Beauregard and the Beast

by Evie Drae

  “I’m calling you at the ass crack of dawn. Of course something’s wrong.”

  “Okay.” He drew out the word, letting her latest foul language transgression slide in favor of responding to her grumpy admission. “Talk to me. What’s up?”

  She harrumphed, and he imagined her crossing her arms and scowling in that angsty teenage way she was so skilled at. “I don’t like it here. I wanna come home.”

  He scratched a thumb over his brow and frowned. “What don’t you like about it?”

  “I don’t fit in here. I’m not like these people.” Her voice got small, and she sniffled into the phone. “Can I come home? Please? Just for a weekend? I miss you.”

  Bo scraped his teeth over his bottom lip as he tried to calculate the logistics of getting Lulu to Vegas for a visit. He’d given her his car when she went away to school, so she could drive herself home. But he didn’t have a home for her to come back to anymore. He’d need to rent a hotel. And get some time off, something he hoped Adam wouldn’t mind giving him.

  “Bo?”

  “I’m here. Sorry, trying to wake my brain up. Of course you can come visit. How about this weekend? I’ll talk to my boss about getting some vacation time.”

  Lulu was silent a moment before huffing out a breath. “Okay. I’ve gotta get ready for class now, but can I come Friday night? I could leave right after my last lecture.”

  “That sounds perfect.” Bo schooled his voice to sound enthusiastic. “Call me if you need to talk or anything before then, okay?”

  Lulu agreed, and they hung up after exchanging I-love-yous and the standard promises to behave, study hard, and drive safe on the trip home Friday.

  Bo let his head fall back against the headboard. “Crap.”

  “Everything okay, babe?”

  Adam’s unexpected, gravelly voiced question startled Bo. He yelped, then let out a self-deprecating snigger. “Jeez, you scared the heck out of me. What are you doing awake?”

  “You sounded worried.” Adam lifted the covers, revealing his bare, perfectly muscled torso, and opened his arms in invitation.

  Bo slipped into the welcoming warmth of his embrace. He allowed the rhythmic circles Adam rubbed over his back to ease the tension Lulu’s call had brought to the surface.

  “You wanna talk about it?” Adam brushed his lips over Bo’s hair when he spoke, leaving a kiss on the crown of his head to punctuate the question. To let Bo know he was there, as he always was.

  “Lulu’s struggling at school. She wants to come home for the weekend because she misses her dear old brother.” Bo walked his fingers up Adam’s bicep to buy himself a little time to build his courage. Nerves had his stomach turning. Would Adam be upset with him for requesting time off so last-minute? “Would it, ah, be okay if I took the weekend off? I know it doesn’t give you much notice, but I—”

  “Babe.” Adam stopped tracing patterns over Bo’s back and knuckled under his chin. Their eyes met, and Adam smiled. “Of course you can have the weekend off. I’d give you the rest of your life off if I thought you’d be open to the title of Kept Man.”

  Bo drew back his chin and shook his head in horror. A kept man? As in, what, Adam wanted to foot all his bills so he could laze around and do nothing? Not happening. Not only would he go crazy without something to keep his mind active, but there was no way he’d risk Lulu’s future. What if Adam got tired of him? Or started to resent him for loafing off his dollar? He’d be hunting for a job with an unexplained gap in employment. It was hard enough to find work with a proven track record. No one would hire him if he’d fallen off the grid.

  Adam chuckled. “I know, I know. You’re far too strong-willed and independent for that, which I respect the shit out of. But the point is, you can have time off whenever you want it. All you gotta do is let me know and it’s yours. Just so I don’t worry about you when you aren’t up my ass in that way I love so much.”

  Bo rolled his eyes but grinned as he pinched Adam’s most ticklish spot—the side of his ribs beneath his armpit. Adam howled and rolled them both until he straddled Bo’s lap. He pinned Bo’s arms to the bed and pouted. “What was that for? I thought I was being nice.”

  Nice was an understatement. How many bosses gave their employees unlimited vacation time? And without any real notice. It never ceased to amaze Bo how sweet and wonderful Adam could be. It baffled him to remember how he’d dreaded the idea of working for a man like Adam, yet the perception he’d had couldn’t have been any further from the truth.

  “Oh, you were.” Bo cocked his head and smirked. He bounced his hips so their dicks collided. “I wanted you on top of me, that’s all. We’ve got lots of time to make up for if I’m going to be gone all weekend.”

  “Whoa, pump the brakes. Who said anything about you being gone all weekend?” Adam scowled. “I thought Lulu was coming here.”

  The nerves kicked back into gear. Adam had agreed to let him take a vacation, but he’d clearly assumed Bo would be staying around the house. Which would mean he’d still be available in an emergency. Would he change his mind if he knew Bo planned to go to a hotel with Lulu instead of making her stay alone?

  “She is. I mean, she’s coming to Vegas, but I’m going to rent a hotel.” Bo cringed when Adam’s scowl deepened. “For us both.”

  Folding his arms over his sculpted chest, Adam squinted an eye. “Why?”

  Because Lulu sounded desperate, that’s why. No way was he going to make her stay alone in a hotel when she seemed so down. “She’s coming all this way. I want to spend as much time with her as I can.”

  “Well, yeah.” Adam cocked his head. “But I don’t get why you’d be able to spend any more time with her at a hotel than you could here. Are you afraid I’ll interfere? I’d be happy to ghost for the weekend. As long as I get to come home at night and share a bed with you, I can make anything work.”

  Adam thought Bo was bringing Lulu into his home? No frickin’ way. That was wrong on so many levels. “Ah, I wasn’t implying Lulu would stay at your house, baby. I’d never do that to you. She’ll be at the hotel, which is why I want to be there. To be close to her.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Bo.” Adam laughed, unfolding his arms so he could pull Bo into them. “You are not staying at a hotel. Neither of you are. This is your home. If Lulu is coming to visit, she should stay here, in your home. There are four guest bedrooms. There’s more than enough space.”

  A thousand butterflies took flight in Bo’s chest. Adam considered his house to be Bo’s home? That was…. Bo shivered. That was the best thing ever.

  Adam dropped a kiss to the tip of Bo’s nose and smirked. “Plus, I’m a selfish bastard. There’s no way in hell I’m giving up even a single night with you. Lulu’s a big girl, and you said yourself she knows you’re gay and sexually active. I’m fine with wearing clothes to bed and abstaining from sex while she’s in the house. But there’s no reason you can’t crawl into our bed and sleep in my arms because Lulu’s here.”

  Our bed? Bo’s belly did a flip, and a kaleidoscope of butterflies moved to fill its churning depths. Okay, so maybe he’d spoken too soon. Our bed might trump home. Maybe. Possibly. He couldn’t decide which was better, and at that moment, he didn’t much care.

  Chapter Nineteen

  ADAM threw his legs over the side of the bed and scowled into the darkness. Considering he’d spent thirty-eight years sleeping alone—at least twenty of those actively keeping others away—his restlessness made no sense. He should be able to sleep unaccompanied in his own damn bed without issue.

  But that clearly wasn’t happening. Not without Bo.

  In the two weeks since they’d finally given in to their mutual desire, Adam hadn’t slept alone once. Bo had shared his bed every night, naked and warm. If Adam had slept like the dead before, he didn’t know what to call his sleep with Bo tucked close, their bodies sated and hearts full. He damn near went comatose.

  Now, with Bo back in his own room two doors down, Adam was t
witchy and on edge. With Lulu in town, Bo had decided they needed to maintain some semblance of propriety and sleep in separate rooms, but Adam’s bed had never felt so empty, nor his heart so achy. He missed Bo. Painfully so.

  It was stupid. Bo would only be gone for a few nights, and then all would return to normal. Their new normal. The perfection of the past two weeks. Or so he hoped. But there was no guarantee, was there?

  That’s where the tightness in his chest came from. The fear of the future. All good things had a finite ending, after all. As his career would eventually wind to a close, so too would his relationship with Bo. It was simply a matter of time.

  Adam pressed to his feet. He couldn’t wallow in bed all night. If he wasn’t going to sleep, he should do something productive. Maybe if he busted his ass in the gym, he’d forget for a few minutes how lonely he was and pass out from exhaustion.

  After garbing for a workout, Adam crept down the hall. He placed a palm over Bo’s door, stealing a moment of comfort from his closeness before tiptoeing down the stairs.

  The bright beacon of the kitchen light drew his attention. He frowned. He’d been the last to bed and had shut off all the lights before heading upstairs. As promised, he’d avoided the house until after eleven to give Bo and his sister some time alone. Neither of them had been awake when he’d gotten home, a truth that only fed his insecurities.

  Bo hadn’t even stayed up for a stealthy good-night kiss.

  But maybe he was struggling to sleep too? Maybe they could sneak that kiss now?

  When Adam stepped into the kitchen, any hope he’d allowed at the prospect of seeing Bo vanished. In its place, confusion took root.

  A tiny sprite of a girl with jet-black hair and pale porcelain skin—a spitting female image of her brother—sat at the breakfast bar. Her hand was wrapped around the neck of a beer bottle, and fat tears spilled down her face. They ran in rivulets over her cheeks, staining them with the remnants of what might’ve once been dark smoky eye makeup. Now it was a fucked-up mess.

  Adam wasn’t used to being around females. His world had always been filled with tough men who harbored tough expectations, starting with his father and carrying through with Eddie, Kyle, and the myriad of other men he associated with during training and fights.

  Out of both habit and nerves, Adam slipped into Beast mode. Whenever he didn’t know how to act, it was always easiest to pretend, so he glowered and crossed his arms. “I thought you were only eighteen. Why are you drinking my beer?”

  Lulu let out a squeak of surprise. She jerked, and the beer toppled. Its contents splashed over the counter and formed a puddle near Adam’s feet. She blinked up at him, the vivid blue pools—unaided by glasses—the first real noticeable difference between her and Bo. Even her hair was styled in a pixie cut that, from a distance, resembled Bo’s artfully disheveled locks.

  When she hiccupped and a fresh wave of tears misted her eyes, Adam sighed. He unfolded his arms and grabbed a few towels. Lulu accepted the one he handed her but made no move to sop up the mess on the counter, even when he crouched to dry the floor. He straightened and cocked his head, taking a closer look at the glassiness of her eyes. They might be blue—not green—but he’d seen another Wilkins with that bleary-eyed stare more than once before. “Are you drunk?”

  “No.” Lulu scrunched her nose in a sneer. “I’m just buzzed.”

  “Right, and at eighteen, neither is allowed.” Adam snatched the dry towel out of Lulu’s lax grip and finished cleaning the spill. “Mind telling me why you’re awake in the middle of the night, stealing my booze?”

  “None of your business, dickhead.” She pushed off the stool, stomped to the refrigerator, and pulled out a fresh beer. Popping the bottle’s cap with an expertise Adam hadn’t gained until at least twenty-five, she took a long swallow before sticking out her tongue. “I can do whatever I want. You aren’t in charge of me.”

  Adam knew nothing about women, and even less about teenagers. He hadn’t been around one of those hormonal creatures since he was one himself, but he could vaguely remember spouting off idiotic and rebellious taunts with no real recollection as to why he’d done so or what would’ve made him stop.

  Perhaps being an asshole wasn’t the best way to handle the situation. It would give Lulu added reasons to be a brat and to return his snark with more of her own. He held up his hands in surrender. “You’re right. You’re an adult, and I don’t even pretend to be the authoritative parenting type. I’m more about taking orders than giving them.”

  “Sure you are. I can totally see the big, bad Beast taking orders.” Lulu snorted, and beer surged out her nose. Her eyes widened, and she dropped her bottle. Again. This time it shattered and covered the kitchen floor in a flood of amber liquid and glass. She squawked, held her nose with one hand, and flapped her free arm. “It burns. Ohmygod, it burns.”

  “Shit.” Adam strode across the sea of alcohol—thankful he had sneakers on, since he’d dressed for the gym—and lifted Lulu off the floor. He threw her over his shoulder and carried her flailing, squealing ass into the living room, where he dropped her onto the nearest soft surface.

  “You creep.” She scrambled to her feet and punched a tiny fist into his stomach. “Wait until I tell my brother what you did. He’ll kick your ass.”

  “Tallulah, what the heck is going on down here?” Bo’s groggy voice preceded him down the stairs. He rubbed at his eyes before slipping on his glasses and stopping short two steps from the bottom.

  Undoubtedly, Adam and Lulu made quite a sight. She was poised to aim another punch at his midriff, and he was grinning like it was Christmas morning. Not only did Bo’s presence mean he could take the mini hormone monster off Adam’s hands, it also meant there was still a chance for that good-night kiss.

  “This jackass grabbed me.” Lulu pointed an accusatory finger at Adam’s chest. “He grabbed me.”

  Adam took a step back, holding up both hands palms out. “Hey, I was trying to save you from the glass. That’s all.”

  Bo glanced from Lulu’s squinty-eyed glare to Adam. He heaved out a purse-lipped breath and rubbed at his temple. “What glass?”

  “Does it matter?” Lulu interjected before Adam had a chance to respond. Panic laced her words, and she bounced on the balls of her feet. “He grabbed me, Bo. Kick his sorry ass into pulp.”

  A chuckle fell from Bo’s lips. “Have you seen the man? He pummels men three times my size for a living. Even if I wanted to—which I don’t—I’d be the one turning into pulp.”

  “Fine. Fine. Whatever.” Lulu folded her arms and sulked in that overly dramatic way only a teenager could pull off. “I’m going to bed.”

  Bo held out an arm to stop her before she could pass him. “I think not.” He popped a brow and pointed to the couch. “Sit. You’re not going anywhere until I know what really happened. And don’t try any of that ‘he grabbed me’ crap again. I want the truth.”

  “That is the truth.” Lulu flounced back to the couch and fell onto it with enough force to send it squeaking over the hardwood floor. “Why is everyone out to get me? Isn’t anyone on my side?”

  Adam didn’t envy Bo one second of this drama, but his heart twisted nonetheless. There was something very real and very painful about the words Lulu spoke. He angled his gaze to Bo, whose attention was zeroed in on his sister. The worry was clear in the pinch of his brow.

  “I’m gonna go clean up the kitchen.” Adam backed in that direction, his belly doing a flip when Bo’s eyes met his. The thank-you was evident in his nod and that small, sweet smile.

  Adam was putting away the mop when Bo trudged into the kitchen twenty minutes later. His shoulders sagged, and he ran a hand through his sleep-tousled waves. “I’m so sorry about that. I don’t know what her problem is. She didn’t used to be such a handful. She’s a really great kid. I swear.”

  “Independence does strange things to people. Don’t take it personally. She’ll grow out of it.” Adam tossed the beer-soaked ra
gs into the sink. “Did you get things smoothed over?”

  Bo scoffed and scrubbed at his face with both hands, shoving his glasses into his hair. “She admitted to the beer. Apparently my straitlaced brainiac of a kid sister is getting drunk on the reg. Swell, huh?”

  Neither Bo nor Adam had college days to look back on and compare notes. But Lulu’s experience seemed pretty run-of-the-mill to Adam. Wasn’t that what kids did? Go off to college, spread their wings, and do superstupid shit?

  “Is she doing okay in school?” Adam leaned a hip against the counter and stuffed his fists under his armpits. He had to, or else he’d reach out for Bo. He wanted to feel his solid warmth more than anything else, but he’d never flout Bo’s needs to meet his own.

  Bo shrugged. “She was vague about it. I have no clue what’s going on in that girl’s head.”

  When Bo didn’t say anything further, Adam cleared his throat. “I want to be sure you know I didn’t touch Lulu inappropriately—”

  “Oh God, Adam. No. No.” Bo shook his head, his eyes widening beneath his glasses. “I know. I do. I promise. I never for even a second thought you would have. She’s being a giant pain right now. I don’t know what possessed her to insinuate such a thing.”

  “I took her by surprise. That was my fault. Should’ve told her I was going to grab her, but I acted quicker than I could think. I didn’t want her to cut herself on the glass.” Adam buried his fists deeper under his arms. “I’m not exactly great with females.”

  Bo’s face softened into a sleepy smile, his lids drooping. “It’s late. Why were you awake in the first place? And fully dressed, no less?”

  Rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, Adam fought the heat creeping up his cheeks. “Ah, I couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d get a workout in.”

  “You wear me out.” Bo chuckled. He took a wobbly step forward and fell—blessedly—into Adam’s arms, nuzzling into his chest. “I miss you. My bed’s big and lonely.”