“Help yourself to a drink, a snack. Whatever you’d like. Master, Saul is here and…” The doorbell rang. “…and I have to answer the door.”
Geoff chuckled and headed back to the foyer, leaving him with Carter and a couple of men he didn’t know.
“Hey, man. David, Matt, this is Saul. He’s the guy I was telling you about.”
“Hey, Carter. Uh-oh.” He shook with the men. “What did he tell you? This is the idiot kid that flattened my bike?” He grinned. Might as well own it.
David—who was a mountain of a man with a braided beard—barked out a loud laugh. “No, we were admiring your work when we got there. Matt here is looking for a pair of bikes.”
“I still think you need a bicycle built for two, Matt.” Carter was obviously comfortable needling these guys.
Matt’s eyebrow arched comically. “How are your contacts? I’d have seen blondie here coming.”
He laughed. “Whatever you need, Matt, I can hook you up. Come see me, I’ll give you the family discount. That should take the sting out of the two-seater.”
“Can you see my Krissy on a two-seater? I don’t think so. I just want something for him to gain his confidence back on.” Matt shook his head. “Have you ever made any modifications for someone with prostheses?”
Oh. Damn. Well, this was what he did, right? “Yeah. There are some great adaptive pedals and we can customize the frame to allow for whatever range of motion he has. But sometimes guys prefer the hand bikes. Is it one leg? Both?”
“One below the knee. He just got home for good. He was a CO in the National Guard.” Matt looked toward the great room where a square-jawed man sat in a wheelchair. “The leg bothers him by the evening, so he’s in the chair. That’s my Krissy.”
“Handsome.” Saul gave Matt’s shoulder a squeeze. That had to suck, and he really wanted to help. “Does he want to ride? Would you like me to talk to him later? I could get a better idea of what he needs and if it’s a bigger adaptation than I can handle I know someone.”
“We’ll come see you sometime this week. Thanks.” Matt took a deep breath. “Seriously guys. This hasn’t been simple.”
Two more men came in, one heading to the great room with Geoff, the other coming in to grab a beer.
“Doc!” Carter clapped him on the back. “How’s it going?”
“It’s going. Ben and I have been looking forward to this all week.” The man held a hand out to him. “Daniel Bush. Call me Doc. You must be Samuel? No. No, that wasn’t it…”
“Saul, Master.”
“Saul. That was it. Thank you, boy.”
He shook hands with Doc. “That’s me. Good to meet you, Doc. And your lovely boy is…?” Adorable, and maybe even younger than he was.
“Benjamin. The bane of my existence.” The words were warm, the grin that Benjamin gave Doc even warmer. “He’s a wicked one, be forewarned.” Doc then turned to Matt. “How’s it going?”
Matt stared at Doc for a long minute, and then Doc took Matt by the arm. “Keep an eye on the boys, would you?”
“Of course. You’re welcome to go upstairs and talk.” Carter kept reorganizing food as if nothing was wrong.
He watched the men go, not completely understanding the emotions that followed them. He just saw so much pain.
After a second Saul glanced at Benjamin. “Why don’t you see if you can help Master Carter with the food, boy?”
Benjamin looked at him a little confused and then blinked. “Oh. I didn’t… Uh. Yes, Sir.”
David’s deep chuckle sounded like a rumble of thunder. “Don’t stress it, boy. Travis and Geoff have Krissy. Where’s Troy?”
Carter grinned. “Dozing on the couch, as he does.”
“Anyone mind if I wake him up?” Saul didn’t really want an answer, he just nodded to them and headed for the couch. Seeing the way the guys were dressed, he silently thanked Emma again, she’d been right on the money.
Troy was on a long, low couch wearing a pair of gauzy white pants and a loose tank. The hints of ink were everywhere, a constant tease. The man really was beautiful, whether he felt that way right now or not. Saul admired the way the tank showed off his muscle and skin, the way his pants sat low on his hips and left little to the imagination below that.
But even with that lovely view, Saul’s eyes were drawn back up to the ink and the dozen or so triskelion he could see clearly. They were different sizes, different in character. A patch of three on one shoulder intertwined in a really lovely way, tangled and not, individual but belonging together.
Troy’s face was relaxed, passive, and he admired the line of the man’s jaw and the set of those cheekbones, but he wanted to see those eyes.
As he stared down, Troy inhaled deeply and stretched, a smile widening his lips. “Someone smells good.”
Was that comment meant to give him goosebumps? Must have been the little hint of sleepy gravel in Troy’s otherwise smooth voice. “Old Spice. Someone told me not long ago it’s what real men wear.”
Troy’s eyes popped open, the pretty green eyes finding him immediately, the smile not fading a bit. “Well, hello.”
He smiled back, couldn’t have stopped it if he tried. “Hey. You look great. And bored.”
Troy rolled up to sitting, the simple motion fluid and easy, and so unconsciously sexual it made Saul’s mouth dry. “Bored? No, Sir. I was just catnapping.”
“Early morning at the diner, huh? Can I sit with you?” Will you try me out? Sub for me today? How do I ask?
“Please do.” Troy patted the cushion. “I’ll share all the good gossip and tell you where Geoff hides the Doritos.”
“Clearly I found the right guy.” He sat just exactly where Troy had patted the sofa, which put him a little too far away to be assumed a couple but too close to rule the possibility out. “I just met David and Matt, and Doc and Benjamin…”
“Ah. Master Matt is a travel writer, belongs to Kris. Kris just got back from being deployed. He’s dealing with some hard-core shit.”
“Yeah, I saw that.” That was an understatement of vast proportions.
“Master David and Trav are physical therapists—been together for fifteen years, maybe more—and Benji is brand-new to, well, just about everything. He was a figure skater and now he’s…not.” Troy looked toward Benjamin with a fond expression.
“Yeah? Why did he give it up? Doc?” Doc wasn’t young at all. The Dom seemed to easily be the eldest in the group he’d met so far.
“Oh man, he just burnt out. I mean like losing his shit full out on the ice.” Troy didn’t glance at Benjamin and kept his voice down. “He grew up here, tried to go home and his folks just turned him out. I found him on a bench and recognized him. He stayed with me a few months, met Doc and they connected. It’s been great for both of them.”
“Whoa, you found him? Wow.” Wow.
Okay, this was weird. This wasn’t a party with a bunch of newbie college grad buttheads sitting around playing beer pong, getting high and fucking around in the bedrooms. These were, like, real men. They had partners and stories. They were interesting. They were friends. He wasn’t interesting, he was just guy who worked in a bike shop. He didn’t have a story, did he? He had a few things… Deitz and Khloe, a little family shit and college nonsense, but really, he was boring as hell.