15. Theo Glass

Chapter 15

Theo Glass

Jace Holloway came four times last night.

Back-to-back, the horny bastard. It was like he stayed permanently hard between blowing each load.

I knew because I watched it all happen from across the street.

I’d snuck back into the office space. I had tracked down the maintenance worker and memorized his schedule now. I knew when he’d be coming onto the floor. There were two of them, likely hired for safety reasons, and they never strayed far from each other. They also never lingered.

I watched Jace jerk himself off. Spill cum all over his belly. Shoot it onto the floor. He even licked some of it with his fingers.

Horny, horny boy.

I wondered if he had been thinking of me each time he climaxed. Was he picturing me on my knees for him? Swallowing every last drop he had to give me? I watched him until he shook his limp dick dry and stood up, looking at himself like, “fuck, that was a lot.” Was his sex drive always this high? Was it because of me?

I didn’t jerk off that night. I wanted to keep myself controlled, contained. I just wanted to watch. Admire. Observe.

I had killed Julie only an hour earlier. Her body wouldn’t be found until the morning, when her boyfriend showed up to walk with her to school. I had time.

And she was found. Just like I thought she would. Jace had been called. Good thing he had his fun the night before because today would have been the complete opposite for him.

I expected him to go home after he visited the crime scene. Or maybe back to the office. It surprised me when he didn’t go to the subway station but walked past it. Down Thirteenth Street. Making a left. Turning a right. We were in the heart of the Meatpacking district. Far from his apartment. He couldn’t have been going home. He had his eyes glued to his phone. Who was he texting? No messages were appearing in mine.

Interesting.

I followed him all the way to a sushi spot. I kept at least a block behind him, cap sitting low on my head, a dark black jacket on that might as well have worked as camouflage in the dense concrete jungle. He waited outside the restaurant for a few minutes before he perked up, waved at someone walking down the street toward him.

Another man.

Someone dressed up, like he were going to the Met Gala and not to a chill dinner spot. He wore a suit. What a fucking dumbass.

Jace shook his hand. The man leaned in for a kiss on the cheek. I could practically sense the awkwardness radiating from the both of them. So this was a first date. Jace was actually talking to other men, pursuing other men. What the fuck?

Anger flared inside me like a muzzle flash popping in the dead of night. Bright, hot, deadly.

These two weren’t even a good match. Jace was much more laid-back. He liked to lounge at home with one hand down his briefs and the other scrolling through his phone, a couple of dirty dishes piled up in the sink. He didn’t make his bed. He left his shoes in random places in his apartment. He got his groceries and ignored them for the week as they rotted in the fridge, and he ordered from his favorite Mexican place for takeout every day.

The suit guy seemed like the exact opposite. He had an expensive watch, and his hair was coifed . As if that was even a thing. His clothes looked like they had been freshly picked up from the dry cleaners. He didn’t smile, and when he did, it didn’t reach his eyes.

Not like Jace. His smiles were genuine. Captivating. It was one of the things that drew me to him, aside from the intense physical chemistry. There was a glow to his smile that lit up even the darkest corners of the bathhouse we played in. For someone like me, who’d become so used to a permanent midnight, having a little sunshine was a welcome change .

And this jackass wasn’t going to take that away from me.

No one was.

They walked into the restaurant. I crossed the street so I could get a better view. It was a tiny spot with a bar inside. They were sat up against the window.

Perfect.

I stood next to a newspaper stand. Grabbed a magazine and pretended to be interested in whatever the fuck Jennifer Aniston was doing these days, shooting glances to my true focus.

Jace already looked bored. Stiff. Nothing like how he appeared when he was with me. The other guy appeared to be trying his best. He leaned forward, swirled his beer, made some kind of expression that seemed adjacent to a grin. His expensive gold watch with its dark blue band caught the light. Some kind of Hubert, from my guess. I liked watches. I appreciated the art of a good timepiece. This douchebag had likely bought it because it was the most expensive option they had.

Asshole.

He’d look good with that same hand dangling off a mattress, blood seeping into the sheets. It would be quick. Or maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe I’d take my time with him. He had zero connection to the blackmail ring but he had all the connection to me. To Jace.

I couldn’t have that.

A wolf woke inside me. It snapped at the cobra that poisoned me with anxiety and panic, latching its jaws around its neck and snapping down .

I set the magazine back on the stand. “Thanks,” I said to the bored attendant, who looked up from her phone and gave me a confused “huh” before turning her attention back to her infinite scrolling. I crossed the street. They were just getting appetizers now.

I started to walk down the street. Slow. I had to time this just right. Had to make sure this panned out. Didn’t want Jace thinking I was a creep. Couldn’t have that.

I neared the restaurant.

Please look up. Please, just look the fuck up.

As if my thoughts pulled Jace’s head by invisible strings, he looked up.

Perfect.

My eyebrows rose in surprise. Wow. Didn’t expect to see you there.

His did the same. A brief—real—smile flashed across his face, bright as the daylight that was beginning to die all around me. So damn bright. Like a magnet, I was pulled toward him. I wanted to smack against the window, crash into it, let the glass cut me up all over. Didn’t care. Just wanted to get to Jace.

I continued to walk past. The bait was laid.

I took out my phone.

THEO: Hey stud. You look like you need rescuing. Again.

I stopped at the crosswalk. Pedestrians swerved around me, the foot traffic of the city flowing like a river around a large stone. I wasn’t going anywhere. Had to wait for my line to twitch before I could reel my catch in.

JACE: That obvious?

THEO: You looked like a lost puppy in a shelter. Please, daddy, come save me. That’s what I was getting.

JACE: Damn, you can read thoughts now too?

THEO: Only yours.

JACE: Don’t move. I’m going to ditch this guy. I’ll be right out.

The line snagged, my rod bending with the force. I smiled. That had worked out perfectly. Of course, it was the last thing I should have ever done, but then again, when was my judgment ever accurate? Might as well ride the wave of stupidity while it was giving me a high along with it.

Sure enough, Jace walked out of that restaurant. He turned and spotted me immediately.

That’s my boy.

There was that smile again.

Fucking hell.

I wanted to run up to him and kiss him like a damn rom-com film. The kind I actually despised. Like something out of a slow-mo music video by a ’90s pop star obsessed with New York, with love songs, with happy endings. And then I wanted to rip his pants off and grab that cock he’d been playing with all night, making it my toy to use and abuse. Not caring that we were in the street. That we’d get arrested.

When it came to Jace Holloway, all caution was thrown to the wind, shot in the face, burned at the stake, and tossed into a six-foot pit.

“Your timing is insane,” Jace said, walking up to me.

There was a brief moment where we were about to kiss. Where I was about to push in, crossing the space between us as if we’d been boyfriends for the last six months. Except we weren’t. We were far from that. We’d had a couple of intense nights together and a few more apart (without his knowledge), and yet I still wanted to greet him like we were high school sweethearts.

What the hell was wrong with me?

A fucking lot.

“I needed an out. That was bad.”

“Grindr date?” I asked.

“Nah, Tinder. I’m a little classier than that.” Jace gave me a smirk.

“Right, of course you are.”

“When I’m not getting my dick sucked at a bathhouse. Obviously.”

God damn it. The mention of his dick was making me hard.

“Glad you clarified.”

Jace chuckled. Even the sound was perfect. This man could have shouted a string of profanities at a school bus full of kids, and he still would have been flawless. It was made even more obvious outside of the shadows of Chained. When he had all his clothes on, when his charm still oozed from every pore.

I’d enjoyed my fair share of men. I had a handful of boyfriends in my past. None lasted more than a few months. I always grew bored of them. That was before my sister killed herself, before I was set adrift like a captainless ship cut from the anchor. Once that happened, then I had lost all interest in getting to know any other human being. Men became objects of pleasure for me and nothing else. I had found fun in some casual conversations and connections, but it was mostly all about them fucking me senseless, giving me their load and leaving me without a single string attached. There was something powerful in having a man fill me with cum, a man I’d likely never see or talk to again. Sure, I had a few that I’d see more than once, but for the most part, they were all pump and dumps.

Not Jace. No. Never Jace.

“So I guess you’re free now?” I asked. I already knew the answer. He could surprise me, of course, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t.

“I am, I am.”

“Nice. Want to hang out? I was thinking of walking through Chelsea Market.” That’s not at all what I’d been thinking of doing. I was still running off a high from killing Julie less than twenty-four hours ago. I was thinking of going home and slamming down shot after shot of tequila and seeing where the night took me. But now that I had another option in front of me, I decided to take that one instead.

“Sounds much better than the teeth pulling I just had to sit through. Let’s do it.”

“Perfect, let’s do it.”

Just like that, I had my reeled in my catch.

Now, to keep him on the hook.