Nobody's Son (19 page)

Shaun wanted to believe that more than anything, but without proof, he had to live with uncertainty. “Anyway, he’s gone now. And if he comes back,” he told her with a pointed look, “don’t you let him in. You call the police, and then you call me.”

“I’ll call up that baseball bat I keep in my closet.” She gave him her own pointed look, and Shaun had to laugh.

“All right. I have to get to work.” He looked at the old cuckoo clock that had hung on the living room wall all his life to find it was after ten thirty. “Sh—oot. I have to get
fast
. I forgot I took the train home last night.”

“You go, then.” Gran reached out to pat his hand. “Don’t you worry ’bout me or that nasty man anymore. I’ll be just fine.”

Shaun leaned over to kiss her cheek as he rose to his feet. “See you tonight. Lock up behind me.”

“I’ll be
fine
,” she repeated. “You drive careful, baby.”

Her smile followed him downstairs, where he toed off the old beat-up sneakers he’d slid into before his mad dash upstairs. He replaced them with socks and a cleaner pair, thankful that Jimmy didn’t expect him to wear anything nicer to work.

He grabbed his phone and backpack and headed out, the late-summer sun beating down on him as he jogged to the MARTA station. He swiped his fare card to get through the gates and was relieved to find a train just pulling into the station once he reached the platform.

Inside, he grabbed a seat and settled in for the ride. As soon as he caught his breath, though, he tapped out a text to Jimmy.

Hey. Had a thing at the house this morning. All OK, but I’m running late.

An answer came back a few minutes later.
No worries. I’m in for the duration. See you in a bit.

Shaun sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. His mind ran through so many different thoughts it made him dizzy. Jimmy. Erwin. Gran. His mama. Darnell. Con.

How did his life get to be such a mess?

It’s not a mess
, he told himself.
Work is good. You’re getting a raise. Erwin is gone. Gran is doing well. Darnell’s cool with everything. And Con….

Well, Con he hadn’t quite figured out yet, but he could, at least, admit to himself how he wanted things to go on that front. Sex was the obvious answer, but that wasn’t all he wanted. He wanted Con’s smile, his presence, his sense of humor, the way he looked at Shaun with a lethal mix of warmth and heat in his gaze.

Shaun shifted as his body reacted to the memory. He forced himself to change his line of thinking. He needed to talk to Jimmy about Erwin again, see if there was something more they could do to be sure he stayed away, like the letter Jimmy had suggested. Shaun didn’t know if a letter from a lawyer would be enough to do the trick, but maybe Jimmy had other ideas.

As for Darnell…. Shaun lifted his phone again and started typing a new text.
You and your girl wanna have dinner on Wednesday?
Shaun wanted to meet the lady who’d managed to capture Darnell’s attention. After ten years, she must be something special.

It took longer for Shaun to get Darnell’s response, because by then the train was zooming through the tunnels under downtown Atlanta. When he got service again, the reply came in:
You’re on. Just let me check with Katie. Rayland’s work for you? Same time as usual?

The soul food restaurant had long been one of Darnell’s favorites.
Sounds great. Let me know.

He slid his phone into his pocket. That was one more thing taken care of. With Con off in Nashville for the week, that just left the job and Gran to worry about.

Okay, well. Not like he’d stop thinking about Con just because he wasn’t on-site.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it back out to find he’d conjured up Con’s attention.
Getting on the road north. Sorry to miss you today. I’ll be back probably Thursday, but can I call you before then?

Heat flashed through Shaun, and he typed out a quick response.
Sure. Don’t leave a message if I can’t answer, though. I never check voice mail.

He could almost hear Con’s laugh as he read that and responded:
Me neither. Putting the phone down to drive now. Talk to you soon.

Shaun tried to ignore how that promise made his heart beat a little faster.

JIMMY GREETED
him with a stern look when he walked into the office. “You know I’m gonna ask until you tell me, so you might as well get it over with.”

Shaun chuckled as he crossed to the side of the desk. “Got paid a visit this morning by my supposed father. Well, my gran got paid a visit. I just got up there in time to throw him out.”

Jimmy looked almost as stunned as Shaun had to find Erwin standing in his living room. “Man, he’s a piece of work, isn’t he?”

“You said it.” Shaun stowed his backpack in his spot under the desk. “I don’t know what to do about it. I thought maybe you’d have some ideas. I just want him to leave us alone, but I don’t think telling him that is going to make a difference.”

“Might need a restraining order.” Jimmy moved around Shaun, who slid onto the stool he’d vacated. “I’ll look into it. But you call me if he pulls anything else, okay?”

“Will do.” Shaun glanced around. “Anything I need to know around here?”

Jimmy rolled his eyes. “No, I didn’t screw anything up, and neither did Con. He didn’t have time to get all the cabins wired up, but one through eight have much better Wi-Fi now. He’ll do the rest after he gets back.”

Shaun nodded. “That’s great. We only have six cabins booked for the weekend, so I’ll put them into those first.” He grinned. “Unless we have more than four looking for clothing-optional.”

Jimmy snorted. “Well, they can choose between clothes and decent Wi-Fi, then. I mean, why do you need decent Wi-Fi if you’re gonna be naked all weekend?” He stepped back from the desk. “And on that note, I’ll be in my office if you need me. Cory and Mikey are coming in tonight after work.”

And you’ll get your own naked time
, Shaun thought as Jimmy headed down the hallway, but he refrained from saying it. Jimmy was still his boss, after all.

The lobby door opened, and an older man came in, sliding off his sunglasses and blinking in the relative dark of indoors. Shaun straightened up and pasted on his best customer service smile.

“Welcome to Oasis Resort,” he said. “We’re delighted to have you. How may I help you?”

SHAUN HAD
been in his room for all of twenty minutes Saturday night when his phone rang. He groaned as he reached for it. He’d gotten, and ignored, three texts from Willis Erwin during the day, and he hoped like hell the man hadn’t moved on to harassing him with calls.

Mr. Conrad Brooks, the screen read—Shaun hadn’t been able to resist using the title and full name when he’d entered the contact. He relaxed and smiled as he answered.

“Hey, you.”

“Hey, yourself.” Shaun could hear the smile in Con’s voice. “Just got in after one of the longest days in forever.”

“Oh? Things going wrong?” Shaun settled back against his pillows, ready to listen to Con talk about almost anything.

“Nah, no real problems. Just a lot to be done.” Con chuckled. “You would’ve laughed at me when I hit my head on the underside of the same desk for the third time. You’d think I’d learn.”

Shaun smiled. “Guess it’s a good thing you have a hard head in more ways than one.”

This time, Con laughed out loud, the sound rolling over and through Shaun like a physical touch. “God, you have no idea how much I needed to talk to you. Today was crazy, I’m telling you. Whoever ran the old network wires in this place must’ve been an amateur knitter. I spent half my time just untangling shit enough to get it pulled out so I can run the new lines.” He paused. “But I didn’t call to bitch about my day. I called to talk to you.”

“You
are
talking to me,” Shaun pointed out. “Bitching about your day counts as talking.”

“Not the kind of talking I had in mind.”

Con had dropped his voice several registers for that, and instead of washing over Shaun, that tone hit its mark: right between Shaun’s legs.
Holy shit
, Shaun thought.
Am I about to have phone sex with my grandmother right upstairs?

Shaun heard shifting from the other end of the phone. “Am I out of line? Do you want me to—”

“No.” Shaun gripped the phone tighter and slid his free hand down his stomach. “I’m at home, so I’ll have to be quiet. But you make all the noise you want.”

The moan Con let out was enough to take Shaun’s dick from vaguely interested to
hello there
. Shaun pressed the heel of his hand against it and let out a softer but no less heartfelt moan of his own.

“Jesus, I love that,” Con murmured. “When you moan it sounds like it comes from your toes. Like your whole body’s involved, not just your voice. It’s a huge turn-on.”

Everything about you is a turn-on
, Shaun thought, and then he realized he needed to say it. That part was harder, but he forced the words out. Con chuckled again in response.

“Same for me, baby. Just the way you look at me makes me hard. Getting to touch you is like Christmas morning every time, and making you come is like the Fourth of July.”

“Damn, you’re good at this.” Shaun groaned and shoved his underwear out of the way, his cock demanding more direct attention than the soft strokes he’d been giving it through the fabric.

“Must be a natural, ’cause I sure haven’t done it a lot.” Con let out a rough breath. “Maybe we’re just good at it together. Maybe we should do it more often.”

Shaun bit his lip to hold in the gasp that wanted to burst free when he wrapped his hand around the head of his dick. “Not what I’d like to be practicing,” he rasped.

“Me either, baby, but we work with what we got.” There was a pause, and Shaun heard Con shifting. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re working right now? Got your hand on your cock?”

“Yeah,” Shaun breathed out. “Just holding on to it.”

“Think it’s gonna try to get away?”

Shaun huffed out a laugh. “Pretty sure it likes being right where it is.”

Con chuckled. “Why don’t you give it a little friction? Not too much, now. Don’t want to get it too excited, or this’ll all be over way too soon.”

Shaun liked this. Not the phone sex so much—though it felt good, he preferred live-action action—but the humor. The laughter. He’d never had this much fun during sex of any kind in his life.
Maybe that’s why it’s so good
, he thought as he stroked his hand lightly up and down his hard shaft.
Sex is supposed to be fun, right?

“Now cup your balls.”

No, Shaun was pretty sure the laughter wasn’t all of it. The way Con’s deep voice sent shockwaves of desire through him made it pretty clear that the fact that it was a man he was doing it with was a huge part of it. And the fact that the man was Con was just as important.

“I’ve got both hands on my cock,” Con told him. “You’re on speakerphone. Don’t worry, nobody’s in earshot but me.”

The flash of nerves that shot through Shaun subsided just as quickly. He didn’t dare turn on the speaker on his phone, though, and Con knew that. He refocused on what Con was doing. “Are you… are you fucking your hands?”

The question came out so softly he wasn’t sure at first that Con had heard him, but then a moan came through the phone. “Oh yeah. Slow and easy, just enjoying the feeling for now. Not as good as it would be if it was
your
hands, but damn. It sure doesn’t suck.”

Shaun let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a moan. “No sucking long distance. Have to save that for close up.”

“Mmmmm. You gonna suck me next time?”

Saliva flooded Shaun’s mouth at the idea. “God, yeah.” His hand sped its movements on his cock of its own accord. “Bet you taste like… like salt water taffy.”

He had no idea where that analogy came from, but from the sound Con made, it worked just fine for him.

“Not gonna last long.” Con’s voice had gone raspy and raw, which only made the whole thing hotter. “Wanna hear you. Tell me what you want.”

Shaun’s heart pounded, but he squeezed the head of his cock and pressed the phone closer to his mouth.

“Wish you were here,” he whispered. He could feel his balls drawing up tight. “Wish it was your hand on my dick. Want your mouth on me. Want your skin all over me—”

Con shouted, and that was all it took to send Shaun careening into his climax.

By the time he recovered enough to think, he had to retrieve his phone from where it had slid down onto the mattress next to his neck. Con was talking when he got the speaker to his ear.

“—king hell, hottest time I’ve ever had alone. Jesus Christ.”

Shaun managed a rough chuckle. “Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night.”

“Not a bad way to spend any night.” Con blew out a long breath. “In fact… I’ve got a few more nights up here, and the days aren’t likely to get much better. Is it okay if I call you again?”

“Yeah,” Shaun answered. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

“Good.” He could hear the smile in Con’s voice. “And I should be back in town late Thursday. I’ll see you then, and we can….”

When he didn’t go on, Shaun finished the thought. “Talk,” he said. “Depending on how you define ‘talk.’”

Con’s laugh was loud enough that it was a good thing he didn’t need to be quiet on his end. “Exactly. I’ll see you then, and we can
talk
.”

“Definitely.” Shaun nodded, even knowing Con wouldn’t see it. “We have a lot of things to talk about.”

“I am very much looking forward to that conversation.” The smile was still in Con’s voice. “Hours and hours of talking.”

Shaun cracked up. “Get some sleep,” he finally got out. “Talk to you soon.”

“Count on it. Sleep well, baby.”

And Shaun did.

WHEN SHAUN’S
cell phone rang early Sunday afternoon and he saw Darnell’s name on the display, his first thought was that something had happened to his gran.