Hot Sauce (Suncoast Society #26)(10)

Reed grinned at him, reaching up with his left hand and grabbing Lyle’s hair. “Come one,” he playfully said. “Do it.”

Lyle managed to get himself off Reed’s softening cock. With Reed still holding his hair, he leaned in and first cleaned off Reed’s other hand, then licked his belly clean before working his way up the man’s chest to kiss him, f*cking him with his tongue.

Reed reached around him and unclipped Lyle’s wrists. Lyle planted his hands on either side of Reed’s head. “You just f*cking wait,” Lyle said. “Payback’s a switch.”

A playful grin filled Reed’s face and he blew him a kiss. “And so are we. Love you.”

Lyle leaned in again and kissed him, hard, deep, f*cking him once more with his tongue before sitting up and rolling off him. “Love you, too, buddy. Never forget that.”

After cleaning off, they curled up in bed, Reed’s head resting against Lyle’s chest, snuggled against his side.

“TV?” Lyle asked.

“Mmm-hmm. Set the timer,” Reed groggily replied. “I won’t last long.” He let out a long yawn.

Lyle kissed the top of his head and reached across him to where the remote lay on Reed’s bedside table. Reed had to get up nearly an hour earlier than Lyle did on the days he had charters. That meant he usually crashed out earlier at night.

Which was fine with Lyle. He was happy to snuggle like this, both of them now stress-free and sleepy, with full tummies and empty balls, ready to call it a sweet, sweet night.

And that was perfect, as far as he was concerned.





Chapter Four


Late the next morning, Vanessa awoke feeling more than a little cotton-mouthed, hungover, sad, guilty for reading through Tony’s journal—and wanting to go through more of his things. She simultaneously wanted the task over and done with, and didn’t want to go through with it because it meant he was really gone and not coming back.

Yes, she knew the stages of grief. She’d already researched all of that over the past couple of days. Grief wasn’t something she had a lot of experience with. She’d been fairly young when both sets of their grandparents had died. Her brother was the first serious loss in her life, not counting a couple of acquaintances over the years, and three coworkers.

There were lots of things she could—and had—dealt with in her life.

Grief was not one of them. And right now, she was firmly stuck in denial, hoping in some way he might come back, not wanting to believe the beloved big brother she’d dragged to the ER a few days earlier because his persistent cough that he wouldn’t get looked at had turned into a high fever and relentless, raw, hacking, had died only eight hours later.

Before these events, overall, despite the lack of any kind of a social life and absolutely zero sex life, she’d blissfully coasted along day by day. Nothing upset her world, other than a hurricane that had her supervising several store managers who had to make storm prep in conjunction with overworked regional store facilities crews.

To her, that had been stressful, her idea of a “bad” day. Nothing could usually shake her equanimity.

I had no idea how f*cking lucky I was before now.

She wasn’t a virgin, but it wasn’t like she’d been a slut, either. Her last boyfriend had been five years ago. When she realized after a couple of months that it wasn’t her he was into as much as it was the perceived “easy sex” because she was a “desperate fat chick,” and he’d liked her employee discount for auto parts, she’d dumped his ass.

The “desperate fat chick” label had come from him accidentally texting her when he thought he was texting his * friend.

He’d shown up at her house later that night to find a few of his things he’d left there sitting in a box on the front porch, while she’d sat inside the darkened house, her car in the garage and all the lights off, pretending she wasn’t home.

Since then, she hadn’t bothered trying to find another relationship. It wasn’t worth it. Besides, she had work, and then she’d had Tony.

At the time when she’d called her brother to cry on his shoulder, an enraged Tony had told her the guy was an ass and it didn’t mean she shouldn’t get out and try again, but she’d seen it as a sign. A sign that her work needed to come first, and if she was ever meant to meet a guy, she would.

Meanwhile, she had a vibrator and a Kindle full of erotic romance.

And once Tony had moved in, she’d had him for companionship.

So she’d been all set, as far as she was concerned.

Now…

She stared at Carlo, who didn’t raise his head from the bed as he stared at her and gave her an apathetic thump of his tail.

She stroked his head as she started crying. “I know, boy. Me, too. It’s just us now.”

He edged closer to nuzzle against her, his head resting on her chest, his golden-brown eyes staring into hers.

Was this the sum of her life from this point on? Work, Carlo, and dealing with the gaping maw of loneliness without Tony there?

She’d never felt lonely before he moved in. But after he’d moved in, it was like color and volume returned to the movie of her life, and she hadn’t even realized it’d been faded and muted before that.

She understood him and his habits a little better now, the late nights out with “friends,” including overnights. But he’d seemed happy.