Those couple of nights a week always left me wanting more. No kidding. Just the sight of him staring at his computer screen, lost in numbers and patterns, made my pulse rev.
I played it cool. I’d sneak a donut or a random candy bar on his desk, then announce my presence by strumming a wicked riff. Sometimes he jumped from his chair, clutching his heart like a ninety-year-old man while I chuckled merrily. Other days, he’d nod his thanks and hold a single digit up, wordlessly asking me to wait until he’d finished his thought. I almost liked that response more ’cause when the fog cleared and the numbers faded, he’d look at me like I might have the answers he’d been searching for all along.
The crazy thing was that I felt the same about him. He was special—unique, handsome, charming, and sexy as fuck. And the best thing was that he didn’t try to be any of those things. He was completely unfazed by material excess, fame, or fortune. Cody applied for the internship to observe musicians, not to fuck one. He didn’t fanboy over my bandmates or ask me to play for him. And though he’d told me he’d never been to a concert, he hadn’t asked for tickets to one of our future shows.
In short, he seemed to like me for me…not for my job.
And me? I was fucking nuts about the guy.
He’d been under my skin since we met at The Zebra Den. But after our night-swim adventure, everything changed. My awareness of him heightened by a thousand degrees. The problem was that he only worked at Scratch Records three days a week. While he was busy racking up life experiences of the pineapple-upside-down-cake nature, I spent long hours in the studio preparing for Jealousy’s upcoming tour with Zero.
I loved my job for sure. It was a dream to get paid to do something I loved, and after years of chasing the wrong path, I was grateful. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to find a way to spend more time with my geek before summer was over and real life started for him.
So I asked him to go with me to the Griffith Observatory.
“When?”
I shrugged. “Tomorrow?”
“Don’t you have to work?”
“I’ll take the afternoon off.”
Cody knit his brow. “Can you do that?”
“I don’t think it’s a prob—”
“There you are!” Charlie sashayed around the corner, waving his arms. “Dec is looking for you.”
“Oh, right,” I said, stepping backward.
“Was there something in particular you needed from Cody?” Charlie asked, raising one brow and managing to look like a freaking boss.
“Uh…we bumped into each other at the coffee machine,” I bluffed, accidentally knocking my sunglasses off when I raised my mug in proof.
Charlie cocked his head. “Oh?”
Cody handed my sunglasses to me. “Yes, Bobby J forgot the name of your optometrist.”
What the fuck?
I glowered at him when Charlie pulled his cell out and scrolled.
“Dr. Canter! I gave you her number weeks ago. Well, this is fortuitous. Guess who was about to cancel his kid brother’s appointment tomorrow? Moi.” Charlie pivoted on his Italian loafers and opened his arms wide. “You can take Ollie’s place. I have a meeting in five minutes, but I’ll call after that and—"
“Whoa! Hold up, big guy.” I tugged Charlie’s shirt before he waltzed away. “I’m standing right here. I don’t need a secretary to schedule my life. And I’ll be busy in the studio, so…no, thanks.”
“Actually, you’re not busy in the afternoon. I think the appointment is at four o’clock. Dec’s mom is showing Tegan and him a house in the hills at the same time. He told me that, then yelled something about waiting for you to get your ass in gear.” Charlie circled his wrists like a magician conjuring a spell. “I feel like this is all coming together for a reason.”
“Char—”
“Gotta run.”
I shot a harried glance at Charlie’s retreating form before refocusing on Cody. “Thanks a lot.”
Cody chuckled. “I refuse to apologize. You need your eyes checked anyway. But I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take you to your appointment and then…if you’re good, I’ll take you to the Griffith Observatory afterward.”
“I’m not going to want anything but sex and chocolate after that,” I grumbled.
“Okay.”
I furrowed my brow. “Okay?”
“Yeah, I like that plan better,” he replied with a mischievous grin. “Tomorrow’s my day off. I’ll swing by to pick you up here at three thirty. Do you have condoms?”
“Excuse me?”
“Condoms. Latex sheath barriers used to protect yourself and your partner from STDs.”
“I know what a condom is, smartass,” I huffed.
He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I hope so.”
I considered him for a long moment, loving the subtle shades of pink dotting his cheeks. His abrupt shifts from being so damn proper and controlled one minute to a raging horndog the next were a major turn-on. Fuck, I wanted him.
“If you’re curious, I use the big ones.”
Cody bit his bottom lip. “I figured.”
“So, I gotta ask…” I glanced around the empty office before meeting his gaze again. “What’s on your mind?”
“Sex.”
I widened my eyes comically. “I see.”
“No pressure, of course. I like what we’re doing. Last night was amazing.”
It was. I’d tied Cody to my bedpost and edged him for an hour…at his request. Not the edging part, just the tying-up portion of the program.
It had been another unexpected evening for sure. We ate dinner outside, playing footsies under the table while we talked about our favorite books and teachers we remembered from elementary school. Then we cleaned up and went to my room to check off a to-do from his sexual wish list. He said he’d never been handcuffed, and that seemed like a good way to spend the rest of the night.
I couldn’t find my cuffs, but a few old neckties did the trick. I’d tied him up and sucked his cock while I fingered his hole. And yeah, I made it last. Every time he got close, I slowed down or backed off altogether. When I rubbed my beard against his inner thighs and licked the sensitive skin behind his balls and around his hole, he came like a freight train. I’d waited for him to stop trembling, then rolled him onto his stomach and slid my cock between his ass cheeks a grand total of two strokes before shooting my load. I held him close in the aftermath, wondering why everything felt better with him.
Cody wasn’t a virgin. He’d been with other men, and I certainly had my share of experience…and probably someone else’s too. So what was it about this guy? He was handsome but not model gorgeous. He was unassuming, but he wasn’t innocent or unworldly. He didn’t need my protection, my money, or my influence. Yet somehow, he was the only one I wanted. I hadn’t been with anyone, man or woman, since the night we met at The Zebra Den. I wanted inside him more than I could possibly communicate, but it seemed important to follow his lead.
“Yeah. I’m gonna miss you tonight. What are you doing again?”
“I’m going on a ‘dearly departed’ macabre tour for my friend, George’s birthday. It takes you to where they filmed a few horror movies, like Nightmare on Elm Street. He’s into creepy things, so this is perfect for him. Topher organized it. And since he’s my roommate, I’m sure he’ll rope me into helping him. Toph is obsessed with timeliness.”