“We’re leaving after this.” Liam took a long drink from his beer before speaking again. “It’s packed in there and I'm sick of queuing up. I got a double round in this time, so we’re good for what? Ten minutes?” He grinned at Troy.
“Sounds about right.” Troy swung his leg over a chair, resting his arms on the back and smiling at him. Liam had been stuck inside with him for the last two weeks and Troy felt like he deserved a reward, so here he was, out and about and only slightly regretting it. “I’ve been thinking—”
Liam whistled loudly. “Holy shit! Please don’t. You might hurt something.”
“Fuck off.” Troy went to kick his shin, but Liam was too fast and jumped backwards. “But seriously…” He threw a hard glare at Liam, and got a grin back. “I’ve been thinking I should stay single for a while.”
Liam threw his arms up in the air and clasped his hands together like he was praying, closing his eyes before falling to his knees in the middle of the packed patio. “Thank you, God. He’s seen the light.”
“Liam,” Troy hissed out, conscious people were staring at them, and despite looking the epitome of an attention grabbing whore, he was actually reserved and liked to stay in the background, not in the middle of a fucking spotlight. “Get the fuck up now!”
Liam was laughing as he settled himself in the seat next to Troy. “That’s such a great idea. I dunno why I didn’t think of that earlier.” He stuck his tongue out, and Troy tried to keep frowning, but the guy looked too cute.
“Yeah, I know, I know, but this time I really thought about it. What with my dad and everything, it made me see stuff in a new, brighter light, and I think I need to get some perspective. To step back and take things slow.”
“Just do what I do. Have sex. Fuck `em and leave `em.”
“You're just horrible. A true bastard. My God. It’s because of men like you I'm in this state.”
Liam paused with his bottle against his lips and looked right into Troy’s eyes. “I'm nothing like the pricks you bring home. Firstly, I don’t lie about what they’re going to get. I'm straight up. I tell them it’s sex. I'm not looking for a boyfriend or a regular fuck buddy thing. Secondly, I don’t use anyone. If anything, they use me and that’s the way I like it. I don’t mind being the guy they pick up and want to run from in the morning. If I did, I wouldn’t do it.” He crossed his big arms over his chest and continued to glare at Troy. “You really think I'm like those users who lie and cheat on you? You think I hurt the men I'm with like they do to you? Honestly?”
Troy looked skyward. That was wrong. Liam had certain traits which pissed him off, and he wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of one of his one night stands because Troy didn’t do one night stands, but Liam was right, he didn’t lie. If the men he saw thought anything else would come from their time, then it wasn’t really Liam’s fault. “Not everyone believes your little speech. You always get left numbers and asked to call them afterwards. I know what it’s like to not get that call, and it makes you feel like shit.”
“You're not like the men I bring home. You don’t do the whole one night wild and wet scene. You’re not cut out for it.”
“Not all of the men who you fuck and leave are either. Ever thought about that, huh? I wonder how many hearts you’ve broken on your rounds.”
“Oh, please.” Liam huffed before he downed the rest of his beer, quickly grabbing the second bottle waiting for him on the table. “One night with hot sex doesn’t equate to a heart being broken. It takes longer than that to have an emotional connection to someone.”
Troy had to look away from him so he wouldn’t see his eyes rolling. “You're wrong. Sometimes that’s all it takes for hopes to get higher than they should. You're not a selfish lover. I know this from years of being forced to listen to your bed partner’s screaming out their praise of you and your talents.” Both of them chuckled. “Look, you don’t bend them over and have your way with them, of that I'm glad… sort of, but it confuses me, and probably the guy with you too, because when you're expecting a simple fuck and you get a long night of caressing, constant praise about how good they are, orgasm after orgasm…” Troy felt himself turn darker, a heatwave rolling over him. He sounded like he’d been earwigging when he hadn't. You sure about that, Troy? “Look, those walls are like paper thin, that’s all. Don’t get any wrong ideas ‘bout me standing outside your door or anything.”
“Oh, I'm not.” Liam laughed as he waved his hand. “Continue telling me how great I am in bed.”
“They would say it. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just going on the fifty or so men who have passed through recently. What was I saying?” Troy paused, thinking hard. “Oh yeah, so I'm saying they get all this, and it sort of makes them think you're more than a one night stand option, that you must care, blah, blah. They end up wanting more, think you do too, get bothered by you not calling—think they’ve fucked up, think they’re worthless. It goes on and on.”
Liam leaned forward and smiled softly at him. “All those are just your personal opinions on what they’re feeling. You don’t know they do. That’s just how you'd feel if it happened that way.”
Liam was right. Troy felt angry on behalf of most of the guys Liam brought home, but then he’d hate to be discarded after being made to experience mind-blowing sex like that. Liam was good. Troy knew this after years of sharing an apartment with wafers for walls. If someone could ever make him feel that good then walked away from him, it would devastate him. In all of his partners, he’d searched for a person who would take him to the heights he imagined Liam did with his men, but so far, his world hadn't being rocked that hard. He had good sex, but the way Liam’s guys sounded as he was fucking them… Christ. It had Troy semi hard thinking about being in their position. “What the fuck do you do to them anyway?”
Liam rolled his head back and laughed loudly. “Next time, how about you join me and we double team?”
“No way.” Troy’s brows hit his hairline, mouth falling open. “Share someone? Nooo. Me and you? Together?”
“Look, it would be just him. Nothing between us. That way you get to see first-hand how I turn them upside down and inside out.” He grinned as he winked at Troy.
“I've never… I wouldn’t know how or what to do.”
“Just watch, or follow my lead. Here.” He slid the second beer over and pointed to it. “Have a drink and think about it.”
“I'm not going to think about it.” Troy was sure about that, but then the thought of sharing someone with Liam excited him. He’d always enjoyed watching threesomes in porn, and wondered what it would be like to be in the middle of two guys, but actually being in one and having to top, well… “I wouldn’t know what to do with him.”
“For fuck’s sake. It’s not like you’ve always been on the bottom, Troy. You’ve had your fair share of men bent over.”
“Not for years.”
That made Liam perk up a bit. “Years. Christ, why?”
“I just…” Troy turned redder, looking off into the distance. He wasn’t in the habit of discussing his sex life in this much detail with Liam—with anyone really. “It’s none of your business.”
“Are you pushy?”
“What?”
“A pushy bottom. You know, top from the bottom sort of guy?”
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”
“I could see you as one.”
Troy scowled, forehead creasing and his lips thinning out. He wasn’t pushy. He liked to lay back and let them take control. Not that it was anything to do with Liam.
“Maybe you should try it out.”
“Maybe you should just shut your big gob,” Troy hissed out a little too loudly.
“Diva.”
“Diva… Are you kidding me? I'm off for a piss. Then we’re going.”
“Sure thing, Miss Thing.”
Troy clenched his jaw tight and stormed off through the crowds, aiming for the back of the bar and the toilets, hoping they weren’t full of guys making out and no one would come on to him in the queue. He needed a moment to calm his body down after all that sex talk.
Chapter 10
Dalton was just finishing his pint when Milo nudged his elbow, almost spilling the dregs down his chest, and Dalton gave him a push back. “Use your words, big man. We speak so we don’t have to be all caveman and push each other around.”
“Look who’s out.” Milo nodded discreetly, more discreetly than the elbow nudging action earlier.
Dalton followed his gaze, his brows creasing when all he saw were the drunken twenty-something men standing around and drinking like they were. “Who am I looking for exactly? Can I have a clue?”
Milo pulled him backwards and Dalton got a clear line of sight to who he was talking about. Liam. His personal trainer and the man he loved to hate. He was sitting near a pair of open patio doors near the entrance to the bar, alone and knocking back what looked to be a bottle of beer.