Page 55 of Finance Bros

Leaving him there, I go back to my room and close myself in the bathroom where I brush my teeth and gargle mouthwash to get the cheese and green onions off my breath. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t think after all this time Mal’s gonna have some miraculous awakening and want to kiss me, I just don’t want to have bad breath if we happen to start talking.

When I come out, I find him sitting on the beanbag like it’s a throne, his arms stretched out and his legs spread. Stephanie is curled up beside his right thigh. Bud is sitting like a statue on the window seat behind them, eyeing the tiny dog with suspicion. His tail is in full fluff mode. “I love this,” Mal says with a smile, patting the black fabric.

“It was a Christmas present.”

“Seems like it can fit two people.”

I nod.

“Prove it,” he says, and I recognize the look on his face from forever ago. He’s daring me.

“No thanks,” I tell him. I have limits, okay.

“I thought we could watch the trader guy together.”

Manipulative fucker. “Sure. Right. That.”

“Yeah,” he says with the half smile again.

Walking all the way to the end of my own personal plank, I create some space next to him. He doesn’t let his arm drop to drape around my shoulders, but that hardly matters since we’re now touching from calf to ribs. My head feels like it’s full of fizz. All foam and flavor, but no substance.

“Wanna show it to me?” he asks.

The question sounds filthy. My body reacts, cock stirring in my jeans. “Are you trying to…”

“What?”

“The shit you’re saying tonight…”

“Is?”

“You know what it is,” I tell him. “You know exactly what you’re doing.” WhatIdon’t get iswhy.

His soft laugh sounds slightly nervous. “I don’t, actually, but I’m glad it seems like I do.”

I dig my phone out of my back pocket, find the message Bailey sent with the TikTok handles in it, switch into the app, and pull up the Wall Street guy. Meanwhile, I’m hyperaware of my breathing and my thigh resting against Malcolm’s.

@Inside_traderNY is older than me and Mal—maybe early thirties. In his first video, he’s talking about the Nasdaq. He’s handsome with slicked back dark hair and a sharp-edged jawline. In a pin-striped suit complete with a navy pocket square and shiny paisley tie, he oozes success and wealth. His apartment is as Bailey described. Outstanding. He’s leaning back against a floor to ceiling window with the Manhattan morning as his backdrop, a mug of coffee in hand. Occasionally he tugs a cuff, straightens his tie, smooths an eyebrow, and it’s a slick delivery of his expectations for what markets will do today. Or whatever day this was filmed.

“I don’t know what we’d do with this,” I admit. It’s a different vibe meant for a different audience.

Malcolm doesn’t say anything. But he does lift the arm he’s got behind me and sets his hand on my thigh. I suck in a breath, the contact so sudden and unexpected, my vigilant dick startles. For some reason, I keep my mouth shut. I flip to the next video.

Different suit, rainy morning, same mug of coffee, another rundown of market expectations. I click on the comments to see if this is working as a thirst trap, or if the people following this creator are a bunch of dudes who want to know where to move their money.

Before I can read the first comment, Mal’s hand is between my legs,on my cock. I jerk so powerfully, my phone goes flying. “What the fuck are you?—”

“Shh…”

“No, I won’t shh—” I reach for his wrist to get his hand off me, but he locks his elbow and gets his fingers around my length, which is already throbbing and growing and apparently desperate to humiliate me. “Mal, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Let’s not talk about it. Would you just relax?”

“Wehave totalk about it.”

His tone is faintly pleading when he says, “Ryan…shut up. Please?”

I close my eyes and throw my head back, trying with everything in me not to get any harder than I already am. He’s not moving his hand, and there’s two layers of material between his palm and my dick, but he’s gripping in exactly the right place. What the hell is he thinking?Ishe thinking?

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