Page 47 of Key Change

“Was it a set up? To test you?”

Anthony laughed. “I hadn’t even considered that. Maybe. It’s not as though I knew all of Rafe’s contacts.”

“So what are you going to do?” Because if Anthony changed his mind and took the job, it might land him in trouble and end with more jail time. In which case, Cillian would walk away before he got any more involved and made the break more painful than it needed to be.

“Keep applying. What else can I do? I can’t even work in a bar; they won’t trust me with the till.” Anthony scrubbed his hand over his face. “I didn’t realize how much the charges would fuck everything up. The worst thing is, if I had known, I’m not sure I would have stopped because I thought I was too fucking clever to be caught. No different than anyone else inside. You only need to be unlucky once.”

Luck—good or bad—was fickle, and both could burn. “I’ve put a few feelers out to see if anybody has anything going. I can’t guarantee the pay will be any good, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Thank you. You didn’t need to. I’m not sure how many musicians or artists need a librarian.”

Cillian laughed. “A lot of the people I know work a lot of odd jobs which means they meet a lot of people. If we hear of something going, we spread the word. Even though I’m not looking for a regular job, if I hear of something, I tell my friends.”

“You aren’t worried that I’ll fuck up and make you look bad?”

“You only do it once, then no one will touch you again.”

“So, people who do a bad job don’t find out when there’s work going.”

Cillian lifted his eyebrows. “No one wants to be recommending people who don’t do a good job, because it means the next time we recommend someone they’re not trusted.”

Anthony wouldn’t do a bad job. He wanted to work and move on with his life, which was quite different from a twenty-something musician who really just wanted to write music and not do manual labor or bar work or shelf stacking or any of the other random jobs they’d all done at the start. The situations were different, plus Anthonywasa qualified librarian.

“Brutal but effective. I’m going to reach out to some of my contacts, but I’m not expecting much more than a door to the face for daring to ask.”

Cillian buttered his toast. “On the subject of brutal, heard anything from your brother?”Do you have any ideas about what to do?is what he really wanted to ask.

“No, he’s been quiet.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Maybe Hayden had fucked off to some dark corner and vanished, but Cillian doubted he’d ever get that lucky.

“It means he’s up to something. It’s not like him to step back when he can take easy shots at me.”

“He needs a bigger bully to teach him a lesson.” Though how Anthony asked one of his criminal friends to do something without getting into trouble himself, Cillian had no idea. That was the kind of thing where everybody ended up covered in splatter. Including him. Which he definitely didn’t want.

“Then he plays the victim, claiming he did nothing wrong. Ask me how I know. Actually, I’ll tell you… I paid a bigger bully once at school. It didn’t work, and I haven’t found a solution for your situation, either. I wish I had some better news.”

Cillian shrugged as though it didn’t matter, even though it was killing him. He’d lived with it for years, while Anthony hadonly known for days. “I know I said we’d go out for lunch, but would you like to watch a movie, mess around on the sofa, and order in some sushi?”

“Are you going to put some proper clothes on or stay like that?” Anthony didn’t hide the heat in his eyes.

“You like my scruffy pajama pants?” Cillian jutted out his hip in a suitably provocative pose.

“I like the way the elastic seems to be giving up, and they’re about to slide off your hips. I’ve been so tempted to give them a tug and see what happens.”

Cillian licked his lower lip. “They’ll get caught on my hard-on.”

Anthony reached out and hooked a finger through the waistband, tugging him closer. “I noticed that. And I’m sure there’s something I can do about it.”

His semi went to full mast with those words. “Is that right?”

Anthony licked his lips as he slid his hand lower, brushing the head of Cillian’s cock through the pajama pants. “To answer your question… I’d love to stay in and watch a movie.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

By the timethe movie was halfway done, the sushi long gone, all Anthony wanted to do was get Cillian naked and pull him onto his lap. Those damn pajama pants were the hottest thing he’d ever seen anyone wear. They were technically decent, yet perched on the edge of indecent.

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