Somewhere to Belong by Caitlin Ricci

Author:Caitlin Ricci [Ricci, Caitlin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63533-589-7
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-08-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Eli

I LOOKED at the well-dressed man who was about the same age as Grayson and also black, and I realized they were probably friends and I had no reason to be jealous or uncomfortable with whatever-his-name-was being there. Grayson looked just as surprised at him showing up as I felt, but I was mostly annoyed that I didn’t get to keep kissing Grayson because he was there.

“Nigel, this is Eli. Eli, this is my friend Nigel.”

So he was just a friend, then. That was pretty obvious actually. I’d seen the profiles of the guys Grayson had been with on the app, and Nigel wasn’t even in the right age range. He liked his guys a lot like me. Twenties to thirties, a little muscular, and white. That didn’t bother me. But the way Nigel was looking at me, like I was a particularly interesting puzzle, was starting to unnerve me.

“So you’re Grayson’s bit of rough. Well, you’re certainly pretty enough.” Nigel put the bottle of wine down on the island and went over to grab a few glasses. “Do you care for wine, Eli?”

I got off the couch to go stand closer to Grayson. “No, but thank you.” Things were tense enough without Grayson clamming up, so I wished that he would snap out of it sooner rather than later.

“Not old enough to drink yet?” Nigel taunted me. And I knew it was a taunt because of the sharklike grin he gave me at the end as if he was daring me to say, or do, something that would piss Grayson off enough to get me thrown out on my ass.

But I just smiled at him, giving him the same expression I reserved for people who wanted to adopt but I thought would be better off with a plastic model horse than a real horse that would likely kill them with their own stupidity.

“No, I’m old enough. I just don’t like the taste of red. What’s a ‘bit of rough’?” I was sure that it was an insult of some kind. But I wanted to know exactly how I was being insulted before I got all upset about it.

“He’s implying that I’m slumming it with you,” Grayson quietly told me.

Oh. Was that really all it was? Well, okay, then. “You are. So that makes sense.” I figured it was time to be extra nice to the person who had tried to insult me and failed. “Nigel, we were going to go out for steaks. Would you like to join us?” I wanted Grayson to see how much I could handle, how strong I really was, and how meeting his friend, even unexpectedly, didn’t have to ruin my evening with him. I still wanted dinner. And I still wanted him in bed with me that night.

“I am—”

Whatever Grayson was going to say got cut off by Nigel. “No, thank you. I like to dine at places that might be a bit too highbrow for you. What do your parents do?”

That was a sensitive subject, and I didn’t need the added insult.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.