Fitting In (3 page)

Mason thought he might pass out from the lack of blood going to his brain.
Danger, danger!
his mind screamed, but his cock was not listening.

Gray captured his hand as Jack let go. He pressed his thumb into Mason’s wrist, stroking firmly. Mason thought he might honest-to-God swoon.

“Or…” Gray paused and Mason waited, heart thundering in his ears. “We could just skip the drink.”

Mason sucked in his breath. His ears rang and his vision went dark at the edges. There was no way he’d be able to resist these men, no matter how much he knew better.

“Gray, don’t push,” Jack said, obviously holding back a laugh.

 “I think he likes being pushed,” Gray responded. He tightened his fingers around Mason’s wrist. “If I told you where to meet us, you’d be there, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes.” The word came out in a breathy rush.

Gray smiled. “Would you like it if I just took control and didn’t give you a choice?”

Mason didn’t think his dick had ever been that hard. For years he’d fantasized about having a man dominate him, control him, punish him. But the one time he’d gone to a BDSM club, he couldn’t get past the leather and collars; it was too much for him. He wanted dominance without all the trappings. He’d left before he even talked to anyone. But Gray was exactly what he’d been looking for. “Um…I—”

Jack’s radio buzzed. A message came through filled with codes Mason didn’t understand. Jack glanced at Gray. “We’ve got to go.”

Gray nodded. Then he grabbed a napkin and handed it to Mason. “Write your number down.”

Mason grabbed a pen from the cup by the register and scrawled his number on the napkin. He handed it to Gray, who made a point of letting his fingers brush across the back of Mason’s hand. The contact sent shivers through Mason.

Mason tried to think of something else to say but once Gray pocketed his number, the two men took off, leaving Mason staring at the door. Had they really propositioned him? Would he really do whatever Gray told him to despite his no-couples rule?

He’d be crazy to turn down what promised to be mind-blowing sex, yet his cops belonged firmly in the world of fantasy. Sex with them might just kill him, and the potential for drama was too high. They were a couple and he was in danger of wanting far more from them than a one-night stand. This was a very bad idea.

He sighed. Maybe they wouldn’t call. Their asking for his number might have been the result of temporary insanity. Was there a full moon? He’d just wait and see and fantasize and obsess and long to feel their hands on him. Oh fuck, he was in so much trouble.

CHAPTER FOUR

The next day, one of the regulars told Mason there’d been another robbery a few streets over from the bar. Mason didn’t hear from Jack and Gray, but he hadn’t expected to since they were working the robbery case. The only excitement in his day was getting into an argument with the idiotic waitress, Gwen, after he caught her sneaking a cigarette in the office when he went in to put the money from the bar till in the safe.

The following day was his day off. He heard his phone ring, but he was in line at the grocery store so he ignored it. When he pulled it out of his pocket after he got home, he saw that he’d missed a call from an unknown number. There was no voice mail.

The number was local. Could it be Gray or Jack? Did he dare call back to find out?

He pressed redial before he could talk himself out of it.

“You working tonight?” Gray’s voice. Obviously he didn’t go in for social niceties on the phone.

“No. It’s my day off.”

“Good. Meet us at Undertow at nine.”

“Okay, I—”

“Gotta go.”

Gray ended the call, and Mason stood there in his kitchen with the phone to his ear for several seconds. Had that just happened?

*****

That night, Mason found a spot in the employee parking lot by Nathan’s. He wasn’t supposed to use the lot when he wasn’t working, but most likely no one would notice. Undertow was a gay-friendly dive bar located a few blocks away from Nathan’s. He’d only been there a few times, mostly on Thursdays when a local chef who was hoping to get his own restaurant one day took over the kitchen and served Ethiopian food.

As he walked, he wished he’d worn a heavier coat. The early March wind cut right through his jacket. At least he could pretend he was shivering from cold rather than nerves. He laughed as he always did when he saw the sign at the top of the stairs leading to Undertow’s entrance. “Undertow. We’ll suck you right down.”

He pulled open the door and stepped inside, wishing his heart wasn’t thundering against his chest. He briefly contemplated turning around and running like the coward he was.

The room was a long rectangle with a high ceiling and exposed ducts. The bar took up much of the front part of the room. The back opened up for more seating and a pool table. He scanned the tables and located Jack and Gray in a booth just past the end of the bar. Gray acknowledged him with a slow perusal and a smile. Mason pointed toward the bar, indicating that he would get a drink and then join them. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to drink anything though. Butterflies were performing gymnastic routines in his stomach.

He ordered a Cape Cod, but when he reached for it, his hand was so sweaty he nearly dropped the glass. What was he playing at? He was a nerdy guy who wanted to be a chemist and read scientific articles for fun. A three-way with a couple of closeted cops was so not his speed. At least most of his previous idiotic decisions had involved nerdy guys like himself.

Jack slid over, making room for Mason on his side of the booth. “Glad you made it,” he said, letting his hand rest on Mason’s arm.

“Um…yeah. Me too.” He looked from one of them to the other. Jack was wearing a black t-shirt and a black leather jacket. He looked like the captain of the football team playing the part of a bad boy.

“Like what you see?” Jack asked, grinning at him.

Mason looked into his sky blue eyes and couldn’t remember how to talk.

“He does,” Gray said, his deep voice calling to Mason, breaking the spell Jack held on him. He looked at Gray and Jack let his hand drop to Mason’s thigh. He slid it back and forth, caressing him through his jeans. His fingers came within inches of Mason’s cock, which was now very interested in the proceedings.

“Jack, how can we talk to him with you doing that?” Gray asked.

Jack grinned. “I can’t wait any longer. I’ve been wanting to touch him for so long.”

Gray raised his brows. “He is quite tempting, but you’re distracting him.”

Mason sat, paralyzed. He looked back and forth between them as they talked about him, unable to do anything but enjoy the sensation of Jack’s hand on his thigh, the heat of his touch seeping into Mason’s skin.

Jack squeezed his leg and let go, bringing his hands up on the table and lacing them together. “See? I’m going to be good now,” he said to Gray.

Gray snorted. But before he could say anything else, a woman slipped out through the kitchen doors and brought a plate of Undertow’s famous bacon-wrapped dates to their table.

“Thank you,” Gray said in his sultry voice.

“You’re welcome,” she responded, blushing fiercely, obviously as much under Gray’s spell as Mason was.

 “Gray can’t resist these,” Jack explained as the server walked away.

Gray grinned, looking like a kid with candy rather than an intimidating cop.

They each bit into one of the salty-sweet treats, groaning and muttering their appreciation of the culinary marvel.

Mason, able to talk again now that Jack wasn’t touching him, asked them the question that had been on his mind since they’d asked him to meet them. “So you don’t mind being seen together here”—he looked down to where Jack was now stroking the back of his hand, his “goodness” only having lasted a short time—“with me?”

Gray shrugged. “No one here cares.”

Jack looked uncomfortable. He started to say something, but Gray glared at him. Mason could tell he’d hit a nerve. Obviously, they didn’t agree on what level of risk they should take.

“You’re not out at work, are you?” Mason asked. 

Jack shook his head. “We’re not. We can’t be, but apparently Gray doesn’t care anymore if we get caught.”

Gray sighed. “I care…I just—”

“He insisted we move in together.”

“We told everyone Jack couldn’t find another roommate when the guy he’d been living with got married. I said I needed help with my rent and so I asked him to move in with me. It’s convenient.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Yeah, it’s convenient for you to have me in your bed every night.”

Gray smiled. “Damn right.”

Jack blew out a long, slow breath. “Sorry. It’s hard on both of us, but even if we were prepared to take the flack we’d get—the butt-sex jokes, the guys who would refuse to work with us—we wouldn’t be able to be partners anymore.”

Gray nodded. “And that would suck. We’re good together.”

Jack smiled at him, utter devotion plain on his face. “At work and at home.”

Mason’s chest tightened. No one who saw the look they gave each other would doubt that they were in love. He had no business messing around with them and risking making either of them jealous. 

He started to slide from the booth, but Jack grabbed his leg again. “We’re nowhere near done with you.”

Gray gave him a look that made his heart skip a beat. “Definitely not. I have a lot of plans for you.”

“But you two are….”

Jack patted his leg. “We like you, remember?”

“And you like us too,” Gray said, his low, rich voice sliding over Mason like a caress.

“But I don’t want to come between you.”

Gray laughed. “I’d enjoy you cumming between us.” His tone made his double entendre clear.

Mason choked on his drink, and Jack rolled his eyes at Gray as he patted Mason’s back. “You’re worried because Gray and I are together?”

Mason nodded. “I was with a couple once and things…ended badly.”

Jack pushed Mason’s hair off his face and ran his fingers through it. Mason couldn’t stop himself from leaning into Jack’s touch. “Gray and I have talked about this. There’s something about you, something we both want,” Jack said.

They weren’t Brett and Andrew; Mason had to acknowledge that. They seemed much more mature, but he was still terrified.

Silence settled over the table, and Mason felt the need to fill it. “Did you always want to be cops?”

Gray nodded, but he didn’t elaborate. 

 “As a kid, I didn’t really think too much about the future,” Jack said. “I figured I’d go to college, and eventually, I’d figure out what I wanted to do. Then when I was sixteen, my parents had gone out for the evening, and my younger brother and I were home by ourselves. Two men broke in. I grabbed my phone and crawled out my window as I called 911. I intended to get my brother out through his bedroom window, but he’d gotten up to go to the bathroom, and the men had seen him. They were holding him at gunpoint.

“I’d never been so scared in my life. But before I did something stupid like running in to try and save him, the police got there. They talked the men down and saved my brother. I decided that night that I was going to be a cop. I wanted to be able to help people the way they’d helped us. I guess, in a way, I thought I owed the world for my brother’s survival.”

Mason reached for Jack’s hand and squeezed it. Jack squeezed back and smiled.

“How did you two meet?” Mason asked.

Gray looked uncomfortable, but Jack answered eagerly. “Gray came in to assist in a class when I was at the academy. We did a fight simulation together, and I could tell that he liked me—a lot.”

Gray scowled. “I’d never gotten hard teaching that class before.”

“Your body was just telling you I was the one.”

Gray snorted.

Jack ignored him and turned to Mason. “So what about you? How did you end up at Nathan’s?”

Mason felt heat rise into his face. “Compared to your story, it’s very mundane.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Gray said. “We want to get to know you.”

Mason realized he wanted to get to know them too, and that was a scary feeling for someone who’d taught himself to do without romantic relationships. “The short version of the story is that I needed the money.”

“And the longer version?” Jack asked.

“Before I started my last year at Duke, I told my parents that I didn’t want to go to law school. They might have accepted it if I’d wanted to go to med school instead, and if I were straight I might could even have gotten away with business or engineering, but a plain old chemistry degree just wasn’t going to cut it. They told me I could either continue with the pre-law track or they wouldn’t pay for my school anymore. I dropped out, and a friend got me the job at Nathan’s. That was two years ago. I want to go back to school once I’ve saved enough, but for now….” Mason shrugged.

Jack shook his head. “Your parents accepted you being gay, but they couldn’t accept you making your own career choice?”

Mason laughed but the sound was bitter. “They believed, actually they still do believe, that I’ll get over ‘the gay thing’. Refusing to follow the career path they set for me was the final straw. I’m not the man they want me to be, a straight lawyer with conservative political leanings. They’re still operating under the delusion that I’ll eventually ‘see sense’ and marry one of their friends’ daughters.” 

Gray leaned back in the booth and assessed him. “Have you ever let a man tie you up?”

Mason sputtered. That was one hell of a subject change. “N-no.”

“But you’d like to, wouldn’t you?”

“Gray,” Jack warned.

Mason would like it. Very much. “Yeah, I think so, I mean…yeah.”

Gray gave Jack a look that said “I told you so”.

Jack cupped the back of Mason’s neck and kneaded. Jack’s touch felt so good that Mason bit his lip to keep from moaning.

Gray’s eyes darkened as he held Mason’s gaze. “We play safe. If you want us to stop, we’ll stop, but I’d love to see if you’d enjoy submitting as much as I think you will.”