Discovering Dalton(65)

“We did.” Liam stepped forward and checked the door was locked, then leaned in slowly, testing the water by looking into Troy’s eyes. When Troy didn’t stop him, he placed a soft kiss on his cheek. It was the first welcome kiss they’d shared and they both seemed a little coy and nervous when they parted, but both soon sported huge grins on their faces.

Dalton was chuckling as he moved in to take his turn, sweeping full lips over Troy’s and wrapping an arm around his waist. “I missed you. Everything okay? No complaints from people about shutting the shop for a couple of days?”

“Nah, they’re fine. I just had to finish off some guy’s ink this morning because he’s going away in a week and I wanted it to be healed over by the time he got in the pool.” Troy walked in between the bigger men, enjoying the fact he now had two. “I'm starving.”

“Yeah, us too.”

“I can't believe it’s their last day.” Troy frowned as they turned the corner, all three of them seeing the flashy bright yellow writing of Zappinie’s ahead.

“Something else will open up.”

“Oh.” Dalton stepped in, lips breaking out in a big grin. “I think there will be, and it’s closer to you, Troy, on the same row.”

“What? Where? The old post office building?”

“Yeah.” Dalton looked down at him. “Remember Milo?” They all fell silent and Dalton chuckled. “Of course you do. Well, his partner, Samuel, he’s going to be opening a bistro there. It’s run down, but from what he was saying last night before all the fun kicked off, it should be up and running in six months.”

“I’ve never met either of his partners.”

“I have.” Liam stepped in front of them, giving a lady pushing a pram more room. “Danny’s a good guy from what I know. We don’t really know much about each other, but he comes in the gym every now and then, and I've run into him a few times out and about. Milo introduced me to Samuel after I caught them kissing outside of the gym. Thought he was cheating and gave him a right look.”

“They’re both really nice.”

“Unlike Milo then?” Troy stiffened up and Dalton felt it, pulling him closer as they neared the deli.

“He’s okay, Troy. He was just confused and overprotective. I need to talk to him and settle things down with him. He's not just my friend, he’s my boss.”

“Yeah, well, when you go, we’re going.” Liam and Troy nodded and Dalton shrugged, trying for blasé and cool, but not really pulling it off. “Let’s sit outside.” Liam pulled out a chair and let Troy settle in it while he glanced through the window. “There’s a huge queue. Let’s wait until it dies down a bit.”

All three of them sat down, the afternoon sun just starting to warm up and Troy made the most of it by taking his jacket off and tilting his head back. He joked with them what they’d gotten up to in bed, and Liam brazenly described in a little too much detail just what happened. Troy was semi-hard by the time he’d finished and Dalton was beet red.

“Oh.” Liam stood up, looking through the glass door again and checking the queue. “We’re having a mini spa evening tonight at Aspire. I'm thinking as we're the only ones…” He sat back down again, big grin on his face. “Clothing should be optional. And, this was all Dalton’s idea.”

Troy tilted his head, biting his bottom lip while he glanced at Dalton. “Your idea, really?”

“Sort of. Liam turned it into some sort of bath house experience.”

“Right, well, I guess you’d know what they’re like, Liam.”

Liam snorted. “I went to one once. And… I was safe.”

Dalton raised a brow and Troy huffed.

“That was over five years ago.” Liam looked between them both, seeing the mistrust playing on both of their faces. “Look, that’s all over and done with, and anyone else, that’s over with too. It’s just us three.”

“I hope you can do it, Liam.” Dalton smiled softly, but Troy didn’t join in, too busy now watching several tall, uniform clad firemen leave the deli, arms crammed with packages and making a lot of noise as they made it out onto the street.

Troy was gazing appreciatively up and down a medium built, brown-haired, sexy man when the guy noticed, smiling cheekily at Troy before looking over his shoulder to Dalton.

“Dalton!!” The brown-haired fireman dressed head to toe in navy, the fire station logo emblazed on his polo, gave a massive grin at Dalton and several of his station mates turned to look at their sexy blond who was trying his best not to hide behind Liam.

“Hey, Danny, Guys.” Dalton waved, smiling more, but it was a fake, professional one and Troy felt for him.

Danny? Milo’s partner? Was he a fireman? How had that bit of info slipped past?

A few of the firemen waved, shouted out their hellos, one even called over and said Dalton should join them at the weekend for a boys night out so he could pick up a new lass to have fun with. Dalton blushed so furiously, the cute Danny stepped in and waved them away. “Get going, I’ll meet up with you back at the station.”

Dalton sighed in relief, then stood up and they shared a hug. “You come here often?”

Danny snorted. “Worst and most overused pick up line ever!” He sat down, dropping his food on the table and sharing smiles with Liam and Troy. “Okay, me and you—” He pointed to Liam. “—we know each other. You I'm not too sure about.” He smiled sexily at Troy.

“I'm Troy.” He held out his hand, enjoying the twinkle in the brown eyes staring at him.

“Nice ink.”

“Cheers.”

“So…” Danny looked at Dalton.

Dalton rolled his eyes. “I know. I suppose Milo filled you in on what happened last night?”

“Yeah. He’s at home with Samuel if you need to chat. Might do you good to have that buffer there. That buffer being Samuel.” Danny grinned. “Thought I should warn you, Blue’s there too. He stayed over last night. Both of them were pretty drunk.” Danny sat back, running a hand through his brown hair. “I'm telling you, there should be a law over two such sexy men being in the same room and not being able to do anything about it.”

Dalton chuckled. “I'm guessing you mean Blue and Samuel, or is it Milo and Samuel?”

“Blue this time.”

“Danny!” Dalton gave him a hard shove as he burst out laughing.

“What? I would never cheat, you know me. But come on! Him and Samuel… Shit! I could have wet dreams over them two all day every day. Anyway, Milo was too peed off, so I stayed up and let him cool off in bed. That Blue.” Danny whistled. “You should see him dance, man. Oh, and he’s totally upset about this whole thing with you guys by the way.” Danny smirked, winking at Dalton.

Troy raised a brow. “Who’s Blue and why is he upset about us seeing Dalton?”

Dalton quickly sobered up and acted more like an adult. “He’s a friend of Danny’s partner Samuel. I’ve met him a couple of times—”

Liam leaned forward, arms crossed on the glass table. “He’s the pixie who was all over you the first time we bumped into each other on Canal Street, right? Big heels, white blond hair, legs which went from here to the moon?” Liam shook his head, but he was smiling.

“Yeah, that one.” Dalton looked between them. “It’s nothing… I mean… Nothing ever… Danny!”

“What?” Danny had a mouthful of his panini and was grinning at the same time.

“He’s just messing with you.” Dalton punched Danny softly.

“Anyway…” Danny swallowed and looked back to Troy. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m not passing judgement, not my style, but I just wanted to stick up for Milo and how he acted last night. Dalton’s his best friend. He was just concerned and he doesn’t handle situations with kid gloves. He just wanted him out of the way so they could talk.”

“I get that,” Liam said slowly. “But Dalton’s not a child. He wanted to stay, and he got stick for it.”

“I know.” Danny wiped his lips and then looked back to Liam. “Some of the things he said were out of order, and I'm not making excuses, but he had a shit day at work and he was hungry. He’s always pissy when he’s hungry, right, Dalton?”

“Yeah.” Dalton smiled wider. “It’s okay, Danny, we’ll sort it out.”

Danny wrapped up his food and looked back to the deli with a sad smile. “I'm so sad to see this place leave the local area. We’re going to have to actually start cooking at the station now, and that means we take it turns, and remember how badly that turned out last time?”

Dalton laughed loudly, leaning backwards and nodding. “Danny here, he set fire to the fire station while he ‘cooked’ lunch a couple of years ago.”

Troy and Liam snorted.

“It wasn’t so much of a fire, more like smoke. Big black plumes of smoke, but…”

“Hmm.” Dalton folded his arms over his chest, giving Danny that famous look all police officers used.

“Yeah, okay, so it was a fire. Talk about embarrassing. I’ve been banned from cooking.” Danny pouted.