In Bed With The Boss Page 0,67

you out safe and sound. It’s okay.” Then he glanced at Jake and said, “We’re going to take him to the bathroom.”

Jake looked confused. “Huh?” He was still licking Toby’s thigh.

A few of the guys started to protest. The old guy was slapping his wrinkled, veiny dick against Toby’s back. One of guys kneeling on the floor actually begged Toby to pee in his face. He opened his mouth as wide as it would go and stuck out his tongue. But Ted and Jake helped Toby pull up his pants and gather his clothes. They pushed the other guys away and walked him back out to the bar. The guy who had been begging for Toby to pee on him grabbed Toby’s ankle and Toby had to shake his leg and kick the fool in the face to keep walking.

When they reached the exit, Toby grabbed Ted’s hand and said, “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t do it. I don’t know what I was thinking.” He turned to Jake and shrugged. “I can’t thank you guys enough for helping me get out of there.”

Ted patted his ass and said, “I can’t say I’m not disappointed. You’re adorable. But we understand. It’s okay.”

Jake leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m just glad you ran into us tonight instead of the rest of those creeps back there. I hate to think about what could have happened to you. You really have to be more careful. You’re too pretty to be a tease. You were lucky this time. But if you’re going to put out the signals in a place like this, you’d better be prepared to follow through with them.”

“I know,” Toby said. “I’m sorry. I can’t thank you enough.” Then he kissed them both good-bye and got out of there as fast as he could.

He didn’t take a deep breath until he reached Seventh Avenue South and Christopher. He couldn’t get the smell of old man dick out of his nose. His head was spinning now and there was ringing in his ears from that God awful, tuneless jazz music. He wondered how that Beat crowd could enjoy music like that without losing their minds. He didn’t feel like walking all the way back to his apartment so he hailed a cab. The only thing he wanted to do was go home and shower for about four hours. After that, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do next.

Chapter Seven

On Christmas Eve, Toby stopped on the other side of the street and stared up at his living room window. It had snowed lightly earlier that day and there was a fine layer of white fluff resting on each windowsill. Toby’s living room window was the only window in the building with a small, decorated Christmas tree. He’d left the Christmas tree lights plugged in all day so he could see the tree shining in his window when he came home from work that night.

He’d had a long, stressful day in the office and he couldn’t wait to fill his tub and soak for a few hours. He wished the Christmas tree was in his bathroom so he could sit in the tub and stare at it. He would never forget the day he came home and found the tree there. He’d seen it from the street and covered his open mouth with his palm, wondering if that was really his apartment. When he went upstairs, he sat on the sofa and stared at it all night.

It was the same exact Christmas tree he’d seen in the shop window the night he’d had that dismal experience at the bar in the West Village. No one outside his family had ever done anything that nice for him before. He knew Richie had set the tree up, just as he’d left the flower arrangements on the coffee table. It was as if Richie had read his mind, because there was no way Richie could have known how much Toby wanted to buy that tree. Toby made sure he winked at Richie and thanked him the next time he saw him at work. He would have done more, but it wouldn’t have been appropriate under the circumstances.

Toby crossed the street slowly and didn’t rush upstairs. He had plenty of time before he had to meet Rosemary in the hallway. He was going out to dinner that Christmas Eve with Rosemary, Bill Weiss, and a few other friends he’d met through Bill. Two of