Page 25 of Burning Up

Gray smiled, actually fucking smiled. At Bryce. “Enough to say just about anything. I know how it feels, wanting something you think you shouldn’t have.”

Gray probably did. It couldn’t have been easy for him when he started sleeping with Jack. Or when they both decided they wanted more than just sex with Mason.

“I can’t fuck with my job,” Bryce said. “I’ve only been there a few months.”

“There not going to fire you or anything, just reassign you.”

“Yeah, but I just got a promotion.”

“They’d most likely reassign Matt and Toby.”

Bryce nodded. “They might end up on different shifts and hardly see each other. I don’t want to screw them over.”

Gray nodded. “I get it, but…”

Bryce studied Gray. He didn’t really seem all that drunk, but he’d said more to Bryce in a minute or two than he’d said in months. “What?”

Gray shrugged. “Be sure you know what’s really important.”

“My job. It’s a hell of a lot more important than giving my dick what it wants.”

“Hell yeah. Your dick will get over it. The rest of you, that’s the fucking problem.”

“The rest of… Oh, you don’t think… I’m not…”

Gray rubbed his forehead, as if talking to Bryce was giving him a headache. “You’ve got that look.”

“What look?”

“The one I had after Jack and I… you know.”

Bryce almost said “fucked?” but thought better of it. “And what exactly does this look entail?”

Gray took a sip of his beer and seemed to ponder how to answer. “When you see them, you look like a terrified rabbit. You’re heart’s probably beating like it’s about to explode.”

“You nailed it,” Bryce said.

“That ain’t got nothin’ to do with what your dick wants.”

Bryce’s pulse sped up, and his head swam. Gray was right. What he felt for Matt and Toby was about way more than sex. But didn’t that mean he shouldn’t go to Marlo’s? If he slept with them again, those feelings would only get worse.

Jack chose that moment to join them. “Whatcha talking about that’s made you both look so serious?”

“Nothing.” Bryce and Gray spoke simultaneously.

Jack looked back and forth between the two men. Then his eyes widened. “Shit, was he trying to give you relationship advice?”

“No,” Gray said at the same time Bryce said, “Yes.”

Jack cupped Gray’s face with one hand, turning him so Jack could look into his eyes. “You feeling okay?”

“Fuck off!” Gray pulled free of Jack’s hold. “See what I get for trying to be helpful?”

Before Bryce could reply, Jack said, “He wasn’t much help, was he?”

“Actually, he might have been.”

Gray nodded. “Damn right I was. Now get out of here. Do whatever you think’s best and don’t blame me for any of it. I used to be able to keep my mouth shut. These two assholes are a bad influence.” He gestured toward Jack and Mason, who was at the other end of the bar.

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