Taking It Slow - Reese Knightley Page 0,14

the edges. “Caramel popcorn?”

“I think so.” His smile grew.

“I’ll need to borrow a t-shirt and sweat pants.”

“I think I can manage that,” he countered.

“Wesley will need pajamas.” Spencer returned the smile.

“Adam keeps a whole wardrobe of stuff here.”

Spencer chuckled. “All right.”

“Cool,” he said, but felt anything but cool. In fact, he felt hot at the thought of Spencer sleeping under his roof wearing his clothes.

Calm down, he silently ordered his dick.

Spencer

The movie was halfway through when Spencer felt eyes on him. Sliding a glance toward Liam, he found the man looking at him curiously. The heat that fisted his gut wasn’t unexpected, but fuck if it didn’t make him hard.

“What?” He widened his eyes, fiercely glad the numerous couch throw pillows hid his arousal.

Liam chuckled softly. “How many times have you watched this?”

It took him a moment to focus on the words Liam was speaking and not his lips.

“Underworld?” He suddenly grinned. “More than I can remember. Why?”

“You were quoting the lines under your breath.”

“Bite him.” He stage whispered the part again, keeping his laugh low, and his stomach warmed when Liam joined in.

The teens were stretched out on the carpet, eyes glued to the wide screen that wouldn’t have fit in his living room. It almost felt like he was in a theater, but much, much cozier.

Shifting the throw pillows aside, he relaxed a bit more into the couch. The expensive smell of leather was almost forgotten as he got more comfortable. It eased the ache in his back from sitting upright trying to watch the movie. The surroundings were so at odds with his own life, he had to admit it was intimidating.

He kept waiting for Wesley to knock over something, so he watched his brother’s soda can like a hawk. When Wesley was done drinking it, Spencer reached over and plucked it off the carpet and crunched it between his hands. He sat back on the couch. Wesley didn’t even glance over, his attention on the action-packed screen.

“Relax,” Liam whispered.

Closing his eyes, he drew in a deep breath and glanced over at Liam.

“Sorry,” he whispered back.

“You don’t have to be sorry.” Liam took the destroyed soda can from his grasp. “There’s nothing they could do that can’t be fixed. Nothing they do is worth stressing over.”

He mustered up a smile.

“Shhhhhh!” Adam said over his shoulder.

Liam chuckled and jerked his head for Spencer to follow him.

They made their way through the kitchen and out the back door into the warm Southern California night.

He stepped out and closed the door and came to stand beside Liam next to the clear, still swimming pool. The man stood gazing upward at the dark sky littered with stars.

“It’s beautiful.”

“It is,” Liam agreed. “When I was a kid, I decided that I was going to go to see the Hollywood sign and snap a picture.”

“Did you?” Spencer gaped, intrigued.

“I did. I traveled to Hollywood all by myself, climbed the hillside it’s on, and snapped a picture with my brand-new polaroid camera. It was only when I was waiting for it to develop that I realized how many stars filled the sky on a clear night.”

“You hadn’t seen the stars before?” He gave Liam a puzzled look.

“At twelve, I was too busy to notice, I guess.”

Spencer grinned at Liam’s proud expression. “I bet your parents freaked.”

“They grounded me for a month, took away my Nintendo.”

“No shit?” He hadn’t even owned a video game until one came on his phone. “I thought rich kids were treated like royalty.”

Liam snorted. “Most of my friends were. One of my friends got arrested breaking and entering. His dad hired a lawyer and pulled some strings and it all went away. My dad and mom weren’t like that. When we got in trouble, they didn’t let us slide because of our money.”

He suddenly saw Liam in a whole different light than the rich man he’d taken him for. Of course, Liam had worked his ass of in the Army to become a colonel, so that right there said much about the man’s character.

“What about you?”

“What about me?” He blinked.

“What’s the craziest thing you did as a kid?”

Stole money from his mother’s purse to run to the store and buy a loaf of bread to eat. He’d been punished severely for it, but his belly had been full. After Wesley was born, he’d gotten smarter about taking the money.

“I never did anything crazy as a kid,” he said. He’d been too busy trying to survive.

Liam studied him for a quiet