Some Like It Hot Read online

  I couldn't really see him through the thing, since he seemed to be almost completely against the wall next to my door, but I could see the dark jeans he'd been wearing earlier moving around and… Wait! Was he shirtless?

  Like a crazy person, I fumbled with the handle on my door, jerking it open fast enough to scare myself a little. It definitely surprised Grant, who jerked to a standing position, where he'd been putting the shelf to rights that had been meticulously decorated by someone who seemed to dearly love tiny trinkets. The result was not pretty. Not only was the shelf definitely leaning slightly, but the tiny little wooden figurines that had been positioned perfectly symmetrical on the shelves, were now reminding me of that time I thought I wanted to help take care of kids, and work at a daycare center.

  I no longer wanted to help take care of kids, and frankly, I didn't really want to be reminded of my past mistakes either.

  Good thing there was a gorgeous, shirtless alpha standing around to take my mind off of the fact that he'd just sat one of the little frog figurines on its back, and it had gotten to rocking back and forth in a way that would have made my eye twitch, if it weren't for… Right, I already covered the part about him not wearing a shirt, but shit, it probably needed to be addressed again.

  The man was a fucking work of art. Bronzed muscle and dark hair scattered along his torso, dipping below those jeans that were tight in the ass and thighs, but slightly gappy around the hips and cupping his package perfectly.

  He also had his hair down, and someone had not only trimmed up his beard considerably, but it was actually groomed down on his cheeks, so I could make out the stunning lines of his face. I groaned, taking a deep breath.

  Seriously, did he really need to be any more attractive?

  "What the hell?" he growled, when one of the little figurines toppled off the shelf and landed on the top of his bare foot.

  "Are you okay?" I asked as he bent to retrieve the thing, glaring at it before he put in a different spot. It still tried to roll off, since it was a little on the rounded side, and the shelf itself was a leaner now, but he managed to catch it with another knickknack with a flat bottom, blocking its destructive path.

  Was I okay? Was I even breathing? His ass was amazing, and his pants had slid down slightly over the bubble of delicious muscle.

  "No," he said, before snapping his head in the direction of his door, and lowering his voice. "They're trying to skin me."

  I frowned, glancing toward his door just as someone yelled for him, wondering what the hell he was talking about, but the moment Grant started to panic, marching in place before looking like he was going to make a run for the stairs, I grabbed his wrist and jerked him through my door.

  He came easily, which said a lot about his desperation to get away from those men, since I'd definitely been the one he'd been trying to retreat from earlier.

  Maybe that says something about him. Why is the man always trying to run from people half his size?

  "What's going on?" I asked after shutting the door behind me and throwing the lock… just in case.

  "They're grooming me."

  "Oh." I said stupidly, slowly blinking at him. "Like making you into what they want you to be so they can… have the perfect alpha when you're old enough to marry?"

  That didn't really make any sense, but not much of this day had, so I was just going to go with the flow.

  "What? No." He shook his head, reaching up to scratch at his beard. "Like grooming."

  "Oh." I nodded slowly, chuckling. "You don't like grooming?"

  "My face is exposed." He ran his hands over the much shorter beard and over the apples of his cheeks, pursing his lips.

  "Among other things," I mumbled, letting my gaze fall to his bare chest.

  He looked down, gasping slightly and covering what he could with his hands and looking extremely uncomfortable. "They stole my shirt! When I wouldn't take it off, Riley got irritated and cut it off of me."

  I'd honestly thought about doing that a few times, so I really couldn’t say that I blamed the man.

  I sighed, tilting my head and looking him over dreamily. "That good, are you?"

  "Huh?"

  What?

  Snapping my head back up, I cleared my throat, giving him an innocent smile. "Why did they do that?"

  "They were getting ready to wax me," he grumbled, still covering his chest.

  "What?" I said, my voice going high pitched. "Why?"

  He sighed, shrugging and dropping his hands away from his body, looking almost ashamed. "I'm really hairy."

  I nodded, swallowing hard as I once again ran my eyes over his delicious form. "Uh huh."

  "I pretended I needed to piss and snuck out of the apartment," he said, just as I drew my bottom lip between my teeth, groaning slightly at the clear line of his dick. Those pants had to be super soft, because the ridge running around the head was visible, and looked incredibly lickable. "Are you okay?"

  The things I could do to that body.

  "Bates?"

  "So warm," I whispered, imagining what it would be like to be pressed against him with those thick arms wrapped around me.

  "What?" he asked, and it was the strained tone in his voice that finally drew my attention to his face.

  "What?" I cleared my throat, nodding. "Yes. Fine. Do you want to take your pants off?"

  Both eyebrows rose slowly on his face.

  I ran my question over in my head, gasping. "What? Did I just…" I groaned, before laughing uncomfortably. "I meant do you want to hang out here until they leave?"

  Probably not now, dipshit. Why was I so damn good at making myself look like an idiot in front of him?

  "Is that okay? Are you busy?"

  "No. I mean yes and then no." I groaned, shaking my head. "Yes, it's okay, and no, I'm not busy. I––" Gasping, I turned to the camera sitting on my coffee table, live streaming the whole damn thing. "Oh shit!"

  I jumped over the back of the couch, glad I'd somehow managed to clear the thing, since I was pretty sure I'd already made enough of an ass out of myself in front of Grant and all my followers on my vlog stream. "Sorry, guys. As you can see, something came up. I'll be back on later tonight."

  I clicked it off quickly, only catching a few of the comments that had been popping up and groaning at the content. At least some people thought my bumbling was adorable. I was pretty sure Grant wasn't as appreciative of it, and neither was I, to be frank.

  "Everything okay?" he asked, coming up behind me, and I groaned, cringing as I turned to look at him.

  "I really hope you're okay with being on live internet, because you just were."

  He glanced at the camera and then down at himself, shrugging slightly. "Uh, that's fine. Were you working?"

  What was with the slight uptick in his voice, before he cleared his throat?

  "Kinda," I answered honestly, not wanting to lie, but also not wanting him to think it was all that big of a deal, since I could do that any time. "But it can wait, I promise."

  I really wanted him to stay, and I knew if he thought he was interrupting something, he would insist on leaving.

  There was a hard knock on the door and we both slowly turned our head in that direction. When neither of us moved, the room going completely silent, like we were worried there were zombies out there, and they might actually hear us. The next knock made us both jump, and I cussed, getting up to at least see who it was, though I was pretty sure––as I was sure Grant was too––of who it was likely to be.

  "It's one of them," I confirmed, shooing him toward the kitchen, where it would be easy for him to hide around the little partial wall that separated it from the living room. "Stay hidden. I'll get rid of him."

  I opened the door, smiling at the man I was pretty sure was Riley, and leaned against the wood, blocking his way. I'd seen him in action, and I wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't shove me out of the way to get into my house.

  "Hi," I said brightly, giving him my most charming
smile.

  See! I'm not always the most awkward person around. Usually, I could have normal conversations with other humans, and did often. It was Grant that fucked my head and mouth connector all up.

  "Hi! I'm Riley." The man tried to lean around me to look inside my apartment, but I stood firm. "Is Grant here?"

  "Grant?" I asked, playing dumb.

  That must have not been the right thing to do, because the man's attention returned to me with a snap, a small smile ticking up one corner of his mouth. This man wasn't dumb. Far from it.

  "Yeah. Big, handsome… and hairy. The alpha my friends and I were with earlier."

  "Oh. Yeah." I nodded, before shaking my head. "Sorry, he's not here."

  Riley bit his lip, letting his eyes wander over me. It didn't feel sexual at all. More like he was sizing me up. Hopefully not for that skinning Grant had accused him of.

  "He's hot as fuck, isn't he?" he asked, sounding far too seductive for the dry look on his face. "Can you believe he thinks he's unattractive?"

  I blinked in surprise, somehow feeling like I'd been slapped in the face. I started to turn my head toward the kitchen, like I was expecting him to poke his head around the corner and nod a confirmation to this ridiculous claim, but I caught myself just in time.

  I could tell by the deepening smile on his face, that Riley was on to me, but my loyalty lay elsewhere. Though, if Grant really did feel like that, maybe he needed to hear the truth falling from my lips.

  "Really?" I asked, playing right along with Riley's game, probably designed to embarrass me into calling Grant forward. I had to respect him for his effort. "Why would he think that? All that muscle and hair, that brow line."

  I shuddered for real. I'd been half hard since Grant had showed up on my doorstep, flashing me all the goods. I really didn’t need to be so damn graphic in reminding myself what lay behind that little wall… hiding from this omega.

  "Mmhmm. You should see him now that we got some of that beard trimmed back. You can actually see most of his face."

  "I'll make sure to check that out next time he goes by."

  Riley nodded, crossing his arms over his chest, and batting his lashes at me sweetly. "Do you do that a lot?"

  "Do what a lot?"

  "Check him out when he goes by?"

  I smirked, finding it hard not to like this man.

  I opened my mouth to confirm that I did, actually, spend a great deal of time waiting for Grant to pass by in his predictable fashion, between six forty-five and six fifty in the morning, and five ten and five fifteen in the evening, but suddenly, another head was popping up right in front of my face, cutting off my conversation Riley.

  "Hey," the guy who'd wanted a picture with me from before said.

  "Hey," I answered back automatically.

  "I'm Jennings. I'm a big fan."

  "Oh," I said, my stomach dropping as I started to let my eyes move toward the kitchen again, only to snap them back toward Riley and Jennings, licking my lips and swallowing hard. "Of my vlog, or…" I trailed off, not wanting to finish that statement, and thankfully, he didn't make me.

  "Or," he said significantly, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, I haven't watched in a while."

  "Oh. Thank you for your business?" Was that the proper thing to say? I hadn't really run into this before. I knew there were a few people from Salida that had seen my vlog, and even my stream, and I'd accidentally disclosed that I was from there when I'd gotten donuts from one of the local shops once, and the box and logo had been in the background during one of my vlog sessions, but I hadn't run into anyone at that point. Or if I had, they had been too ashamed to mention it to me.

  "No," Jennings said, wagging his eyebrows at me, and leaning even closer. "Thank you for getting me through some lonely nights.

  "Oh, my God," Kent groaned as he stepped up to join the group congregating in front of my door.

  "What?" Jennings asked, shrugging. "He did help."

  Kent rolled his eyes, yawning hugely. "Listen, guys. This is all fun and stuff, but I haven't slept yet, and Dawes and I only get so much time with Ricki on the weekends." The man smiled softly, sighing. "He's such a sweet boy."

  "That's Kent," Jennings said, still watching me.

  Of course, I'd known that from earlier, but I nodded anyway, giving the man a smile. "Hi, Kent."

  "Hey." He paused, tilting his head to the side. "You really are gorgeous."

  I barked out a laugh, almost feeling like I needed to curtsy or something. "Uh, thanks. Thank you."

  People told me I was handsome from time to time, but usually it was in a pretty lecherous way. Kent didn't sound like that at all, and I had to admit that it was kind of nice to be complimented without someone expecting something in return.

  "I probably should go too. I totally snuck out and sent Wagoner a message when I was down the road, letting him know." He shrugged, smirking. "I don't even feel bad about it. He's such a good Wawa."

  "That is the most ridiculous name I've ever heard… unless it was a grandma," Kent said, raising a finger in the air. "Grandma's are never ridiculous."

  Riley leaned forward, speaking loudly, "If you happen to see Grant, tell him he gets to keep his chest hair for now."

  I pressed my tongue against my cheek to keep from laughing as I imagined Grant scowling at the man through the wall. "I'll be sure to pass on the information."

  "Unless you think people like that much chest hair," Riley said pointedly, daring me with his eyes. "Do you… think people like that much?"

  I bit my lip, nodding. "I think I like you," I said quietly, before raising my voice. "I personally love the Wolverine look. All that hair. Whew."

  "Wolverine," Kent said excitedly. "That's exactly what Grant looks like."

  "It is, isn't it?" I said, making Riley laugh.

  Jennings turned his back to me, leaning against me slightly and lifting his phone up with the camera app open. "Can I get another picture with you? I won't post it on anything if you don't want, but I'd really like to send it to my fiancé."

  His fiancé?

  "Is he a fan too?" I asked, smiling as he took the picture.

  How many of Grant's family members knew about me? And did that mean Grant knew?

  Jennings chuckled, before pulling up a text and sending the picture to someone named Storage Room Hookup in his phone, before shaking his head. "No, but he knows I was, and it drives him crazy."

  Oh shit. He better not get me beaten up.

  The man slid his arm through Kent's, and together they took off toward the stairs, chatting back and forth about… kids, maybe?

  "That isn't going to cause problems with your fiancé, is it?" I yelled after him as Hinton seemed to appear out of nowhere, chasing after the two descending the stairs.

  "No," he yelled back. "He knows he's the only man for me, but it sure is fun to watch him get pissy."

  Chapter Three

  JULY

  "Wow," Bate's said, clearing his throat as he shut the front door, and I cringed as I stopped cowering in the kitchen, then moved back into the living room, just as he turned. "That's quite a group. Will Jennings' fiancé want to kill me, or anything? Should I watch my back?"

  "No. He's right. There is no denying Wagoner and Jennings belong together. They love to push each other's buttons, but they also work at Wagoner's strip club, and it's honestly like they only have eyes for each other."

  It was damn admirable, and something I'd been wanting myself a lot lately, watching some of my brothers find the men of their dreams.

  Bates laughed, coming to stand in front of me and shrugging. "Some couples are like that. Nothing like a good bickering session to get them in the mood." His eyes dropped to my chest, making me feel exposed all over again. "I'm just glad they didn't get ahold of all that chest hair. That would have been a shame. It's so…" He trailed off and his eyes widened… right before he lifted his shirt, flashing me. "I don't have any. See?"

  I did see. I'd seen so many tim
es on his videos, I was surprised people hadn't started commenting on how much better my right arm looked than my left arm, because it had definitely been getting more of a workout.

  The look that crossed his face immediately after his shirt rose and then was jerked down quickly, nearly made me laugh as it clearly conveyed his disbelief that he'd actually shown me his lovely torso with fairly little provocation.

  "I'm Asian!" he practically yelled at me, and I bit my tongue to keep from laughing as more words seemed to spill from his mouth with little control, and his face just seemed to get more and more horrified by the second. "Chinese specifically, but I can't speak it. Neither can my parents. My dad wasn't very hairy either… or so that's what my mom told me when I cried about not having much body hair when I was growing up. Why am I telling you this? You didn't ask about my body hair, or lack of. I just know that me standing around checking you out while you're already uncomfortable, is rude as hell, and… Tell me to shut up! What is wrong with you?"

  I merely grunted out a small laugh in response, since I was pretty sure that was a rhetorical question, and I really didn't know how I was supposed to answer it, even if he'd actually meant for me to, and headed for the door.

  "You don't have to go if you don't want to," he said quickly, starting slightly when I turned to look at him like he hadn't expected me to actually stop. "Unless you have something to do, or you just want to flee, because I'm ridiculous."

  "No."

  But was it a good idea to be around him? I usually tried to avoid him when it was possible, because I was terrified the subject of his employment might come up, and I'd have to admit to knowing what he did and why I knew it, but I couldn't deny the idea of spending time with him––completely invited time––was really appealing.

  "Do you like Chinese? To eat! Not like, will you eat me." His face bloomed a bright red and he let out a strange whine that made me grunt out another chuckle. "Why are you still letting me use words? We talked about this."

  God, he was adorable. I'd always thought so, even when I was worried it might be caused by my size, and the fact that I kinda looked like a scruffy homeless man a lot of the time. He certainly never seemed to have a problem talking to other people. Just me. But I was starting to think that might not be the problem, since he didn't seem to have a problem being alone in a room with me, and he'd just asked me to stay to eat Chinese… food.