Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 97(@200wpm)___ 78(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 97(@200wpm)___ 78(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
“But she made the coconut rice you like to go with it,” Alec said to sweeten the pot. The nightly negotiations had begun. His lawyer was a dog with a bone when he tried to get what he wanted.
“Pass,” Keyes said again and started a rolling hand motion for Alec to move on.
“Keyes…” Alec said with a lecture sure to follow.
“Alec…” Keyes said back.
Alec wrinkled his brow, giving him a stern look as if he didn’t see that same expression many times a day from his mister. Keyes wasn’t sure what effect Alec would hope that had in the present moment.
Luckily, Alec relented without more of a fight. His head disappeared back around the refrigerator door. “Looks like we have spaghetti sauce with tortellini. Olivia makes those fresh, usually with ground beef, I believe.”
“With ground beef in the sauce?” Keyes asked. Alec had tricked him by using ground veggie crumbles a time or two, passing them off as ground beef. They never fooled Keyes, not one single time.
“Mmm hmm…”
“Sounds good. I like you in those skintight workout clothes,” Keyes added to shift the topic before Alec attempted to go back to the Broccolini idea. Alec squared his shoulders and wiggled his ass in appreciation. The move was designed to be alluring and playful and made Keyes smile. When Alec brought both plates from the refrigerator, a large helping of Broccolini took up a third of Keyes’s spaghetti plate.
One comment about the vegetable and that was only said in an attempt at foreplay, and now he ate Broccolini a couple of times a week.
Keyes blamed Cash’s influence for Alec’s redirection of their food intake.
“You’re trying to distract me. But it won’t work. I want you to live a long life with me.” Alec’s words were becoming akin to a broken record as he set each plate in the fancy new warming drawer. He claimed it would better heat their food.
“You’re gettin’ more muscular,” Keyes added casually. He rested his forearms on the granite countertop as he pushed up from the bottom rung to better check out Alec’s hot body.
“Now you’re just being silly,” Alec drawled, reaching for the oven mitts.
“No, I’m not. I’m bein’ honest.”
Alec smiled the smile Keyes liked so much and tossed the mitts on the counter in easy reach of the warmer. He went for the glass of wine he’d poured earlier.
“Tell me the progress you’ve made on the prototype.”
Keyes smirked and lifted his gaze to look Alec directly in the eyes. They exchanged something in the stare. Probably Alec’s growing frustration with being left out of this phase of the bike-building process. He repeated Alec’s words from earlier. “You handle your end, and I’ll handle my end. Isn’t that what you always say?”
Alec narrowed his eyes as he tilted back the wineglass, draining the contents in one long swallow. A single dropped brow gave away his irritation.
His guy spoke of their love being soulmate-worthy. Something special and unique. They understood one another on a different plane. Secrets didn’t exist between them. That was until Alec found out Keyes wasn’t working from the shop on their property every day. Questions flew with no answer appeasing his guy.
Alec was a hard one to keep secrets from, and the holidays were still months away. Maybe if he stayed on his toes, having a ready arsenal of answers… Yeah, it’d still be damned hard.
The completion of Alec’s bike hinged on Dev finishing the art. Keyes had requested some sort of play on the kneeling angel back tattoo Dev had inked on him almost a year ago. Dev had outdone himself and was sure to hit the mark this time too.
Alec would shit when he saw the finished product.
Pride overwhelmed him. He had a knack for building badass bikes. He’d never been real smart about anything. Good to see he had a skill at something.
“How did I do today? Be honest. I’ve never made a PowerPoint presentation before. Hell, I never presented anything before. I had to google everything. Even how to open the program to build the pages,” Keyes said and reached for the bottle of beer he’d grabbed before sitting down, tilting it back for a long swig. The bitter taste of building the presentation didn’t wash away. Hell, the trauma caused by working so hard on the thirty-seven-page PowerPoint might need counseling to overcome.
~~~
Alec
Once Alec understood the direction of Keyes’s question, he turned away, which never happened when Keyes was around. His guy was the most handsome man in the world. He deserved every bit of Alec’s focused attention. But Keyes was trying hard to be a knowledgeable business owner even though he’d failed spectacularly this afternoon. Alec searched for anything to occupy his hands.
He paused. Letting the quiet linger between them like a wrecking ball.
He was waiting too long to be believable.