Page 78 of Dead Serious with Benefits
Mason huffed. “You’re never going to stop rubbing my nose in it, are you?”
“Even your mother says we shouldn’t let you off easy,” Arlo said with a chuckle.
Mason rolled his eyes. “Alright, mysterious man who totally isn’t sleeping with my brother, come back here and give it a go.”
“Mason,” Arlo complained softly. “You couldn’t help yourself, could you?”
I laughed. “Challenge accepted.”
“By all means,” Mason said, opening up the divider at the end of the bar with a flourish. “Come on, give it a whirl.”
Patting Arlo’s side, I followed Mason behind the bar. I looked at the selection, impressed. In fact, the entire hotel was rather impressive. The impression I got from Arlo was that he had grown up in a step up from a motel on the side of the highway. But this place? No, the place was nice, with several floors, clean and friendly staff, and personally, you could always judge the quality of a hotel based on its liquor supply, which was particularly nice.
“Ah,” I said as I caught sight of bottles of flavored syrup. I shifted them around until I found the flavor I hoped they had.
“That one?” Mason asked, not doubtfully, but purely curious. “And?—”
From there, it was a case of finding a nice gin, pouring in the proper measure, along with the lavender syrup. I squeezed a couple of lemon quarters into the mix, going by eye rather than any real measurement, and looked around until... “Ah, uh...may I?”
“Someone will order enough of it by the end of the night so it won’t go to waste, and if it does, Moira is fond of it,” Mason said with a shrug, and I took the bottle of sparkling wine and opened it with a faint pop, pouring in some. The last was a sprinkle of finely ground chili pepper, practically dust, thrown in before giving it a shake, pouring it over ice, and sliding it to Arlo.
“Dare I even ask?” he asked as he looked at the faintly purple drink. “I see you didn’t go for bourbon.”
“Too easy,” I admitted. “Though I’m sure I could do a variation with bourbon if you’re really that stuck on it.”
“I’m not,” he said, sniffing the drink, his brow quirking before taking a sip. He set the glass down, staring at it as he swallowed, and continued to stare. After a few seconds, he looked up, not at me, but at Mason. “Well?—”
“Damn it all!” Mason barked, slapping the counter. “He did it?”
“This is...exceptional,” Arlo admitted, and I couldn’t tell if it pained him or if he was hurting himself by trying not to laugh at his brother.
“No, this is bullshit!” Mason groaned, turning to me. “You were supposed to lose.”
“Alas, I’m not fond of losing,” I told him with a smirk.
“Clearly,” he said, reaching out, taking the drink from Arlo, and taking a sip. He sighed when he set the glass down. “Damn it all, that is good. Not as sweet as I thought it would be.”
“You can make it sweeter, but this one likes bourbon straight up, and he likes his tea herbal andslightlysweetened, and his coffee is so strong it could curl metal. You don’t want to go sweet with him, you want to go for something that’s got a complex flavor, and perhaps a touch of sweetness, but not defined by it. That is why I added the chili, just enough to add another layer, but not to overwhelm or burn. Just a touch,” I explained, and stopped when Arlo and Mason stared at me. “What?”
“Okay, so, you’re not allowed to lie and pretend that you two aren’t sleeping together, which fuck you for hiding the fact that you like dick this whole time,” Mason told Arlo.
“I have never hidden anything from you,” Arlo said with a slight shake of his head. “I just didn’t announce anything to you.”
“In this family, that might as well count as keeping a secret,” Mason said, waving off what Arlo was going to say next. “But how long have you two been...do you...are you just sleeping together, or is there more going on? I’m confused.”
“We’ve known each other for a week, and we’re figuring out where we’re going as we go, get to the real question, Mason,” Arlo said in a tired voice that made me laugh. If this was how he spoke to his siblings, maybe he wasn’t too off the mark by saying that Will and I were like brothers, because that was the exact tone I used with him on occasion.
“Right, I’m not gonna touch that one with a ten-foot pole because it’s hard enough to get you to explain shit as it is,” Mason said with a laugh, holding up a finger when a customer came to the bar. “Why has he paid attention to all that? What the hell kind of dick sucking are you doing that you’re able to bespell a man into paying attention to how you like your tea and coffee...in a week?”
“That was not your original question,” Arlo said dryly. “And you know I’m not going to answer that.”
“Will you?” Mason said, turning to me.
“If itwasabout the dick sucking, or anything else, do you really think I’d be stupid enough to say that in front of him when he’s already shown he doesn’t want to talk about that sort of thing?” I asked with a grin. “Because if it were those things, answering your question honestly would be a quick way to lose access to them.”
“Damn, you’re right, that is how most people operate, isn’t it? I forgot,” Mason said as he walked to the end of the bar to deal with the huffy girl waiting for her drinks.
“He forgot?” I asked Arlo with a raised brow.
