Page 63 of Hot Ice, Tennessee

Did you bring someone home last night?

I’m so into you I can’t think straight, but I don’t know how to be with another person right now?

You might be one of my favorite people I’ve ever met, and you came out of fucking nowhere?

I finally tapped out a text, the words slowly populating the screen:

“I want to take you on a date. You should know what it’s like to be treated right. But also… I need you to take my cock. Need to hear your voice break when I fuck you for the first time. I need my good boy—”

I groaned out loud, popping the strawberry lollipop in my mouth.

I deleted every word of the text, watching it slowly disappear.

God, I was too drunk to be doing things like this.

A big truck roared its way down Laurel Ave, and I watched it go, the red tail lights glowing until they disappeared.

At last, I landed on ordering a ride. I was too drunk to drive, but I sure as hell had to get out of here.

Not that I had a damn clue where I was going to go.

11

MASON

“Mason, thecaviar,” Finn whispered to me, taking me aside in my kitchen. “Wow. How much did that cost?”

The low buzz of jazz music and conversation filled the air. There were so many people in my house that I could barely see from one side of the room to another, and the lights were down low, only adding to the loungey vibe.

“Don’t worry about the cost of anything,” I told him. “I inherited the money, and I already have everything I could want. I like to treat my friends.”

“It’s incredible,” Ori said, coming up beside Finn and giving him a kiss. “When you said we could use your house, I didn’t know it would be likethis.”

“This is what Mason does,” Finn said, smiling at me. “He can somehow pull a party out of his ass at a moment’s notice.”

“My parties aren’t ever this classy though,” I said. “I bumped into a woman in a gown earlier and I was worried I would spill on it. She said it once belonged to Elizabeth Taylor.”

“No shot in hell that’s true,” Finn said.

Ori and Finn had stopped by my house a couple of days ago and casually mentioned that they needed a place to host a fancyart event. Ori’s line of work involved art museums and galleries, and he was hosting a charity auction for some of Tennessee’s wealthiest art collectors.

To be honest, I hadn’t even known thatanyonein Tennessee collected fancy art. But if my friends needed a place to host a party, my house was always the first thing I’d offer. I’d ordered in a bunch of fancy foods, set up the music and lighting, and opened my doors to the crowd.

What I didn’t expect, though, was that I’d end up feeling completely fucking blueballed by all of the happy couples around me.

“It’s like everyone in here has an engagement ring fatter and shinier than the last,” I said, glimpsing a woman with a sparkly one on her finger. “That rock is basically the size of a tennis ball. Kill me.”

Ori laughed. “She was talking about it earlier. It’s lab-grown, you know.”

“Lab-grown or not, I know that shit is expensive. And I know I’ve got to get the hell out of here.”

“You sure?” Finn asked.

I nodded. I’d always planned on leaving the house to them for tonight, and I trusted Ori and Finn with my life. I’d dressed up nicely, wearing the only nice black button-up shirt I owned and making sure my hair was neat, in hopes of maybe catching the eye of any gay, rich art investors that might have been attending the party.

But the party had only been going for about an hour, and already, I felt like I was suffocating.

Truthfully, some of the men in heremayhave been gay and eligible, but the idea of trying to strike up a conversation right now made me want to hop in my truck and gun it across state lines at 80.

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