It also kept his brothers from having to do any of them. They hated the paperwork and how time-consuming it was. So it worked out well for everyone. Things were actually slow enough that unless something unexpected weather related happened, Hudson could keep up with things without putting them too far behind.
Not that he wanted a vacation.
Who wanted extra time to play guessing games? A vacation would only give his brain more time to race. Did Calen like him? Was it just his imagination? Was Calen waiting for him to say something? Was he an idiot who needed to get his mind off the Dom who didn’t seem to want him?
Yes. That one was easy to answer.
“You could have called him and we both know it. There’s something on your mind lately. Garrett was hoping time off would help you figure shit out but I think you need to talk more. You’ve been working longer hours lately and you’re not happy. What gives?” Bryce leaned back in his chair and looked at Brent.
Bryce had too much patience for Brent to wait him out, so it was either talk or make an excuse and head home. They were both terrible options.
“I don’t know.”
They both knew that was a lie. Bryce lifted one eyebrow and tilted his head, giving Brent a look like he was being ridiculous.
“I met someone. Well, I think I did. It’s complicated.”
“I take it this isn’t the online guy?”
“God, no. This one’s real and not nuts.” Brent snorted and reached for his coffee, pushing away the lingering frustration over how that had ended. Taking a sip, he tried to figure out what to say. “I’m not sure if I read the signals right or not. I’m having a difficult time telling. Most Doms want to be the one to make the move but with this guy, I can’t tell. And now I’m at the point where I’m probably sending out mixed signals because I’m so confused.”
“So let me see if I have this right. You met someone in the lifestyle and for whatever reason when you guys noticed each other neither of you actually made a move. Now you don’t know what to do. Right?” Bryce leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk.
“Yes.”
“When you first thought something clicked with this mysterious Dom, because don’t think I didn’t notice you didn’t give his name, you felt like there was something special but you didn’t say anything? You’re not usually that…passive.” Bryce looked confused.
He was right. Brent usually took a more aggressive role in letting a Dom know he was interested. But this was different. If it had been anyone else but Calen, Brent might have said something. Calen was like part of the family, which meant Brent had always put him in the off-limits category.
Everything changed the last time they were all at the club together.
They’d gone up as a big group and it had been a lot of fun. However, gradually people had wandered off. Garrett seemed frustrated and had gone home early. Several of their other friends had roamed away to play in the private rooms. Even Grant and Bryce had found someone to play with. Eventually, only Calen and he were left.
He’d been honest with his brothers that he wasn’t going to stay late and had told them all to go have fun. But when he was finally alone with Calen, he’d found that he hadn’t wanted to leave. There had been something pulling at him to stay. Calen hadn’t seemed to mind that it was just the two of them either so Brent hadn’t hurried to leave.
It probably should have felt awkward, but it hadn’t. Even dressed for the club, he’d always been comfortable with Calen. The fact that he’d been shirtless, barefoot, and only wearing slacks and cuffs on his wrists wasn’t important. He wouldn’t have even thought twice about it if people had left them alone.
Maybe it was because he wasn’t wearing a collar or maybe it was because Calen didn’t seem to be his Dom, but every time he turned around someone else was coming up to him. Offers from a soda at the bar to invitations to the playrooms were constant, but he didn’t want any of the other Doms. He’d wanted to hang out with Calen.
Eventually, they’d both gotten so frustrated at the interruptions that Calen had asked if Brent wanted to kneel down beside him to at least give the impression that they were together. That got Brent thinking, but he chalked it up to an overactive imagination. He knew Calen couldn’t have been hinting at anything.
When he’d gotten up from the chair and took those short steps over to the couch where Calen was sitting, something changed. It could have been the way Calen watched him, the predatory look that flashed in his eyes, but suddenly it wasn’t the same. He wasn’t only Calen, the friend and coworker...he was Calen the Dom.
By the time he’d knelt at Calen’s feet, he’d known he wasn’t going to see the man the same way again. They still talked about the same things…work, sports, movies...whatever came up. But the act of kneeling made his mind look at their interaction differently.
Was Calen looking at his chest?
Did Calen’s gaze linger on his neck too long?
Was it just the lights or was that a spark of interest in his eyes?
Once he was kneeling, the number of people who came up to them slowed down but some stubborn morons still couldn't take a hint. When one particularly dense older gentleman wouldn’t stop watching Brent, Calen had brought his hand up to rest on Brent’s neck. He let his fingers caress Brent softly before giving the other wannabe Dom a glare that blatantly said back off.
Even when the touch was no longer necessary, Calen had let his hand rest on Brent’s shoulder. His fingers stroked Brent’s skin sending shivers down his spine. It took all his strength not to move. He wasn’t sure if it was an unconscious gesture on the Dom’s part or if he was doing it on purpose. But Brent had no desire to chase him away, so he did his best to stay still and not draw attention to it.
Had Calen been looking for a signal from Brent?
Did the Dom even realize what he’d been doing?
Brent had a thousand unanswered question and no way to find out the answers without letting Calen know he was interested. He couldn’t figure out if the risk was worth the reward. He wanted a long term relationship. Did Calen?
He’d never let things get too serious with any one sub but he’d also mentioned settling down, eventually. Was he looking for something specific in a sub and hadn’t found it, or was he not ready in general?
“You’re not listening to anything I’m saying, are you?”
He almost dropped his coffee cup when Bryce’s voice came out of nowhere. “Huh?”
“If you’re going to ignore me, go home and drink your own coffee.” Bryce frowned at him, shaking his head.
“Sorry, you got me thinking.”
“About what or should I say whom?” Bryce stubbornly wouldn’t give up and let it drop.
Did he want to share? If he was being honest…probably. He wasn’t going to get anywhere trying to figure things out on his own.
“I’m not sure if it’s all in my head.” He let his head fall back, staring up at the ceiling, and sighed. “I’m not the kind of sub he usually goes for.”
Bryce paused for a moment, then cleared his throat. “What’s his usual type?”
“I don’t know…I guess if I had to say…maybe twinks. But I’m not sure if that’s on purpose or not.” The club had a lot of single twinks lately so there was no way to tell if that’s what Calen preferred. “I don’t really look like a sub.”
Not that Brent minded how he looked at all. It wasn’t that he looked like a gorilla or something, he just didn’t come across as what most guys thought a sub should look like. When you combined that with his desire for more than a Saturday night kind of Dom, it was hard to meet someone.
He wasn’t looking for something completely lifestyle but he also didn’t want to pretend to be vanilla during the week. Brent had met plenty of men who wanted to have a regular relationship most of the time and only play at the club occasionally. That wasn’t for him.
Life would be so much easier if he was a twink who was a complete bottom type of sub. Bei
ng complicated sucked.
“Did you get the feeling it mattered?” Bryce’s voice pulled Brent back to the conversation again.
“Huh?” He looked at Bryce’s frustrated expression before sinking down in the chair and letting his head fall back again. Bryce really did have the best chairs. Garrett was ridiculously proud of his conference room but the care that Bryce had put into picking out the furniture in his office put the rest of them to shame.
No simple fabric covered chairs for his customers’ asses. No. He had soft leather with so much padding Brent thought someone could bounce on them. And Bryce hadn’t stopped there. The wood in his desk was a warm, rich color that didn’t scream expensive but it looked solid and well put together. His office didn’t look like it cost a fortune, but it radiated a confident dependability that Brent loved.
“Lord, nut, you’re going to drive me crazy.” Bryce took a deep breath before he continued. “I was responding to your comment about looks. When you guys were starting to hit it off, did it seem to matter to him what you looked like? Was he checking you out?”
“Possibly. I didn’t even think about the kind of guy he usually goes for until later. At the time, it felt like he was into me. But now…I don’t know.” When he’d been kneeling there, he’d been so focused on Calen’s touch that he might have missed a look one way or the other.
“Who are we talking about? No more hinting. We’re not teenagers talking about your first crush. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
Time to put up or shut up.
“Calen.”
He waited, still not looking at Bryce but there was no response. Finally, he tilted his head up and peeked at his brother. Bryce had a smile from ear to ear. A big shit-eating grin that made Brent want to throw something at him. “What?”
Was he not going to say anything?
“Grant owes me twenty bucks.” Bryce smirked, looking one step away from doing a happy dance.
That was not what he’d been expecting. “You’re gambling on my love life?”
Not that a seemingly one-sided crush added up to a love life, but still.
“Hell yes. Especially when you were both crazy and bitchy lately. He’s been drinking like a fish and you’ve been working such long hours I was going to put a bed in your office. It had to be something like that. It was the only thing that made sense. Grant guessed that you two were mad at each other and I don’t even think Garrett realized anything was off. He’s totally oblivious when it comes to shit like that.”
That made Brent laugh, Garrett never even noticed that a sub was into him until they were literally throwing themselves into his lap. “So you don’t think I’m crazy?”
“No, you two would be good together. And with the way he’s been acting lately, it wouldn’t surprise me at all he was interested in you. What are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t said anything that makes me sure either way. It would make things awkward if I misread his signals and said something. But he could be simply waiting for me to show him I’m interested. With him working for Garrett, it might be weird for him.” There were too many possibilities for Brent to list them all.
“You should go for it. He’s clearly distracted by something. Give him a call and see what happens.”
“Just ask him?” He sounded horrified but he couldn’t help it. Brent was take charge, but that seemed too risky—like he was asking to get shot down or something.
Bryce laughed. “Text him or something and sympathize with him for having enforced time off this week as well. See if he wants to hang out. That might give him an opening to take things up a notch.”
“What do you mean he has time off too?”
“You didn’t see Garrett’s email? I got it right before you came in. Reading between the lines, it looked like Calen came in this morning looking rough enough that Garrett made him take a vacation. You’re both in the same boat. I thought it was interesting.”
Brent had to admit it sounded…curious.
“Maybe I will.”
“Good. Now get out of my office. I have a meeting in a few minutes.” The words were bossy and there was nothing special about them. They shouldn’t have caught Brent’s attention, but they did.
“Who’s coming in?”
Bryce looked down at his desk and shuffled papers around. Interesting. “Oliver Stanton.”
“That name’s familiar but I can’t place him. Has he been insured here long?” Brent dealt with the insureds at all the offices so he couldn’t be sure, but he was pretty good with names.
“No. He and his partner are fairly new.”
The tone in Bryce’s voice said he was hiding something. “Do we know them from somewhere else? I know the name but I can’t think of a claim it’s related to.”
A barely audible sigh escaped Bryce. “They’re from the club. When they realized we handled insurance, they decided to move everything over.”
That should have made his brother happy. The insureds they’d meet through the club were some of their best customers. Open and honest about what they were looking for and they were easy to deal with because you didn’t have to worry about how something sounded. What was Bryce worried about?
“Everything okay with them?”
To Brent’s astonishment, Bryce blushed. “Yes. It should be pretty straight forward.”
Oh, there was a story. But it didn’t seem like he was ready to talk about it, so Brent stood up and ignored Bryce’s fidgeting. “All right, I’m out of here before Garrett figures out I came in today.”
Bryce looked relieved that Brent was going to let everything drop. “Yup. If he finds out, you’re toast. He said he’d call mom. And she’d love to know what was going on with you two.”
“I’m leaving.” He shook his head and frowned at Bryce, drawing out the words like he was shocked. “No need to resort to threats.”
Laughing, Bryce called out as Brent strode out of the office. “Have fun with Calen.”
He always had a good time with Calen. But this time, he wasn’t sure what kind of fun to hope for.
CHAPTER 3
Calen
The beep of Calen’s phone signaling an incoming text was the first thing he heard when he walked in through the back door. He’d definitely been doing too much drinking and not enough running lately because his usual route had been a lot more difficult than it typically was. Grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge, he walked over to the phone.
Sliding his finger across the screen, he was shocked to see Brent’s name pop up. He probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Brent was off work too this week, but he was the last person Calen expected.
There were always group texts going between Garrett and his brothers and somehow Calen always got included in them. But he couldn’t remember the last time Brent had texted only him. Refusing to be a wimp, he tapped the message.
Hey heard you were banished too. Dinner later?
It was interesting. Dinner. Not a casual invite to go hang out or do something. Not a message about barbecuing something. An invitation to dinner. Calen knew he probably shouldn’t read too much into it, but something about the message made him hesitate.
Normally, he would have made some kind of teasing response about grabbing a pizza, because Brent couldn’t cook anything. But that didn’t seem like a good idea this time. He was overthinking it, but it felt like Brent was putting himself out there to see what Calen would say.
He was second-guessing this too much. It was only a text, damn it.
Sure…Want me to bring anything…Time?
Brent’s quick response made him smile.
Food? Unless you want me to burn something.
Maybe he was pushing his luck but he couldn't help it.
Ask me out and expect me to bring dinner…what kind of date are you…lol
He’d finished his bottle of water and was heating up some leftovers for a late lunch when Brent finally responded. Five minutes was a long time f
or a guy to reply when he was right by his phone. Not that Calen was keeping track of the time.
What can I say I’m high maintenance.
Now that was an interesting response.
Not denying the possibility of a date but teasing enough that it could be passed off as joking around. Was he trying to be funny? Was it something more? The Dom in him, the part he’d done his best to push away for months, was insisting it was the sub’s way of showing interest.
He never used to doubt himself like this. It was time to stop.
Hell. What was the worst thing that could happen? Brent saying Calen misunderstood things, and they both felt awkward for a little while. That was better than what he was dealing with now. He’d worry about the other issues later. Right then, the only thing he was going to focus on was figuring out if Brent felt the same way about him.
It was like high school all over again. Only instead of notes in class, it was vague texts. Might as well push his luck.
I don’t mind high maintenance…just might have to make it worth my while to put up with it
There was another long pause while he finished his reheated stirfry, and this time he had to grin. It was so easy to picture Brent hunched over his phone trying to figure out what Calen meant. Brent’s eventual reply had a teasing tone to it as well.
Dessert huh? That seems fair ;-)
The little winking face made Calen laugh. Oh yeah, just silly enough that Brent could pretend to be teasing later, hamming things up and playing along but still sexy enough that he might be serious. Time to kick it up a notch.
Not exactly what I was thinking…guess it depends on your definition of dessert
There was another long pause and Calen was imagining Brent blushing, trying to decide how to reply. He kept an eye on the phone as he cleaned up his lunch and started poking around the cabinets. He wasn’t sure what to make for dinner. He’d been planning on something simple or possibly going out, but now he needed to impress Brent.
Brent: A M/m BDSM Romance (Bound & Controlled Book 2) Page 2
