Straight Roommate (4 page)

As Mitchell looked around, making his
way to the bar, he had to fight his body’s reaction to all the hot
men around him. Even though he didn’t get around much, he didn’t
like denying his body’s needs where men were concerned, not since
he exited the dreaded closet in his teens. But he was here on
business, so he needed to play things cool and just learn.
Otherwise it’d be his luck he’d come on to Mr. Broussard’s
boyfriend or someone equally off-limits and lose his new job before
he even started. Nope, too risky. There would be no physical
pleasure for him tonight. Well, not with company he found here
anyway.

“
You’re new,” the
hot-as-fuck bartender said as Mitchell stepped up beside a bear
eyeing a cub on the other side. The older, hairy man glanced toward
Mitchell before setting his predator sights on his original
target.

“
Uh, yeah.” Mitchell
cleared his throat. “Can I get a Coors Light?”

Sexy bartender man chuckled as he
wiped his hands on the towel draped over his shoulder. “Sure you
don’t want an appletini? Fresh meat usually go with something a
little more obvious.”

Mitchell scowled at him. Fucking prick
was stereotyping him. “Just the beer.”

“
Sure thing, newbie. Don’t
get your panties all twisted. House special here is the
Blowjob—Bailey’s and amaretto. Followed closely by the Dr.
Pecker—whiskey mixed with cola and cranberry juice.”

“
That just sounds
disgusting,” Mitchell mumbled. Because of the loud techno music
thumping through the air, he knew the bartender couldn’t hear him,
but the smirk on that sexy face had Mitchell second-guessing his
theory.

The bartender produced a chilled mug
and dispensed the beer from the tap then slid it across the bar a
few inches until it was in front of Mitchell. The guy was a natural
behind there. Sexy and talented.

“
Thanks.” Mitchell tipped
his glass toward the hot man with spiked hair and loads of tattoos
across his exposed arms, nodding once before taking a
swig.

“
That’s four
dollars.”

Mitchell put his mug down and fished
out some ones from his wallet.

“
Name’s Zeke if you need
anything.” The bartender took the cash and turned toward the
register.

A bartender would be a good source of
information, he mused. Then he shook his head. That was totally
cliché. He wasn’t in some B movie or an eighties sitcom. His heart
raced as uncertainty set in, and he felt out of his element all of
a sudden. What the hell was he doing here? It was a bar, not a
boardroom. He needed to just leave and show up at the office next
door in the morning. He honestly didn’t know what he’d expected to
find out by coming here tonight. He started to slide off the stool,
planning to leave the rest of his beer unfinished, but a muffled
squeal caught his attention. He looked to his right and in the
corner was the backside of the bear who’d been seated at the bar
earlier. Mitchell leaned back a little to see what that man was
doing.

Holy shit. Bear had pushed the cub
he’d been eyeing onto his knees, the bear’s pants undone, the cub’s
mouth engulfing the other man’s erection.

Out in public.

Where anybody could see
them.

Mitchell felt his face
flush and quickly turned his head away from the scene, but his gaze
wandered back to the glorious vision. God, he needed to get laid.
He gripped the mug in front of him as he watched the cub’s head bob
up and down. If he strained, he could almost make out the mewling
of the man on his knees as he took that obviously large cock into
his mouth. Then the cub shoved his hand down his own pants and
Mitchell had to fight the urge to mimic the gesture. His cock was
achingly hard. Hell, he didn’t work for Beau Broussard yet. He
wouldn’t be mixing business with pleasure.
And you did bring your special lube.

A throat clearing right in front of
Mitchell jerked him out of his thoughts and he snapped his head in
the direction of the sound. Zeke. Sexy bartender man. Mitchell took
a calming breath as he stared back at him.

“
You look like you need
something.” The expression on the man’s face was indescribable.
Mitchell wasn’t sure if the bartender was pissed because Mitchell
was staring at the tableau or if it was because the scene was
actually taking place. Or if Zeke was even mad at all. Hell,
Mitchell didn’t know him or what was going through that head. And
now that the urge to jump up and find somebody to fuck was slowly
fading, his brain was starting to work again.

“
Um, isn’t that illegal?”
Mitchell indicated the blowjob-fest to his right. “Indecent
exposure or something?”

A slow smiled curved the corner of
Zeke’s lips and he took two steps toward where Mitchell was seated.
He rested his forearms on the bar and leaned toward
Mitchell.

“
You don’t look like a
cop.”

No kidding. Mitchell was tall and did
have a nice medium build, but he didn’t have the temperament for
law enforcement work. His wavy brown hair and light-brown eyes just
made him look that much more like a puppy. An overgrown puppy, but
a puppy nonetheless. Besides, he liked working in science. He
double-majored in chemistry and biology, which he loved, but
created a mountain of student loan debt to accomplish the
feat.

That was the reason he’d moved to New
Orleans from Lafayette to take this job. And now that he was
snooping around one of his boss’s businesses, he wasn’t so sure
about his decision to come here. If committing sex acts in public
was condoned, what other kind of illegal activity would be allowed?
Mitchell sure as hell better not have taken a job working for a
known criminal. This wasn’t good.

Or maybe you’re just being
a prude.
Well, there was that.

“
Um, no, I’m Mr.
Broussard’s new product development specialist. I start tomorrow.
Figured I’d come out here, look around and get a feel of the
atmosphere to help understand my job.”

Zeke made a noncommittal sound and
nodded. “You gay?”

As a three-dollar bill. Mitchell had
been out of the closet since he was sixteen and his parents were
outwardly supportive—though he knew they secretly wished he’d find
a nice girl to settle down with and make babies. But just because
he was out didn’t mean he flaunted it.

“
Does it matter?” Mitchell
hedged.

Zeke shrugged. “Nope. But if you are,
you can’t play here. Beau is very strict about employees getting
off with the customers.” His eyes cut to the bear and cub in the
corner, and Mitchell followed. The bear had his hands fisted in the
cub’s hair and was fucking his face forcefully, his own head thrown
back in ecstasy. Dude must be shooting down that cub’s throat right
about now. Mitchell looked at Zeke and the bartender’s scowl was
back.

“
But that’s allowed?”
Mitchell asked again.

Zeke growled as he turned toward
Mitchell. “No. So don’t fucking get caught playing.” He turned
around to listen to an order by one of the go-go-boy style waiters.
After a few minutes of mixing some fruity concoctions, Zeke
returned to Mitchell’s side of the bar. “But customers can rent
rooms upstairs for play. There are monitors up there that patrol
the area to make sure everybody is playing nice.”

Mitchell glanced up the
stairs and saw a very tall man with black hair staring down into
the club. Next to him stood a smaller man with dark-blond hair
wearing glasses and holding either a notebook or an iPad. From this
angle, he couldn’t be sure which. But what he was sure about was
the man holding the unknown object was fucking sexy. From the grim
line of his mouth and the slow shake of his head, he seemed
irritated about something. But even mad he looked good. The big man
next to him was also attractive, but a little too intimidating for
Mitchell’s tastes. But the blond?
Damn
, the blond had something
special going on. Maybe it was that feisty look that Chihuahuas get
just before they tear into something, thinking they are as big as a
pit bull. Mitchell wasn’t sure what it was, but the smaller man at
the top of those stairs was hot with a capital
ho
.

“
Those the monitors?”
Mitchell asked as he discretely pointed to the dark knight and the
blond prince.

Zeke glanced in the
direction Mitchell indicated as he grabbed a margarita glass and
then glanced again. “Shit.
Shit.
No. Shit!” He looked at the bear and the cub
who’d finished with their little display and then looked up the
stairs again.

“
Um, then who are
they?”

Zeke shut his eyes and sighed. “Van’s
new nightmare.”

“
Huh? Who’s Van?” Mitchell
asked as he looked around the room.

Right then, a freight
train disguised in flesh came charging through the room. Zeke
tensed as if he were going to run and block the behemoth of a man,
but he stayed in place.
What the
hell?

“
Van’s the sucker who was
just on his knees over there. And he works for Beau. He knows
better than to get involved with customers. He just did it to make
me jealous,” Zeke spat.

Mitchell swung around to face Zeke.
“So you’re seeing Van?” Who apparently was the cub who’d just blown
the bear.

Zeke’s eyes narrowed. “No. Beau
doesn’t like anybody getting involved. Period. Not with customers
or other employees. You’d think that prick would actually like sex
since he’s in the biz to help dudes get off. But he’s a machine
when it comes to business. No emotion.”

The Cro-Magnon man had Van by the arm
now and was escorting him to the stairs. At the top the dark-haired
man, who looked downright evil, still stood along with the blond.
When Mitchell turned back to Zeke, the bartender was staring at
him.

“
The black-haired devil is
your new boss Beau Broussard, and the weasel next to him is his
assistant Kayden Wright. Don’t trust him as far as you can throw
him.”

Weasel? Out of the all the words that
were flying in his brain about that man, weasel wasn’t one. Hot?
Yes. Fuckable? Theoretically yes. Sexy? Absolutely. Weasel? No way.
Perhaps he was misunderstood. But Mitchell didn’t know if by
misunderstood he was thinking Mr. Kayden Wright was a misunderstood
man or if Mitchell just misunderstood his reaction to the
man.

Didn’t matter. Employees—and
customers—were off-limits. And by the looks of his scary new boss,
that was a rule Mitchell wouldn’t be breaking anytime
soon.

He’d just finished one beer and was
already regretting coming out to learn anything about his new job
and coworkers.

“
Thanks for the info,
man.” Mitchell stood. “I’ll see you around.”

Zeke threw the bar towel over his
shoulder. “Sure thing. Good luck on your first day.”

“
Thanks.” Evil new boss
and
sexy assistant whom others
didn’t like. Yeah, he’d take all the luck he could get.

He was going to need every bit of
it.

Starbucks was a gift from the gods.
Mitchell was certain of it as he sipped the ambrosia and hustled
into the meeting room on the second floor of his new office
building. He hadn’t slept a wink, spending the night figuring out
how to twist his sheets into rumbled ropes of fun and exciting
shapes underneath his comforter. By the time he’d dragged his ass
out of the mangled mess, the comforter was half off the bed and the
sheets practically tied around his calves.

His mind had been racing with the
events at the club and worrying about his new job. He loved that it
was close to the medical center, which allowed him to join a
loan-forgiveness program that’d knock out most of that student loan
debt with just a few hours of his time each week working on federal
research. It’d still take a long time, but it was the best plan he
could come up with to not be swimming in debt for the next ten
years.

He’d gotten here twenty
minutes early, hoping to get some bearings on his new surroundings
before work began, but within five minutes of being here, he’d been
shuffled upstairs to a conference room. Apparently there was a
standing eight o’clock meeting every Monday, so it looked as if
he’d get thrown right into the thick of things. God, he hoped this
company didn’t do those silly new-face introductions where
strangers would ask the new employees about their family and goals.
What would he say?
Who has time to start a
family when my only goal right now is to pay off my enormous
student loan debt?
Yeah, saying that
wouldn’t make him look truly pathetic. Um, right. Just the
impression he’d love to leave with his new colleagues.
Not.

“
Hi, there. You must be
Mitchell Hill. I’m Xavier Donaldson, one of Beau’s product
development specialists. Logan Bryan is running late as always.
He’s the other one in our group.” Xavier offered his hand and
Mitchell shook it. The man before him was very attractive—slim with
brown hair and hazel eyes.

“
Nice to meet
you.”

“
Come on. You can sit by
me. I know it has to be weird being the new guy.”