The Lonely Heart (20 page)

“Chocolate milk for you,” he added, refilling Josh’s glass. Josh smiled happily and took a deep drink.

“You’ve got a moustache,” Tommy pointed out. “I want one.”

“There’s more milk in the fridge,” Joseph said absently. He stacked the cards and started to shuffle. “Another round, or are we done getting our asses whupped by a ten-year-old?”

“Oh, heck, I’m always up for more humiliation,” Tommy said.

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“Maybe we should try Go Fish,” Micah suggested as Joseph started to deal out the cards. “We might have more luck.”

Josh wrinkled his nose, sliding his pile closer.

“I guess that’s a no,” Micah said with a laugh. He finally spotted Isaiah and waved. Josh imitated the gesture.

Isaiah walked into the room, smiling at the small group. All his hands and his little brother sat at the round table, cards in hands, small piles of coins next to each person. The stack of pennies next to Josh was about six times the size of the rest.

“Hey, boss,” Tommy called cheerfully.

“Should I be worried that you’re all up here drinking and playing poker? With my kid brother?”

“Aw, we’re just educating the kid.” Tommy spoke again. “Besides, we’re not giving him alcohol. He’s got chocolate milk, lucky bugger.”

“I told you, there’s more in the refrigerator,” Joseph said, studying his cards as if they held the secrets to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Isaiah shook his head and straightened, coming farther into the room. He grabbed an empty chair and swung it around beforeplopping his butt down. He rested his arms on the ladder back.

“We can deal you in,” Micah offered.

Isaiah shook his head. “I’m good.”

“Three,” Tommy announced.

“Pass.”

Josh slid over four cards, taking four new ones. Isaiah looked askance and Tommy snickered.

“All right, I’m in.” Joseph tossed some pennies on the table.

“Call.”

Josh tossed in his own bet, adding a few pennies to the stack.

The round ended and they all displayed their cards. Josh grinned with wicked glee as he presented his straight flush.

Isaiah cracked up. “Getting your butts kicked?”

“Always,” Tommy announced cheerfully. “Kid’s got the darndest luck. He beats us, without fail, every week. It’s great.”

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Only Tommy would think consistently losing at poker was great. Joseph rolled his eyes and Josh giggled.

“Private party, or can anyone join in?”

Isaiah turned his head to see Grady hovering in the doorway, uncertainty etched in every line of his body. He sent the man a warm smile.

“Come on in,” he invited. He couldn’t help licking his lips at the slight blush on Grady’s cheeks, nearly buried underneath the stubble of his end-of-the-day beard. The big man had worn pretty much the same expression last night, in bed. And the images that flashed through his head were causing a somewhat embarrassing reaction in the lower regions. Isaiah squirmed a bit and pretended not to notice the curious looks coming his way.

Dang, his own face felt warm. No way was he blushing. No. Way.

“More the merrier,” Tommy agreed.

“I’m not playing,” Isaiah murmured when Grady took a seat next to him. “But I’m having a marvellous time watching my brother slaughter the grown-ups. At the rate he’s going, he’ll have enough winnings in pennies to buy a car by the time he gets his licence.”

“That’s a lot of pennies,” Grady remarked. After watching the next hand with Isaiah, though, he laughed. “Huh. You’re not wrong.”

“I think he’s cheating,” Tommy said.

“Tommy!” The voices blended until Isaiah wasn’t quite sure who had spoken.

“What?” Tommy said, wrinkling his brow. “It’s a time-honoured tradition. I, for one, am impressed. It takes more skill to be good at cheating at cards than it does to actually
be
good at cards.”

Grady shook his head. “I will never in a million years understand how your mind works.”

“That’s okay,” Tommy replied. “I don’t understand it, either.”

“Are you sure it even does work?” Joseph asked sarcastically.

“I resent that!” The declaration didn’t have any heat in it, though. Isaiah had learnt pretty quickly that it took a whole heck of a lot to piss off Tommy. In fact, he couldn’t recall ever seeing Tommy angry, or even offended. Words that would normally get a reaction from anyone else just seemed to roll off the large cowboy like water off an umbrella.

Josh raised his once again empty glass in the air and shook it. Isaiah smiled.

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“I’ll get you more, squirt,” he said, standing. Josh nodded his thanks solemnly, busy counting his pennies.

“I’ll come with you,” Grady said hastily. “I could use a soda or something.”

Isaiah tramped down the stairs, aware the entire time of the big man at his back. He could actually feel the heat sparking between them. Isaiah had never been so conscious of Grady before, or of the sexual tension that thrummed between them. It was like once he had given the lust acknowledgement, it had roared to life with full force.

Down in the kitchen, Grady opened up the refrigerator. Isaiah nearly laughed to see it was filled to the brim, mostly with beer, soda, and restaurant leftover containers. His guys were typical bachelors when it came to the kitchen.

“You want anything?” Grady called over his shoulder, head inside the appliance.

Isaiah pressed up against Grady and wrapped his arms around Grady’s waist, leaning over to speak lowly in his ear. “You.”

Grady groaned. “We can’t do that here,” he protested. But he pushed back against Isaiah.

“The guys are all busy upstairs,” Isaiah wheedled. “Come on, just a kiss. I’ve missed you.”

Grady looked back at Isaiah. “Isaiah, I saw you less than three hours ago.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t had a kiss since this morning. Please?” Isaiah did his best imitation of a begging puppy and was rewarded when Grady’s eyes softened.

“All right,” Grady replied in a husky voice. “But just one kiss.”

Of course, one kiss turned into two, then three. Before Isaiah was conscious of it, he had Grady pinned against the counter, hands up inside the man’s shirt, devouring Grady’s mouth like a starving man at a buffet. The kiss was explosive and heart-stopping and damn, Isaiah was going to come in his jeans. From a kiss. Who knew?

A throat cleared behind them. Grady stiffened in Isaiah’s embrace, fingers digging into Isaiah’s shoulders painfully. Isaiah reluctantly tore his lips from Grady’s and turned his head.

Tommy stood a few feet away, expression unashamed, completely innocent, and with an irritating air of delight.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he declared. “But his majesty is getting impatient for more chocolate milk. I want some, too, so I thought to come down here and see what was taking so www.total-e-bound.com

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long. So, I saw. And if you’ll just hand me the milk, I let you get back to…that…” He ended with a wave of his hand.

“Um…Tommy…look, it’s…” Isaiah had no clue what his stammering words were trying to be, but Tommy just rolled his eyes.

“Oh, come on, boss. Bosses. Everybody knows you’ve had a thing for each other. We’ve had a betting pool going on how long you would last before giving in. Gotta say, you went a heck of a lot longer than we thought. Winner’s gonna make out good, but darned if I even remember who that is, it’s been so long.”

“Umm, sorry?” Isaiah really had no idea what to say. Still locked in his arms, Grady was silent and motionless and it worried Isaiah. Who knew what sort of hair-brained idea the man had now? It had taken Isaiah long enough to talk the man into something in the first place. Logically, they had both known they couldn’t hide their relationship. Heck, Isaiah didn’t even want to try. But Grady was hardly ready for this.

“Tommy!”

“Coming!” Tommy bellowed back at the voice from upstairs. “Milk?”

Isaiah leaned over, making sure to keep a grip on Grady’s arm, and passed the milk over. He’d got it as far as the counter. Tommy took the carton and saluted them with it.

“Carry on,” he said with stern sobriety. Then he cracked up and his laughter chased him all the way upstairs.

Isaiah groaned. “Is it just me, or does that guy get nuttier every day?”

“It’s not you,” Grady replied, but his voice was hoarse and he choked a bit on the words. “Isaiah?”

Isaiah sighed and rested his forehead on Grady’s, looking down into worried hazel eyes. “Stop fretting, Dillon,” he ordered. “You know our guys as well as I do. They won’t have a problem with this. So get rid of whatever crazy thoughts are forming in your head. I don’t want to have to go through this again. You’re mine, I’m yours, no argument.”

“I… Well, I know the guys won’t give us trouble,” Grady said by way of an apology.

“But eventually word’s gonna get out. Then what?”

Isaiah bit back a groan. “Do we have to talk about this right now? I was enjoying myself. I’d kind of like to finish what we started.”

“We were only going to kiss. Once. Which we did, so technically we are finished. And we have to talk about it sometime.”

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“Later, babe, please?” Isaiah leaned over and pressed his lips briefly to Grady’s. The scrape of stubble and the salty taste sent another pang of lust down to his cock, which was still throbbing from the earlier incendiary kiss. Tommy’s appearance had dampened his arousal, but it hadn’t killed it off entirely.

“Isaiah, we should—” Grady broke off, pressing back into the kiss. “All right,” he finally said. “But we will have to talk about it eventually.”

“Later,” Isaiah promised. His tongue traced the seal of Grady’s mouth until the man opened with a low moan, surrendering completely. Isaiah hummed his pleasure, pressing closer, their cocks rubbing and bumping through the thick fabric of their jeans.

“I can’t wait to get you back in bed,” Isaiah murmured, breaking the kiss to trail kisses along the scratchy jaw, continuing farther down to map the defined muscles of Grady’s stomach before sliding around to trace small patterns on his lower back. “You’re like nothing else I’ve ever experienced, like no one else I’ve ever touched.”

“Damn right,” Grady growled, and was that a hint of possession in his tone? It was, and Isaiah decided that he kind of liked it. He just had to give the man another toe-curling kiss in reward.

“Nobody like me,” Grady gasped when they came up for air. “And you better remember it. I don’t share.”

“That goes both ways.” Isaiah felt a little growly, himself, at the thought of Grady in someone else’s arms. What they had, it was serious, at least for him. Serious and permanent.

He had no intention of giving up the man in his arms, not anytime soon—possibly not ever.

“Hmm. Absolutely.”

The kiss calmed, became lazier and gentler. Isaiah nipped and licked at the pliant lips beneath his, their tongues rubbing and swirling. He still wanted to come, badly, but it was more distant now. Tommy’s presence had done one thing, it had reminded him that they weren’t actually alone. Besides, he wanted to wait. Isaiah moved one hand down to grab Grady’s tight little ass. He pressed their lower bodies together but resisted the urge to hump and buck. Instead, he used the ever gentling kisses to try to bring himself back under control.

It probably wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had, but Isaiah wasn’t quite ready to let go of Grady. The man just tasted so damn good.

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Grady was the first to pull away. He rested his head on Isaiah’s shoulder, his breathing ragged and muscles trembling a bit with the effort of holding back. “We should probably go back upstairs,” he whispered.

“Yeah.”

Neither one of them moved. They stood there, Grady half-sitting on the counter, their arms wrapped around each other. Isaiah was content, completely so, and the little unconscious half-smile on Grady’s face said he felt the same. Isaiah wouldn’t have minded staying there, right like that, for the next hour or so. Of course, his body wouldn’t let him.

His cock would eventually gain the upper hand and he’d have to do something about it.

He knew the guys wouldn’t let him, either. It was growing late and the cowboys were all like little mothers. They knew Josh’s bedtime and were almost fanatical about it, particularly on weeknights. That was the one thing about taking Josh in that Isaiah hadn’t expected. He’d thought he’d be on his own. Instead of gaining one parent figure, though, Josh had gained five. The boys had taken to their roles of honorary uncles with utter enthusiasm.

A thud sounded upstairs, followed by a loud collective groan. Grady chuckled.

“Sounds like Josh won again.”

Isaiah grinned, squeezing his lover tightly before releasing him and stepping back.

“Yeah. We’d best go congratulate the little pipsqueak. Grab your soda, babe. Time to go be social.”

“Humph. I don’t want to be social.”

Isaiah just had to drop a kiss on the top of the man’s head. Grady would deny it vehemently, but the man did have the cutest pout. “Social now, sex later,” he promised.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Grady grabbed a can of Coke and they headed back upstairs to join the others and watch Josh rule supreme at poker. Little by little, Isaiah was determined to drag Grady into the makeshift family he had created. No matter how much the man kicked and screamed.

But judging by the smile on the man’s face, the happy light in his eyes, Isaiah rather thought there wouldn’t be all that much kicking and screaming.

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