Page 23 of Possession

He didn’t add that last part, but the reminder of the meal he’d shared with the gorgeous boy occupying a room in his clubhouse—and too much of his mental capacity—for the last few weeks made him recall the way Mason’s eyes had lit up as he’d scarfed down four out of six of them. He’d gushed out praise the entire time, going on and on about how delicious and spicy they were. Tomas had enjoyed watching him more thananything else, which had surprised him. His sister’s tamales oaxaqueños were delicious, the banana leaves instead of corn husks keeping them from getting as dry when reheated.

The fact he’d been more fascinated with Mason should have probably been concerning, but after finding Mason so dejected and then hearing him say Tomas’s smile made things a little better, he just couldn’t find it in him.

He was already so deep, and he hadn’t even kissed the boy yet.

Or met his other half.

“You’re welcome,” his sister said cheerfully. “Now, what did you forget to ask me?”

“Did Ollie invite you to Tank’s birthday party tonight?”

“He sure did. I told him I would bring some food since he said it wasn’t a gift sort of party.”

Tomas sighed. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea that you come… Did he at least tell you that it was an adults-only party?”

“Yes, hermano, he made that very clear,” Jill said, laughing. “Considering the things you’ve told me about the parties going on at your clubhouse—and all the rumors I hear at the diner—David and I only plan to stay for maybe an hour. Then we’ll head out before anything too crazy starts to happen.”

Knowing Ollie, there was no guarantee of that, but Tomas accepted it.

When the club had first started having their BDSM education classes and then parties, he’d been reluctant to let his sister and her husband know. He wasn’t ashamed of his interests, and they already knew he was poly, so it wasn’t like one more revelation would come as a shock, but the hedonistic intimacy of the parties made it uncomfortable for him to imagine his sister in the same environment.

No matter how old she got—or how much she teased him by saying she and David had a very healthy sex life—he just couldn’twrap his head around the idea of it. But he’d still told her, mostly for the very reason she’d just said.

He’d known word would get out in the community since they were inviting people from outside the club to come to the parties. The last thing he’d wanted was for her to find out from someone else. Luckily, she’d told him she and David had no interest in attending any classes or parties like that, and so it had been a nonstarter.

Unlike what had happened to his best friend, Demarcus.

D’s sister, Cynthia, was the club’s lawyer, and her partner, Tay, worked at the tattoo shop run by their club’s Sergeant-At-Arms, Viper. Tay and Cynthia had been together for quite a while, despite D wanting to keep the club life away from his sister. He’d been furious when Tomas had hired Cyn, wanting someone he could trust and who was like family to him, to protect the club legally.

But D had nearly gone ballistic the first time Cyn and Tay had shown up to one of his classes. Luckily, D’s friend Zachary, who’d been helping with the education classes, had stepped in and reminded Houston that BDSM was for everyone, then told him that if he had a problem with that, he needed to go kick rocks.

“I just wanted to make sure you knew,” Tomas said. “Things tend to get a little wild around there nowadays whenever there’s more than a half dozen people.”

“And here I thought things just got wild when Ollie was around,” Jill said, a smile clear in her voice.

“That’s true,” Tomas grumbled, though really, he didn’t mind Ollie and his spiritedness, even if it did interrupt his day more often than not. “But even without him there, there tends to be a lot of?—”

“Freaky sex stuff?” Jill snickered.

He rolled his eyes, slowing as he saw a car pulled over on the side of the road ahead. “So mature.”

“Not as mature as you, big brother.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She loved to tease him about being ten years older than her.

Lately though, the jokes hadn’t been hitting quite as humorously as they had in the past. He was starting to feel his age in a way he hadn’t before. When he’d slid past forty-five and still not been in a long-term relationship—or even seeming to make progress on one—it had hit him hard, making him wonder ever since if it just wasn’t in the cards for him.

He’d always have his brothers and sisters of the Devil’s Hands. Not to mention Jill and her family and his mom, who’d moved out to Arizona a few years back, tired of the Michigan winters, but who he worried nonstop about being all alone thousands of miles away.

“Listen, I gotta let you go. Looks like someone’s having car trouble.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” she said, sobering quickly. “Be safe, but see if you can help. Maybe get that garage of yours finished one of these days too.”

“From your lips to Remi’s ears.”

She laughed, told him she loved him, and then hung up. He tossed his phone onto the seat next to him and tugged at the tie strangling him.

He slowed his truck and pulled over to the right side, putting his hazards on. The car in front of him was at least ten years old, though it didn’t look to be in too terrible of condition other than the flat tire. The car’s driver was leaning his head out the window, craning back to look at him.

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