Page 111 of Not Safe For Work

“Well, with all that appetizing talk,” Teagan said, capping a tube of cement and glancing at the clock. “I could go for an early lunch. I’m going to Arturo’s. Anyone else?”

“Hell yeah,” Cal said.

“I’m there,” Scott and Bianca said at the same time.

“Someone bring Silent Dave back to earth, then,” she said. “What about you, McNeill?”

I pursed my lips, eyeing the model I wasn’t making any progress on. I wasn’t really in the mood to socialize, but I wasn’t in any frame of mind to build this thing either. And any distraction I could get right then was a good one. Fuck it. I grabbed my jacket. “Who’s driving?”

“You are, old man,” Scott said.

“If I’m driving, you’re walking.”

Bianca laughed. “I’ll take Scott and Teagan if you’ll take Cal and Dave.”

I grimaced. “If I must.”

We headed out to the parking garage, arranged everyone into Bianca’s car and mine, and headed over to Arturo’s, an aging Italian place that knew us all by name. The hostess showed us to our usual booth—way in the back so we wouldn’t disturb the more civilized customers—and brought us drinks.

As we bantered and ordered and plowed through a basket of breadsticks, I could barely keep up with the conversation. Hell, when the food arrived, I had to stare at my plate of cannelloni for a moment before I realized that, yes, this was what I ordered. I didn’t remember ordering at all.

All through lunch, my mind kept wandering back to the weekend. Back to every moment with Rick.

Sure, there’d been a bump in the road, and the club had turned out to be a bad idea, but he’d recovered from that and we’d still had an amazing time. God, wasn’t that an understatement. Rick was such a beautiful submissive. Willing. Eager. Adventurous. And I looked forward to the aftercare almost as much as I did the scene or the sex. Lying beside him, relaxing, rubbing lotion on his welts or helping work stiffness out of a muscle, kissing, talking…

Everything we did, I loved. I wasn’t aroused by the memories, I wasn’t turned off. I was just…preoccupied. Shell-shocked in a way. It had been a great weekend, but now my mind and body were both crashing. Fatigue. Overload. Having to function like a normal human being, surrounded by people but touching none of them.

An elbow in my side brought me out of my thoughts and back into the cramped booth at Arturo’s.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Teagan cocked her head.

“Sorry.” I gestured dismissively. “Just lost in thought, I guess.”

Bianca giggled. “Thinking about Cal’s mom at the table again?”

Cal groaned.

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s it. What can I say? A woman with that much experience requires a lot of imagination to satisfy. So I always have to think up—”

“McNeill, I’m so fucking serious.” Cal gestured at me with a steak knife. “If you mention fucking my mom again…”

I shrugged. “Okay, well, there was the other night with your sister, and—”

“My sister?” He grimaced. “Dude, have you seen my sister?”

“No, I can’t say I have.”

He shuddered. “Yeah. You just…no.”

“So what you’re saying,” I deadpanned, “is that your mom is hotter than your sister?”

Cal buried his face in his hands and groaned while the rest of us laughed.

“Sorry, man,” I said without an ounce of sincerity. “You walked into that one.”

“You really did.” Bianca patted his shoulder. “But it’s okay, we still love you.”

“And your mom still loves Jon,” Teagan said.