“But the details are the best part,” he said. “Besides, don’t you want to know what it’s like before you and your female bang—”
“Whoa. Hold up.” Nate put both his palms out. “There is no me and any female. And if I wanted to go the porn route, it’s not going to be hearing a blow-by-blow about you and some human woman you picked up in a club two nights ago—”
“There was only one blow, actually. The other three times were straight sex.”
Closing his eyes, Nate wanted to plug his ears. “Like I was saying—”
“I’m going to pay her back for that, though—”
“Stop.”
“Fiiiiinnnnne. But I knew she was going to call me. I knew it.”
“Why, because you slipped her a hundy along with your number?”
“No, it’s ’cuz I’m fucking hot.”
Nate rubbed his aching eyes. “You know, the only thing worse than you talking about your sex life, is you talking about how much you love yourself.”
“Okay. So how much do you love me?” As a death-glare came his way, Shuli shrugged. “What. You wanted to change the subject.”
The pair of them had just left a job site in a part of town where the houses were huge, the lots were measured in acres not feet, and the garages had spaces for four cars at least. The owner was finishing his basement by putting in a workout room, a sauna, and a movie theater, and the both of them had been called in to help with the drywall. Nate was the only one who’d been on time. When Shuli had finally arrived, he’d smelled like perfume and been wearing a wrinkled silk shirt and a set of slacks that should have had a belt, but did not. His hair had likewise been a mess—and, not that anybody had needed the confirmation, the hickey on the side of his throat had neon-lighted the virgin-no-longer vibe he was clearly dying to talk about.
“Anyway.” Shuli put his directional signal on. “It was phenomenal. Like I said, we did it three times, and the last one was up against the door as I was leaving.”
“I wouldn’t think that was possible.”
“Standing up is absolutely a position. A good one, too.”
“No, I don’t get how you were doing it as you were leaving—watch out for the deer.”
“Huh?” Shuli cursed as he swerved away from a doe at the side of the country road. “And don’t be pandemic.”
“Pedantic.”
“That, too.”
Fortunately, Shuli went quiet at that point, although the way he kept running his hand around the top curve of the steering wheel suggested he was in his mind where he’d been told his mouth couldn’t go.
Nate looked away from the stroking and stared out of his window. The landscape was all fields now, and as they passed by a rickety split-rail fence and then a stone wall, a kindling in his gut made him adjust himself in his seat. The closer they got to Luchas House, the more he fidgeted, and he supposed the one good thing about Shuli finally having sex for the first time was that the guy was too busy reliving his orgasmic glory to notice how itchy Nate was getting.
“At least we have tomorrow off,” Shuli announced.
“Do we?”
“It’s Saturday. And we’re going out, remember?”
“Oh, right.”
Why hadn’t he just dematerialized out here on his own?
Well, he answered himself, because then it was way too obvious. If Shuli was wingman’ing it, he had some kind of cover.
Granted, it was cover of the ridden-hard-put-up-wet variety.
“And here we are,” Shuli said as he turned into the gravel drive.
Down at the end of the lane, a farmhouse with a wraparound porch had loads of lights on in its interior, and as the illumination spilled out onto the still-brown lawn, Nate decided that the place looked like a spaceship that had just landed, but come in peace. With a tree in the side yard and a meadow out behind, it was a really special spot—and not for the first time, he could see exactly what the Brother Qhuinn had loved at the setting.
Luchas House was named after the fighter’s brother, and was part of the race’s social services program, offering a haven for youth who needed shelter, resources, help. Unlike Safe Place, which was reserved for females and their young, males were allowed into the facility, both as residents and as guests. Which was a good thing for Nate.
With a desperation he didn’t want to admit to himself, his eyes shot to the second floor on the left. The windows of that particular bedroom were dark, and he had a moment of panic.