a parrot? Alex squinted at the bird.
It was. A big-ass, blue and red parrot that cocked its head to the side and looked at Alex with regal indifference. The bird was sitting on the shoulder of the hot, shirtless dude and pecked at the guy’s ear almost affectionately every few seconds.
“Sorry,” the other guy said and scrunched his nose as he ran his finger over the parrot’s head. “Alfie doesn’t like people.”
“Yeah, he made that clear.”
The guy winced as he looked at Alex. “Well… look at the bright side. He didn’t draw blood.”
“I should go and buy a lottery ticket because it’s clearly my lucky day. Maybe I’ll finally win that three hundred million dollars I’ve set my sights on.”
“I hate to break it to you, but winning the lottery is not exactly a sign of good fortune.”
Alex squinted his eyes at the guy. “Aww, man, you’re one of those money-doesn’t-buy-happiness types, aren’t you?”
“And you’re one of those, it’s-better-to-cry-in-a-Lamborghini-than-on-a-bus types, huh?”
Alex shook his head. “And just when I thought we could be friends.”
The boy laughed and Alex grinned. His summer just got a whole lot more interesting. If this guy worked here, and all the evidence pointed to the fact that he did, Alex had an incentive to stay in Oregon for at least as long as it took to get into this guy’s pants.
He reached out his hand. “Alex Ellison.”
“Noah Price.”
Alex held Noah’s hand in his for a moment longer than strictly necessary.
“A pleasure,” he said and let his eyes wander over Noah.
Alex had always preferred the most straightforward route to what he wanted, which tended to get him in trouble more often than not. Most people had a tiny voice in their heads that, from time to time, piped up and asked, Are we sure this is a good idea?
Maybe Alex had had that, too, once upon a time, but he’d learned to ignore the little voice of reason so well that it had packed its bags and moved out a long time ago. As it was, times might have been changing, but there were still people who thought that a suitable answer to little harmless flirting was a fist in the face. Alex wasn’t too worried right now, though. Noah didn’t seem like the type to beat somebody up.
Noah pulled his hand away and looked at anywhere but Alex as he cleared his throat. The pulse point at the side of his neck was throbbing. Alex watched, mesmerized, as Noah’s Adam’s apple moved when he swallowed.
Fuck, that’s hot.
Still, when Noah met Alex’s gaze again, he did not look pleased or flattered by Alex’s attention. So, yeah, that fantasy of a quick, dirty hookup was most likely not going to come to life right that second. It didn’t bother Alex, though.
Despite being as subtle as a blowjob during a church service, Alex wasn’t stupid. Just because he preferred the shortcuts, didn’t mean he couldn’t, from time to time, enjoy the scenic route. Alex had a feeling that this time, the extra time spent would be worth it.
Delayed gratification. Wasn’t that a thing? Not that Alex had much experience with that. He generally preferred his gratification to be the right-here-and-now variety, but maybe he’d try new things this summer.
“It looks like you and I are going to be working together,” Alex said and watched as Noah went to a perch in the corner of the room and urged the parrot to get off his shoulder.
Noah looked at Alex over his shoulder with a slight smile on his lips. “Ah,” he said but followed it up with nothing.
“What?” Alex prompted.
“You’re the criminal,” Noah said with a smirk.
Alex scoffed. “I’d hardly call myself a criminal.”
“Aren’t you here to do your court-ordered community service?” The twinkle in Noah’s eyes and the teasing tone added a whole other layer to his hotness factor. “What’d you do, by the way?”
“Huh?” Alex had been so preoccupied by watching Noah’s sleek muscles move as he placed the bird down and went back to his chair, that it had taken him a moment to catch up to the fact that Noah had asked him a question. Alex was usually way smoother. He was blaming Oregon for that.
“Carl only said you’d be here to repay your debt to society. I guess I’m curious. We don’t get that many criminals walking around among us. I think our last big crime spree was when somebody stole a couple of garden gnomes and threw them into the river. Mr. and Mrs.