6. Jag Helps With Niall’s Plumbing

6

JAG HELPS WITH NIALL’S PLUMBING

Niall thought about asking Jag for an ETA. That idea was quickly nixed; he didn’t want to seem rude, or impatient.

But he really, really didn’t want to be interrupted in the middle of writing a scene. Especially now that Konan had just saved Neo from some judging neighbors, and he was touching Neo ever so gently, sitting with him on the back porch and stroking his hair.

Niall sighed wistfully.

Of course Jag had been too good to be true. It wasn’t enough to judge Jag by his reaction to Niall’s hands; Jag cared more about Niall’s teeth.

If he found out that Niall’s gums were scarred and empty... He was absolutely going to freak out.

Niall squirmed. Earlier, he’d been tempted to reply, I’m never going to get any cavities. Not anymore.

But he wasn’t prepared for that hellhole of shame, so he was going to pretend that everything was okay.

He made himself sit at his desk, writing down the events that would happen in today’s chapter.

The thing was, even though he was writing the book using made-up names, Neo was always ‘me’ in his notes, and Konan was always ‘Jag’.

“Jag is going to kiss me soon,” Niall told his microphone quietly, like a secret. The chapter notes appeared on his screen. “This is so ridiculous. I shouldn’t have started this. It’s not real. He’d think I’m a massive creeper if he ever found out.”

But maybe Jag knew about Niall’s creepiness anyway. He’d looked—Oh, gods. He’d looked over at Niall’s window earlier this morning, like he’d known Niall had been watching him jerk off.

How was Niall supposed to look away? Especially when Jag had stroked himself slow and steady, as though he’d been trying to drag out his pleasure?

After Jag’s show, Niall had slinked off to his bed and humped his pillow until he’d come, but it was nowhere as satisfying as having a big dildo pounding deep in his ass.

The doorbell rang.

Niall jumped violently, scrambling to close his notes document so there was no way Jag could accidentally stumble across it.

Then he hurried to the door, his stomach flipping.

Jag was waiting patiently on the porch. When Niall opened the door, Jag gave him a warm, tentative smile. “You alright?”

Niall nodded stiffly. “Thanks for breakfast.”

“You’ve thanked me already. How was the coffee?”

“Still kind of bitter,” Niall admitted.

Jag winced. “Look, I want to give you as many good things as I can, but not at the expense of your health. Maybe I should’ve made you promise to rinse your mouth real well after having all that sugar. I don’t want to join the line of people who’ve done your body wrong.”

Niall cringed. “I’ll make sure I get no cavities.”

“Good.” Jag shifted his gaze and paused.

When Niall looked over his shoulder, he realized that Jag was looking at the crumpled ad on the floor. The one Niall had snatched out of his hand yesterday, only to drop it and forget about it because he hadn’t thought he’d invite Jag back into his house quite this soon.

“Um, the bathtub,” Niall yelped loudly.

Hopefully Jag would forget I need an alpha to move a toy back and forth. Repeatedly.

Jag glanced back up, looking him right in the eye.

No, he hadn’t forgotten it at all.

Niall fled to the bathroom because Jag still wasn’t moving. If he showed Jag how urgent the bathtub clog was, they wouldn’t talk about the ad, right?

Jag came prowling into Evan’s bedroom, then the bathroom. He glanced at the shallow water still in the tub. “This might take a while. And it might get messy. Do you have paper towels I can clean up with?”

Niall nodded and scrambled out of the bathroom.

The first thing he did was kick the ad under his couch. Now Jag would never see it ever again, and Niall would be spared from that humiliation.

When he returned with a roll of paper towels clutched to his chest, Niall found Jag kneeling next to the tub, some tools laid out next to him. He’d pulled on a pair of disposable gloves, and was feeding a metal tube down the drain.

It felt so forbidden to look at him like that—the broad sweep of his shoulders, the flex of his biceps. His tattoos were all visible: a tiger and lion roaring at each other on his back, several swirling feathers curling around his bicep. There was a tattoo of a cottage on his forearm, complete with a grass-lined pebble path, and some strands of DNA going down the side of his ribs.

Niall realized with some shock that Jag’s tattoos weren’t actually all that scary. There were more that he couldn’t see from this angle, more going down into his pants.

Pants that had white spots smeared all over them, because they were the same pair Jag had come all over this morning.

If Niall were to press his nose against those spots, would he catch the scent of Jag’s come?

The paper towel roll fell out of his arms. When Jag began turning toward him, Niall scrambled out of Evan’s bedroom.

How long would Jag take to unclog the drain? Probably not as long as what Niall needed to write a chapter.

But Niall could plan for tomorrow’s chapter, and keep himself busy.

He tiptoed into his office and shut the door, logging back into his computer. He took some time to read what he’d planned for today. Then he started a new page and told his future self what he was going to write.

“Jag will take me to the bar downtown for lunch,” Niall said wistfully. “Insert a scar on me that he doesn’t know about. I’ll fix this in the earlier events. It’s... It’s going to be a scar on my belly. And he doesn’t like scars. Side note for future self: He’s going to break up with me over the scar.”

Except later on in the book, Konan would decide that Neo was more important than his scar, and he would make a grand gesture to show Neo how sorry he was for leaving.

If only these things happened in real life, right?

Niall sighed. He didn’t bother planning how Konan would get back together with Neo, because he wanted to surprise himself with it.

He looked over what he’d written yesterday, then slipped out of his office to check on Jag.

Instead of the bathroom, Jag was in his living room.

Not only that. Jag was in front of Niall’s bookcase, the one with his personal collection of Llain Hardcox books.

Niall froze.

Jag glanced over, eyebrows raised. “You certainly are a fan of this guy.”

“Um. I guess?”

Jag huffed. “Most people don’t collect this many paperbacks of an author’s work if they’re not a fan.”

“I, um. That’s true.”

“Which is your favorite book?”

That was always a difficult question no matter who asked it; Niall had loved writing them all. “All of them?”

At that, Jag’s lips pulled into a handsome smile. “Top three, then.”

“I thought you were working on the bathtub,” Niall blurted.

“It’s fixed. I’ve wiped up the mess, too. Want to see the tub running?”

“Yes,” Niall said, squirming when Jag’s gaze turned inscrutable. He hurried to Evan’s room and ducked into the bathroom, his eyebrows shooting up when he found everything clean. Cleaner than he’d left it, actually. Niall grimaced. Gods, Jag must’ve realized that he was a slob.

Jag knelt by the tub, turning the water on full blast. The water kept running, and it kept draining. No more clogged drain.

Niall sighed with relief. “How much do I owe you?”

Jag shut the faucet and met his eyes. “Would you like to go out for lunch?”

Niall blinked. “What?”

“Instead of paying me, come out to lunch with me,” Jag said.

But Jag rarely ever had lunch away from home. His daytime trips were rarely more than an hour long. “Um. Why?”

“I want to know your thoughts on those books. Just an hour of your time.”

Well... Niall did have a weakness. And it was talking about all these stories that he’d lived vicariously through. “Can I pick where we go?”

Jag nodded. “Do you have a favorite place?”

There were a couple of restaurants that Evan brought Niall to occasionally, that they’d settled on after six years of experimenting. On an ordinary day, Niall would’ve suggested the Wine Shack. But he didn’t know when Emmy’s shifts were, and Emmy loved talking to Niall about his books.

“Um, Mushroom Ridge,” Niall said. Then he blushed, because that restaurant had a really questionable name.

Jag grinned. “Mushroom Ridge it is. When do you think you’ll be ready to head out?”

“We’re going right now?” Niall squeaked. He looked down at himself. Most days, he wore his pajamas because he didn’t even step out of the house. “Um, half an hour?”

“Sounds good. Meet me in front of my truck? Or would you like me to pick you up?”

Niall chewed his lip. “Actually, I’d need you to help me lock up. I’ve never left the house without Evan before. He’s usually the one with the keys.”

“Do you have a set of keys?”

Niall nodded. “I just have to find them and tell Evan we’re going out.”

“Sure.” Jag grabbed the bag of tools he’d left by the front door, unlocking the deadbolts. “Call me if you need anything.”

“Okay.”

Just like that, Jag was out of the house, striding back to his own home. Niall watched his steady, confident gait, stunned. How was this even happening? Why was Jag asking him out on a lunch... date?

He stumbled to his bedroom and squirmed out of his pajamas. Loose clothes were his favorite—he didn’t have much trouble putting them on or taking them off. And he wasn’t going to struggle with something fancy, even if this was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him.

Niall wriggled into a hoodie and sweatpants, and skipped the socks. He stepped into his shoes and texted his brother.

Niall

Jag’s taking me out to lunch.

Big Bad Bro

?? Really??? Why?

Evan didn’t wait for a reply. Instead, he called.

“You’re going out with him?” Evan asked, sounding incredulous. His voice was deep and rumbly because he was an alpha. In the background, a coach’s whistle breeped.

Niall wrinkled his nose. “You’re always saying I should make more friends.”

“Well, you’re friends with the omegas at the Wine Shack. Are you getting along that well with Jag?”

Niall blushed. He hadn’t told Evan about his latest book, or how much time he’d spent learning Jag’s routine. “He helped me fix the tub today; it wouldn’t drain.”

“Why were you using the tub?” Evan sounded confused.

“Um.” Niall’s blush was starting to grow really uncomfortable. “Some of the shower tiles fell off in the other bathroom.”

Evan sighed. “You could’ve asked me to come over and fix it.”

“Jag said he would. It’s okay. You don’t have to.”

“You’d much rather he fix it, huh?” Evan’s tone turned amused. “Is that why you insisted that I don’t come over?”

“He’s...” Niall squirmed. “He offered. You don’t mind that he’s taking me out to lunch?”

“If he hurts you, I’ll kill him,” Evan said easily. “But Troy promised me that Jag won’t, and... I think it’ll be nice for you to have something good in your life.”

He hadn’t been this willing to let Niall out of his sight before he’d gotten together with his bondmates; it was a good thing he’d found Troy and Landon.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Niall said carefully, tracing the edges of his dentures with his tongue. “We’re just going to talk about my books.”

“He knows—?”

“No! He saw my bookshelf and had questions.”

“Huh.”

“I know, I’m confused, too. But he made me breakfast this morning—”

“And now he’s taking you out to lunch.” Evan snickered. “I’m going to meet him sooner than later.”

“He’d probably win in a fight against you,” Niall admitted. “I saw quite a few scars on him.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, then. I’d need Troy to back me up.”

“No, I don’t want this to turn into some huge alpha brawl. Landon would kill me if both his alphas got hurt.”

Evan snorted. “Text me when you get home. Let me know you’re safe.”

Niall sighed. “I will.”

“Where’re you going for lunch?”

“Mushroom Ridge.”

“Solid choice. Damn it. Now I want a mushroom burger, too.”

“ Don’t show up while I’m there,” Niall yelped.

“Yeah, yeah. Maybe I’ll send Troy to sass him. Don’t give me the details of your sexploits. Put them in your book.”

Niall had already started a new document of ideas, ever since he’d begun fantasizing about Jag. “I’m going. Bye. ”

It hadn’t been half an hour yet, but when Niall shut the front door, Jag came over.

Jag had switched out his sweatpants for a pair of faded jeans. Those jeans hugged his muscular thighs, and complemented his fitted white shirt. Niall couldn’t stop staring at the way Jag’s pecs stretched his shirt, the way he’d rolled up his long sleeves to show off his strong forearms. Maybe he drooled a little.

“Phone, keys?” Jag swept his gaze down Niall’s body.

Niall blushed, and Jag’s mouth curved into a pleased, confident smile. “M-my phone’s in here.” With a mittened hand, Niall patted the deep front pocket of his sweatpants. He held out the keys in his other mittened hand. “Thanks.”

“Not a problem.” Jag locked all three deadbolts, then pressed the keys back into Niall’s hand. “Let’s get going.”