Just a Bit Dirty (Straight Guys #10)(17)

“I think I’m attracted to you.”

Ian’s pencil froze.

He lifted his gaze.

Miles was chewing on his lip. He seemed… bewildered.

“I’m not gay,” Ian said.

Miles shrugged. “Me neither.” He pulled a funny face. “I mean, I thought I wasn’t gay. I thought I was asexual, actually. But wanting to lick your forearms probably means that I’m not.” He smiled, looking bemused and intrigued, as if he hadn’t just told his boss that he wanted to lick his forearms. What the fuck, seriously.

“Are you always so weird or am I just getting special treatment?” Ian said, squashing down the inappropriate urge to laugh.

Miles scrunched up his nose. It looked disgustingly adorable. A young man of twenty shouldn’t look adorable, what the fuck.

“I don’t think I’m all that weird,” Miles said. “I just say what I think. What’s wrong with it?”

“It might be a bit wrong when you tell your employer that you want to lick his forearms.”

Miles laughed. “Sorry, I’m just confused, I guess. Attraction is such a foreign feeling for me.”

Ian stared at him. “You’ve never had sex?”

“I have,” Miles said, making a face. “Well, sort of. Yes and no. But I was never… Like, they were objectively good-looking. But I’ve never really looked at a person and wanted to put my mouth on them, you know? It’s like... I wanted sex theoretically, but as soon as I got naked with someone, I didn’t really want to touch them. I felt uncomfortable more than anything.” A look of frustration flickered across Miles’s face. “Am I making sense? Anyway, I never understood the fuss about sex, to be honest. It felt like a nerve-wracking chore every time I tried to shag someone.” He smiled wryly. “But maybe I’m not gay. Maybe I just have a weird fetish for forearms. That can be a thing, right?”

“You’re ridiculous,” Ian said, sketching Miles’s mouth. The shape of it was a little off…

He studied the original intently. A pink tongue emerged to lick the corner of the mouth.

“Do you have to stare at my lips? You aren’t helping, you know.”

“I thought you just had a fetish for forearms,” Ian said, smiling faintly.

“Well, let’s just say it’s looking increasingly unlikely,” Miles said with laughter in his voice. “May I suck your cock?”

Ian’s gaze snapped up.

Miles met his gaze head-on. “Just as an experiment, to see if I’ll actually like it?” He laughed. “What? Too weird?”

Ian returned his eyes to the half-finished sketch. “I’m going to pretend we didn’t have this conversation.”

“Oh, come on! What guy turns down a blowjob?”

Ian pinched the bridge of his nose. The entire conversation would be amusing if it weren’t so exasperating. “I’m straight, and I’m not the least bit attracted to you.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Miles said. “A mouth is a mouth, isn’t it?”

“No, actually. I’m very selective about where I put my cock, and a man’s mouth isn’t one of them.”

“So you’re homophobic,” Miles said with a sigh. “I kind of thought you could be, but I was hoping you weren’t. Now I feel kind of shitty for still wanting to suck your prick.”

Fucking hell, this was ridiculous.

“First of all, I’m not homophobic,” Ian said. “I don’t know where you got that idea. Not wanting to have sex with a man doesn’t make me homophobic.”

“You dislike the Rutledges.”

Ian looked back at the sketch. “That’s not why I dislike them,” he said evenly.

He could feel Miles’s curious gaze on him. “Why do you dislike them, then?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Miles heaved a sigh. “What’s the second?”

“Pardon?”

“You said, ‘First of all.’ That means there’s a second point.”

“Second, you should never tell your boss that you want to suck his cock. That would have gotten you fired if you had another employer. Not everyone is as lenient as me.”

Miles snorted. “Lenient isn’t the word I would use to describe you. And I’m not stupid. I’d never say something like that if I had another boss. I told you that because I knew you wouldn’t fire me for something like that.”

Ian looked back at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Miles cocked his head to the side. “I think I know you pretty well at this point. You’re a lot like my eldest brother: bossy as hell but actually pretty soft on the inside.” Miles wrinkled his nose funnily. “Well, he isn’t quite as arrogant as you, but my point stands.”

Ian almost laughed. The boy had no idea. “I’m not ‘soft.’ The only reason you still have your job is because my son needs you.”

Miles’s lips twitched, his eyes flashing with amusement. “That only proves my point, doesn’t it?”

Ian gave him a pinched look. “Caring for my son hardly makes me soft.”

To his surprise, Miles nodded. “I know. I just…” He smiled sheepishly. “It’s hard to explain why I feel so comfortable with you, actually. I just do. If it makes you feel better, most people back at the office seemed to think you were very intimidating— Why are you looking at me like that?”