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Will you give over? Look at Lennon, he’s not in the slightest bit interested in Jupiter.
Are you fucking blind? The fucker is dazzling my man.
You said it, he’s ours. Your acting out has just upset the balance.
No shit, Sherlock!
I have no idea what you mean by that. Let Jupiter work his magic.
That’s what I’m fucking afraid of.
Maddening, but true. He’d gone to search Jupiter out when he’d gotten home last evening. He had been in a full panic but he could see now that he’d clearly lost his damn mind.
“Are you actually asking me for advice?” Jupiter’s brows were fighting with his bangs.
Kodi stomped to the closet where Jupiter was hanging up a suit jacket when he’d barraged into his room and launched into what was on his mind. “If it quacks like a duck then it’s a damn duck.”
For a second there was silence, then Jupiter was rocking on his heels laughing so hard he could hardly stand up right.
“I knew this was a bad idea.” He swung around to stomp out, but Jupiter caught his arm.
“S-sor-ry,” he hiccuped, “you caught me off guard.”
An eyebrow winged up and Kodi gave a dramatic eye roll. “I can see that.”
Kodi took a breath to see if it would help with how hard his heart was jumping in his chest. “I didn’t want to find myself in this situation. Fuck, a part of me still isn’t sure how I got here.”
“Does the line ‘the guy doth protest too much, methinks’ spring to mind? Yes, it fucking does. You’ve been protesting so long about not wanting to fall for your PA, it’s become a habit.”
“It’s ‘the lady doth protest too much, methinks’. I know Shakespear you dipshit, and how is it a habit? You do it too and I’m not blind to how you look at a certain raccoon when you think no one is watching.”
Jupiter shook his head vehemently. “We’re talking about you, got it!”
Kodi huffed dramatically and flopped down on Jupiter’s bed. “Point taken. My secretary said I should get Lennon a make-up gift.”
“What did you fall out over, besides the obvious.”
“What’s ‘the obvious’?” Kodi demanded, the unsettled feeling ramping up enough to make his stomach churn.
Jupiter shut the closet door, unbuttoning his shirt as he walked to where Kodi was. “Your overreactive ass. Lennon is a saint to put up with it.”
“Okay, I agree.” What else could he say? Lennon was spanking him for that very reason. “It doesn’t help, though.”
“I’ll ask again, what did you do that warrants you coming here and thinking about gifts? It’s gotta be serious.” He stood, shirt open, and Kodi’s gaze was drawn to the scarred flesh Jupiter usually hid.
Kodi knew he was the only other person, besides his parents, aware of what lay beneath Jupiter’s clothes. As a teenager at school, many had thought Jupiter was a drama queen when he refused to undress in front of others in the locker room. It was self-preservation when he didn’t talk about what had brought him into their family. Kodi didn’t know all of it, just what little Jupiter had shared over their nightly raids of the kitchen. Kodi had struggled to sleep after he’d stopped the medications the doctors had prescribed and had taken to roaming the house in the middle of the night, most times ending up in the kitchen to find something to eat. It was where he’d first met Jupiter.
Jupiter tugged the edges together when Kodi realized he must have been staring for too long. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Jupiter’s reply was stilted, when it obviously wasn’t fine. “Are you gonna tell me what you did?”
He blamed the guilt of making Jupiter uncomfortable for his next confession. “He was spanking me—it helps my brain calm down—when Booker walked in and found us. I wasn’t thinking straight and chased after Booker to make sure he didn’t tell anyone what had gone down.”
Jupiter showed no signs of surprise. “And?”
He blushed hard at the knowing look Jupiter gave him and squirmed on the bed. “I mentioned how relieved I was that no one would find out about us.”
“Oh, you fucked up royally!” Jupiter chuckled.
