Page 49 of Bull's Boy

“A butcher knife,” Bull repeated, a throbbing beginning behind his right eye.

“Yeah.” Malcolm chuckled. “It was actually pretty funny. Then Raul cursed him out in Spanish, and your mom came out of her office to see what was going on and had to referee them.”

Bull shook his head. Shit like this was why he didn’t want to take over. Raul had known him since he still had pimples and a creaky voice; he wouldn’t listen to him. Of course, if he’d been there, he probably would have been the one to lose his cool over people treating one of his servers poorly. “I’m sorry I missed it. Are you eating something on your break?”

He could hear the smile in Malcolm’s voice when he said, “Yes, I’m eating something. Raul made me an omelet.”

“Good,” Bull said. “I’m glad you’re taking care of yourself while I’m not there to do it.”

He kept to himself the fact that he’d told Raul to make sure his boy ate while he was off today. The ornery bastard had rolled his eyes but apparently followed through. The official policy at Bo’s had always been that employees got their meals fifty percent off when they were working, but he and his mom never really enforced it. Most of the cooks and servers just had the kitchen drop some extra fries or wings when things were slow. Since no one abused their leniency, Bull didn’t give a shit. He’dpreferhis employees weren’t hungry at work.

But he’d found out earlier that week that Malcolm felt guilty asking for “handouts” and couldn’t always afford to buy a meal. So he’d been going without more often than not or bringing a pitiful-looking lunch with him from home.

Bull had put a stop to that immediately, announcing to everyone that the policy was changing and all employees were allowed one free meal during their shift—two if they worked a double. Malcolm had cornered him in the office afterward, embarrassed and grateful. When Bull had awkwardly told him it was nothing, he didn’t want anyone going without, his boy had stared at him for a second and then dropped to his knees and choked himself on Bull’s cock.

One of the best Wednesdays of his life.

“It’s weird being here without you.” Malcolm sighed lightly, thankfully bringing Bull back to their conversation before he ended up with a half chub at his brother’s. “I can’t remember the last shift I worked where you weren’t here too.”

That had been intentional. Once Bull had given up on the hopeless idea of avoiding Malcolm until his crush went away, he’d pretty much put them on every shift together, despite how it made his mom’s eyes roll.

“I’m gonna miss you,” Bull admitted gruffly, the words trying to stick in his throat, but he forced them out. “I… I wish you would have come with me today.”

“I’m going to miss you too,” Malcolm said, his voice softer. Not like he was embarrassed to say it, but like he just wanted the moment to be between them and not whoever else might be nearby. “But I think we’ll survive one day without seeing each other. Besides, I don’t really know your brother. I’m sure he wouldn’t have appreciated me crashing at his house when he has work for you guys to do.”

“He would’ve loved to have you there to embarrass me in front of,” Bull grunted.

He also disagreed with the idea that they would be fine spending a whole day apart. Since Malcolm had shown up at his house Monday night after work, they’d spent pretty much all of their time together, with Malcolm staying over at his house every night, and it had been an amazing week. Tuesday afternoon, he’d gone with him to get clothes from his apartment—despite Malcolm protesting and trying to keep him in the truck while he ran in—and they’d put a dent in the wall with his headboard. He’d offered to stay there for the night, not wanting Malcolm to think for even a second that Bull had a problem with his place, but Malcolm had been worried the cats would be lonely.

The one evening they hadn’t been together because Malcolm had his weekly dinner with Dahlia and Becca to catch up and watch their show, they’d spent half the night after he’d returnedto Bull’s making each other come until his needy boy had finally been sated.

Maybe it wasn’t healthy ornormal, but who fucking cared? He would rather they spend all their time together than have separate lives, and he had a feeling Malcolm felt the same but was trying to hide it. Either because he was worried about how it looked or because he didn’t want to come off as clingy or something.

“Still…” Malcolm said, and Bull could just picture him chewing on that tempting bottom lip of his.

“Maybe next time. I’ll let you know when I head home, but it’ll probably be late,” Bull said regretfully, wishing he’d thought to give Malcolm a key to his place before he’d slipped out that morning. If he didn’t think his mom would traumatize him, he’d ask her to give Malcolm hers. But considering she’d spent all week trying to ask him if the party the weekend before had been asex party, he wasn’t risking his boy’s sanity.

Marv liked to keep him as long as possible, working until their bodies couldn’t take it anymore or they ran out of materials. He turned onto his brother’s driveway, the big farmhouse about a quarter of a mile down the bumpy gravel stretch, and smiled at the unexpected vehicle parked next to Marv’s Harley.

“Actually, it looks like he recruited some other help, so I might get done at a reasonable time.”

That or he’d try and push to get even more done.

“Don’t rush back,” Malcolm said. “You and your brother deserve to spend time together.”

There was something in his voice that had Bull frowning at his dash, where Malcolm’s name lit up the touchscreen. “Is everything okay?”

Malcolm didn’t say anything for a long moment and then let out a heavy breath. “I popped over to my apartment this morning and grabbed the mail.” He paused again and then said in a hoarse voice, “There was an invitation to my brother’s engagement party next month.”

“Fuck that asshole,” Bull said immediately. Just thinking about Evan made his blood start to boil. “You don’t have to go to stuff like that if you don’t want to. If they aren’t going to treat you with respect, youshouldn’tgo.”

Theybeing Malcolm’s whole fucking family. Anytime Malcolm shared anything with him about any of them, Bull just got more pissed off. How any parents could treat one child so much worse than another was beyond him. Bull would have cut ties with them years ago. Sure as shit made him grateful for his moms though, even when Sally tried to corner him and talk about sex parties.

“I don’t… I know I don’t have to,” Malcolm said, and Bull wished he were there to hug him, the pain in his voice like venom straight into his veins. “But I feel like, if I don’t go, I’m letting them… I don’t know, win or whatever.”

“Baby… there is no winning here,” Bull said carefully, parking his truck next to Six’s and putting it in Park. “There’s just you being happy, living your life without the constant weight of their disapproval.”

When Malcolm didn’t say anything for a long minute, Bull grimaced and scrubbed at his face. He’d probably just wayoverstepped. No matter how much he was feeling for his sweet boy, he had to remind himself that it was still just the beginning of their relationship. The last thing he wanted to do was come off as overbearing and controlling.

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