Page 1 of Passion and Payback

HUNTER

TWO YEARS AGO

I felt the rush of enjoying every minute as they ticked by. A sea of bodies surrounded me as they fought to find somewhere to stand, talk, laugh, or joke over the music. The music pulsed loudly, pumping so hard I could feel it in my bones.

It didn’t help that I had a few drinks running through my system, though I wished I’d managed to score a little more than the tiny bag of coke I had already burned through. No responsibilities awaited me tomorrow, so all the suffering from tonight could be slept off, giving me free rein to enjoy the night as much as I wanted without worrying.

“Already done?” a voice called into my ear, and I laughed, wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling him close for a kiss.

“Last time, you were the one who went wild, and now it’s my turn,” I told Lucas, giving him another kiss.

“Yeah, you’re definitely feeling it,” he said, setting his drink on the table.

“What makes you say that?”

“Because you’re being super affectionate.”

“I’m always affectionate!”

He laughed, kissing the tip of my nose. “True, but you’re even more affectionate when you drink...among other things. I do love you when you’re drunk.”

“Mmm,” I nuzzled into his face. “And I love you when I’m not.”

“Isn’t that cute?” another voice at the table piped up, and I grinned at the blond-haired man. The three of them had appeared a couple of hours ago while I’d been sitting with Lucas and started chatting with us. They were all good-looking, but the blond, Callum, was definitely the cutest. I wasn’t sure if they were trying to hit us up for some sexy fun later, but they were friendly and trying to have some kind of fun.

“We’re adorable, thank you very much,” I said with a laugh, eyes widening when another drink dropped in front of me, pretty in its layers of gradually deepening blue. “Wow, did the service change around here or something?”

“They’ve been buying our drinks for the past couple of hours,” Lucas pointed out with a shake of his head. “You already thanked them for it the first time.”

“Well, thank you again!” I said, raising my glass toward the three men.

“You’re the first people who proved interesting tonight,” Callum said with a wink. “And who wants to go out and be bored?”

“Not me, that’s for sure,” the dark-haired man beside him said. Whose name, after I thought about it for a moment, was Mitchell. From what I remember, he was supposed to be doing something with his father’s business and had been the least talkative of the three.

“Seriously, we go out all the time, and people are just...bland,” the third one, Damon, said with a chuckle. Honestly, he was the only one of the three I wasn’t all that fond of. There was something off about him, not just because he wasa lawyer. But the other two made up for his presence, so I was more than willing to tolerate him if the fun kept coming.

“By the way, your phone has been going off,” Lucas said, sliding the device to me. “I wouldn’t normally tell you since you don’t care most of the time, but?—”

“But?” I asked and unlocked the screen to see the name at the top. “Oh shit, Kai got service? That’s rare lately.”

“Who’s Kai?” Damon asked.

“That would be the only man I’ve ever had to compete with,” Lucas said, but his tone and smile said he was only teasing. “It’s his best friend from childhood. They’re insanely close.”

“Oh yeah?” Callum asked with a curious look. “How close?”

“Like brothers,” I said, ignoring the twinge of discomfort I felt whenever I called him that. It was weird to refer to him as a brother when I’d had the most painful crush on him when we were younger. Not that I didn’t still feelsomethingfor him that went beyond platonic, but that feeling was tucked away neatly in its box in the back of my mind where it belonged. “And before you ask, he’s straight.”

Kai and I had grown up during a time when I hadn’t learned that having a crush on your straight best friend was as cliche as it got for a young gay kid growing up. Then again, I would have liked to see anyone in my shoes not develop feelings. Even if Kai wasn’t aware of it, he was a damn good-looking man, and he had been the support system I needed when my family was...well, the reason I needed a support system in the first place.

“They’re tight,” Lucas continued to explain, giving me time to type out a message to Kai. “If you saw the two of them, you’d understand how tight I mean.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?” Damon asked, raising a brow, and I immediately pegged him as the controlling, jealous type.

Lucas let out a laugh and shook his head. “No. Even if Kai wasn’t strictly straight, I wouldn’t be worried. I’ve known both ofthem for a while, and this one isn’t going to leave a relationship for another. He’ll leave for a damn good reason. And Kai isn’t the type to disrespect another person like that, no matter what he wants or feels. They’re just close, and it wouldn’t make sense to be jealous of their friendship. Envious? Yeah, definitely. Not everyone gets a best friend like they have.”

“Wow,” Mitchell grunted, taking a sip from his beer. “That’s, uh, pretty confident.”

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