Stone: At Your Service (Carolina Bad Boys #1) (3 page)

Nicky
frowned so hard I thought all the words he kept inside his head were going to spew all over the dashboard. Then he grinned slowly. “Foreign car dealer.”

Smug
motherfucker.
I bumped his fist. “Yeah.” I settled back in my seat. “I still don’t understand why this is necessary. Can’t you just do the holy water, wear a cross, garlic thing to keep the crazies away?”

“
Try being a single male surrounded by thousands of female romance writers and fans . . . in an enclosed space.”

Hell yeah, game on.

“Sounds like my kind of heaven. PS. you ain’t that hot.”

He
cracked a smile and managed to deliver two birds my way while keeping his eyes on the road.

Talented mo-fo, like I said.

“I hate taking you away from home, man. Do you think JJ will be okay?” he asked.

I rubbed a hand over my chest, the place that ached whenever anyone mentioned the kid
and I wasn’t close enough to see him. “I haven’t been away from him for more than a night at a time since he was born.”

“
I know.”

I sucked it up.
“It’ll do him good to be away from his pops. Ma’s plans to spoil him will take months to undo.”

“
She’s the best.”

My throat tightened
when I thought about her, alone in that big house, without my dad. The way she welcomed everyone from her grandson to my best friend to my crew and all their hangers-on made it a home even with one vital part missing.
The Stone family is everyone’s family.
“Pretty much.”

“
So’s JJ.”

“
Yeah,” came my raspy reply.

“
Let me talk to him when you check in later?”

“
Okay, Uncle Wicky . . . just don’t rile him up before bedtime.”

“
Rile him up? C’mon. When’ve I been known to do that?” He gunned through the midtown Atlanta traffic, as much as he could in a not-so speedster Volvo.

“
Let’s see. Usually every Saturday night, eight o’clock, on the dot.” I dug through his bag again, determined to leave off the heavy. I had a few days off to hang with my best friend, see him in his element, and I was gonna make the best of it. “You brought new swag?”

“
Yeah, check the main pocket.” Nicky leaned over to slap my thigh. “Like a kid in a candy shop.”

****

Ramada’s valet parking sucked balls and cost a mint. The hotel was lit up like a fairytale palace—or a whorehouse, depending on how you looked at it—with convention attendees coming and going. It was busier than Stone’s before a holiday weekend, when everyone in Charleston’s tri-county area seemed destined to get a flat tire. Bellhops wearing pained grins pushed overflowing wheeled-carts through the carousel doors.

I wielded our cart
into the lobby, following Nicky as he strolled up to the check-in desk. His demeanor changed the instant we walked through the doors. Gone was the scrappy South Cackalackee bad boy. He rolled up the sleeves on his oxford twice, neatened his hair back into a sleek ponytail, and greeted people with effortless charm.

While we stood in line, a commotion at the back of t
he queue drew my attention. A woman wrangled with her cart and then watched—eyes wide and mouth open—as four boxes crashed to the floor. Books, dresses, shoes, wigs . . .
lingerie
swam onto the polished marble floor.

I noticed her
cock-up with the cart first.

Her legs second.

Her tits third.

Her face last.

Holy fuck.

“Who the hell is that?” I whispered, pointing at the babe surrounded by ten tons of shit spilling all over the floor.

Nicky glanced over
his shoulder. “No idea. New kid on the block, I guess.”

“
I’m gonna go help her.” I shouldered through the crowd and squatted down next to her. “Need a hand?” Because one thing Ma had taught me was always help out a lady in distress.

She blew a tendril of the lightest red hair from her brow.
“I’d sure appreciate it.”

I
helped pack her things back up and tidily stacked it on the cart. I willed myself not to look at her as I stepped back.
Definitely not remembering the lace, the frills, the full-on feminine lingerie I’d handled.

“
My knight in shinin’ armor?”

Shaking my h
ead, I backed away. I saw Nicky at the elevators, waiting for me. “Not really, miss.”

New kid on the block.
There was nothing kid-like about her. She was voluptuous, a handful from hips to hourglass waist to perfect breasts. The southern drawling miss in a knee-length skirt and clinging top didn’t seem to realize she’d made my cock railroad-spike hard. I walked away, mesmerized by her feminine-fuck-me appearance up to her goddamn adorable face. A killer combination. Full throttle attraction the likes of which I’d never felt made my head spin, my heart speed.

A
nd there was no way I could act on it because I’d just signed up for five and a half days of Gaydom at the Rom Con.

Tuesday: Gamecocks and Henpeckers

LITERARY LOVE CONVENTION 2013 had kicked off with a bang all right, just not the kind I suddenly needed care of the lusciously curved lady who’d caused a heavy ache to settle low in my groin.

As I approached Nicky at the elevators, he asked,
“Do what you needed to do?”

I shrugged.
“Sure.”
Not really, since my dick’s still in my pants.

To offset the fact I could barely keep from looking back at little miss sex-on-legs, I grabbed Nicky
’s hand and rubbed my thumb over his knuckles. His forearm tensed as he fought against pulling away from the unexpected caress.

“
Goin’ up, babe?”

I thought he was
gonna snort, which would really kill the mood I was going for. Holding himself in check, he twined his fingers through mine and gave me a peck on the cheek. “Sure, love.”

Motherfuck
er better not try to one-up me in the gay-stakes. ’Cause I’m gonna bring it.

We pushed into an emp
ty elevator and broke apart as soon as the doors closed. Nicky knocked his shoulder against mine, laughing when I alternated between rubbing the heel of my palm against my just-kissed cheek then my hand against my thigh. To wipe off boy cooties presumably. Christ.

“
You’re gay!” He nearly cackled.

I hit him with a broad smile.
“Only for you, babe.”

He was still chuckling when we made it to our room. He waved the key-card in my face
, and I snatched it from him as we went inside. A Fabio wannabe with some half-dressed pirate’s booty babe decorated the card—someone’s book cover.
Oh, good for a buy one, get one free appetizer at the mezzanine level Grille on Tuesday.
I had to hand it to the writers, customers loved BOGO. I might learn a thing or two.

I unloaded shit. Nicky
checked out the bathroom and the freebies before chucking everything off the desk to set up his laptop. I cracked a beer then growled, taking in the one and only bed in the room.
Keepin’ up appearances.

He
shucked his jeans, pulling on the same pair of University of South Carolina sweats he’d been wearing for over ten years.

I tanked the beer and went for another
, checking my iPhone. There was an urgent message from the garage. Imagining fires, destruction, utter fucking mayhem, I opened the attached file . . . then wished I’d never been given the gift of sight. The knuckle-draggers obviously thought they were funny as fuck. They’d stepped out behind Stone’s to drop trow and shine their moons for the camera. I pushed the phone as far away from me as possible with a loud groan.

Nicky looked over.
“What?”

I pointed at the cell with a firm shake of my head.

Undeterred, he reached for the phone and reeled back when he saw the photo. In the next second, he fell all fricking over himself, laughing it up. “Ray looks like his ass could use a weed whackin’, dude, yeah?”

I
grabbed the phone back, quickly texting, “
All y’all are FIRED.
”

“
See ya Monday, sport!
” Ray replied.

“
Meatheads,” I muttered.

Nicky continued to rock with laughter. Meanwhile, I was scarred for life. I ignored the rest of the buffoons
’ incoming bullshittery and settled back onto the bed, pressing the most used contact on the phone.

“
Stone’s! At your service, y’all.” The sweet voice humming over the wire warmed my heart, her greeting not so much.

“
Ma, you’re not supposed to answer your home phone that way. Gives people the wrong idea.”

“
Joshy! We were wonderin’ when you’d call. You get to ’Lanta all right? You know those people out there drive like it’s the Indy 500. Like to take your life into your own hands. You stopped to eat, now, didn’t you?”

I waited for her to take a breath.
“Yes and yes, ma’am.”

It didn
’t take her long to gather more speed. “You tryin’ to sweet talk me? Five days away is a long time to get into trouble. Now I know Nicky’s a good boy, but I don’t approve of you spendin’ all that time around all those ladies. Y’all best make sure to mind your manners and your morals.”

Unlike everyone
else on God’s green earth, Ma didn’t know I was playing
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
.

Nicky had heard her rant from half a room away. He shouted,
“Hey, Gigi! Don’t worry, I’m keepin’ Joshy here under lock and key.”

That calmed her down some. Nicky always
had that affect, while I riled her up by breathing the same air, simply because I was, and always would be, her baby boy. Not that she was much for babying, unless it came to JJ.

“
The kid there, Ma?” I asked.

“
Oh, he’s sittin’ right here. Had him some pulled pork for dinner, your memaw’s old recipe, and a tiny piece of cobbler. And then we went to the Piggly Wiggly to get some Popsicles. I think he’s about tuckered out.”

Tuckered out?
JJ was gonna be bouncing from his sugar spike for the next three hours. I listened to the patter of little feet while my heart flip-flopped in my chest.

“
Daddy?”

It never goddamn failed. I shifted to the side of the bed and stared at the wall, quickly blinking.
“Yep, I’m here.”

“
Miss you, Daddy.” His squeaky voice cut a path straight through my heart.

I cleared the gruffness from my throat.
“Me too, kid. But you’re havin’ fun with Jamma, right?”

That was the right tactic because he launched into a
tale of all the crap Ma had already done—including a trip to Target capped off with a “gween shushy”—which I’d have to unlearn him from when I got home.

“
And then Jamma lemme swim in the deep end of the pool wiffout fwoaties!” He finished on what he thought was a high note, but what gave me the forerunner of a heart attack.

I imagined his mussed up hair, his hazel eyes he
got from me. The fearlessness of the Stone family that had me worried like only a dad could be from those first wobbly steps and every day since.

“
Can I talk ta Uncle Wicky?”

I
beckoned Nicky over.

“
Hey, dude-man.” Nicky’s deep voice rumbled out as he greeted my son.

The rest of what I heard was a series of high-pitched nonsense and Nicky rambling on, a huge smile on his face.
“Nah, I ain’t famous.”

There was a pause, then
Nicky’s loud chuckle. “No, I don’t know Mickey Mouse.”

A couple minutes later,
he handed the phone back. “He’s winding down.”

“
Sugar crash,” I mouthed.

“
Daddy?”

“
Yeah, baby boy.” I listened to him yawn, that soft pop of his innocent mouth.

“
Do Baloo for me.”

I fell back on the bed.
“‘Bare Necessities’?”

“
Mm hmm.
”

I shut my eyes and curled against the phone like I
folded around his little body when I sang him to sleep. I’d employed every trick I could think of when he suffered from colic the first nine months and Claire was battling postpartum depression. Disney characters were the old standby. Putting on my best Baloo-bear voice, I sang him the song as he sleepily harmonized as Mowgli.

The song ended and all I heard were soft breaths, deep and heavy. Ma came on the line, whispering,
“I don’t know how you do it, Joshy. He’s already asleep. You’re a good daddy.”

I
crooked my arm over my face, swallowing a few times. “Thanks, Ma. Thanks for takin’ care of him.”

“
Oh hush now, you do all the work. I just do the spoilin’.”

“
You know he’s gonna be up pissing all night because of the sodas and ice pops, right?” A grin slid across my mouth.

“
Hmm
. I hate to break it to you, but you were the same way. And I done been through the wars with you.”

“
Love ya, Ma.”

Her voice softened
. “I love you too. Behave, or I will break out the willow switch when you get home. On you and Nicky both.”

Ending the call, I kept my eyes closed. JJ still asked about Claire, wondering why his momma left him
, why he could only remember me singing him to sleep at night. I didn’t believe in sugarcoating the truth, but I did believe in protecting him. Most times I told him she wasn’t ready to be a mom. “
But she sure missed one helluva a kid.
”

Then I
’d sit in the rocking chair beside his bed all night, making sure his dreams didn’t turn into nightmares. That’s why I’d never left him before.

“
Still hurts?” Nicky read my mind.

“
Yeah. But not because Claire left me. Because she left JJ high and dry.” I propped up onto an elbow. “Man, what if I’m not good enough to be everything to him?”

“
That’s bullshit and you know it. Anyone who sees the two of you together knows it, too. Besides, you’re not doing it alone. You’ve got me and the guys, you’ve got Gigi.”

“
You think?”

“
Yeah. But, if you stopped sowing your wild oats around the lowcountry and settled down, maybe he could have another mom.” He knocked into my shoulder.

“
Well that isn’t gonna happen now that I’m your lover, right?” With a grin, I pushed him right back.

Sure, marriage had never been a cakewalk. That had been blatantly obvious as soon as Clair
e smashed a piece of our pretty wedding cake into my face after the shotgun-she’s-pregnant ceremony. But I’d been determined to give it my best shot, which meant putting up with all of Claire’s worst ones. I’d stuck it out for the kid because family was important. Now I didn’t give any woman the chance to shake me up, shake me down. There was too much at stake.

I
t wasn’t as if I didn’t have offers. Half the female population in Mt. Pleasant—including a good quarter of the married ones—acted like I was a high commodity. They saw the surface only: tough guy, big muscles, successful business owner. They didn’t delve into the single dad working all hours, whose personal time was spent with his son, his family, his friends. The Friday night freebie-fucks were what I needed to de-stress from a week full of worries, bills, and bitching.

And I sure as hell was not looking for anything else.

At least here I’d be somewhat anonymous. Nicky’s love muffin, not Mt. Pleasant’s most-wanted bachelor.

I sat up when Nicky popped the cork on a bottle of wine, wedging a few more in
side the mini-fridge. He took a sip of the pink-colored fizz in his glass. “Done moping?”

“
I wasn’t moping, I was thinking,” I replied.

“
I knew I didn’t recognize that look on you.”

I chucked the hotel menu at him, which he swiftly deflected.
“Blow me.”

“
Might have to before the week’s out.” He gave me his best attempt at a leer.

“
Speakin’ of, the cost of registration . . . that’s a write-off, right?” I’d have to sort through all these receipts when I got home or, better yet, hand them off to Ray.

“
Yeah. If you’re a writer.” Nicky tossed a red-ribboned lanyard at me. “You can get a thirty percent deduction as my assistant though.”

“
And this is?” I looked at the thing he’d thrown into my lap.

“
That’s your name badge.”

“
I gotta wear it?”

“
Yep, at all times.” Then he threw something else over and I grabbed it midair. “Don’t forget to pin your pretty silk flower onto it. It’s the same as mine.”

What the hell?
A corsage too?

I dutifully pinned the
peach-colored flower to my name badge and did a double take. “Stone?”

“
Straight up Stone.” He swigged down the rest of his wine.

“
No pun intended, huh?”

Ambling closer, a seductive swagger to his steps, Nicky bit his bottom lip.

I hustled back on the bed, laughing nervously. “Uh, Nicky? You’re kind of giving me the heebie-jeebies here.”

H
e ran his fingers through the shoulder-length hair freed from his ponytail, peering at me with eyes that suddenly smoldered.
Jesus, this is scary. Is this what he does to the ladies?
He stopped right in front of me, breathing into my ear until my shoulders shot up. “Stone. Hard Stone. It adds to your aura, lover.”