Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 91507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Rafe hadn’t depended on anyone since his father passed away. But Hop had his mom, didn’t he? Not for the first time since Hop had come back into his life, Rafe was overwhelmed with curiosity.
Hop hefted the heavy figures into place, redressed them, and carried in props and decorations back and forth until everything was how he wanted. He was focused and knew exactly what he was doing. The picture he made was so at odds with everything Rafe remembered about him that for a second, he swore he was seeing a different person. If it hadn’t been for those blue eyes, he might never have recognized the man Hop had become.
And wasn’t that a wakeup call?
He hadn’t forgotten how his attention had been caught by those long legs and that cotton-candy hair. If he let himself think about it, his fingers still itched with the desire to feel how soft it’d be. But that wasn’t going to happen. There were a million reasons he could never, ever, go there. The least of which being his desires were better left to the professionals.
He’d made the mistake once. It had been unsettling and unsatisfying. From then on, he’d kept his sexual encounters to a minimum. He’d been too busy anyway. From the moment he accepted the first loan from Lockwood, Rafe had been locked in a perpetual cycle of study, work, study, work, study, work.
Time to get his head back in the game—he couldn’t spend the rest of the day in shadows. He needed to get the Sassy Boyz back, and the best way to do that was standing right in front of him. Rafe stepped into the store. It wasn’t hard to find the door to the display area. It was wide open in invitation.
Rafe walked through and into a different world.
Hop looked up from what he was doing, his eyes wide in surprise. God, they were blue. So fucking blue, like the sea, deep and swirling with something Rafe recognized on an instinctual level. He cleared his throat and shut the door behind him. It was one thing to be in a fishbowl for anyone walking by to see clear as day. It was another for people to overhear their conversation.
“Listen to me.” His tone was insistent.
Hop crossed his arms but didn’t answer. He was trapped and they both knew it, the only thing he could do was hear Rafe out.
“I made a mistake,” Rafe tried.
A pucker appeared between Hop’s brows.
“I know it’s not an excuse, but you took me by surprise. I didn’t deal with it well. If I could do it over again—”
“What? You wouldn’t fire us? You wouldn’t growl at me? You wouldn’t let your fear of my father overrule your logic?”
Rafe took off his gloves. “Yeah, pretty much all of that.”
Hop scoffed. “You’ve got some nerve, you know?”
“I do. But I need the Sassy Boyz back on my stage.”
“That’s true. They certainly classed up the joint.”
Rafe smiled a little, but he didn’t reply.
“I’ve been trying to convince them to go back, but they’re being absurdly loyal.” He tucked his pink hair behind his ear in an insecure gesture.
He’d known that without Hop there’d be no way to win them over so he wasn’t surprised. “Loyalty is good.”
“Sure, except that means there’ll be no convincing them.” He actually seemed apologetic, which tickled the piece of Rafe that craved compliance.
“I think you’ve misunderstood. I need all the Sassy Boyz, including you.”
Time had flipped the tables on him. After years of rescuing Hop from himself, Rafe needed to be saved.
And only Hop could do it.
* * *
“But, Roland?” Hop managed to get the words out through his surprise. The last thing he’d expected was for Rafe to ask for him to come back. The Sassy Boyz, yeah, sure, Rafe would be an idiot if he didn’t try to persuade them to return, but Hop?
What happened to never seeing him again?
What happened to wanting him to disappear for good?
What happened to being Roland’s puppet?
“What he doesn’t know...” Rafe said with wariness in his eyes that belied his overconfidence. He might be willing to secretly disobey his mentor, but he still wasn’t ready to cut all ties.
“That’s convenient,” Hop said under his breath. But honestly, he couldn’t blame him. That kind of money moved mountains.
“So, will you come back?”
Hop twisted the mannequin’s felt scarf in his hands as he stared at Rafe, his stomach doing somersaults at the sight of him, at the nearness of him—but mostly at the intensity of his eyes.
That pull hadn’t gone away. There was an undercurrent of danger there, and it licked at all his secret desires. How could he still be stupid enough to feel like this after everything he’d gone through? He hated Rafe. Right? It’d been Rafe’s fault. Hadn’t it?
Hop had to look away, pulling his sass around him like an invisibility cloak. “I should tell you to bite me.” But the boys deserved to dance, and if he could convince them, he wouldn’t have to feel guilty any longer.