Page 1 of Booking Burke
PROLOGUE
Elias
South Carolina, three years ago…
Today was the big day. The day that everyone had been waiting for. The day he’d been dreading. Elias’s wedding day. Elias and Kassie forever. And ever.
Elias struggled to breathe. Was his tie too tight? Or maybe his belt?
It was neither of those things. It was the weight of the pressure that had been building steadily from the day he’d asked Kassie to be his girlfriend, eight years ago, back when he was a police academy cadet and she was working her way through college at a local diner. Their relationship had been fun and flirty back in those early days. Uncomplicated.
There had been dates to the movies, dinners out, and nights at home where they’d both study together in silence. Him with a cup of tea and her with an iced coffee. They’d been polar opposite in a lot of things, but somehow, that had worked for them. In the beginning.
The biggest way they were opposites was when it came to sex. Elias was a devout Christian, believing he should be a virgin on his wedding night, while Kassie’s form Christianity had been a bit more progressive. She wanted to kick his tires a bit before saying, “I do.”
Not only was there constant pressure to get engaged and then married, but also pressure for them to take that next step and become lovers. It was in those crazy, high-intensity moments Elias felt like he would buckle under the pressure of it all.
Two years into their relationship, the pressure to get engaged finally broke him. He’d been telling Kassie how important it was for him to get through his rookie year as a member of the South Carolina Highway Patrol before they made any decisions about their future. After all, how could you plan a wedding when you were a first-year cop onprobation?
Kassie had accepted that reasoning and the pressure simmered down, until the day that his rookie year had ended and he was a full-fledged member of the department. Sick of the constant nitpicking, Elias broke down, bought a ring, and popped the question.
The ring wasn’t the only thing he’d broken down over. He’d given his virginity to Kassie that night. There had been a couple of surprises in store for Elias. The first of which being Kassie no longer having her virginity to give to him. He guessed she was a little more progressive than he’d originally thought. The second and larger surprise was that sex wasn’t a big deal. It had felt okay and he’d come, but it sure as hell wasn’t the be all and end all his friends had told him about.
Wedding plans had been all-systems go from the morning after that tiny diamond slipped onto Kassie’s finger. Elias had tried pushing marriage off for as long as he could, by insisting she finish her Bachelor’s Degree and then her Masters. His next excuse was that they needed to save for a house first. Finally, after five years of waiting, Kassie had threatened to walk away if he hadn’t agreed to set a date. He’d set one and had been sweating ever since.
Now, here he was, staring into his own blue eyes in the groom’s dressing room of their church. He knew Kassie was down the hall with her slew of bridesmaids, giggling and getting ready for their walks down the aisle. Elias’s focus wasn’t on Kassie or her girl squad, it was on himself.
His father, Oscar, had been a member of the Beaufort Police Department for the last thirty years, while his mother, Cat, taught Sunday school in this very church. The Dixon family was a pillar of this small community famous for its antebellum mansions and genteel manners.
He’d loved growing up here, but for… Shit, Elias couldn’t even say the words in his head. Never mind out loud. Those not-so-simple words were the reason he was standing here today, his palms sweating and the ring in his pocket feeling like an anchor. Today was the culmination of a life lived in secret.
The good thing about saying his vows was that now he wouldn’t have to listen to Kassie’s pleas to get married. No, from tonight forward, he’d have a new set of problems.Sex. Babies. More sex. More lies…
The biggest lie being the one truth he’d been denying for as long as he could remember.
A quick knock on the door was followed by Jensen Willoughby sticking his head into the dressing room. “Showtime, buddy!” He walked up to Elias, hugging him tight.
Yeah, showtime, indeed. Jensen and I had been best friends since the first day of sixth grade. He was the new kid in school that year and sat in front of me in homeroom. We were thick as thieves after that day. We were so close, in fact, that instead of going to college, he’d decided to enroll in the police academy with me.
Elias and Jensen had been best friends for over half of our lives. They knew each other better than anyone else, but there was still one thing he didn’t know about Eli. Two things actually. Holding him like this now, Eli could feel the dam walling up his feelings start to crack. Before Eli could think better of it, he pulled back from the hug and kissed Jensen.
It was heaven. Eli’s lips pressed to Jensen’s after having been in love with him for the last fifteen years. His lips were rough, not smooth and glossy like Kassie’s. This was the contact Eli had been craving for as long as he could remember. In this moment he knew what the poets meant. This was what he’d been missing all these years. Eli never wanted this moment to end.
Before Eli knew what was happening, Jensen’s strong hands were pushing him away. He stumbled back a few paces before hitting the dressing room wall. When Eli looked up at his best friend, he wore a look of horror on his handsome face. His right arm came up to wipe across his lips. Twice.
“What the fuck wasthat, Eli?” Jensen’s arm scrubbed against his lips.
Laughing nervously, Eli shrugged. “It was just a kiss between friends to thank you for always being there for me over the years. I’m nervous as hell and was just being a goofball.” There was no way Jensen was going to buy this, but it was all Eli could think to say in this moment with his heart racing like he’d just done a set of suicide sprints. Eli’s dick was so hard it could cut glass.
Jensen’s look was stone-cold. “You’re not a goofball. You’re a-”
“Don’t say it!” Eli shouted. “Once you say that word, you can’t take it back.” Fear tricked down his spine.
“Is it true?” Jensen beautiful green eyes were filled with distrust and something that looked an awful lot like hatred.
“Of course not.” Elias shook his head. He hid his shaking hands behind his back, while his eyes slid to the floor.
“Oh, my fucking God! Itistrue. This explains everything.” Jensen slapped a hand to his forehead.
