Page 1 of Untamed Instincts

Chapter One

“Dude, I don’t get what you’re waiting for,” Harris said with exasperation.

“Do you need me to hold your hand through it?” Layne’s expression would’ve seemed sincere, but a hint of laughter danced in his eyes. “I may not be interested in guys, but for my little brother, I would gladly stand next to the bed and hold your hand while you lose your V card.”

All Noah said was installing a condom dispenser in the men’s room was a great idea and wondered if the women’s room had one as well.

Harris was acting as if Noah was waiting for Prince Charming to sweep him off his feet, and Layne just seemed determined to get him laid.

“First of all…” Noah interjected as a new song blared from the jukebox. There were conversations all around them, and the sounds of laughter and the clacking of pool balls echoed from the other room of Fearless Fox. “Don’t call me ‘little brother’ when you’re talking about helping me with sex, which is never even going to happen.”

“Here we go again,” Harris muttered under his breath.

Noah narrowed his eyes at his best friend. “If you didn’t keep making such a big deal about it, it wouldn’t seem like one.”

“When you say it’s never going to happen, are you talking about sex?” Layne furrowed his brows.

Grabbing a fry from the basket in the center of their table, Noah tossed it at his brother. “I’m talking about you holding my hand as I have sex, idiot.”

“Listen…” Layne’s expression turned serious, no hint of a teasing smile. “I get it, man. Even though I’m married now, I still remember how crazy nervous I was my first time.”

“Stop.” Noah raised his hand in front of his brother’s face. He and Layne had always talked openly about sex, but that didn’t mean Noah wanted details, which Layne would give him if Noah couldn’t shut him up.

“But you’ll never experience the best gift to man if you don’t take the plunge.”

“Just to clarify for your virgin mind, Layne is talking about sex,” Harris chimed in with a mischievous grin and a wiggle of his eyebrows. “You should let something get plunged.”

“While neither your obnoxious best friend nor I can tell you what it’s like to be with another guy, I’m almost sure there’s still a slot A and a tab B involved.” Layne seemed to consider that for a moment then gestured toward Noah’s crotch. “I won’t let my little brother turn twenty-six in two weeks without ever experiencing a mind-bending blowjob.”

Tired of them teaming up on him, Noah crossed his arms on the table and leaned toward his brother. “So let me get this straight. In order to make that happen, you’re going to stand next to the bed and hold my hand while some guy gives me head? Do I have that right?”

Layne blushed as pink as cotton candy. “No. I meant I would provide all the moral support you need.”

“That’s not what I heard.” Noah turned to Harris with a shit-eating grin for confirmation. “Did he not just offer to physically be there during my deflowering?”

Harris was laughing too hard to respond, causing Noah to burst out laughing as well. They’d been friends since kindergarten when Harris stopped a little girl from stealing Noah’s raisins during snack time. They’d been inseparable since.

“You two are immature jerks,” Layne responded. “If Harris was gay, you guys would make the perfect asshole couple.”

Layne had made that joke so many times over the years that Noah suspected his brother secretly wished they were actually together.

But Noah had never seen Harris as anything more than his best friend. Well, except for that confusingly brief moment in high school when he felt jealous of a girl making out with Harris before gym class.

Harris had explained that Noah’s jealousy stemmed from his fear of someone interfering in their friendship. Which Harris had assured would never happen.

“I’m grabbing another drink.” Noah slid out of his chair, completely over the two. So what if he hadn’t had sex. He didn’t understand the big deal.

Men hit on him, asked him on dates, but when things looked as if they were heading in the direction of sex, for some reason, Noah ran for the hills.

It had to be some kind of birth defect. The thought of being intimate shouldn’t cause him to react that way. It was a natural, biological drive everyone experienced.

Everyone except him. He’d yet to experience sex and was starting to wonder if he ever would.

“Admit it,” Harris said, recovering from his laughing fit but still chuckling. “You’re just avoiding the conversation.”

“You’re damn right.” Noah shook his head and walked toward the bar, leaving Harris and Layne bickering behind him.

“What can I get for you?” Jake asked, a hint of good-natured amusement in his electric-blue eyes. “Another beer or do you need something stronger?”

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