Page 55 of Steady Stroke
And until then, Emmett would take what happiness he could find with Lincoln. Allah owed him at least that much.
TWELVE
Lincoln stayedthe rest of the afternoon. After a long, passionate make-out session ended with them swapping hand jobs, they emerged from Emmett’s room and played video games in the living room. Adrian eventually joined them, and Beatrice came home around five with fixings for tacos for her and Adrian. When Emmett declared his stomach was back to normal, Beatrice joked about having bought enough food to feed three hungry men. It intrigued Lincoln how easily he fit into their lives, and how much he enjoyed simply being with Emmett.
He’d known Emmett had darkness in his past, but he hadn’t expected the level that Emmett had confessed to. No, he honestly didn’t give two shits that Emmett was or ever had been Muslim. Lincoln and religion didn’t get along anyway, so he wouldn’t judge anyone for their beliefs. He gave a lot of shits about how Emmett had been treated by others because he was Muslim—from the kids at the party who fed him coke, to the unfeeling people who handled his case after the fire.
“Horrible” didn’t cover it. He totally understoodEmmett’s need to hide away for a while. But hints of the old Emilio peeked out as each layer of secrecy was peeled back, slowly but surely, like the hints of black roots beneath the dyed brown hair.
All of the confessions seemed to have lightened something about Emmett, too. As they all talked and joked over tacos, Emmett smiled more than Lincoln remembered seeing. More than once, Lincoln had to resist the urge lean over and lick smears of sour cream off his cheek or chin.
The mental image of licking sour cream off other parts of Emmett’s body made his dick betray him, and he crossed his legs under the table.
Beatrice invited him to come with her and Emmett to open the club, and why not? It was open-mike night, so he’d have probably ended up there, anyway. Van gave him a big grin that came off like a mental high-five, and it was awesome having so many people who wanted to see him and Emmett make it work.
It also made Lincoln feel like a bit of a douche. Last year his best friend in the world had done everything possible to hide his developing relationship with Trey, because they played in rival bands, and here Lincoln could be totally open and honest about his. When Lincoln stumbled over the truth about Dominic and Trey, he hadn’t been angry that they were seeing each other—not entirely. Mostly he’d been annoyed at Dominic for hiding something from him, when they’d promised to tell each other everything.
For the first time in their friendship, Lincoln had felt shut out. And it had hurt more than he’d ever told Dom to his face.
While everyone else did their evening prep, Lincoln escaped to the top floor and settled into one of the couches. First he texted Melody where he’d be tonight if she wanted to pop over. Then he texted Dominic to call when he got achance; it was the best way to get in touch with him, especially when he traveled.
Dom called less than a minute later. “Hey, babe, what’s up?” No ruckus in the background, so he wasn’t in the middle of a club or an airport. Good sign.
“You sitting down?”
“Uh-oh. Do I need to be?”
“I’m not sure. Two things. First, Beatrice is letting me use the stage at Off Beat during off hours to get used to playing on a stage, with lights.”
“Really? That’s awesome! It will be a huge advantage for you at Unbound, knowing what you can and can’t handle.”
“I know, right? I’ll probably still have to sit to play the QChord, but this is progress. We start tomorrow.”
Someone spoke in the background. “Talking to Linc,” Dominic said. “Trey says hello.”
“Hey, Trey.”
Dominic relayed his message. “So back up a sec. Who’s ‘we’ in this practicing scenario?”
“That leads to thing number two.” Lincoln couldn’t stop his huge grin. “I’m seeing someone.”
“As in dating?”
“Well, technically we’ve only gone out once, and that wasn’t supposed to be a date, and it ended with a migraine, but yeah. Dating. Or something. It’s still all pretty new, but I really like him, Dom. Really, like whoa.”
“Wait, is it Emmett? Beatrice’s nephew?”
“Yup.” His chest swelled with pride. “We’ve had kind of a rough start, but we had a really good talk today, and now I feel like we’re in synch, you know?”
“And Emmett feels the same?”
“Yes. I mean, we’re still feeling things out. We’ve onlyknown each other a week, really, but fuck, Dom. Sometimes I feel like I’ve known him forever, you know?”
“Yeah, I know how that feels.”
Lincoln could imagine the lovesick look Dom was probably tossing at Trey. “I can’t wait for you to meet him.”
“Looking forward to it. And I hate to say it, dude, but that probably won’t be until Unbound. Our schedule’s pretty tight right now.”
