Ex-Daredevil by Zoe Lee

Chapter 18

Gavin

Barley had explained to me that when Barnyard was in the studio, he usually encouraged his PA to take vacation time, since he needed less help. But since he was in the middle of getting a divorce this time—the first time they were recording since I’d started the job—things were unique. I spent a lot of time with the band’s publicist to keep Barley’s social media full of snapshots of Barley happy and hard at work, anything but pining.

It wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but luckily it was offset by getting to see Eliott a lot too. Not just to take another motorcycle ride or meet up to eat the city’s best hot apple pie with ice cream, but also in our official capacities as a lawyer and his client’s PA. My idea to schedule our meetings around lunch so I could sweet talk him while we ate together had turned out perfectly so far.

Fall in Chicago could be a little spooky and rainy, orange and yellow leaves in soggy piles in the gutters and in drifts against walls and tree trunks. But it was my favorite time of year to walk around the city, my hair and a scarf flying in the chilly wind, wearing boots with heels that made satisfying thuds on the sidewalks and hardening muddy ground.

“I’m sorry last Thursday didn’t work out,” I said as we walked towards the lakeshore carrying hot chocolates. I licked up some whipped cream and gave him a smirk when I caught him watching my tongue avidly. “But this weekend is wide open, if it’ll work.”

“I can make it work,” he replied. “You’re still not getting any hints though.”

I pouted, then tripped on a wet plastic bag hidden under some leaves. Hot chocolate splashed on my hand as I wobbled, and Eliott hooked his arm around mine to steady me.

“If I were in high heels, I would’ve broken my ankle,” I laughed.

“Do you wear high heels?” he asked, not letting go of me.

Warmth radiated out from where our arms were linked, even through our shirts and jackets, and I felt like a teenager daring to hold someone’s hand for the first time. I hadn’t had too many chances to be demonstrative in public, unless I counted grinding and making out in clubs with hookups and strangers. This was light years away from that though, because it wasn’t about sex. It felt natural, despite being brand new, and I soaked it up.

“Gavin?” he prompted.

Looking over at him through some flyaways that had come loose from the wind, I gave him a big smile, hoping he was enjoying our closeness as much as I was.

“No, but I’ve done drag a few times for parties. I had fun, except for the high heels, honestly.” I chuckled, remembering how much my feet and calves had killed me the next mornings. “Not my jam.”

He hummed and guided me in a half-circle so that we could head back towards his office. “Whenever my mom did costumes for drag queens, I’d curl up and listen to their stories,” he offered, and since it seemed rare for him to talk about his past much, I paid close attention. “They were older, so a lot of it was about learning queer history, too.”

I smiled, trying to picture a much younger Eliott listening, absorbing and processing the stories the way he did all of mine, and said, “He’d kill me if he heard me say this, but it’s one of the reasons I love working for Barley, too. He’s only in his late forties, but Barnyard formed in the mid-Nineties, so he was around during so many amazing periods of music history. Bonus, he and the rest of the band were never into drugs or had drinking problems, so they remember all of the wild things, the free love, and the awesome concerts of course.”

“That seems rare,” he commented, tossing our empty cups into a garbage can.

“Oh, they’re really proud of it—and they should be,” I said, daring to hug his arm a little closer so that our sides were pressed together.

“But I don’t want to lose your attention gossiping about rock stars,” I teased, my heart bouncing when he laughed and dipped in to kiss my jaw. “I did get one or two inside scoops from Carina, before she and Barley split.”

Giving a dramatic gasp, he stopped in the middle of the street, causing some people behind us to swear and shove around us angrily, and caught my shoulders. “Tell me.”

I pretended to think about it, tapping my lips with one finger. “Hmm. Why should I?”

He bent in and breathed, “I’ll give you a hint about my first Boring Date plans.”

“Cheater,” I cried, but then I happily gave up right away. “Okay so do you want to hear about the time she had a wardrobe malfunction in front of an actual queen or the time she bought Barley twenty-five pairs of gray sweatpants for their first Christmas together?”

Starting to walk again because I knew he hated taking too much time for lunch even though it wasn’t like anyone was timing him, I jumped when he took my hand in his.

With a little furrow of worry between his eyebrows, he darted a look at our hands.

“I’ve never held hands like this before,” I whispered. His eyes went wide, but his grip only tightened like he thought I was about to tear my hand from his and run away screaming. “I told you, I don’t really date. But I like it. I’m not afraid of new things.”

This sweetness softened his mouth for a second, and then it curled up lazily. “You’re cute, but don’t think that confession is going to get you out of telling me about Carina.”

“Why would I try to get out of that? I want my hint!”

Eliott chuckled, but then sighed when we crossed the street and were at the corner of his building. “As much as I want to hear this now, I should get back to work. Are you free for dinner tonight? I could make fried rice and you can tell me all about the gray sweatpants.”

“I’d love to,” I said. “I’ll bring something to drink.”

We hung there, just looking at each other, still holding hands. I wanted to kiss him so badly, but I respected his boundaries and didn’t want to go for it so close to his work where a coworker or boss might see. But his eyelashes fluttered, and then he was kissing me, gently pressing me against the wall, and his cool fingertips were sliding around my neck.

“Hey,” he said softly once he’d pulled back.

“Yeah?”

“Holding hands is boring, and you love it,” he said, trying to hold back a smirk.

True or not, I couldn’t let him have the last word, so I slowly worked open the buttons on his wool coat and murmured in my huskiest voice, “I just love trying new things, Eliott.”

He hissed and ran his hands through his hair. “Good thing my first Boring Date is definitely going to be something new,” he rallied. “Can’t wait to see how hot it gets you.”

Always surprised when he rose to the occasion and was so deliciously sensual, I let out a low groan and clapped my hand over my heart. “That comeback got me hot,” I whined.

“Be good and I’ll see you at six,” he replied, giving me one last quick kiss.

“I’m always good,” I called out after him, grinning like an idiot.

As I was walking towards the train station, my phone buzzed and I hoped it wasn’t Barley. Since I was supposed to have the afternoon off, I wanted to go to go to a comic shop or take a hot bubble bath or something. Just have a little time to bask in this good feeling.

Instead, it was from Eliott—a photo of him slouched in his office chair, hips arched forward to show off his hard cock ruining the svelte lines of his tailored suit pants.

Eliott: You got me halfway hard by holding my hand and kissing me like that.

Eliott: I got me all the way hard thinking how I’m going to seduce you over fried rice.

My knee-jerk reaction was to tease him, to make fun of him for getting hard over something so plain and domestic like cooking at home. But the way I couldn’t stop smiling at the photo, focusing on his chagrined expression and not his cock, proved I was into it too.

Gavin: Did you have to set a timer on your camera to take that shot?

Eliott: Is it that complicated? If so, I feel even smarter than usual since I know how.

Gavin: Give me an hour and I’ll send you some timed shots while I’m in the bathtub.

Eliott: My afternoon is back-to-back meetings and calls and I need to concentrate. So how about you save that for later? I have some eucalyptus bubble bath at my place.

I bounced down into the train station and headed for my favorite comic book store, where I would read some good stories until it was time to go to Eliott’s for another date.