A Bit of You (3 page)

“That’s Billy,” a voice to Liam’s left said. Liam didn’t even bother to stop stroking as he glanced over and found a cute brunet staring hungrily, watching Liam pump his dick. “He’s a slut. You can have him, no problem. Everyone else has.”

There was a heavy dose of jealousy in the brunet’s voice as well as a sneer on his full lips. All in all, he was a catty little package, although ‘catty’ was probably being charitable.

“Why don’t you let me suck you off? Or you can fuck me,” the brunet’s glanced up at his fce before zeroing back in on Liam’s cock. “We can do it right here, I’ll just climb on your lap and you can forget all about Billy.”

Liam frowned at the bitchy comment and his hand faltered on his cock. The brunet must have taken it for an invitation because his lips twisted in a smug grin and he started to unfasten his denim shorts. Liam stopped him with one question. “If Billy’s a slut, what does that make you?” He began tucking away his softening dick as the other man sputtered.

When the brunet continued to stand there, Liam arched a brow at him and casually looked away.

“You’re a fucking prick tease!” The brunet stomped his foot then stormed off. Liam laughed when the guy ran into a bear who didn’t take kindly to the collision. Within a minute, the brunet was on his knees grinning up at his new fuck toy, Liam obviously forgotten as his would-be seducer pulled out the bear’s dick and slurped it down.
Looks like
they’re both enjoying it.
Liam might have got off on watching them another time, but tonight he was only interested in one man.

He sought out the blond—
Billy.
Now at another table, the sexy little waiter didn’t look quite so exuberant. Liam studied him, noting the less relaxed pose and the darted glances.

He would have sworn he even saw Billy shiver. Liam looked around the club, trying to spot who or what had made the server so uncomfortable. He couldn’t pinpoint anything.

After watching Billy for over an hour, Liam began to worry. Yeah, he didn’t know the blond; Billy could be a complete and utter jackass or he could be the sweetest thing since Texas tea. But, the uneasiness Liam could spot didn’t sit naturally on Billy, not like the earlier happy disposition had.

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A BIT OF YOU

Bailey Bradford

16

It occurred to him belatedly that maybe
he
was the reason Billy felt so uncomfortable.

After all, he’d been drooling over Billy, even beating off not long ago as he watched Billy. But try as he might, Liam couldn’t
not
watch him. He did try not to make it obvious, though, peering through his lashes and using his peripheral vision so much his eyes ached with the strain of it.

Then Billy went into a room in the back. Liam waited for him to return, but he kept thinking of how Billy had been checking around the club, his nervous glances and stiff posture. The lack of ass shaking had nearly made Liam cry.

Liam checked his watch. He’d guess it had been a good ten minutes since Billy had taken his break, if that was what he was doing. He got up and strolled to the bar, giving the bartender there a nod and ordering a Miller draught. Liam was trying to figure out what his chances were of getting tossed from the club if he inquired into Billy’s whereabouts when a scowling man almost as big as himself slapped the surface of the bar hard enough to make the whole thing vibrate. Liam couldn’t hear what was being said at first, but the last part of the question the snarling man spewed seemed to zing right to Liam’s ears.

“Where is Billy?”

The bartender tipped his chin towards the door Billy had gone through. “Actually, Xavier, now that you mention it, he went on break a while ago. Said he was going to chill in the back room.”

Xavier didn’t look happy as he turned his scowl on the door. “Alone?” he asked as he made his way behind the bar. “Stay here and take care of the bar, Adam.” The blond waiter nodded but didn’t look happy about it at all, and the bartender, Troy, followed Xavier.

Liam snorted softly.
Guess the catty little brunet was right about Billy being a slut. Not that
it’s a problem.
It wasn’t like Liam wanted anything more than to fuck his delectable ass.
Okay,
and I want his hands on me, and maybe his smiling mouth.
He replayed Billy’s departure in his mind. Billy had definitely gone into the room by himself. Maybe he was meeting someone out back?

Xavier—Liam was assuming the man was the club manager or owner since no one stopped him—shoved open the door behind the bar and hollered. “Billy? Billy!”

Liam assumed Billy didn’t answer because Xavier stepped into the room, calling for him again. A trickle of unease skittered through Liam when Xavier came back out alone and looking worried now instead of pissed off.

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A BIT OF YOU

Bailey Bradford

17

“You’re sure he went in there, Troy?”

The bartender frowned as he nodded. “Yeah, close to fifteen minutes ago. Maybe he went out back?”

Liam didn’t know what was going on, but there was definitely some major tension between Xavier and Troy. His hopes that it had nothing to do with Billy plummeted when both men cursed and ran into the back room. Liam started towards the door, hesitating in the entryway. He didn’t have any right to go poking his nose into other people’s business. Just because he wanted to fuck Billy didn’t mean he should be prying.

Liam started to back away but the sound of angry voices propelled him forward instead. He followed the sound as he ran through the room, darting around boxes. A door out the back stood open, and now he could hear the distinct sound of fists on flesh. His stomach tightened as he pumped his legs harder. Liam burst through the doorway and slammed into the bartender. He flailed but might have managed to remain upright if he hadn’t seen Billy crouched on the ground, a dark bruise already forming around his eye and blood dripping from his mouth.

The sight hit him like a hoof to the gut. Liam stumbled and his arms didn’t follow his brain’s order to reach out. Instead, they went forward and the rest of him toppled right along. He landed hard, his breath knocked out of him and his body screaming in a hundred places as it impacted the asphalt. His palms burned like a bitch but he managed to keep from slamming his chin against the ground.

A pale, lightly fuzzed leg was right beside his head. Liam blinked and tried to breathe, his entire chest aching. He tipped his head up and looked. His first full-on view of Billy was marred by the bruising and the blood, but he still thought Billy was the most perfect man he’d ever seen. Even in the dim lighting of the alley, he could make out the pale blue colour of Billy’s irises.

Liam could hear someone cursing and beating the shit out of someone else, but he didn’t care about that right now, not when Billy was looking at him like he was Billy’s personal miracle, delivered at his feet.

“Did you come to rescue me, too?” Billy asked in a soft lilting voice. He looked so hopeful Liam couldn’t bring himself to disappoint him. And maybe he’d started off wanting nothing more than a fuck, but he’d sure come running when he’d thought the sexy little blond was in trouble, hadn’t he?

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A BIT OF YOU

Bailey Bradford

18

So Liam wasn’t surprised by his own answer. “Yeah, I did.” Even if he had ended up splayed on the ground like an idiot.

“Oh good.” Billy’s split lips curled up in a smile that warmed Liam in a way he didn’t have time to examine before Billy’s blue eyes closed and he slumped to the ground. Liam’s heart squeezed in his chest like an anvil had been dropped on it. He manoeuvred around until he was able to cradle Billy’s head then he stroked Billy’s cheek. Liam felt the soft exhale of Billy’s breath, and wondered if Billy instinctively trusted him enough to allow himself to pass out, or if he just couldn’t remain conscious.

“Why is there a man lying on the ground holding Billy?”

Liam frowned at the interruption and craned his neck around to look at the speaker.

Sounded like Xavier, he thought. The other guy had a rougher voice.

The bartender glanced at him and shrugged. “I dunno. Dude, why are you even out here? Weren’t you at the bar a few minutes ago?”

Liam twisted and grunted, pulling himself into a sitting position and cradling Billy’s head in his lap. He buried one hand in Billy’s hair and looked at Xavier and Troy, wondering if they were stupid. Couldn’t they see how Billy just had a sort of special
glow
about him? It sounded stupid and corny and mushy, but it was what it was. Liam was fascinated by Billy, and, while he’d always scoffed at the idea of insta-love, he was now thinking Karma was biting him in the ass for his pessimistic attitude.

“Do you really think now is the time for this? Wouldn’t it be better to call an ambulance and the police? Although,” Liam grinned despite being irritated at being grilled by two men who should have been more concerned with Billy’s health than this stupid shit. He saw the owner’s face pinch as if he knew something unpleasant was coming. Liam opened his wallet and held it out for the men to look at.

“I am Special Agent Liam Stone, FBI.”

“Could this night get any more fucked?” Troy grumbled.

Xavier gave him a dirty look and smacked him on the shoulder. “Do
not
ask shit like that! It’s like Fate sees it as a challenge when you do!”

Liam smirked as he tucked his wallet away. Then he looked at Billy’s rapidly swelling eye and his split lips. His amusement died in a heartbeat. “That’s been my experience as well.

Now, about the ambulance…” He ignored the other two men until Xavier crossed and knelt beside Billy. Liam watched as he felt for Billy’s pulse. “Randy had a knife,” Xavier muttered, www.total-e-bound.com

A BIT OF YOU

Bailey Bradford

19

and Liam slammed him away as panic clawed at his chest.
What if Billy hasn’t simply passed
out? He could be bleeding to death from a knife wound or an internal injury while I’m sitting here like
a fucking idiot!

Carefully, Liam ran his hands over every inch of Billy’s small body. He was aware in some small part of his mind that Xavier was watching him, but he just didn’t give a shit, and he didn’t know the man, so he didn’t trust him to check Billy as carefully as he was doing.
I
don’t know Billy, either, but I think I could trust him very easily
. It was something about him, an innocence and need Liam saw every time he looked at Billy. The need—for now, at least—

wasn’t physical. Billy had been too hurt and probably in shock to be thinking with his dick.

What Liam believed he’d seen in Billy was a yearning, one something in Liam roared with the need to satisfy.

“I don’t feel or see any knife wounds,” Liam murmured, more to himself than to Xavier.

“Why are you in town?”

Liam didn’t waste a look on him. “That’s not really your business, is it?”

“Billy is my business,” the other man snapped with enough command guaranteed to get Liam’s attention. Xavier was glaring hard enough that it would have physically hurt Liam if it were possible. “And you’re someone who is passing through. Billy probably doesn’t even know your name, does he? Did he manage to slip away and blow you in the bathroom, give you a hand job or something like along those lines? Why are you out here treating him like…like he means something to you?”

Liam couldn’t keep his own anger from surging to the surface. “First off, whatever has happened or will happen between me and Billy is not your business—” he began hotly.

Xavier slashed his hand through the air. “You’re wrong. Billy is my responsibility, and certainly, if he is having sex on the clock, I have a right to know about it.”

Confused but determined not to be intimidated, Liam dropped his gaze back down to Billy. He brushed a chunk of hair off Billy’s smooth forehead with fingers that trembled. He needed some answers before he fell any deeper under this special man’s spell. “What do you mean, he’s your responsibility? Are you saying the two of you are…are together, and you let him screw around? Does he mean so little to you, then?” There was definitely some relationship between Billy and Xavier. Liam wouldn’t poach, but if Billy was in a bad www.total-e-bound.com

A BIT OF YOU

Bailey Bradford

20

situation—and would he have been out in the alley if he’d been in a good situation?—Liam wouldn’t hesitate to encourage him to leave.

“Billy means more to me than you can know, but not in the way you’re thinking. Our relationship isn’t sexual and it also isn’t your business.” Xavier slumped, the anger that had fired his words missing when he spoke again. “Are you coming to the hospital or leaving?”

Liam couldn’t hide his surprise at the question any more than he could hide his relief at learning the two weren’t a couple. “Okay,” he said, his voice rough from the swell of relief that threatened to choke him, “and thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to get to know you both.” Or at least to get to know Billy. If Xavier got in the way, Liam would run him over like a bulldozer running over a doll house.

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A BIT OF YOU

Bailey Bradford

21

Billy slumped back against the crappy pillow on the hospital bed and pouted. “But I don’t
want
to press charges! And I don’t need to be here! I just fainted.”
Sheesh, you’d think
Xavier had never seen me pass out before!
It wasn’t the first time; Billy’s nervous system was as excitable as he was, which sometimes resulted in it just knocking him right out. He always figured that was so he wouldn’t start screeching and panicking…more.

Xavier glared back at him and shook his head. “The whole bottom lip thing isn’t going to work this time. Randy’s gone too far. He could have killed you. He needs help, and he needs to be held accountable for his actions.”