
Beautiful Boys (Southern Scandal 2)
Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited Nov. 2019
Quinn and Ellis find themselves smitten with talented, smart-mouthed — and sexy — actor Amory Reed. Amory wants a daddy. Amory wants a boy. Quinn and Ellis want Amory. But Amory’s lower-class background makes him wary of these well-off Savannahians, as does a scary secret he’s keeping. Can they make a relationship work? Or will the three of them end up with nothing but broken hearts?
A spin-off of the Southern Seduction and Low Country Lovers series, Southern Scandal can be read on its own.
Neon Saturday Night (Low Country Lovers Book 2) Page 9
