Billy frowned and stopped bouncing. “I really wish I could lie, but you know I suck at it. As drunk as you were, I think it’s a miracle you remember
anything.”
Xavier agreed, not that he’d say so. “I’m just a miraculous guy.”
“Yeah,” Billy snorted, and hopped up. “Can I use your toothbrush?”
Xavier opened his mouth to say no but Billy was already in the bathroom. Fuck it, he’d just buy a new toothbrush.
While Billy was busy, Xavier managed to pull himself up off the floor and onto the bed.
He contemplated going back to sleep for a few more hours since it was barely ten a.m., but there were things he needed to do. Like make sure he hadn’t hurt Randy too badly. The ass was still his brother, after all, though as far as Xavier was concerned Randy was banned from the club. And anyone who let him in would answer for it. There was also the matter of his office. He seemed to remember the place looking like a tornado had blown through it.
The bathroom door opened and Billy stepped out, looking entirely too happy until he
glanced at Xavier. “You look like shit.”
Xavier scowled at the way too perky man and levered himself up off the bed. He might have appeared more intimidating if he hadn’t immediately stumbled. Xavier caught himself with one hand on the headboard. Billy smirked and Xavier glowered.
“Seriously, dude, you look pretty bad. You’re too old to be getting shit-faced.” Billy came over and held out his hand. “Need some help getting to the bathroom?”
Being called ‘dude’ never did anything other than ramp up his irritation, and the crack about his age didn’t improve Xavier’s mood any, either. “No,” he snapped, pushing Billy’s hand away. “I do
not
need help! Go see if you can figure out how to make some coffee.” If he www.total-e-bound.com
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had to be around the exuberant man without caffeine, Xavier wouldn’t be able to resist turning Billy over his knee—and Billy wasn’t into spanking, or any other kind of BDSM, which was a shame. Xavier thought a daily spanking would do the man a world of good.
Billy’s smirk intensified.
Make that twice-daily spankings.
“And I am not old!” Xavier winced and decided he’d done enough yelling this morning. All Billy had tried to do was help him—and get in a few teasing barbs. Xavier sighed and pressed his hands to his eyes.
“Go make the damn coffee.”
He’d been an idiot to think an all-white bathroom was a good idea. Didn’t matter if the countertop—along with the toilet and separate hot tub—were made of marble, if the fixtures gleamed in the way only expensive ones did, the room was too damned bright. He should have gone with taupe or a dull industrial grey.
Too late now. The bathroom had been fine up until
now. How is it that alcohol can make the colour burn my retinas? Like being snow-blind without the
snow. Or cold.
“Stop being a baby.” And God, even his own voice sounded like a gong in his head.
Maybe getting clean would make him feel better. It sure couldn’t make him feel any worse.
Xavier took his time in the bathroom, because Billy was right, he did look like shit. His jaw was bruised and he had several marks on his chest and stomach, and, from what he could see when turning himself into a human pretzel to look in the mirror, on his back.
He had definitely been off his game last night. Usually Randy didn’t get in more than a couple of punches. Xavier had thought Randy had been looking a bit soft around the middle, but maybe he’d been wrong. Randy had obviously been in good enough shape to beat the tar out of him.
He spotted the bottle of aspirin on the counter and quickly took four of them. Bending to drink from the faucet made his head spin, and Xavier figured he was lucky he managed not to keel over. He remained hunched as he finger-brushed his teeth—his toothbrush was still wet from Billy using it.
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Xavier stood slowly and grabbed the bottle of mouthwash. He turned on the shower as
hot as he thought he could stand it then stepped inside the enclosure. The stinging water pelted him, working at his sore muscles. Xavier turned carefully and let it work its magic on his front.
Once he felt a little less miserable, he took the cap off the mouthwash and rinsed away the last traces of the alcohol that had lingered in his mouth. Then he proceeded to scrub off the grungy feeling getting drunk always left on his skin.
When he washed his hair, he found a knot at the side of his head that made him wince.
Apparently his head wasn’t just hurting from too much liquor. Randy had clocked him good, the asshole.
Xavier finished showering and turned the water off. He didn’t want to risk bending
over to pick the mouthwash up from where he’d dropped it so he left it there and got out.
After a quick towelling, he walked into his bedroom and promptly shoved his hands over his cock and balls. And glared. Something he seemed to be doing a lot of this morning.
Billy beamed at him from the foot of the bed. “I made you coffee and toast. You look pretty good naked. Your dick’s bigger than Randy’s.”
The combination of Randy’s dick in any context and the thought of food made Xavier’s stomach heave. He was glad he’d left the door open, otherwise he’d have smacked into it as he darted back into the bathroom. Coming to a skidding stop on his knees, Xavier grabbed the porcelain bowl just in time to empty out his stomach.
“Ew.”
Xavier lifted his head and, sticking with the morning’s pattern, glared over his shoulder at Billy, who merely raised his nearly colourless eyebrows at him. Xavier turned back to the toilet and crossed his arms over the bowl before dropping his head on top of them.
“Hey.”
Xavier was too beat to even twitch as Billy petted his back. “I’m sorry. I should have just come and got you last night.”
Billy was
always
sorry. That he meant it sincerely didn’t nullify the fact that he’d do something equally as thoughtless again. It also didn’t eradicate Xavier’s own responsibility in www.total-e-bound.com
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this whole mess. And it certainly didn’t excuse Randy. Xavier wanted to hit Randy all over again, this time while he was sober.
“I shouldn’t have been a dick,” Xavier muttered. “I know better than to let things get to me like that.”
“If you’d get laid more often, you wouldn’t be so tense,” Billy informed him. As much as Xavier would have liked to argue that point, he couldn’t. He’d had a…dry spell, that’s all it was. “You’re too picky,” Billy went on, still stroking Xavier’s back. “You used to fuck at least one different guy a night, remember? And they were all willing to let you do whatever you wanted to them, weren’t they?”
“Yeah.” They had been, and Xavier had gorged himself on all the available ass for a
while before he’d grown tired of it. Kind of like when he’d been a kid and had eaten four funnel cakes at the county fair. Xavier had puked for hours, it’d seemed like, and even though that had been twenty-six years ago, he s
till
couldn’t even stand to smell funnel cakes.
Well, he wasn’t
that
sick of easy fucks, he was just…too mature to keep acting like that.
Mature, not old.
Hell, he was only thirty-seven!
Billy, vibrant drama queen that he was, slapped a hand to his chest and widened his
eyes as he fluttered his lashes. “Oh no! Tell me you haven’t”—he gasped, tipping his head back and pressing his hand to his forehead—“grown up! Say it ain’t so!”
Xavier snickered despite his best effort not to. He slapped Billy’s ass hard enough to make the man yelp and turn those baby blues on him. “Enough already. First I’m old, then I’m a loser for not getting laid, then it’s—horrors!—I’ve finally grown up! I’m pretty sure you’ve gotten in your potshots for the day.”
Billy harrumphed and folded his arms over his chest. “That’s what you get for not
being decent enough to let me be a hero and save you from choking on your own puke.”
Billy’s teasing smile faded and he looked so serious it was kind of creepy. “Teasing aside, I wish you’d find someone, Xav. You don’t even give guys a chance anymore.”
Xavier knew where this discussion was headed and he wasn’t interested. Every time
Billy started down this path it turned into an argument, with Billy huffing off and pouting until Xavier caved and took him shopping. It was expensive, too, so it’d be best to distract Billy now before he went on a rant. “Would you warm up the coffee for me?”
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Billy narrowed his eyes at him when Xavier turned around. “Don’t think I don’t know
what you’re up to. If you didn’t look like death warmed over, I wouldn’t fall for it. But since you do, I’ll be nice—this time.” He started to walk away, then stopped at the bathroom door, half facing Xavier. “But you still need someone to come home to, someone to take care of you.”
Then Billy left him there, leaning against the cabinet, shocked by the serious tone that delivered those words. He shook his head, thinking his alcohol-saturated brain cells must have imagined Billy using that tone.
And besides, Billy was the one who needed a keeper, someone with enough patience
not to crush that vibrant spirit which irritated the hell out of Xavier sometimes. Not a Dom, since Billy was not, as he’d say, ‘into that freaky stuff’.
“Coffee’s ready,” Billy hollered from the other room. He sounded like his normal perky self again.
Xavier sighed and pressed a hand to his stomach. He had things to do, a brother to
check on, and an office to refurnish—eventually. It was time to face up to the repercussions of last night’s stupidity.
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“Looks like Dr Nichols is going to sign your release forms today,” Josh said as he came into the room. Chase looked at the man—his friend, he supposed, although he wasn’t really sure. He got the impression he made Josh nervous, which was proof the guy was smart as well as attractive. Chase knew he was a little…off.
A couple of cards short of a deck, only had one
oar in the water, a brick shy of a full load…
“So, where are you going after this?” Josh asked, fussing over him. Chase wanted to
shrug off the stupid blood pressure cuff, but he’d learned quickly that Josh was as tenacious as a mama bear guarding her cubs when it came to his patients. And about as gentle. More than once Chase’d had his knuckles rapped for trying to stick his hand where it didn’t belong. It was part of the reason he kind of liked Josh; he didn’t put up with any of Chase’s crap, even if, at times, Chase was certain Josh would screech if he yelled ‘Boo!’. He shrugged, which earned him a glare.
“Keep still,” Josh ordered.
“Then don’t ask me questions,” Chase grumbled right back as he closed his eyes.
“Otherwise I’m gonna think you’re doing it just so you can smack me around after.”
“I didn’t smack you around this time.”
Chase tried really hard not to grin as he opened his eyes just enough to see Josh’s pout.
Josh was too easy to get riled up sometimes. It was fun. “‘This time’ is right. Don’t know what you’re gonna do once I’m gone. You’ll have to find a new patient to take out your anger issues on.”
Three, two, one—
Josh’s pout morphed to indignation instantaneously. “I do
not
have anger issues! I’ll have you know, I’m a happy guy, and—”
Chase turned his head to look out the window as he tuned out Josh’s rant. At least it’d diverted him away from questioning Chase. The truth was, he didn’t know where he would go or what he’d do. Everything he’d had, the one friend he trusted, was gone. He was in an untenable situation, his pride more battered than his body. Hell, he even had to apply for the www.total-e-bound.com
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Indigent Care programme at the hospital because he couldn’t afford his medical bills. If that got turned down, he didn’t know what he was going to do, but taking charity like that about killed him, but he didn’t have any other choice.
And why? Because James Stratton, the one man Chase trusted, had asked for his help in bringing down a rapist. They had succeeded with a little extra help from an acquaintance, Adam Masterson. In return, their lives had been shattered. In James’ case, maybe even ended, and God, it hurt to think that, but James was still missing, had been for weeks.
Chase needed to find him. He owed James, it was as simple as that. It’d be easier to do if Rollins hadn’t managed to empty out and close Chase’s bank account, and strip him of everything he had, including his confidence. Still, he’d figure something out. If James was alive, he might be holed up somewhere and unaware of Rollins Sr’s death.
And if he was dead… Well, if James was dead, Chase would find a way to make sure
Mitch Rollins paid for it. It was that bastard’s twisted behaviour that had brought down so many other people’s lives. Mitch had tried to sexually assault Adam, which had landed Adam in jail when he’d beaten Mitch’s ass.
It was one of those too common cases where money trumps justice. Mitch Rollins was a spoilt brat whose daddy had more money than morals. Rollins Sr had covered up his son’s crimes for years, bribing victims and cops alike, or threatening them to make sure Mitch was never held accountable for what he’d done. Adam hadn’t been the first, but with James’
help—and Chase and Adam’s—they’d made sure Mitch wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone
again. His daddy had retaliated with all the money and power he had, destroying lives and running Chase, Adam, and Adam’s mom Charlene out of Billings. And he’d seen to it that Adam and Chase had both got the shit beaten out of them. Chase more than once.