by Onley James
Robby’s cheeks flushed. “I did call the police.”
“After Calder told you too. What made you call him first?”
Robby swallowed the lump in his throat. What was he supposed to say? Because he literally had nobody else? Because he was scared and somehow knew if he called, Calder would answer. That Calder wouldn’t leave him alone to face any of this. That, more than anything, Robby was sick of being alone?
That was just way too pathetic.
Instead, he just shrugged. “I was drunk. I wasn’t thinking clearly. There was a guy bleeding out on my living room floor. I have no idea why I called him.” But he was glad he had. He liked having Calder by his side. He felt safe. Something he rarely felt when he was alone.
“What do they know about the guy who broke in?” Wyatt asked.
“Nothing much, yet. I think my dad sent him after me.”
Charlie leaned forward until Robby was sure she was going to fall from the table. “Like a hit?”
He shook his head. “No. At least, I don’t think so. I think he was trying to take me back to the compound.”
“Your dad wanted to kidnap you and take you to a compound. Is that code for like a conversion therapy program or something?” Wyatt asked.
“My dad doesn’t believe in conversion therapy so much as there’s no behavior that can’t be beaten out of a person. He saw me kissing that girl in the paper, so it’s possible he thinks he can somehow persuade me I’m straight or at least that I’m straight enough to marry some girl and tithe all my money to his creepy cult.”
Charlie rested her elbows on her knees and her chin on her fists, her eyes wide. “Cult? I thought your dad was a preacher? Not that I don’t think most religions are just cults anyway.”
Robby could lie but why bother? If it was all over the news, the world was bound to find out the truth soon enough anyway. “My dad is the head of Magnus Dei.”
“Holy shit,” Wyatt whispered. “They make Jonestown look like Disneyland. No offense.”
“None taken,” Robby muttered.
He was so tired. He wanted a shower and food and to sleep for at least a year. He’d settle for showering. He felt dirty in a way he’d never be able to explain, like killing somebody had left a permanent stain on his skin. One he’d never be able to wash away.
“Do you think your father will try to snatch you again?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t know. I hope not.”
Wyatt shook his head. “We can do better than hope. You need to hire Elite to protect you. That way Calder is duty-bound to guard your hot little body all day and all night. He could barely keep his hands off you after one car ride alone together. Twenty-four hours a day? He’ll be in love with you in no time at all. It’s perfect.”
Robby’s heart twisted. “Or he’ll want nothing to do with me because I’m a client.”
Wyatt scoffed. “Calder has fucked so many of Linc’s clients, they think it’s part of their service contract. Trust us, he will never be able to resist you.”
“I don’t know. If the last twenty-one years of my life have taught me anything, it’s that I’m really, really resistible.”
“Okay, that’s just not true. You are only resistible because of this energy you put off. You have a giant ‘keep away’ sign around your neck.”
Robby rubbed his eyes. “That’s not true. I was with Elijah for months, and he never even noticed me.”
Wyatt sighed. “Okay, real talk. Do you really believe you and Elijah were a good fit?”
No. “Yeah. Why not? Because he was too good-looking? Too famous for me?”
“No, you idiot, because he was a total bottom and so are you. Like, you need somebody to take care of you, and let’s be real, that was never going to be Elijah. You need a Daddy, not a boy,” Wyatt explained.
“Don’t listen to him. He thinks everybody just wants to be spanked and have their hair pulled,” Charlie said.
Robby wasn’t sure if he’d like that or not, but he was willing to try. He wanted to try a lot of things. Would Calder teach him?
“Hello?” Charlie sang, snapping her fingers in front of his face, ripping him from his thoughts. “I think you were with Elijah because that meant you didn’t have to try. Your fake relationship with him was much easier than a real relationship with somebody who could care about you like you cared about them. You definitely have baggage, probably stemming from your abusive childhood and the fact that you were raised in a cult. Which is a way better bio for IMDB, just FYI. That Jasmine chick isn’t doing you any favors as your publicist. My publicist, Mario, would have killed for a client with a backstory like that.”
Robby really didn’t know how to address any of that, so he focused on what he did know. “You guys are putting a lot of faith in me somehow getting Calder to fall in love with me. You, yourself, said he doesn’t do commitments. He fucks anything that moves. Even if he sleeps with me, I doubt he’ll fall for me. That’s not how the real world works.”
Charlie rolled her eyes. “Who lives in the real world? We live in Lalaland. You are a twenty-one-year-old virgin who was raised in a cult. I’m in the movies. Wyatt makes money on YouTube. Your ex-boyfriend left you for a dude who’s probably a serial killer. The real world doesn’t apply to people like us. In LA, we make the rules, and I’m telling you, Calder is the guy for you. We just have to make him understand that.”
Robby wanted to believe Charlie’s pep talk. He wanted to think that they lived in a world where somebody like Calder, the guy who refused to settle down, would look at Robby and see somebody worthy of happily ever after, but no matter which way he turned the thought, it just didn’t fit. But it didn’t change how unsafe he felt. Maybe it was a fluke, just some random break-in, but Robby wouldn’t be able to sleep at night until he knew the truth.
“Fine. I’ll hire Elite, but that’s all I’m agreeing to. I’m not going to waste my time trying to seduce Calder. I just need his help, that’s all.”
Wyatt and Charlie looked at each other before Charlie smiled and patted him on the cheek. “Whatever you say, angel face.”
“Don’t call me that.” Only Calder could call him that. Even if it did things to his insides every time he did.
Charlie smirked. “Whatever you say, buttercup. Let’s go tell Linc the big news.”
Was he really doing this? Agreeing to having Calder in his life, day and night? This would be torture. Why was he like this?
Why did Robby keep putting himself in situations where he never got what he wanted? Where he was forced to pine for a guy who didn’t even know he was alive. What if this was just another Elijah situation, only worse, because Robby already knew what it was like to kiss Calder, to feel his hands on his body? It would hurt so much more to be so close and yet so far from getting what he wanted, and he couldn’t have what he wanted.
But he’d do it anyway because the tiniest part of him kept hoping there was a chance. A chance that maybe, just this once, he could.
“A cheese knife?” Linc asked, incredulous. Calder could only nod. “First, he beats a cop with a sex toy, and now, he’s murdered a man with a cheese knife. This boy is either a secret assassin or a walking disaster.”
Calder was leaning towards the latter. “Yeah, so you can see why he needs constant supervision until he’s safe.”
Linc hooked a brow upwards, leaning forward. “Supervision you want to provide.” It wasn’t a question.
Calder shrugged. “I’m sure you can spare me.”
Linc frowned. “You want to do this free of charge? Why? It’s not like the boy can’t afford to hire us.”
Calder squirmed beneath Linc’s weighted stare. “The kid doesn’t have anybody else.”
“But he has you?” Linc asked.
Yes. “It’s not like that, man.”
“You’re not fucking this kid, are you?”
“No.” Not yet. He shook the thought away. “It’s not about that.”
“It’s clearly a little about
that,” Linc chided. “There’s something about this kid that’s got you by the short ones, which I have to admit, I find…amusing.”
“Happy to help,” Calder muttered.
Linc scrubbed his hands over his face. “Look, what you do in your off time is none of my business, but on the clock, no more fucking the clients. This is your last warning. I don’t want to have to fire you.”
Hence the reason Calder wanted to keep Robby off the payroll. He couldn’t trust himself to keep his hands off, but he also knew he wouldn’t trust anybody else to keep him safe.
“Oh, and if you do plan on doing this boy in your off time, don’t bring the drama into my office. We’re getting a reputation here.”
Before Calder could respond, the door burst open and Charlie and Wyatt spilled inside, Robby in tow. “Robby wants to hire Elite to guard him until we figure out what’s going on, and he wants Calder as his security detail.”
Calder’s head swiveled to Linc. A wide grin spread across the man’s face. “Is that so?”
“Yeah,” Robby confirmed, his voice squeaking a bit at the end.
Calder sat upright. “Wait. That’s not—”
“Excellent,” Linc said, cutting Calder off. “We’ll get the paperwork drawn up so we can start right away. You don’t have a problem with that. Do you, Seton?”
Calder could feel a headache start to form behind his eyes, but the dejected look on Robby’s face had him saying, “No, not at all.”
Calder wanted to kick himself. He should have never tipped his hand. He’d been pushing Linc’s buttons for way too long. He had to know that Linc would take the opportunity to teach him a lesson if one presented itself. Fuck.
Thirty minutes and one signed contract later, it was done. Robby was officially a client and Calder was officially neutered. The kid looked exhausted, his hair matted to his head and his skin pale. Most clients preferred to stay in their homes, but Robby’s apartment was still a crime scene, so that meant coming up with another plan.
“You could take him to the safehouse off of Cresthill,” Linc offered.
Calder shook his head. “If it’s alright with…my client,” Calder forced himself to say, “I’d rather take him to my place.” Four sets of eyes bored a hole into him. “What? My place is more secure than any of our safehouses.”
“It’s fine,” Robby said, directing his answer to Linc. “I just really need to get somewhere I can shower, and Cas needs to eat and take his medicine.”
“Okay. The client comes first,” Linc said, glaring at Wyatt and Charlie when they giggled like small children.
Calder couldn’t help but feel like the two had lured him into a trap, but it was too late now. He pressed his hand to the small of Robby’s back, leading him towards the office door.
“Don’t forget our talk, Calder. Last warning,” Linc reminded one final time.
“Yeah, yeah. I hear you.” No fucking the clients. No matter how sweet and soft and delectable they were, and Robby was the sweetest of them all.
The boy slept before Calder even made it out of the parking lot. He didn’t blame the kid. He’d had one hell of a week and the truck was a safe space. But Calder found it hard to keep his eyes on the road, hard to tear himself away from the boy’s softened features and the way his lips parted in sleep. Robby tugged at some long dormant part of Calder’s soul, a part he’d thought he’d excised long ago. It didn’t make sense, but he just wanted to protect this boy’s soft heart but also couldn’t stop thinking about all the ways he wanted to violate his perfect body.
The boy sucked in a startled breath as soon as Calder shut down the truck’s engine. His neighbor, Mrs. Leighton, stood at the security gate, her groceries at her pink-bunny slippered feet as she attempted to swipe her key fob to allow her access into the building. Calder reached around the old woman who jumped then laughed when she realized it was him. When the door buzzed, he swept her bags up with one hand while guiding Robby with the other. The boy’s skin was pleasantly warm.
Mrs. Leighton beamed at him before following them up the stairs at a snail’s pace. Calder didn’t understand why the older woman never took the elevator, but he lacked the nerve to ask. She probably wouldn’t hear him anyway. Calder punched in the access code to his door lock and slid the keycard in before scanning his thumb print on the pad. Robby frowned at the elaborate security system, probably wondering why Calder felt the need for such measures, but he remained silent.
Once the door opened, he gently pushed Robby inside. “Give me a minute to help her and I’ll be right in. Make yourself at home.”
Robby didn’t speak, just nodded.
Calder helped Mrs Leighton put her groceries away and feed Mr. Pickles, her—in Calder’s opinion—entirely too fat, orange and black cat.
“It’s nice,” Mrs. Leighton said, seemingly out of the blue.
“What’s that?” Calder asked, stooping to scratch the cat under his chin.
“Seeing you finally bringing somebody home.”
Calder stood. “It’s not like that. He’s a…friend.”
She turned away from him with a noncommittal, “Hm.”
Don’t ‘hm’ me, old lady. He gave her a wave as he made his escape from her apartment.
He found Robby in the dining room, staring slack jawed at Calder’s paintings. He was relieved that he’d stuffed Robby’s portrait to the back of a stack of finished canvases leaning against the wall. He seemed hesitant to touch any of the paintings, which suited Calder just fine. He didn’t invite people into his apartment. He kept his art to himself. He couldn’t remember the last person he’d allowed to breach the walls of his sanctum.
Robby seemed transfixed by a particular canvas. A painting of a red-haired woman sitting on the side of a bathtub, her robe down to her waist, exposing her naked back as she gazed out the window. It was her elegant neck that had snagged Calder’s attention. She’d worn her hair in a bun at the diner where she’d worked, and Calder had just had to paint her. He stepped behind Robby, close enough to smell that the boy still desperately needed a shower. He smelled like blood and sweat, which should have turned Calder off but didn’t.
“Who is she?” Robby asked.
There was the slightest tinge of something in his voice. Jealousy, maybe?
“Just a girl who let me paint her. I don’t even remember her name.” It was the truth. Calder had slept with her too, but he didn’t think that information would help his case… Not that he was trying to make a case.
Then why did it matter so much?
“She’s…elegant.”
Calder didn’t acknowledge the boy’s words. She had looked elegant, but she was just another face in the crowd to Calder. More art than human. A temporary muse who was happy to leave the next morning. “Come on. I’ll show you where the shower is, and I’ll throw together something for us to eat. I’m sure you’re starving.”
Robby nodded, his top teeth sinking into his lower lip like he was nervous about something. Calder wanted to tug that lip free and kiss it, kiss him until he didn’t look timid or anxious around him. He wanted Robby to trust him, needed him too even, but Calder wasn’t sure he deserved the boy’s trust.
He led Robby to the bathroom and showed him where everything was and then went to the kitchen and tried to pull enough food together to create a meal. He’d left a steak marinating in the refrigerator, but it wasn’t big enough for two. He found white rice, corn, frozen peppers, and avocado and decided he could turn that into a southwest stir-fry type meal. It would be quick, and then he could get the boy to bed. To sleep, Calder corrected. Alone. He’d take the couch.
Robby appeared just as Calder finished putting the food into two bowls, one plastic, one glass, neither remotely similar looking. He almost dropped the pan on his foot when he saw Robby standing there, wet and naked, a small towel slung low on his narrow hips. His hair stuck up in all directions like a baby bird, his eyes glassy and red. “I don’t have anything to wear,” he managed, his
voice just slightly past a whisper.
Good, a voice whispered in Calder’s brain. The idea of keeping Robby naked and slippery had Calder’s cock hardening behind his zipper. He’d pulled clothing for the kid the night before, but he’d worn them at the station. Fuck, this was going to be impossible. “I’m sure we can find you something,” Calder said, voice cracking slightly. He cleared his throat. “I have some sweatpants that will fit.”
Robby followed Calder back to his room, and he kicked himself for not thinking to clean up the mess strewn everywhere. He opened his bottom drawer and pulled a pair of black sweatpants and a paint splattered t-shirt free. “They might be a bit big, but they should do the job.”
Robby nodded, dropping the towel right there and stepping into Calder’s pants. He jerked his head away, staring at the wall.
“It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before,” Robby reminded him.
That was the problem. Calder had seen the boy naked. He’d touched him. Caressed him. Kissed his perfect lips. Heard him gasp with pleasure and felt him cling to him after climax. Yeah, he’d done so much more than see Robby naked. Clothed, the boy was beautiful, but naked, he was perfection, and Calder wanted to pick him up and dump him on the bed and lick every drop of water from the boy’s smooth skin.
“I’m aware, angel face. But we have to keep things professional now.” Calder cleared his throat again. “Once you’ve eaten, you can sleep in here. I’ll take the couch.”
Robby nodded, pulling the shirt over his head, before following Calder back out to the kitchen. They ate in silence, Robby staring out the window but not really like he was seeing anything, just zoning out. Casanova had made himself at home on the back of Calder’s sofa, his eyes somehow watching both sides of the room at the same time, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.
“I gotta ask. Where did you get that dog?”
The boy glanced over at Casanova and smiled the first genuine smile Calder had seen in a while. “The Glendale Humane Society.”
“Did you lose a bet?”
Robby shook his head. “I helped raise money for them a couple of months ago, and we shot the commercial there with all the puppies and cute kittens, but they had Cas hidden in the back. They said nobody wanted him, that he’d lived in that cage for over a year. He’s old, and he’s got a lot of problems. He has no teeth and he has bad skin and sometimes he faints when he gets scared.”
