Page 38 of First Puck

My brain did that thing again—the thing where the loading screen lagged and the bar just wasn’t fucking moving.

It didn’t matter how many times I blinked, Lance still wouldn’t go away. He wasn’t a glitch or a bug. He was right there, just grinning at Alex, chatting with Tommy, laughing at Alex’s expression. He was touching Alex, stroking Alex, making Alex blush, and smirking at Alex like he was going to rip off the shirt I’d chosen for him at any moment.

He had totally captured all of Alex’s attention and I just crouched there, watching for who knows how long.

When my brain finally loaded, my thoughts picked up, and I realized Alex wasn’t just on a date with Lance Austin… He was on a date with a guy. With a man. With someone with a cock.

And suddenly all that shit I said about a pommel horse took on a totally different tone. Because maybe Alex wasn’t going to be the fucking horse.

And that was so far from okay that I’d already decided I would go in there and drag Alex away from him.

Alex needed someone who totally appreciated him and wanted to do everything for him because he deserved it.

And Lance was a raging man whore.

“Dammit,” I muttered to myself as Lance reached for Alex’s hand.

That wasn’t right. Alex and Lance shouldn’t be looking at each other like that. They shouldn’t even be out on a Friday night.

This was taking him out to a fancy restaurant, buying him nice food, wooing him into thinking he was amazing before Lance took him back to his place and fucked him.

Well, back to our place.

And how did I know that? Because that’s exactly what I did when a girl was playing extra hard to get. One nice, slightly pricey meal and a night of flirting was a ticket to a good time.

I let my guard down, and Lance got his claws into Alex without me even looking. Alex was too innocent for a beast like Lance.

I didn’t move a single muscle as I watched them. It was when Alex brought his hands up to his mouth and Lance cupped his face exactly like he had when he’d been helping Alex with an ‘eyelash’ that I fully lost it. I was literally about to stand up to go in there and tear Lance’s hands off him when someone barked from my left.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

My eyes shot up to find Tommy standing over me, his arms folded, glaring like he always did.

My gaze flicked from him, over to Lance and Alex mooning over each other, then back to the scowly bastard in front of me.

“Did you know they were dating?” I asked instantly. I wasn’t going to mess around and try to casually weed information out of him like the king of subtly I was. It was easier to just give it to him straight.

“It’s none of my fucking business what they're doing,” he snapped. “None of their shit is. The only thing I care about is getting rid of the perv who’s freaking out my customers.”

I shifted my position, “Yeah, but don’t you know if—”

“No.” He pressed a palm out to stop me. “Either come inside and pay for some food or fuck off.”

“So, you knew…You knew they were dating?”

“It doesn’t fucking matter. What matters is that you stop whatever the hell you’re doing.”

My heart gave a funny little bump as I threw one more glance at them.

I really didn’t want to leave my spot, but I wasn’t about to spend $100 on a piece of meat smaller than my palm.

Lance scooped his spoon into the dish in front of him, and I froze, my lungs tight as it suddenly hovered in between him and Alex. I one hundred percent swear he was going to feed it to Alex. Alex was even opening his mouth, looking at Lance all fresh andsparkly—though that could have been the fairy lights lining the windows.

Tommy was even more silent than I was, which wasn’t hard considering I almost fell over and had to grab the bushes for support, earning me even harsher glares from the couple on the other side.

Tommy clicked his tongue as he watched them, his expression growing darker.

“I’ve got to get back to work,” he growled. “You better be gone the next time I come out here.” He didn’t even look at me as he took off.

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