Authors: RGAlexander
Dangerous
Dangerous
The Finn Factor
, Book 3
Free Read:
A Curious Proposal
(An Owen and Jeremy Quickie)
R.G. Alexander
Dangerous
Copyright 2015 R.G. Alexander
A Curious Proposal
Copyright 2015 R.G. Alexander
Editing by D.S. Editing
Formatted by
IRONHORSE Formatting
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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Dedication
Cookie—Love is the reason. Robin—you will always be my diamond. Readers…You’ve been so patient and so caring, I really hope you love Brady and Ken and enjoy meeting the rest of the Finn family!
Table of Contents
Scandalous: Finn Factor, Book 2
“Are all Marines this lazy in the morning?”
The amused male voice in Brady Finn’s ear sounded familiar, but he didn’t have a chance to wonder why or respond to the question. As soon as he tried to move, his head began to throb so violently it felt like it was preparing to rip itself off his body. He almost wished it would. “Oh God.”
He lowered his arms from their position over his head and dragged his palms slowly down his face, willing his brain to function and the tips of his hair to stop hurting. Why the hell did his
hair
hurt?
The pub. He’d been at the pub. He’d had a drink and played a game of darts with his cousin Seamus, listening to his renovation plans for the bar and trying not to think about where he was going to go now that he’d left Owen and Jeremy’s guest room. Of course then Owen had surprised him by showing up to talk and buying him another round of what he’d been drinking.
Rum. He remembered the rum.
Now every cell in his body was rebelling against him and he was in a strange bed with no memory of what he’d done last night after he got halfway through the second bottle.
The body beside him shifted and he rethought that last statement. He had no memory of
who
he’d done last night. Shit.
Brady carefully squinted against the brightness of the bedroom. At first all he could see through his lashes was a smile—gleaming white teeth framed by lips that were made for every wicked thing a man could imagine. He would know that mouth anywhere.
It belonged to Kenneth Tanaka.
Maybe he was still asleep. The pain was reminiscent of one of his nightmares, but the scenes that haunted him didn’t usually include waking up beside a man he’d lusted after for months. That was a completely different type of torture.
It couldn’t be Tanaka. Brady hadn’t seen the tempting computer hacker in nearly five weeks. Not since Stephen’s wedding reception. He’d had a little to drink that night too, but he remembered every second of their last encounter, and the vow he’d made the next morning not to finish what he’d started with the kinky bastard. No matter how much he wanted to.
The soft laugh sounded like loud, angry bells to his sensitive ears. “You’re not looking so good, Finn. Rough night?”
It
was
him.
Son of a bitch.
“Water,” Brady rasped, his throat raw and dry and his need to delay a morning-after conversation paramount in his mind. “I need water.”
All of it. He needed every drop the man could find. And then, when he was hydrated enough to move, he was planning on throwing up, hopefully in private, preferably in a seedy motel where no one would think to look for him and he could suffer in peace.
The bed bounced lightly when Ken rolled off and Brady groaned. “I’m dying.”
“Sit up first. I brought you something to drink.”
Water? His movements were clumsy and leaden as he twisted so he could plant his feet on the smooth wood floor. He stifled another groan and rested his aching head in his rough, wide palms. “I don’t get hangovers. I never get hangovers.”
His brothers always said he had the constitution of an ox. Specifically Babe the Blue Ox—because giant references never got old in his family. It was a challenge to get him tipsy, and he’d never gotten so hammered he blacked out. He left that to the more adventurous Finns.
Speaking of his drinking buddy… “Owen?”
“Your cousin is fine,” Ken assured him wryly. “It’s barely eleven-thirty and he’s already called your phone five times.” He took one of Brady’s hands in his and wrapped his fingers around a hot cup. “And he’s not the only one who called and left a message. Don’t drop that—drink it so you can tell them the bad man didn’t leave you in a tub of ice without your kidneys.”
Eleven-thirty? How had he slept so long?
You got drunk and passed out. Keep up, moron.
“Keep your voice down,” he grumbled at Ken and the voice in his head. “At least until the room stops spinning.”
Ken lowered his voice obediently. “This should help.”
Brady managed to raise his head enough to study the steaming cup in his hand. The brown liquid smelled like cloying incense and wet burlap. Definitely not water. “What is it?” he asked suspiciously. “Poison?”
“This is the antidote. You’ve never had a hangover? Well I’ve never had a naked man get sick in my bed. I like this bed and when I’m in it I like thinking about healthy naked men. So drink. All of it.”
Brady gulped it down without another word, willing to do whatever it took to find relief while he adjusted to the reality of his situation. The task would be easier if he knew where his clothes were.
Had he and Tanaka…? No. He would have remembered that. God, what if he didn’t remember that?
The flavor was worse than the smell. Brady grimaced and choked when he reached the dregs at the bottom. “This tastes like swamp and shame.”
Tanaka removed the cup from his white-knuckled grasp and set it down beside the bed. “That means it’s working. It’s my recipe for demon cleansing. Foul, but it usually does the trick. Of course I’ve never been stupid enough to down three bottles of rum in one night, so I make no guarantees, but in a few minutes you should feel like a new man. You might even thank me.”
Three
bottles? It was a miracle he wasn’t in the ER. Right now he would give just about anything to be a new man. One who didn’t have to wonder whether or not he had something to apologize for. “Thanks.”
“Damn, I’m good. It’s working already.”
“Smartass.” Brady took a bracing breath and looked up into the face that had starred in all his fantasies for the last few months. More beautiful than handsome, Ken Tanaka had the kind of looks that no one, male or female, would be able to ignore.
He was shirtless—a state he seemed to prefer—and his smooth honeyed skin stretched tight over all his lean muscle. Brady’s fingers twitched with the need to reach out and touch him, to trace the tattoo that trailed down Ken’s right arm and, Brady knew, completely covered his back. To wrap his fingers around the waist-length, midnight-black braid that was falling over one shoulder like heavy silk.
His gaze returned to Tanaka’s face so he wouldn’t be tempted to linger below his well-defined stomach muscles and realized that Ken was shamelessly returning the favor. Thickly lashed eyes, which changed in hue from dark amber to molten gold, were studying Brady’s body in a way that made him keenly aware of the fact that there was nothing but a thin sheet draped over his lap. A drape that was quickly morphing into a tent to house his growing erection.
Classy, Finn.
At least one part of his body still worked. At this point he’d take any silver lining he could find, including the fact that Ken was wearing pants.
But how long had they been on? Brady refused to believe he’d ever forget a naked Ken Tanaka. Just the thought of the man without any clothing was enough to heighten his arousal.
“I don’t remember much about last night…” he started, letting his voice trail off as he tried to casually shift enough to conceal his hard-on.
“Hold that thought. Let me get you that glass of water.”
Brady closed his eyes, grateful for the momentary reprieve.
Think of water
, he told himself.
Ice. Antarctica.
He needed to nip this in the bud before it got out of hand, because at some point he was going to have to leave this bed and find his clothes and a bathroom, and he’d prefer not to prove how little control he had around Tanaka.
At the sound of light footsteps and tinkling ice, he opened his eyes and accepted the glass Ken handed him. “Thank you.”
“Define much,” Ken ordered with narrowed eyes.
Brady took a long, careful sip before saying, “Well, I don’t know how I got here.”
“In my car. You were in no shape to drive your motorcycle.”
When Ken didn’t offer any further clues, Brady said pointedly, “I’m also not sure where my clothes are.”
“The ones you were wearing are in the dryer. The rest are still packed, I imagine.”
Brady frowned. Was Ken being vague on purpose? Was he having fun at his expense or just trying to find the right way to tell him exactly how out of line he’d been?
Struggling to fill in the blanks himself, he said, “I was talking to Owen. He wanted my advice about Jeremy. I remember
that
clearly because I couldn’t get over the fact that he was finally asking.”
“Oh, I know. It was obvious you had a lot to say on the subject,” Ken said, sitting down beside him with a glint in his eyes.
Brady almost choked on his next sip of water. “You were there?”
“Not for the live performance, no. But I did watch the replay.”
Live performance? Replay? “I don’t understand.”
“It might be easier to swallow if I tell you a story. Once upon a time, some idiot at a bar thought it would be fun to record his friends getting drunk. When a conversation between two tipsy Irishmen got everyone’s attention, he trained his camera on them. It was so good he uploaded it to YouTube, sure it would be more popular than the Instagram account he’d made for his cats.”
“You’re fucking with me.” Brady was horrified.
Ken shook his head and revealed the phone in his hand. “I’m not. I have it queued up right here.”
He touched the screen and a smaller version of Brady appeared. His short red hair was mussed and his cheeks were ruddy with drink as he leaned against the bar and lectured the handsome blond beside him. The memories started coming back while he watched it unfold.
“You wanted my opinion, Owen, so listen up. What you have to do is
admit that you’re gay
. The family pub is as good a place as any to start. Go on. Out loud so the whole class can hear you.”
Nearby patrons instantly started pounding their tables in agreement with Brady.
“Say it,” someone shouted.
“Loud and proud!” another replied with glee.
Owen looked around the sparsely populated bar before glaring at Brady. “What’s it going to take before everyone stops giving me shit about this? Should I take out an ad in the paper or slap a rainbow sticker on my bumper?”
