Page 39 of Jackrabbit

Which was so morally fucked that Beau was having trouble wrapping his head around it. It absolutely could not happen. Beau was his coach. His boss. Over a decade older. Pair that with the near-hero worship Colt had started this with, and you had a recipe for a moral shit storm.

But that didn't stop the way heat was pooling in his gut as he thought of how Colt’s eyes had gone dark and wanting. As he remembered the way Colt had sounded when he'd said he could be real pretty for him. On his knees, maybe.

Fuck.

For the rest of the day, every time he entered a room Colt was in, the boy found a reason to leave it. Either Colt knew that Beau had figured him out, or he was embarrassed that his flirting had been so obvious Joyce had called him out. Beau would put money on the latter. Colt was a lot of things, but observant wasn’t one of them. He was probably tearing himself up about accidentally turning his own self on in front of Joyce.

Beau chewed his bottom lip as he changed and shut down the shop. Best not to think about that.

By the time he stepped into the bar, everyone else was already there. When he pulled open the door, he heard them shouting like a bunch of idiots as the smell of stale alcohol washed over him.

“There you are.” Joyce approached him the second he stepped inside. She hooked her arm through his and started pulling him toward the bar. “Your boy's been here an hour already. The way the others are dropping drinks in front of him, you'll be carrying him out later.”

“Joyce, behave.” Beau sighed as he squeezed between two groups sitting at the bar and flagged the bartender. “He's not my anything.”

Joyce laughed. “Oh, you think so? That's cute, Mercer.”

Beau ordered a whiskey and another martini for Joyce. Then he turned and took a sip while he scanned the room for his group of miscreants. He found them gathered around the pool tables, and they'd acquired some new faces. A group of girls, all young and dolled up like they were somewhere other than the dive bar with a beer bottle chandelier.

His eyes found Colt’s right away. Mostly because Colt was already watching him. Wearing a tee that was too tight around his chest and shoulders now and low-slung jeans, he was leaning his ass against the pool table and bringing a half empty glass of clear liquid to his lips.

Beau took a too-big drink of cheap whiskey and it burned down his throat and into his stomach.

Chapter 24

Jesus fuck, Beau looked good. How did Beau look so good? Maybe it was the three vodka sodas Colt had already had, or maybe Colt was just down real bad. Either way, Beau’s dark button-down was rolled up to show his forearms, and Colt wanted to sink his teeth into him. Or maybe be bitten. Didn’t matter. What mattered was that Colt’s feet were moving, and Beau was watching him, and Colt knew he looked good, and he was warm from liquid courage.

“You came.” He stopped close enough to Beau that he could smell him, that rich cologne mixed with shop scents. Colt turned his smile on Joyce before Beau could answer. “Lookin’ good, Joyce. Real cougar energy.”

Joyce laughed and pulled him down to kiss his cheek. “Throw that charm somewhere else, Sunshine.”

She took her martini and walked away, and Colt heard the guys cheer when they saw her.

“How many drinks have you had?” Beau asked, leaning down so he could talk without raising his voice.

“Just two. And a half,” Colt assured him. He took another sip and felt himself leaning slightly into Beau's heat. “Coach says I can't afford a hangover when we're gonna be on the track prepping every day.”

“Good.” Beau's voice was a low rumble Colt felt in his bones. “That's right.”

Shit. These pants were way too fucking tight to hide what that voice saying those things was about to make happen. Colt willed his dick to stand down.Which wouldn't ever work with Beau standing so damn close. Fuck. What the fuck.

He could not, under any circumstances, let this man know what he was doing to him. So he downed the rest of his drink and tossed Beau a smile as he put the empty cup back on the bar top.

“My turn to whoop Liam's ass at pool,” he said, even though he had literally no idea whose turn it was or if anyone was even still playing. “Thanks for coming, Beau.”

Then he escaped before he could fuck everything up. Something had to give. This was getting out of control fast. It had been months since he'd slept with anyone. Maybe that was his

problem. Hard-up and alone, sweaty with a stupidly attractive man every day. Of course he was riled.

Maybe he just needed to get it out of his system.

As he approached the guys, one of the girls who had joined them early on caught his eye and gave him a big, pretty smile. She was curvy with thick thighs and long hair, and Colt made sure when he smiled back it had both dimples and lots of promise.

Perfect.

***

Beau watched Colt practically run from him and hid the smile he couldn't help behind his glass. Wow. He was obvious, actually, Beau was a little ashamed of himself for not noticing sooner.