Kiss Me: Copyright © 2020 All rights reserved. This book contains material protected under International and federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorised reprint or use of material is prohibited.

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of adult fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead or actual events is purely coincidental. The author does not endorse or condone any behaviour enclosed within. The subject matter is not appropriate for minors. Please note this novel contains profanity and explicit sexual situations

Kiss Me

Part One

Marcus

2 years later:

I sit twiddling my thumbs staring into my half empty coffee cup. As my friend sits opposite me, probably still grinning. Maybe, I don't want to look because he'd most likely start laughing at me again. Then my eyes snapped to his hazel ones when he so deliberately sighed heavily. "What?" I asked.

"You're too funny Marcus. But it's still a big no."

My shoulders slumped, the faintest pang of rejection making my stomach twinge. It was a stupid feeling, it wasn’t as if I was romantically interested in my friend, but it still stung a little. "Asshole."

"Don’t look at me like that," Kyle said, tapping the side of his cheerfully striped mug. "Your puppy eyes are worse than….oh. Oh."

"Well who the fuck else am I going to take with me to my sister's wedding?"

"I don't know. Have you tried something like Tinder or something?"

"You're actually joking, right?"

Then his eyes lit up like they always did when he’d come up with an idea so terrible it was genius. At least, he thought it was genius. He was right sometimes. "No," Kyle said. "Better. I’ve just solved your problem." He grinned at me over the rim of his mug, pausing to take a sip. Keeping me in suspense.

"Well?" I asked.

"Walker," He said. "You know, my brother."

"Goddamn you Kyle, I know who Walker is."

He grins again, big and wide. "So, take him. He's always had a soft spot for you."

"I know, that's precisely why I won't take him."

"Yeah, but you know as well as I do how much it would piss off your folks. You know they're either expecting you not to go or go alone so they can mock you. Or you always got Dana." Fuck. He's right. My parents still hate me, even though last year with my sister and her fiance we went and tried to reconcile our differences when they came back for a visit. God. My mom looked straight through me like I was glass, but we got talking at least, until she tried setting me up with one of their friends' daughters. I don't think my gay dick would agree to that.

"It's mad."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow at him. How was his younger brother the solution to my problem anyway? "He’ll go with you. Guaranteed." That… didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

"Guaranteed?"

Kyle snorted. "C’mon man. He's had a crush on you since he first met you. He’d do anything for you."

I sighed, sipping my coffee. This wedding had been the cause of a permanent knot in the pit of my stomach for months. With the news that my parents were going there along with other family members I didn't even remember and Dana who was going to be a bridesmaid, I was considering faking my own death and moving to Mexico instead of going. But I love my sister. Maybe if I gauge out my eyeballs and pour boiling water in my ears, that might work better for me. "Dammit," I grumbled. "Will he really go?"

"Yep. Go ask him."

"At the tattoo shop?"

"At the tattoo shop."

At least, it'd have been a good solution if it was Kyle playing along, because I knew him. I was comfortable with him. "You’re my friend." I said, weakly, knowing it wasn’t much of an excuse.

"Walker’s your friend too. I mean, you’ve known him as long as you’ve known me."

"Yeah, but you don't have a crush on me, he does. It will just be awkward."

"Oh come on Marcus. Don't be dumb. Walker may have a crush but he's still also a friend. He won't mind."

"And you're speaking for him because you know, right? Won't it make him think into this a bit too much, like he'd have a shot or something?"

"No, well...no…"

"See, you know its a bad idea."

Kyle shrugs. "Well, it's a good idea in a sense that your parents will hate it."

"Oh yeah, because Walker is a bad boy. Tattoos and piercings….oh don't forget the eyeliner and black painted fingernails."

"He's rare. And good looking."

"You're calling your brother good looking?"

"Sure. He's smoking hot apparently. Well that's what Ally said. He's a smoking hot bad boy." Okay. He's not wrong. Walker is smoking hot. He reminds me of one of those bad boy front cover models. But that still didn't help my situation. He'd expect more from this trip. And I made a vow the day I left that I'd have no more dealings with anyone. I'm basically celibate now, unless you count having a wank most evenings. Can like priests or the pope whack one off? I mean god isn't going to shun them from the pearly gates for pulling one out. "Come on Marcus, just do it. You know that little horny devil on your shoulder is egging you on, so take its advice and take Walker."

"Fuck."

"Listen, you can either go see your batshit family alone, or you can take a tattoo artist who wears a lot of eyeliner. The least your type in the world. They’ll stop trying to set you up with Dana if they think you’ve gone insane."

"They already think I'm insane."

"Well then, a little more won't hurt."

Kyle was right, on every point he made. My family was nuts, I didn’t want to date Dana ever, I'm gay, and Walker was the least my type person in the world. "God." I breathed out and leaned my head on his table.

"Look, you wanted a date, I’m handing you one on a silver platter. Take it or leave it." Kyle shrugged.

The more I thought about walking Walker into the wedding, the more the idea appealed. I wondered if he still had that oversized leather jacket he wore everywhere. Mom would hate him. Dana would hate him. Kyle was right. He was perfect. "Alright. I will. I'll go and ask him."

"Great!" Kyle shouts. "Go on then."

"Now? I have my bar to open."

"You're leaving tomorrow. Keep it closed. It's not like you've not made plenty from it. An extra day won't kill you."

"It might do."

"Pfft, stop being a bitch."

"I'll hit you."

He laughed. "Oh yeah, I forgot you like dishing out pain."

"Noooo, not anymore. I'm a changed man."

He snorts. "Yeah, you've become a big feathery pillow all soft and stupid."

"Pillows ain't stupid."

"Talking ones like you are. Anyway, shoo shoo and go ask Walker. Also, get a tattoo while your at it, saying I'm a big gay idiot right on your forehead."

"That, maybe, will be better than taking Walker."

I hadn’t seen or spoken to Walker in ages. He's always off to conventions and shit, He's kinda like famous in the tattoo world. So this would be like asking a stranger on a date. Except the date was a week-long trip to a wedding back home where I wanted him to at least pretend he liked me. "Finish your coffee and get off your ass,” Kyle nudged. "He closes up shop at two on Sundays." I glanced up at the kitchen clock behind Kyle to see that it was twenty-to, and drained the last of my coffee in two gulps. Now or never. I had to leave first thing tomorrow. I wasn't looking forward to it, although I spoke to Henley who was practically beaming with the idea that I'd be back. Only for a week. The guys had come to visit me a few times over the last two years. That counted for something. And I was a changed man. Well, changed enough my parents actually spoke to me, but not changed enough that they liked my gay ass.

This was going to be hell.