Page 11 of Hold my Reins

Lynck leaned in, and Rox sat up and threaded his fingers through his mane before kissing him.

Rox gasped. “Uh…”

Lynck smirked. “You might need to clean up in the shower.”

“Yeah.” Rox got up, concentration etched on his face. Before he closed the bathroom door, he turned, looking like some kind of dirty fantasy Lynck hadn’t realized he craved. “I had fun.”

“So did I.” But he wanted more than fun. He wanted to run on the sand and play music by moonlight. He was tired of being on his own.

“I’ll message you.”

Sure you will.

six

The auto shop was in the light industrial part of town, away from the center. On one side was a tire shop, and on the other, what appeared to be a boxing gym—which wasn’t Rox’s kind of thing.

Not that he’d never had a gym membership as it wasn’t something he’d been able to afford growing up, however, getting hit in the head wasn’t going to do anything for his motivation to go to a gym. He was more of a go for a run and maybe do some chin ups at the park kind of person.

Since the door was open, he had best go in and introduce himself. He wiped his hands on his pants and slung his bag over his shoulder—not that it held much. A few snacks, as he didn’t know if there was a lunch bar nearby, and a water bottle.

The door chimed as he walked in, and a mountain of a man glanced up from behind the desk. He looked like Santa’s ex-con, slightly younger brother. The man ran his hand over his white beard as he gave Rox a cool once over as though he wasn’t too impressed.

“You must be Gideon.”

Rox suppressed the wince. “Everyone calls me Rox.”

“Are you as dumb as rocks?”

Rox blinked. If he wasn’t down to his last couple of hundred, he’d have told the man, who must be his new boss, to go and fuck himself. “No. I took care of Mom, finished school, got a qualification, an?—”

“I was joking, kid.”

Well, it wasn’t fucking funny. “You must be Mr. Hall.”

“I am.” Arn Hall stood. Correction, Santa’s ripped, ex-con, younger brother.

With both Hall and Lynck towering over him, Rox wondered if he’d arrived in a town of giants where only people over six feet lived. They’d kick him out for being too short in no time.

Arn held out his hand. “Glad you made it. The first guy flaked and said he couldn’t be bothered relocating, and the second guy only lasted a week. He wasn’t too keen on monsters.”

Rox’s cheeks burned. Turned out he was pretty keen on monsters…or at least one. Lynck had been the last person he’d thought of before going to sleep, mostly because he’d still been leaking cum, and the first person on his mind when he woke up. For the same reason. Not that he minded, but a little heads-up would’ve been appreciated.

“Have you run into any yet?”

Just one, and he ran into me multiple times.“Yeah, I saw some when I went to the bar for dinner last night.”

“Good folk they are.” Arn kept silently judging him, and Rox wondered if he had toothpaste on his face or something.

This job was going to suck, or more correctly, working with Arn would suck. Fixing cars was the good part, and he hadn’t done that in six months. Arn knew that, as they’d discussed the gap in his work history on the call. And he knew why Rox had been traveling.

That potential employers were questioning his lack of history and fixed address had become a problem. He needed to make this work for more than a couple of months.

His mother must have said much the same after his father walked out. Just get through the next couple of months, then the next year, and bang, ten years had passed, and she was still working the same job with all her old dreams turned to dust.

Not that he had any dreams to disintegrate, that would imply he had some kind of life plan. If he didn’t start getting his shit together, he’d blink and be thirty with a patchy work history, moving towns every couple of months because he couldn’t make anything stick.

Somewhere, there was a line between toughing things out and bouncing at the first sign of trouble. He’d spent ten years doing the former and was six months into the latter—which was a lot less acceptable to most people.

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