Page 6 of Out of Nowhere

“I’m starving, what about you guys?” Brand asked. “Do you like spaghetti? We can put that together pretty quickly.”

“Sounds good to me,” Dex said, and Seo-jun nodded in agreement.

Once in the apartment, the three men started preparing pasta and a salad, which they ate at the kitchen table, chatting amiably.

After they rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher, Brand said, “I’m going to take a shower and read before bed. I left some supplies—shampoo, toothpaste, and stuff—in the hall bathroom for you.”

When he disappeared down the hall, Dex turned to Seo-jun. “You can shower first.” Seo-jun started to protest, and Dex winked at him. “Go on. I have clothes to hang up, remember?”

Dex cringed inwardly as he quickly turned for the bedroom. Why had he winked? Seo-jun probably thought he was weird.

As Dex was hanging the last of his clothes in the closet, Seo-jun walked into the room, naked except for a towel wrapped around his waist, his flawless skin glistening with water. Before he could drop the towel, Dex slipped past him to the bathroom, afraid Seo-jun would see the way his cock was taking an interest in the show.

Stripping, Dex waited for the water to warm up, his thoughts on Seo-jun. When he stepped under the spray, he was more than halfway hard. Trying to ignore it, he soaped up, thinking about how Seo-jun had just done the very same thing in that small space, and then Dex needed to wash his dick and balls and, well. Even though it felt pervy to rub one out while thinking of his coworker, he had to do something with his erection, didn’t he?

But, just as he’d given his cock one good, soapy stroke, the water suddenly turned freezing cold and took care of the problem for him.

Chapter Four: Seo-jun

He winked at me.

Seo-jun couldn’t stop thinking about it as he lay in the double bed in Brand Nichol’s apartment.

Before their run, Seo-jun had overheard Dex tell Brand that Seo-jun’s smiles were worth the wait. Did he really smile so seldomly that people noticed? He supposed he’d hardened a little over the years while he’d struggled to acclimate to a new country. He’d learned to protect himself emotionally as well as physically.

Seo-jun knew that Dex was gay. If he hadn’t gotten the clue from the hours Dex had spent dancing atCockatoowith a big muscular guy one night months ago when the whole team had gone out together, he definitely knew it when Dex announced it over and over while he and Colt put his drunk ass to bed that night. Dex would be mortified if he remembered that, but the next morning he seemed to recall very little about how he’d gotten home. But after that, he’d been open about his sexuality, and Seo-jun had watched him blossom over the past severalmonths. And he couldn’t help but wonder—had that wink meant Dex was flirting with him?

No, he’d probably just been teasing. Seo-jun liked it when Dex joked with him. He realized that he could be a little unapproachable and maybe even intimidating. Dex had probably just been having fun with him when he winked at him. It hadn’t been flirting. If the very large, very muscular guy at the club had been an indication of Dex’s type, Seo-jun was not it.

But you could work on smiling more.

A sudden shout from the bathroom had Seo-jun tumbling out of the bed and running for the hall. The bathroom door wasn’t locked, and he rushed in, skidding to a halt in front of the shower curtain.

“Dex!”

Dex’s head popped around the curtain, wet hair plastered to his skull. “What?”

“You yelled,” Seo-jun said.

Dex wiped his face. “The water suddenly went frigid!”

Slowly, Seo-jun’s heartbeat returned to normal. “Oh. Sorry. Brand and I must have drained the hot water. I’ll just…” he backed out of the room and closed the door.

Fuck.

“I should have warned you that might happen.”

Startled, Seo-jun swung around in the hallway, already moving into a defensive stance when his mind connected that it was Brand standing behind him holding an aluminum baseball bat.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” Brand said, lowering the bat and taking a wary step back. “I came out when I heard Dex yell. I should have realized earlier that the hot water probably wouldn’t last long with the three of us using it in succession. I’ll just go back to bed.”

Remembering what he’d just been telling himself about smiling more, Seo-jun grinned widely as he said goodnight.

Brand looked a little freaked out as he slipped inside his bedroom and shut the door behind him.

Well, that wasn’t exactly the reaction I was going for, Seo-jun thought, scratching his head.

Back in bed, Seo-jun could hear Dex drying his hair. When Dex walked in a few moments later, Seo-jun panicked and closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep, listening as Dex put on his pajamas in the dark before climbing into the other side of the bed. The fresh, clean smell of him wafted over Seo-jun, then, seconds later, as Seo-jun began to drift off, Dex shifted on the bed and Seo-jun gasped when what felt like an ice cube brushed his calf.

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