Page 8 of Rules to Love By

Eli nodded agreement. “You’re not wrong about Jess. But also, Tris has said the same thing.”

“Now Tris, I would trust.” Marcus brightened. “We can run my ideas past him. He won’t let us do anything terrible. He’s good at this stuff.”

“We?” Eli raised his eyebrows. “Us?”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean… I’m sure you’re busy enough with classes.” He averted his gaze, because the heart flutter that happened when he considered more close contact with Eli—that could—and should—be ignored.

Eli shifted his weight and ran a hand over his stomach. “Don’t worry about that. It’ll be fine.” He smiled. “‘We’ it is.”

Marcus followed the path of that hand as it travelled over Eli’s belly, up his chest, then skipped farther to scrub the back of his head. He had good capable-looking hands.

A butterfly trembled in Marcus’s gut. A delicate ruffle of excitement he hadn’t felt since before Iris had her first stroke, stirred under the faint waft of wing.

When Eli turned his back to follow in his father’s footsteps, Marcus closed his eyes, took a breath, and ordered the quivering to still. He hadn’t come to Griffon’s Elbow just to pick up where he’d left off in the city. He’d left those bad habits behind along with his aunt’s diner and his uncle’s bullshit.

When he opened his eyes again, Eli stood at the doorway between the couches from where he’d first appeared.

Their gazes caught for a single thump of Marcus’s heart. Long enough for him to imagine a steel door whined and swung shut, trapping the tiny, terrified butterfly somewhere unsafe.

Marcus couldn’t breathe.

Just for an instant.

Then…

“You coming up?” Eli asked. “We have a schedule to talk about.”

The moment broke. A tsunami of butterflies surged in his chest, and he nodded, following, because that one small part of him was caught.

Again.

That one piece he could never control, and now Eli had it, even if he didn’t know it. Marcus had to get it back before it was too late.

CHAPTERTWO

Eli quelled the intense flash of goose bumps over his arms as Marcus’s eyelashes flickered and their gazes caught. The man’s nearly black eyes were huge with an expression that made Eli want to wrap him in cotton and promises.

“Have you had breakfast?” Eli asked.

“I have not.” Marcus remained in the doorway to the kitchen, one hand hooked on a suede tool belt at his hips, the other trapped in ebony curls.

“How do you feel about scrambled eggs with cheese? I’m not much of a cook, but I can probably manage that without poisoning us.”

“Do you always offer breakfast to your employees?” He dropped the hand from his hair to his belt as he propped a shoulder against the door frame. The pose showed off his lean form, wide shoulders and the long column of his throat.

Eli wondered if he knew what he had, and used it consciously. It was distracting enough he had to force himself to parse what Marcus had said before he could answer. “First, you don’t work for me, you work for my dad.”

“Right.”

“And second, I’m starved. It would be rude to eat in front of you and not offer you any.” He pulled eggs and cheese from the fridge as he talked. “Now, if you’d rather wait and eat at the Oaks”—he waved the eggs at Marcus—“that’s all good. I totally get it. Kreed’s a mad genius in the kitchen. I’m only a marginally better cook than I am handyman.”

A slow smile parted Marcus’s lips. “I could give you a few tips there too.”

“That so?” Eli set the food on the counter and crossed his arms.

Pushing off from the doorway, Marcus moved deeper into the room. He was liquid sex, every move projecting a calm confidence, and except for that one sliver of wide-open panic he’d shown downstairs, he was doing a good job of selling it.

It certainly intrigued Eli enough to think about buying, even though he’d long ago decided he wouldn’t shop in Griffon’s Elbow. The less time he spent here, the fewer uncomfortable conversations he’d have to have with his father. Not about being gay, because that was old news, and no one cared. But just about every other aspect of his life his father didn’t want to know.

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