Page 18 of Surface Scratch
Caleb looked up at Marcus. “What… Why are you telling me this?” he asked. A warm, fluttering feeling filled his gut and chest, but he choked the feeling down. He wasn’t going to make any more assumptions.
A gentle smile crept across Marcus’s plush lips, different from before. There wasn’t an ounce of pity or sadness in his amber eyes. It was something soft and warm, but also hungry. “If we’re going to do this, I want you to make that choice thinking with the right head,” Marcus said. He raised Caleb’s hand to his own face, his lips brushing against the back of Caleb’s hand.
“What are you saying?” Caleb asked, his voice somewhere between a whisper and a gasp, his eyes wide. Marcus’s skin felt cool against his palm despite the fact Caleb could feel himself sweating through his shirt beneath his hoodie. Was he really that riled up, or was Marcus always so cool to the touch?
“I want you, Caleb Walsh, more than I’ve wanted anyone in a very, very long time,” Marcus said bluntly, not breaking eye contact. “I can’t promise I’ll be good for you. In fact, I can almost guarantee that I won’t be. But if this is what you want… IfI’mwhat you want, I’ll do anything I can to keep you safe. If you’ll have me.”
Despite the warning, Caleb didn’t even stop to think about it. He was already nodding when the word came out of his mouth. “Yes.”
His heart soared, filling him with singing joy that threatened to consume him with its vibrations. Marcus began to close the distance between their faces and Caleb found himself leaning toward him. Marcus stopped a hair’s width away from his lips, his eyes trailing down Caleb’s face. He brushed the curls back from Caleb’s forehead, tucking his hair behind his ear. Marcus ran the pad of his thumb down the scar of Caleb’s face, starting at the top of his forehead and tracing it through his eyebrow, down his cheek, then lingering on the tight scar tissue on his lower lip.
“You’re beautiful. Probably one of the most beautiful people I have ever seen. I never want to hear you say you’re ugly again, do you understand?”
Caleb gave a small nod, trying to ignore his impulsive desire to lick Marcus’s thumb as it rested it against his lower lip. No one had ever called him attractive before, let alone beautiful. This didn’t seem real. Like he was in a volatile rollercoaster of a dream he could be snapped out of at any second.
Marcus kissed him. It was softer than the other times they had kissed, like he was trying to be as gentle and considerate as possible. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t as fierce and passionate as before. Caleb felt himself melting. If there had been any lingering anger within him, it was gone when he turned into putty beneath Marcus’s lips.
“You have to promise me something,” Marcus said as he broke away from the kiss. He cradled Caleb’s face, his eyes half lidded with that same hungry look. “If there is ever a time I tell you to run, you run. No matter what.”
He should have questioned the direction, but he didn’t. Caleb just nodded again as his stomach flipped over and over, a giddy swell of happiness drowning out all logical thought. Marcus smiled and leaned in to kiss him again, this time a little harder. He pulled Caleb into his arms, crushing their bodies together. Marcus could have asked him to go rob a bank in that moment and he would have agreed to it.
Chapter Seven
“Caleb Walsh, if you don’t answer me, I swear to God I will come over there and knock that stupid fucking look off your face with the blender.” Ophelia’s voice in his earpiece snapped his consciousness back to the present. The club was quiet, particularly for a Friday night. It was cold, and he’d heard a few people mentioning how hard it was raining, but there were still people drinking and dancing and laughing. Fewer people had meant less clean-up duty for him, so he found himself spending his free time near the DJ booth, people-watching.
“Wait, are you going to break the glass and turn it on so the spinny part gets him? Or just bludgeon him with it?” Andrew’s voice crackled through the earpiece.
Caleb glanced over at the other bar Andrew was typically assigned to, watching him clean the glittery surface with a rag, a Walkie-Talkie in his other hand and a big grin on his face. It was slow enough that the other bartender, Brittany, had been cut early. It looked like she’d somehow convinced Andrew to do her cleaning for her so she could leave right at midnight.
“Andrew, get off this channel and do your job,” Ophelia said. Even with her typical deadpan, Caleb was convinced he could hear her irritation. For some reason, she really did not like Andrew.
Caleb made his way over to her bar. “What’s up?”
“Marcus wants to see you up in the office in ten minutes,” she said. She looked more bored than usual, leaning against the sink with her back to the smattering of drinkers that were seated at the bar, phone in hand.
His stomach fluttered with anticipation and he fought the smile that was creeping onto his face. “Did he say what about?”
Ophelia’s face twisted into an expression caught somewhere between annoyed and amused. “I can only imagine, Pinky,” she said. “I made it a point a long time ago to not ask about matters like… this.” She gestured to all of him before turning her attention back to her phone.
Caleb blushed. She had started calling him that after their drink-and-bitch meeting on payday, noting to everyone how red his face had gotten from drinking and how often he was embarrassed enough to blush. He still wasn’t used to so much constant interaction with people outside of his immediate family, and he felt like he was always saying the wrong thing or making an idiot of himself.
“Also, go help Andrew finish breaking down over there. It’s not going to get much busier tonight and labor is high, so I want him to go home after he finishes,” she said, still focused on her phone.
He nodded at her and turned around to head over to the other side of the building. It had been five days since his embarrassing blowup in Marcus’s office had ended with him and Marcus deciding they would try to make whatever it was between them work. Since then, every night he had worked, Marcus had been coming down to the floor more often to talk to him, the two of them exchanging little snippets of their lives like favorite movies and bands. His days off when the club was closed had resulted in Caleb scouring the internet for every “What to do in a first relationship” article and online discussion he could find. Most of the information seemed like common sense, even if it was a bit male-female oriented, but every long pause between their occasional texts sent him back into what felt like a death spiral of wondering if he was doing the wrong thing.
The most difficult aspect of their budding relationship was just containing the giddiness that was constantly bubbling beneath the surface, threatening to reveal itself anytime he saw Marcus or someone mentioned his name. Andrew and Tariq were particularly suspicious about his sudden shift in mood, both demanding to know if he had been laid recently and to give them the sordid details. Even if he’d had sex recently, he highly doubted he would be able to discuss it with them without turning into a tomato with eyes and hair.
Caleb walked behind the bar and surveyed the state of it. Andrew had moved to the stack of glasses that needed to be cleared from the counter. The ice box was still open and filled with ice that was slowly melting. He grabbed the white ice bucket beside and began scooping the remnants from the ice box into it.
“So you’re out of here early tonight. Any plans?” Caleb asked.
“I have a few things in mind, but nothing solid yet. You stuck with the queen and the bossman tonight?” Andrew asked.
“Yeah.” Caleb was glad he was facing away from Andrew so he wouldn’t see the crooked smile on his face.
“That sucks. I wish we could be off together and go hang out or something.”
Caleb paused, glancing over his shoulder at Andrew. “Youwantto hang out with me?” he asked, furrowing his brow. Andrew was broad and good-looking and seemed like he was the kind of guy with dozens of friends. Why on earth would he want to hang out with Caleb?
