Discovering Dalton (Manchester Menage Collection #2) (8 page)

“I wasn’t being narcissistic. I was just feeling good about how I look.” Dalton grabbed a t-shirt, obviously one Kelly picked out for him because it was a pink with the Ralph Lauren logo emblazed on the chest in purple. Dalton paused before he decided to put it on.

“Pink, huh?” Milo grinned at him.

“I didn’t buy this. I'd just like to point that out.”

Samuel passed by and spotted him. Dalton sighed. How many more people were going to come visit his bedroom? Okay, they weren’t in the room, but still…

“Oh, I like that. It suits your colouring. You should wear it.”

Milo nodded, agreeing with Samuel, but Dalton knew he didn’t share the same reasoning as Samuel. Milo just wanted him to wear it so he could take the piss out of him. “You’ll look sweet. Like a big, fluffy, pink cotton candy.”

“Oh shut up, Aladdin.” Dalton dragged the shirt over his head and turned to cast an appraising look over himself. He tilted his head and saw Milo doing the same behind him in the mirror. Huh, it looked fucking good.

“See,” Samuel said smugly as he closed the bathroom door.

“Yeah, well… It’ll do.” Milo checked his watch. “I’ll be in the car with Danny.
Do not
fuck around. Just grab your stuff. We have to get changed at home so you have time to fuck with your hair.”

Dalton rolled his eyes. He had it all practically shaved off, leaving just bristles. He had none to fuck about with. “I’ll be down in a second.”

He glanced at himself and smiled proudly. He looked good. Shame he didn’t feel like he looked. He slipped on some trainers and spritzed himself with his favourite aftershave
Pour Homme
by Jean Paul Gaultier before he walked out of the room, running into Samuel leaving the bathroom.

“You smell good.”

“Thanks.” Dalton laughed as Samuel leaned in, breathing in his scent.

“Hmm.”

“Come on. He’ll be pissed off if we take much longer.”

Samuel walked behind him as they went down the stairs. “This colour really suits you.”

“Yeah, a bit of shock. I've never worn it before. I think Kelly must have bought it because I don’t remember seeing it before.”

“Blond and blue eyes with light colouring suits colours like pink and baby blue, coral is another good one. You have skin like me.”

“Ha, I do not. Yours is all creamy. I have freckles.”

“I love those freckles.” Samuel tucked his hair behind his ear as they walked through the sitting room. “They’re cute.”

“Thanks.” Dalton stopped walking and turned to look at him. “This is sweet of you, but it’s okay. You don’t have to give me this much attention.”

Samuel swayed slightly, his hair cascading around his lithe frame as he peeked through heavy lids at Dalton. “I'm not saying them to build up your confidence, although it’s good if they do that. That’s just how I feel about you. You're handsome, Dalton. I've always thought so. You have the prettiest eyes I've ever seen.” Samuel tenderly ran his finger over Dalton’s brow.

Dalton breathed a little harder, then stepped back, afraid Samuel may notice and think badly of him. It had been a long time since he’d been touched, or wanted to be touched. “Thank you… again.” He grinned at Samuel, running his hand over his cropped hair. “I just… thanks.”

He took hold of Samuel’s elbow and led him from the house, breathing a sigh of relief when they got into the garden, seeing Milo frowning as he tapped his watch from inside his black BMW and Danny waving widely in the passenger seat. “As predicted. He’s peed off.”

“That’ll change.” Samuel hooked his arm through Dalton’s and began pulling him down the driveway. “Tonight’s going to be so much fun.”

“I hope so.”

Dalton already felt like turning back, but before he knew it, he was sitting in the back seat with Danny turning around and chatting non-stop about his outfit, his hair cut, the weight he’d lost. Dalton flicked the centre of his head and grinned. “My head will get too big to fit through the door if you two don’t stop it with the compliments.”

Milo snorted. “If it reduces your swelling, I can remind you how ridiculous you look in pink.”

That got him a slap over the back of the head from Samuel. “Milo, he looks sexy, stop it. He’s just jealous because he can't pull off pink. Besides—” Samuel slid over to him and adjusted Dalton’s collar. “Pink’s my favourite colour.” He smiled before biting his bottom lip.

Danny burst out laughing. “You know, it’s so sweet you choose to come on to him in front of us. It shows honesty.”

“Ignore them.” Samuel linked his hand through Dalton's and smiled at him.

“Erm…” Dalton felt his skin heat up and he flashed a confused look at Milo in the rear-view mirror, but he just got a smile back in response. “So, where are we going tonight?”

Milo opened his eyes wider and shot a look at Danny, both of them sharing a moment before they turned to look at Samuel.

“Well,” Samuel began. “Canal Street, of course.” He pouted at Dalton in a disturbingly seductive way. “It’s just for a few drinks, and it’s not the first time you’ve been there. Danny said you and him have been there a few times.”

“I don’t remember any of them, or most of them, parts of them I do…” Dalton sighed. “Okay, fine.” Great. His first night out as a single man and he was going to the gay capital of the North. “Don’t let me get too drunk.”

“Why?” Danny looked over his shoulder and grinned. “Worried you’ll get drunk and get touched up by naughty men like last time?”

“I didn’t get…” Dalton stopped, the vision of some large man with way too much hair pressing him up against a bar somewhere flickered through his vision and he shut up. “He was so hairy.”

“I like hair.” Samuel kissed the back of Milo’s neck. “Especially dark hair.”

Milo chuckled, leaning over and kissing him quickly before he looked back to the road.

“You didn’t see this guy,” Danny laughed out. “He was big, like B.I.G and covered all over, and I mean
all
over, and we knew this because he was wearing cut-off jeans and like
nothing
else.”

“Yeah, a bit too much for me.” Dalton grinned at Danny. The memory, although hazy, was a funny one to recall.

“Yeah, we need to ease you into men gently, like a twink.” Danny laughed as Dalton’s mouth fell open.

“I hate that term.” Samuel frowned at Danny.

“Sorry, Love. I know you do.”

Dalton leaned forward, pressing his head in between the two front seats and looking at Danny straight on. “Listen, as for ‘easing me in gently,’ not going to happen, okay. Just let me get drunk and laugh at you dancing.”

“Hey, I can dance.” Danny pouted at him.

“Yeah, sure,” Milo interjected quickly.

“I can.” Danny punched Milo in the arm and got a growl back.

Dalton chuckled. He loved these three.

Chapter
9

T
roy leaned back against the wall of the bar they were drinking at, and took a pull from his bottle. He’d come straight from Living Ink and was still dressed in his cargo shorts and vest which he’d worn all day at work. The atmosphere was relaxed at most bars, and in the summer heat, he felt good having bare arms and legs. Plus, the vest was the same shade of red as the large poppies inked on his arm and it matched perfectly.

Troy had an eye for colours, working with them made him super aware of the variety you could choose from, and he appreciated seeing bright tones. Nothing bothered him more than someone coming into the shop and asking for dull black lines and nothing more. It was boring to work with greys and black, and colours gave him the opportunity to create art in fine detail on someone. Nothing gave him greater pride than seeing some of his work on the people around Manchester.

That’s how he spotted the fit blond in his pink polo t-shirt. It was the colour which grabbed his attention, the way it complimented the light peachy tone to his skin and enhanced the blue colour of his eyes. Of course, it then led to Troy noticing other stuff not colour related, like how it fit his toned body in all the right places, stretching over his chest and arms but skimming his smaller waist. The light denim jeans hugged his arse, clinging to his thighs, cupping his dick and swelling under the material.

Troy found his gaze stuck on the guy’s lower half for the next few minutes, gazing appreciatively at him and then feeling shit because of it, but then, if he didn’t want people staring, then he wouldn’t be showing off his goods so well, would he?

He ripped his eyes off the hot body in front of him and glanced at his watch. He was just about to start back into the bar and find out where Liam was with the drinks, when he saw an iced bottle thrust under his nose.

“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.