Beautiful Liar (4 page)

Comfort
and warmth. Tanner closed his eyes and breathed in Noah’s scent. “I think we
should definitely do that again. Later.”

Noah’s
throaty chuckle vibrated against his ear. “Anything you want.”

Tanner
pushed up and stared into his lover’s eyes. His instinct guided him on
everything he did. He knew that what they shared was hot and powerful. He damn
near wanted to call it love. The thought scared him a little as he kissed
Noah’s bruised lips and pulled out of him.

He
moved to his side and Noah shifted slightly, to run his hand along Tanner’s stomach.
He liked the intimacy, the aftermath of a good fucking with someone he cared
about.

Noah
pressed a kiss to Tanner’s side, letting his tongue taste Tanner’s salty skin.
The man was insatiable and Tanner fucking loved it.

“How
many orgasms do you think we can have in one night?” Noah shifted over Tanner,
his cock nestled against Tanner’s own. He loved the feel of his body on top of
him. Skin to hot skin.

“I
don’t know.” Tanner cupped Noah’s cheek before leaning up to kiss him again.

Noah
pulled back and grinned. “I think we should find out.”

Tanner
smiled as Noah bent to lick at his mouth. He needed this. Everything about Noah
was good for him and he didn’t want it to end.

Chapter Five

Noah
groaned when the sound of an alarm clock woke him from the best damn sleep he’d
ever had. He pat the bed next to him and found warm, hard muscle instead of his
phone. Eyes popping open, he blinked a few times at the light flooding Tanner’s
room.

“If
you’re groping me, go a little lower.” Tanner grumbled and reached to hit
snooze.

Noah
grinned. Ah, hell. If he didn’t watch it, he was going to fall in love with
this man. He yawned and smoothed his hand along Tanner’s side before leaning in
to kiss his shoulder.

“Not
a morning person?”

“Not
in this lifetime.” Tanner grabbed his hand and pulled him closer. “I need to
get up though. I’ve got a conference call with my partner in England bright and
early this morning. The fucking time difference sucks.”

“Partner?”

“Business
partner, sweetheart.” Tanner rolled to his back and pulled Noah down for a
morning kiss. “My life is complicated enough without adding more than one man
to it.”

Noah
pursed his lips. He didn’t know where the small bout of jealousy came from.
He’d dated plenty of men who had others in their lives. Not that he was proud
of it, but stuff like that happened in his line of work.

“We
can take a shower together. Get all wet and slick.” Tanner kissed Noah’s
shoulder. “I’ll get some breakfast delivered for us since I don’t cook. You can
have my driver take you home afterward. Or stay here. I don’t care. Do you have
plans today at the café?”

Noah
tried hard to remember what the hell he was talking about. The lie of him
working at the café was coming back to bite him in the ass. “Yeah.” He also
forgot to call DJ which made him cringe.

“What’s
wrong?”

Noah
sat back and looked around for his phone. His pants were on the floor where
he’d left them and he bent to pick them up.

“I
forgot to call DJ. The crazy bastard might call the cops and report me missing
if I don’t clear some of that up with him.”

Tanner
lay on his side, watching him. “Was he a former lover?”

“DJ?
Nah. He’s straight. He’s dating a nice girl. She’s a beautician, I think. She
kinda has a whiny voice so I try to avoid talking to her. It grows on you after
a while, but it’s nails on a chalkboard for the first ten minutes.”

He
scrolled through his missed calls, all from DJ. He pressed the redial button
and sat on the edge of the bed, waiting.

“I’m
going to take a shower alone, then.” Tanner kissed his shoulder. “Join me when
you get through.”

He
nodded. The phone rang and rang until finally DJ picked up. “Where are you?”

“I’m
with Tanner. Nothing bad has happened and I’m perfectly okay.”

“Yeah?
Since when do you go out with the same guy in a fucking row?”

“Since
we’re dating.” Noah stared at the bathroom door that Tanner left slightly ajar.

“Dating?
Are you fucking kidding me?”

Noah
cleared his throat. “No, I’m not fucking kidding you. He offered me a job. I’m
in a commercial for his company.”

“What
about the other job you’ve got? The one that’s not working at the café?”

“I
don’t know. Nothing’s lined up right now. If something comes in then I’ll
figure it out then.”

“He
doesn’t know, does he?”

Noah
stared at his toes. “Why do you say that?”

“Mike
said you got stood up.” DJ moved on the other side of the line, clearly
shifting in his bed. “I know that guy isn’t the one who paid to go out with you
to that damn charity thing. Mike said he was someone else.”

Shit.
DJ should have been a fucking PI instead of managing his father’s café. Noah
stood and went out to the hallway, making his way toward the front of the
penthouse.

“No
he doesn’t know. I don’t want him to either.”

“Oh,
you’re finally embarrassed by it? Only took five years.”

“What
is your fucking deal? You’re worse than my mother.”

“If
I weren’t you could be dead on the side of the street for all anyone knew.
Don’t fucking pretend it’s not true.”

Noah
grabbed the refrigerator door and pulled it open. Orange juice sat on the top
shelf and he grabbed it, helping himself to a glass. DJ had been there for him
unlike anyone else. He wished he could say his best friend wasn’t right, but he
was. There were a few encounters that landed him bloody and bruised. He’d been
arrested a few times, too. DJ had always been the one who came to his rescue.

“I’m
sorry.” Noah poured the liquid in the glass and sat it aside. “I should have
called. I honestly forgot. It was a mistake.”

“I
don’t know why I let you fucking do this to me, man.” DJ’s voice sounded raspy.
“You’re like my fucking brother. I don’t want you to get hurt or dead due to
your careless bullshit.”

Noah
stared at the glass he’d poured. DJ had never been a big fan of Noah’s job.
From the beginning, he blew up his phone if he didn’t check in. Probably stayed
up worrying about him, too. Noah felt like an ass for hurting him.

“I’m
sorry. I’m hoping that that will soon be in my past. I don’t want to do it
anymore. I’m going to try to find something else. For both our sakes.” The
money wouldn’t be half as good, he was sure, but at least a nine to five job
without sleepovers would offer more security than the one he currently
possessed.

“Why?
You could just live off your sugar daddy.”

Noah
laughed. “Tanner is not my sugar daddy. And that’s not an option. I’ll find
something else. I’ll start looking today.”

“Promise
me.”

“I
do. I will.” Noah lifted the glass to his lips. “I’ll be there later, after
Tanner leaves for work.”

“I
guess I’ll see you then. Be careful on the subway.”

“Yes,
momma.”

“Fuck
you.”

DJ
disconnected before he could respond. Noah sat his phone on the counter and
drank his juice, contemplating his life. DJ nearly drove him crazy with his
worry. He didn’t like him with strange men at night in the city. He especially
didn’t like him fucking them for money.

“So,
now that we’re clear I’m not your sugar daddy, what exactly am I to your
friends?”

Noah
turned to see a freshly-showered Tanner sitting at the kitchen bar. He had his
phone in his hand, presumably ordering breakfast.

“I’m
not with you for your money. I don’t want you to think that.”

“I
don’t.” He glanced up. “Your friends did though, didn’t they?”

“Not
really.” He pursed his lips. “I quit my job. DJ just made an off-color remark
about us.”

Tanner
stared at him. “You quit your job at the café?”

“Yeah.”
Noah moved toward the bar and leaned against it with his juice at hand. “I need
to get something else anyway. You really can’t work at a café for the rest of
your life, right?”

He
drank his juice just so that he’d stop talking. Work was not a good subject.
The more they shared, the more he lied. Whatever happened, Tanner didn’t need
to know about his real career and his real life. Or at least he needed to make
a few changes before that news popped up.

Tanner
lifted the phone to his ear and placed the order for breakfast. When he was
through, he sat the phone back on the counter.

“Well,
chances are you’ll get a modeling contract from an agent once the commercial
goes viral. So I don’t mind being your sugar daddy until that happens.”

Noah
grinned. “You really believe in my career as a model?”

“Yeah.
I do.” He studied him. “It’s not easy making it in this city. You have to have
a lot of perseverance to drive you forward. It also doesn’t hurt to know
people.”

Noah
rubbed his finger around the rim of the glass. “How did you become so
successful?”

“I
started at the bottom really.” He glanced to the side. “I wanted to be the CEO
of my father’s empire and he made me work for it. Most days it seemed like I
couldn’t do anything right. People actually commented that he treated his staff
better than his family.”

“But
you made it. That had to feel good.”

“It
did.” Tanner gave him a sad smile. “It was a long road. Not a happy one
either.”

Noah
reached for his hand and squeezed. “Is your father still around?”

“Yep.
Lives in Connecticut. Spends his retirement on the golf course in those damn
tacky outfits.” Tanner lifted his hand to his lips and kissed it. “Mom number
four lives with him.”

“Four?”

“Yeah.
She’s younger than me.” Tanner let his hand go and stood, coming around the kitchen
bar to grab a mug from the cabinet. “Got pregnant while they were dating and
forced him to marry her. Thankfully, he has an iron clad pre-nup and will.”

“Wow.”
Noah turned to watch him pour himself a mug of coffee from the Keurig. “Do you
get along?”

“With
her? I don’t really talk to her. I play with the kid and I see my dad mostly.
She’s not usually around.”

“Why?”

Tanner
leaned against the cabinet, facing him. “I had problems with my father. After
my mom died, I came out. I was dealing with enough and I couldn’t live that
fake life anymore. He didn’t take it so well. He actually made my life a living
hell, really. He didn’t think people would respect me as a businessman, partner
and most importantly, his son, if I identified as gay.” Tanner blew out a
breath.

“That’s
bullshit.”

“Yeah.
We fought a lot. I wasn’t allowed to bring men to company events. He forbade
it.” Tanner folded his arms over his chest, obviously reliving those moments.
“I did though. One time. He threatened to fire me, red-faced and screaming at
the top of his lungs. I was an embarrassment to him.”

“I’m
sorry you had to go through that.”

Tanner
shrugged. “I worked my ass off to prove to him I wasn’t. We didn’t talk about
it for a long time afterwards. He finally came around. It took him a long time,
but he made it. When he retired, he recommended me to the board as CEO. He
actually stated that the company would close if I didn’t run it. He didn’t want
anyone in control of his baby but me.”

“That
probably felt good, didn’t it? That level of trust?”

“It
did.” Tanner glanced at Noah’s nakedness. “You’re a walking advertisement for
sin, you know that? Sweet, sexy, delicious sin.”

He
smiled. “I usually walk around nude.”

Tanner
rolled his eyes as the phone rang. He moved to answer it. Noah thought about
what Tanner had revealed to him, how open and honest he was about everything.
He couldn’t imagine his parents thinking he was an embarrassment to them. His
parents doted on him and smothered him with sickening affection.

“Food
is here.” Tanner glanced at Noah’s crotch. “Since you’re clearly not dressed to
go get it, I’ll be right back.”

“I
don’t mind. I’m comfortable with my body.”

“You’d
give Ms. McDonald a heart attack if she saw you like that.” Tanner grinned.
“Fuck. I’ll be right back.”

He
left and Noah decided to take a quick shower to clean up before he got back. He
rushed to the bathroom and turned on the water, jumping in. The essentials were
easy to take care of before he tackled his hair and turned the faucet off. He
grabbed a towel and went back to the kitchen just as Tanner came back in.

“You
took a shower?”

“Yeah.”
Noah tucked the towel around his waste and reached for the bag form Tanner.
“This smells so fucking good. I’m starving.”

“Ah,
hell.” Tanner moved in behind him, wrapping his arms around Noah’s body. “The
whole point of showering together was to get in a quickie before I have to go.”

Noah
sorted the food. “You’ll just have to wait until tonight then. Or maybe I’ll
stop by later and give you a blowjob in the middle of your important call.”

“Don’t
tease me.”

Noah
grinned. “Eat. You need nourishment. We had a great night, so refuel and we’ll
continue our wicked escapades tonight.”

Tanner
kissed his shoulder in passing and sat beside him at the kitchen bar. They ate
mostly in comfortable silence. It felt nice being with someone and not feeling
like he had to talk to him non-stop. With clients, they thought he was a bore
if he didn’t dote on them and talk to them. Any moments of silence killed the
date and eventually the mood.

“I
need to go.” Tanner grabbed his wallet from the counter and shoved it in his
pocket. “Shit. I’m late as it is. See you tonight?”

“Of
course.”

He
kissed Noah on the lips before rushing out the door. Noah sighed and decided to
clean up their breakfast mess. The penthouse felt weird without Tanner there.
It was humongous, basically covering the entire floor of the building. It had a
great view of the city as well, which was always vibrant and full of life.