"What?" I said, my voice going high pitched. "Why?"
He sighed, shrugging and dropping his hands away from his body, looking almost ashamed. "I'm really hairy."
I nodded, swallowing hard as I once again ran my eyes over his delicious form. "Uh huh."
"I pretended I needed to piss and snuck out of the apartment," he said, just as I drew my bottom lip between my teeth, groaning slightly at the clear line of his dick. Those pants had to be super soft, because the ridge running around the head was visible, and looked incredibly lickable. "Are you okay?"
The things I could do to that body.
"Bates?"
"So warm," I whispered, imagining what it would be like to be pressed against him with those thick arms wrapped around me.
"What?" he asked, and it was the strained tone in his voice that finally drew my attention to his face.
"What?" I cleared my throat, nodding. "Yes. Fine. Do you want to take your pants off?"
Both eyebrows rose slowly on his face.
I ran my question over in my head, gasping. "What? Did I just…" I groaned, before laughing uncomfortably. "I meant do you want to hang out here until they leave?"
Probably not now, dipshit. Why was I so damn good at making myself look like an idiot in front of him?
"Is that okay? Are you busy?"
"No. I mean yes and then no." I groaned, shaking my head. "Yes, it's okay, and no, I'm not busy. I––" Gasping, I turned to the camera sitting on my coffee table, live streaming the whole damn thing. "Oh shit!"
I jumped over the back of the couch, glad I'd somehow managed to clear the thing, since I was pretty sure I'd already made enough of an ass out of myself in front of Grant and all my followers on my vlog stream. "Sorry, guys. As you can see, something came up. I'll be back on later tonight."
I clicked it off quickly, only catching a few of the comments that had been popping up and groaning at the content. At least some people thought my bumbling was adorable. I was pretty sure Grant wasn't as appreciative of it, and neither was I, to be frank.
"Everything okay?" he asked, coming up behind me, and I groaned, cringing as I turned to look at him.
"I really hope you're okay with being on live internet, because you just were."
He glanced at the camera and then down at himself, shrugging slightly. "Uh, that's fine. Were you working?"
What was with the slight uptick in his voice, before he cleared his throat?
"Kinda," I answered honestly, not wanting to lie, but also not wanting him to think it was all that big of a deal, since I could do that any time. "But it can wait, I promise."
I really wanted him to stay, and I knew if he thought he was interrupting something, he would insist on leaving.
There was a hard knock on the door and we both slowly turned our head in that direction. When neither of us moved, the room going completely silent, like we were worried there were zombies out there, and they might actually hear us. The next knock made us both jump, and I cussed, getting up to at least see who it was, though I was pretty sure––as I was sure Grant was too––of who it was likely to be.
"It's one of them," I confirmed, shooing him toward the kitchen, where it would be easy for him to hide around the little partial wall that separated it from the living room. "Stay hidden. I'll get rid of him."
I opened the door, smiling at the man I was pretty sure was Riley, and leaned against the wood, blocking his way. I'd seen him in action, and I wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't shove me out of the way to get into my house.
"Hi," I said brightly, giving him my most charming smile.
See! I'm not always the most awkward person around. Usually, I could have normal conversations with other humans, and did often. It was Grant that fucked my head and mouth connector all up.
"Hi! I'm Riley." The man tried to lean around me to look inside my apartment, but I stood firm. "Is Grant here?"
"Grant?" I asked, playing dumb.
That must have not been the right thing to do, because the man's attention returned to me with a snap, a small smile ticking up one corner of his mouth. This man wasn't dumb. Far from it.
"Yeah. Big, handsome… and hairy. The alpha my friends and I were with earlier."
"Oh. Yeah." I nodded, before shaking my head. "Sorry, he's not here."
Riley bit his lip, letting his eyes wander over me. It didn't feel sexual at all. More like he was sizing me up. Hopefully not for that skinning Grant had accused him of.
"He's hot as fuck, isn't he?" he asked, sounding far too seductive for the dry look on his face. "Can you believe he thinks he's unattractive?"
I blinked in surprise, somehow feeling like I'd been slapped in the face. I started to turn my head toward the kitchen, like I was expecting him to poke his head around the corner and nod a confirmation to this ridiculous claim, but I caught myself just in time.
I could tell by the deepening smile on his face, that Riley was on to me, but my loyalty lay elsewhere. Though, if Grant really did feel like that, maybe he needed to hear the truth falling from my lips.
"Really?" I asked, playing right along with Riley's game, probably designed to embarrass me into calling Grant forward. I had to respect him for his effort. "Why would he think that? All that muscle and hair, that brow line."
I shuddered for real. I'd been half hard since Grant had showed up on my doorstep, flashing me all the goods. I really didn’t need to be so damn graphic in reminding myself what lay behind that little wall… hiding from this omega.
"Mmhmm. You should see him now that we got some of that beard trimmed back. You can actually see most of his face."
"I'll make sure to check that out next time he goes by."
Riley nodded, crossing his arms over his chest, and batting his lashes at me sweetly. "Do you do that a lot?"
"Do what a lot?"
"Check him out when he goes by?"
I smirked, finding it hard not to like this man.
I opened my mouth to confirm that I did, actually, spend a great deal of time waiting for Grant to pass by in his predictable fashion, between six forty-five and six fifty in the morning, and five ten and five fifteen in the evening, but suddenly, another head was popping up right in front of my face, cutting off my conversation Riley.
"Hey," the guy who'd wanted a picture with me from before said.
"Hey," I answered back automatically.
"I'm Jennings. I'm a big fan."
"Oh," I said, my stomach dropping as I started to let my eyes move toward the kitchen again, only to snap them back toward Riley and Jennings, licking my lips and swallowing hard. "Of my vlog, or…" I trailed off, not wanting to finish that statement, and thankfully, he didn't make me.
"Or," he said significantly, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, I haven't watched in a while."
"Oh. Thank you for your business?" Was that the proper thing to say? I hadn't really run into this before. I knew there were a few people from Salida that had seen my vlog, and even my stream, and I'd accidentally disclosed that I was from there when I'd gotten donuts from one of the local shops once, and the box and logo had been in the background during one of my vlog sessions, but I hadn't run into anyone at that point. Or if I had, they had been too ashamed to mention it to me.