Page 35 of Tameron

And the longer I stood there, the more I wasn’t sure I even wanted a quick, dirty fuck anymore. It was starting to lose some appeal. The satisfaction wasn’t as good as my hand or a couple of cleverly designed toys I had in my closet, so what was the point?

“One Coke, one beer,” I said, shouting over the music. “Whatever lager you have on tap. Bartender’s choice.”

He winked at me, gave Tameron a quirked brow, then shook his head with a laugh as he wandered over to the taps.

I felt an elbow against my side and turned to find Tameron scanning the crowd. My middle finger dragged up my chest when I caught his eye. ‘What’s up?’

He bit his lip, then signed, ‘You-like-what? Who?’

It felt like a trick question. I liked him, but I couldn’t say that. I liked men who looked like him, but that would probably be creepy. And frankly, I didn’t really have a type. I liked menwho were somewhere between rough and tender. Men who knew when to push and when to pull back.

I didn’t mind if they didn’t know what they were doing so long as it was enthusiastic. And fun. I’d let myself wonder what Tameron might be like, but that felt like a cruel game to play with myself.

He tapped my arm again and raised both brows as if to say, ‘Well?’

I scanned the crowd again, but no one caught my eye. ‘Let’s just dance,’ I signed right as the bartender slid the two plastic glasses toward us.

For a moment, Tameron looked like he wanted to argue, but after a second, he tipped half the foamy beer down his throat, swiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and nodded. “Yeah,” he said aloud, though, with the loud music, I was mostly reading his lips. “Let’s go.”

I’d forgotten why I was there, which was silly in retrospect. After a second beer, Tameron went to go find the restroom, and I swayed to the music, which had settled from a party beat to something a little more… I didn’t want to call it romantic, but it was easier on the senses.

“Hey, babe. It’s been a minute.” A voice spoke right next to my ear, and I was startled, spilling a little of what soda was left in my cup. Spinning, my eyes caught a familiar figure half in the shadows of the bar. “Marcus?”

He did a little spin. “You didn’t forget.”

I hadn’t forgotten, but I also hadn’t thought about him in years. He used to be my go-to—a quick call when I needed to getoff so I could focus. He lived in San Jose, but he used to drive up and crash at his brothers whenever he needed a break from life.

He was not boyfriend material, a stern boundary I’d set with him and myself because he would always hint around it. But he was the kind of man who wanted to have his cake, someone else’s cake, their neighbor’s cake, and eat them all too.

I respected the lifestyle, but it had never been for me. When I decided to settle down—ifI decided to settle down—I wanted it to be with someone I considered my best friend. Someone who made me feel safe, and that would never be Marcus.

I tried for a smile, glancing around quickly for Tameron, but he was still gone. “You look good.”

He laughed and touched my arm. “I know. I’ve been hitting the gym a lot.”

“Mm.”

“You still doing that hero thing? Fighting all those fires?”

He said it like it was a joke, like we hadn’t been called to devastation across the state more often than I wanted to think about over the last few years. But that was yet another reason he had never been on my list.

“I just got transferred up north,” I told him.

His eyes gleamed and he swayed into me, pressing his chest against my arm. When I tried to pull away, his grip on me tightened. “So I guess I got lucky tonight.”

“Well, actually, I?—”

“Hey.” Tameron was speaking loudly, and I wasn’t sure if he was aware of it. He startled Marcus enough that I could pry my arm from under his fingers, and I stepped closer to Tameron. There was a wild, almost feral look in his eyes, and it made my heartbeat quicken.

“I thought you got lost,” I told him, leaning in toward his ear, but not so far he couldn’t catch my lips.

He stared at me, then over at Marcus. “Nah. Ended up in a conversation at the bar with a guy who was freshly discharged. A Marine.”

Marcus cleared his throat. “Dayton, babe, who’s your friend?”

There was an almost crackle in the air, then Tameron cleared his throat loudly and said, “Friend? Yeah, no. I’m his boyfriend.”

And for a moment, everything seemed to stop. My boyfriend. Myboyfriend.

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