Page 24 of Play Hard

Chapter 7

“You sure we’ll be alone?”Liam asked as Robert pulled out his keys for his flat’s front entrance.

“Aye, Ben’s spending the night at Evan’s.” His door opened smoothly, which Liam envied. His own door needed to be coaxed like a nervous lover, with a simultaneous knob-jiggle and key-turn.

Liam envied everything about this flat, except the fact it was shared. After growing up the oldest of six kids, he would rather have lived alone in a rubbish skip than share the grandest living space.

“Ben?” Robert called out, but there was no answer.

“Thank God. I cannae stand the suspense anymore.” Liam took Robert’s kit bag. “Show me, then. Pink or purple?”

“I’ve got a big reveal planned. Stay here.”

Liam watched Robert dash down the hall into his bedroom, where he shut the door.

Robert’s phone rang in the outer pocket of his kit bag. Liam ignored it. Half a minute later, a ding sounded, indicating a voice mail. He ignored that, too, as well as the ensuing text message bleep.

I’m the only one who needs him, and I’m right here.

The next sound he heard was the opening strains of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” coming from the sound-system speaker beneath the television.

The bedroom door opened, casting soft daylight on the wall across the hall. Then Robert appeared, wearing his green-and-blue flannel dressing gown tied at the waist.

Liam couldn’t help applauding. “Yaaaass, bring it here, ya beauty!”

Robert strutted down the hall, adding a spin halfway, then stopped himself at the end with arms spread across the living room doorway. He locked eyes with Liam as his hips gyrated in sweeping circles and figures of eight. Then he let go of the wall and curled both index fingers, beckoning Liam forward.

“Oh aye.” Liam walked toward him in time with the music, and when they met, they swayed together for one luscious chorus.

Then Robert pulled Liam’s hands onto his warm thighs, just beneath the hem of his dressing gown. “Want to see?”

“Mm-hm.” Liam slid his palms up Robert’s legs, parting the robe.

Robert batted his hands away. “You can see from a distance.” He pushed past and sashayed to the center of the living room. Facing Liam, he spread his feet and began to undo the frayed tie of his dressing gown with tiny alternating tugs on each end. Just as it was about to fall open, he spun around to put his back to Liam.

“Aw, ya minx,” Liam growled.

Robert threw a flirtatious look over his shoulder, which became bare as the robe slowly slid off. His broad, muscular back appeared, inch by inch.

As the music crescendoed, Robert let his covering drop.

Liam yelped in delight. “It was the purple pair! Viva Los Warriors!”

Robert continued his satirically sensual dance, caressing first the high, black-lace waistband, then the purple silk covering his arse. He’d clearly dispensed with the jockstrap underneath, so the knickers clung to every angle and curve.

“Wait!” Liam rushed for his kit bag, pulled out his wallet, and retrieved the lone fiver inside. Then he got down on the floor and crawled up to Robert, who was now pelvis-thrusting like a pro.

”A wee token of my appreciation.” Liam rose up on his knees. Just as he stuffed the five-pound note into the knickers’ lace waistband, the music ended, and the front door opened.

“Sorry to—oh!”

Ben stood on the threshold, one hand gripping the doorknob and the other covering his mouth. His dark eyebrows had risen above the black frames of his glasses.

A deep voice came from behind him. “Ben, what is it?” Evan moved inside, taking a protective posture in front of his partner. “Oh.” He paused to examine the living room’s tableau. “Hmm.”

“Hiya.” Liam let go of Robert’s knickers with a snap of waistband, then realized he was kneeling atop the dressing gown. He moved off it and handed it up to Robert, but stayed on the floor, hoping this would be a brief interruption.

“I tried phoning you,” Ben told Robert as he edged into the living room. “And I texted, too.”

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