Chapter Ten

Don't Go in the Storage Room

Dan

"Alright, folks."

From my spot on the couch, I lifted my head off my lap to peer over as Holt swept into the backstage area with Taylor just behind him carrying a tablet.

At the counter, Brian politely turned off the blender and abandoned his protein shake to pay attention. Mads put down her magazine, Carl and Kenneth halted their conversation, and Val turned from the sink. Over in the gym area, Heidi dropped her dumbbells with a clang and Susan looked up from her yoga mat, while Crossbody audibly huffed in annoyance but slowed his treadmill to a brisk walk.

"Hey, T-bone!" Kit called down from the ceiling. Taylor shot a cute grin in their general direction and waved.

"Morning, Taylor!" Vince called, voice muffled around his mouthful of oatmeal as he sat beside me on the couch eating his breakfast.

"Good morning," Taylor said politely back. "Morning, everyone."

"Nice tie, sir ," Gabe purred with a sly grin, leaning his hip on the counter as he shook his beaker.

"Very handsome, Mr. Hough," Biff added as he closed the fridge.

"Those pants look great on you," I piped up, just because Taylor was adorable when he blushed.

"Thanks."

"And your shirt is such a cute colour, Taylor!" Susan added.

"Thanks, Susan." He blushed again.

Holt tossed back his long hair and placed a hand on his hip, seemingly waiting for something. When no one else spoke up, he pointedly glanced down at his baby pink silk pussy bow shirt and high-waisted pants.

After a few more long seconds of utter silence, he huffed and straightened. "Fuck all of you. Okay, it's Tuesday, so you know what that means."

We all perked up. Even Crossbody turned off his treadmill, grabbing his towel to dab the sweat from his neck as he hopped down off the belt.

"Time for the match line-ups," Holt declared. Like a well-oiled machine, Taylor tapped swiftly on the tablet and passed it over to him. Holt gave him a dopy smile. "Thanks, babe. Right," he continued in a louder voice. "Rafe said the test runs for the pay-per-view all went great, which means the official launch will be going ahead as planned this week."

"Who's Rafe?" Crossbody drawled, even though he'd met him.

I rolled my eyes. Despite Rafe practically being a ghost at work, by this point we were all at least aware of him. Crossbody was just being a dick, as per usual.

"Oh." He sniffed. "You mean the other ghoul?"

I looked over in time to see him sneering at Vince, as if ghouls were a lower lifeform to him. I mean, Crossbody thought everyone was a lower lifeform to him, so it wasn't that surprising.

Still. After seeing how awkward Rafe had been around me and Vince last week, a tiny hint of protectiveness flared at the thought of Crossbody inadvertently making him feel like any more of an outcast.

"Hey Crossbody," I began, "why don't you—"

"Get fucked," Vince finished for me in a bored voice. "And shut the fuck up until you learn how to actually contribute meaningfully to any conversation."

Crossbody's nostrils flared in outrage. "You don't get to—"

"Enough, boys," Biff ordered in his stern voice. I saw Gabe's nipples visibly stiffen in response, which made me snort. The spike on the end of his long tail quivered, and I'd fooled around with enough incubi and succubi to know exactly what that meant.

When I turned my attention back to Holt, he just looked bored by our antics—he was used to them—whereas Taylor seemed a little worried. He hadn't had as much time to get used to us and our general dynamic.

"Don't worry, handsome," I drawled with a crooked grin to reassure him. "You'll get used to Crossbody thinking he's better than the rest of us."

Holt raised his brows meaningfully in a clear look of agreement, but he pretended to be very busy peering down at his tablet screen as he cleared his throat. "Right, anyway…"

"Hold on, honey," Taylor said quietly. "Frank and Beans aren't here."

"Ugh." Holt wrinkled his nose as he lifted his head to look around. "Anyone know where they are?"

"They're here." Larkin appeared through the door behind him and held it open so that Seb, Holt's werewolf bodyguard, could walk through. Attached to his legs were Frank and Beans, like two horrible little parasites, but Seb's face was as stoic as ever.

"Swear to god, you two, I meant what I said." Larkin pointed down at them, trying to make his angelic face threatening. "If I see any hands creeping higher up Seb's legs, I will punt you. No inappropriate touching."

"Did you manage to get hold of Corey?" Holt asked him.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Uh-huh." Larkin held up his phone and turned it to face us. He was connected to a video call, and on the screen was Corey, Goliaths' resident orc diva, sitting in a hair salon. He'd propped his phone up against the mirror in front of him and carefully arranged himself into an elegantly casual pose, one leg crossed over the other. His little Pomeranian, Cora, panted merrily in his lap as he flicked idly through a magazine and sipped from an espresso cup.

"I'm here," he declared.

"Fantastic." Holt tapped on his tablet screen, then cleared his throat and looked up. "Okay, first, the main events for each night. Thursday, we have Vince and Dan closing out the show."

"Sick." Vince grinned as we fist-bumped.

"Friday," Holt continued. "The G.O.A.T. and the Silent Scream."

Heidi grinned over at Susan, who clapped her hands and said, "Ooh, fun!"

"Saturday—which we anticipate will pull in the highest numbers online, assuming things go well—will, of course, be Corey," Holt announced in an overly patient tone. On Larkin's phone screen—which he was still obediently holding up, though he had begun fidgeting restlessly—Corey gave the camera a demure smile and daintily sipped his espresso as Holt continued, "Against Brian."

Brian, the werewolf B. Were, smiled shyly over by the counter, fiddling with his beaker.

"We'll give them a show, darling," Corey declared through the video call. Behind him, his hair stylist—a fae with a multicoloured mullet—paused in trimming the orc's long black hair to snap his fingers in agreement.

"And Sunday will be Val against Frank and Beans," Holt finished hurriedly. "Sorry, Val."

She sighed. Frank cackled and finally let go of Seb's leg. He grabbed Beans' ankle and dragged him off too, then the pair of them ran behind the couch.

I hurriedly placed my head on my neck and shifted to my human form so they couldn't sneak up on me and run off with it.

Now that Frank and Beans were no longer attached to his boyfriend, Larkin shuffled closer to Seb and wrapped his arm around his waist. The big werewolf kissed the top of his head, idly threading his fingers through the fae's bright pink hair.

"Larkin, please keep the camera steady," Corey said sharply, frowning. "You know I get nauseated."

Larkin flushed. "Sorry."

Seb stiffened, and his big hand settled protectively on Larkin's nape. "Maybe you shouldn't make hair appointments when you're supposed to be at work, so you could be here in person," he said calmly.

Seb. The guy I'd probably only heard say a total of ten words before this.

The big room fell deathly silent. Larkin's mouth had dropped open into a surprised little O. Holt was giving Taylor a wide-eyed look. He mouthed something to him. Vince and I exchanged a quick, meaningful glance. Even Crossbody looked shocked that Seb, of all people, would say something like that to Corey.

To everyone's surprise, the orc laughed after a few long, tense seconds. "Darling, do you honestly believe that I am going to let myself be broadcast to the world without getting a blowout?"

"No," Seb said steadily. "I'm just pointing out that Larkin isn't your assistant. It's not his job to stand there and hold up the phone for you."

"I'll do it next time," Taylor said hurriedly, then lunged forward. "In fact, I'll do it right now. You don't have to stay, Lark. Thanks for your help. Really. I'm sure Corey appreciates it."

"I'm sure he does," Seb echoed calmly, but there was a slightly threatening undertone to the words.

Damn, that was kind of hot.

Larkin seemed to think so too, because he was pressing even closer to the big werewolf and a telltale flush was creeping up his throat. "Um, yeah, it's cool. No worries. I don't mind. Hey, Seb," he said abruptly in an overly chirpy voice. "I just remembered I need to… move those boxes in the storage room. Do you, uh, want to—"

"Yep." Seb took the phone from Larkin's hand and swiftly passed it to Taylor, before the pair of them turned and strode out of the room.

"Right." Holt cleared his throat and looked back down at his tablet. "Well, let's all avoid the storage room for the next hour or so. Anyway, on to the rest of the matches…"

Once he'd finished reading out the line-up for the week, the sound of a blow dryer blared out from the phone in Taylor's hand. He hurriedly said goodbye to Corey and hung up, then turned to us with a big smile.

"So, this is all very exciting. We've got an aggressive ad campaign planned for the week across several sites that Rafe has vetted, but we're kind of seeing this as a soft launch for the pay-per-view, so we can get a feel for the numbers and work out any snags that might crop up."

"Why would there be snags?" Crossbody asked snippily. He was still looking sour-faced over having not been picked as a headliner for our big online launch. "I thought we'd hired someone specifically for this."

I glared over at him.

"We have," Holt replied steadily, "and Rafe is great. But obviously, certain things are out of his control."

"Like what?" Crossbody asked flatly.

Vince rolled his eyes. "Just admit that you don't know how the internet works, Spring Prince."

Crossbody's nostrils flared. "I know how the fucking internet works."

"Oh yeah?" Vince smirked. "You got good Wi-Fi in Mommy's palace in Otherworld?"

The royal fae's pale face turned dark purple. "I've lived here for six fucking years. I know how the internet works."

"Jesus fucking Christ," Holt muttered under his breath, then held up his tablet and raised his voice to put an end to the bickering. "I've sent the line-up to the group chat, and Hogbody and I have come up with some new storylines to launch Goliaths Online with a bang."

"Ooh, like what?" Susan asked eagerly.

"Like Gabe and Biff having a lover's tiff and duking it out in the ring."

"Hot," Gabe rasped, smirking at his gargoyle boyfriend.

"And Chris secretly teaming up with Vince to betray Dan during their match," Holt added, referring to my unicorn buddy who I rode down the walkway for my entrance. He sometimes got into the ring with me for an illegal tag team, which always drove the crowd wild.

Vince cackled and got me in a headlock as I chuckled. "Nice."

"So please, for the love of god, just act professional this week, huh?" Holt looked around at all of us. "This could be huge for us."

"Totally," Taylor piped up enthusiastically. "Pay-per-view could be a massive revenue stream, which opens up a lot of opportunities. More performers on the docket, bigger and better shows, investing more back into merch…"

"God, I love it when you go all corporate marketing speak," Holt muttered throatily, eyeing his human boyfriend with a lusty gleam. "I think I might have some boxes that need moving in my office. Care to join me, Mr. Hough?"

Taylor blushed and fiddled with his tie. "I—Yes, of course. Whatever you need, Mr. Hector," he added politely.

"You little minx," Holt murmured, then strode after him with intent when Taylor turned and hurried from the room.

"Aren't they just the cutest?" Susan said.

"Honestly, I'm just surprised anything still gets done around here," Mads said dryly.

"I don't blame him," Vince drawled, standing up and stretching. "Taylor's ass looks fantastic in those dowdy grey slacks."

Crossbody huffed, his lip curling into a sneer as he shot Vince a disdainful look before spinning and striding back over to the treadmill.

Ignoring him, Vince turned to grin down at me. "Want to go start practising some moves?"

I hesitated. For some weird reason, I actually kind of wanted to go see Rafe. He was the reason all of this was happening—his hard work was going to give us Goliaths a bigger stage, a far larger audience, a thousand more potential opportunities. It felt kind of shitty that he wasn't even here to take part in all the excitement, although I got the sense that he would've hated being the centre of attention.

I wanted to go tell him… I didn't even know what. That we were all grateful, and excited, and we appreciated his hard work. I'd already seen how stressed and tired he'd been this weekend while he'd been testing out the live feed.

I'd made sure to give him a show each night to try and take the edge off for him. I was selfless like that.

Then I remembered that our nightly post-nut meetings on our back decks had come to an abrupt end after I fixed his fence, seeing as there was now a barrier between our yards again. So I didn't actually know if he was still watching me give myself some neck every night through the window.

I hoped he was, but I doubted Rafe would be at all receptive to seeing me at work, anyway, so I nixed the idea and grinned back at Vince. "Sure."

But when I went to rise from the couch, my hair got caught on something. A sharp tug had my head jerking back, and my blood began to boil when I heard a creepy little snicker from behind me.

"That's it," I barked, yanking my head free from Frank's grip and shooting up to spin around and point at his weird little face. "I'm talkin' to Holt about this."

"Don't be such a baby." Frank sneered as Beans popped up beside him, watching me with terrifyingly blank eyes. "We're just messing around."

"Stop trying to steal my fucking head," I roared, then turned to stride for the doors. "I'm lodging a formal complaint. This is harassment."

"Snitch," one of them yelled after me.

"Not saying you shouldn't, bro, but you will definitely see something you don't want to if you barge into Holt's office right now," Vince called.

"Don't care." I shoved the door open and marched down the corridor, past all our dressing rooms until I reached the part of the building I rarely visited.

The waiting room attached to Holt's office was empty, reminding me to stay away from the storage room for a while, so I strode right up to his office door and pounded my fist on the wood. "Holt? Get decent. I need to talk to you."

Frantic shuffling sounds came from inside. About thirty seconds later, the door opened. Holt's hair was wildly mussed, but at least he was fully clothed.

"Dan," he said in an overly airy voice, reaching up to delicately wipe the corner of his mouth with a thumb. "What can I do for you?"

Behind him, Taylor was perched on the loveseat pretending to read a magazine, his face flushed and his legs awkwardly crossed, still visibly trembling from the blowjob Holt had clearly just been giving him.

Honestly. And he chastised us for not being professional?

"Frank and Beans are harassing me," I told Holt, still frowning. "They won't stop trying to steal my head."

He exhaled and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Fucking Frank and Beans."

"Can you please just talk to them?" I rubbed my throat protectively. "It's stressing me out."

"Of course. Sorry. They're the worst." Holt tensed. "Don't tell them I said that."

"Is there anything we can do to help in the meantime, Dan?" Taylor asked, standing up and making his way over with a concerned expression on his cute human face.

I exhaled slowly to calm myself down. It took a lot to get me riled up, and I didn't particularly like being angry. Some people, like Crossbody and Rafe, seemed to thrive on it.

I gave Taylor my usual charming grin, which made Holt inch closer to him possessively. "Thank you kindly, Taylor." To Holt, I said, "If you could just talk to them. Maybe… I don't know, let them know that there'll actually be repercussions if they act like creepy little shits?"

"Right, right. Repercussions. Absolutely." Holt nodded emphatically, scratching his neck. "Like, uh…"

He trailed off and stared blankly at Taylor.

"Like… saying we'll take the air hockey table out of their dressing room if they don't stop?" Taylor offered after a few seconds, giving Holt a hesitant smile.

Holt snapped his fingers and pointed at him. "Yes. That. Perfect, babe. Ooh, and if that doesn't work, I can threaten to stop buying those vile hot dog water-flavoured sodas they love." He turned back to me with a winning smile and smoothed his hair down. "Don't worry about a thing, Dan. I've got it under control."

I doubted that, but nodded. "Great. Thanks."

"So are you excited for the online launch?" Holt asked me brightly, clearly trying to keep me happy. "You and Vince will be great. Total faith in you two."

"Uh-huh." My mouth twitched. "Ra—The new guy works fast, huh? He got it all up and running pretty quickly."

"Yeah, seems to be doing great." Holt crossed his arms and shrugged lightly. "Not the, uh, friendliest guy in the world, but clearly a hard worker. Doesn't come out of his office much."

"He's just quiet, I think," Taylor said diplomatically. "Maybe a little shy?"

I hummed noncommittally in response. I didn't think Rafe was shy. Quiet, yes. Introverted. Awkward in a cute way.

And grumpy in a way that, for some reason, got me going.

"Well, better go get my morning workout in." I stepped back and smiled at Taylor and Holt, then couldn't help but slyly add, "Sorry to interrupt while you were ‘moving boxes.'"

Taylor flushed bright pink and Holt stepped forward to reach for the door, giving me a secret shit-eating grin as he closed it. "No problem."

I was feeling calmer as I stepped back into the hallway, and I started wondering where, exactly, Rafe's office was. As I started walking, I noticed another corridor jutting off from this one and stopped to peer down it. There were a few closed doors, but I could see a light on through an archway to the left.

Then I heard sounds coming from it. Footsteps, a drawer being opened, a spoon clinking against ceramic. Silently inching closer, I peered around the doorframe to see Rafe standing in a tiny kitchenette with his back to me.

The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to his elbows, showing off his sinewy forearms covered in greyscale tattoos as he stirred creamer into his coffee. His long hair, with its fading blue-green dye job, was tied back in a messy bun.

I eyed the nape of his neck for a second, my gut tightening with attraction, before I abruptly said, "Hey."

He jumped violently, spilling coffee over his hand and immediately making me feel bad.

"Fuck."

"Sorry." I gave him a big placating grin as he spun around, already glaring.

Thing was, when Rafe Hare glared at me, all I could think about was how pretty his big green eyes were. Maybe I was a little sick in the head.

A flush crept up his neck as he looked away, grabbing a handful of napkins to wipe up the spill. "Can I help you?"

"Nope, just came to talk to Holt about something." I leaned a shoulder on the doorframe and crossed my arms, effectively trapping him in the tiny room with my bulk so he had to talk to me for at least a minute. "How's it going?"

"Fine," he muttered, dumping his spoon in the sink and picking up his mug. He took a meaningful step forward, clenching his jaw. "Do you mind?"

"Nope," I repeated cheerfully, not budging. "So did you see that I fixed your fence?" I asked, even though I knew he and his friend had been watching me while I did it.

Hence my little wet T-shirt stunt.

"Yes," Rafe said stiffly.

"Oh, okay." I shrugged, my mouth twitching with amusement. "You just haven't been over to thank me, so I wasn't sure you'd noticed."

His nostrils flared. "I mean, do I really have to thank you? You're the reason it was broken in the first place. For six months." After a pause, he added, "And now that patch of grass is fucked."

"What do you mean?" I asked, suppressing a chuckle. It hadn't taken long for him to find something new to grumble about.

Cute little kitten.

"The patch of grass that was under the broken fence panel," he said. "It's all anaemic and half-dead from lack of sunlight."

"Ah." I nodded, scratching the side of my neck. "Yeah. Lack of sunlight will do that to grass."

I liked sparring with him like this. My belly was tightening with excitement, the last of my ire over Frank and Beans dissolving as I waited for him to snark back at me. It was fun. He was fun.

Cheeks flushing, he took a step closer to glare up at me. "So are you going to fix my yard?"

A grin slowly spread across my face. "Sure. I'll fix your yard."

Why did that sound kind of dirty?

Rafe's eyes darted down to my mouth for the briefest of moments. "When?"

"Whenever you want," I rasped.

His throat bobbed. His tongue darted out to wet his lips, and my cock twitched when I saw a flash of metal.

"Just don't take another six months to do it," he said, his voice a little huskier than before.

"Promise I won't." I smirked. "I can come over later to get started, if you want. Didn't have any plans tonight except… oh, I don't know, just relaxing and having a little ‘me time' on the couch…"

Something flared in his eyes and colour bloomed in his cheeks. He swallowed again, once, twice, then croaked, "Well, I guess… It's going to be a busy week, so I… I wouldn't want to deprive you of your… relaxation time."

My smile widened. "You sure?"

"Yep," he said quickly, his face a bright purplish grey now.

"That sure is nice of you."

His Adam's apple bobbed in his throat. "I should get back to work," he said, despite making no effort to move past me.

"Sure thing." I eased back and gestured for him to pass me.

He hesitated, then took a stilted step forward. I watched as he shuffled past me into the hall.

"Shame we can't hang out on our back decks anymore, neighbour," I commented, still watching as he walked away. "But I'm real bad at remembering to close my blinds, so if you ever see me through the windows, you make sure to give me a wave. Or something."

A flush spread over the back of his neck as he ducked his head and mumbled something indistinct. I chuckled as he fumbled to open his office door and vanished inside.

Oh yeah. He was definitely still watching me at night.

Looked like I'd been wrong all these years about Rafe Hare being straight.

Which was mighty interesting.