It took a moment for his words to sink in. I had to get past the old part before the "him" part registered. I gnawed on my bottom lip, the bottle of water all but forgotten in my hand. Jade had just outed himself, outed us both—but more importantly outed himself. I could only hope Elizabeth was too firmly entrenched in Jade's spell to realize.
She screwed up her face at him, her little pink tongue sliding across her whiter-than-white teeth as she peered suspiciously at him. Fuck, my hope was dead. "You love a guy?"
Jade looked at me again, an obvious question in his sparkling eyes. I nodded my agreement and handed him the bottle. He took it, twisted off the cap, and handed it to Elizabeth.
"Yeah, and you know him," he teased as she slurped from the bottle.
Elizabeth looked confused, nose crinkled up and eyebrows knitted together again. "Is it Gerard Way?" she asked, wide-eyed while I suppressed a snort. "No! Adam Levine, right! He's old."
"He is old, but do you know him?" Jade asked as I thought up ways to repay his comment since Adam was two years younger than me—not that I knew every detail of Adam's life and had a massive crush on him or anything so juvenile as that.
She shook her head and tossed her half-empty bottle to her father who had quietly faded into the background, seemingly taking everything in. I'd say it was a good move on his part. Jade tilted his head in my direction and Elizabeth's eyes got saucer-huge.
"Him? You love him?" I didn't really appreciate the squeaky sound of disbelief, but I'd let it pass—this time. "But he's not even famous and he works in a depressing, boring office. And he's so not cool."
I opened my mouth to defend my honor, but luckily Jade beat me to it, moving around the desk to give me a smooch on the side of the head. "He has other qualities that make up for those things."
I frowned and gave him a swift elbow to the ribs. That wasn't exactly the defending I'm been expecting.
Elizabeth wasn't fazed, and I noticed Durango had slunk even further back from the conversation, the matter unbelievably less comfortable than a thirty-something-year-old man taking advantage of his teenaged daughter.
"Like what?" She wasn't going to let it go.
Jade tilted his head and turned to me, raking his eyes up and down my body. He actually made me feel dirty in front of a sixteen-year-old girl. When I was done with him, he'd be lucky if he had balls at all, let alone iron ones.
"Come on. He's cute, right?" he teased. "And he's not really that old. I'm pretty old compared to you, too."
Elizabeth sighed, managing to roll her eyes at the same time. Didn't she get a headache from all that rolling? "It's different because you're you and he's, well, him. How old are you, anyhow?"
"Twenty-six."
She frowned at him. "Yeah. that's a little old, but you're cool and he's … not."
"He's totally cool, too."
"As if," she snorted. I really wanted to smack her or have the floor suddenly open up and swallow me down. Or both and I think Durango was hoping for the same thing. It was an awkward conversation to say the least.
Jade slipped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me snug to his side and giving me a quick wink. "No, really. Listen. We have a cat, right?"
She smiled and rested one hand on the desk between us, shining eyes never straying to anything but Jade's face. I felt completely invisible and I was okay with that. "What's its name?"
"Calliope. She's a beauty, but one time she thought it would be fun to get into the garbage then got really sick. I was tired from being on tour so guess who looked after her all night? Cleaned up her puke and her poop?"
That's way too much information, Jade.
Elizabeth looked disgusted but eventually gestured toward me. "Yep, Mason did, and he even brought her to work with him to make sure she was okay. And when I got the chicken pox two years ago, guess who took care of me?"
"Isn't the chicken pox for kids?"
Jade squeezed my shoulder while I remembered that scary time of doctors and scratching and fevers. "Usually and it can get really bad for adults. Mason never left me alone even when I got so bitchy I didn't wanna talk to me."
That drew a snicker from her.
"But do you wanna know what the best part of Mason is?" I prayed he wasn't going to get graphic. "His heart. He lets me be me. You know what I mean?" Elizabeth shook her head, giving me a side-eye sweep for the first time. "He doesn't treat me like Jade the rockstar or Jade the celebrity. He makes me cook and clean..."
"I don't make you do that!" I objected. I struggled to get out of his tight hold, but he didn't let up. Dominant bastard.
"That doesn't sound too fun or exciting to me." Shahara shook her head and looked bored.
Jade grinned at her. "Maybe not exciting but normal, and that's all I want be when I'm at home."
Elizabeth tilted her head, snuck a quick glare at me, then focused back on Jade. "You live together in your mansion?"
We both chuckled at that. "Definitely not a mansion, but yeah, we live together. Almost four years, right?" He directed that question to me, even though he damn well knew the exact date and time we moved in together. Jade was like that.
"Wanna know something else?" He moved us so we leaned over the desk as Shahara did the same.
"Like a secret?"
"Yeah, a big one. You're the only person outside our family that knows."
Her eyes went wide again. "Really? But why? Why don't you want anyone to know how lucky you are?" She looked at me that time, and though I knew I was the "you" in question. I let Jade answer for me.
"He doesn't tell anyone because of me, because we don't know how my fans will react. That kind of makes me the lucky one, right?"
Elizabeth shrugged. "Kinda. But why wouldn't you tell your fans? You think they wouldn't like him?"
I watched as Jade hesitated then tangled my fingers with his on my shoulder. "I don't want to do anything that might harm Jade's career, and if people know he loves a man, it might cause him some problems."
"Ohhh, the gay thing? That's no big deal. I know a lot of gay people and they're nice."
Jade cocked his head at her, his fingers squeezing mine. "So you'd still come to the band's shows and buy our music?"
"Of course. Daddy always says it don't matter if people are gay, straight, black, white, or purple. As long as they're nice and don't hurt anyone else, it's all good."
I saw Durango smirk out of the corner of my eye. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all—simply a father trying to protect and love his daughter.
Elizabeth wasn't fazed by what she'd said. "You want me to keep the secret?"
Jade looked up at me, a silent question on his lips. I kissed his cheek and answered against his soft skin. "Up to you, love."
"Ohhh, that's so cute. He called you 'love,'" Elizabeth gushed, pressing her hands to her chest.
"Told you he was cool," Jade said. "And you know what? I think it's high time everyone knew how cool and special he is, so how about we consider the secret not a secret anymore."
"Awesome! Tiffany is gonna be so jealous that I know something before her. Can you drop me off at her house, Daddy?"
Durango finally separated himself from the wall. I'd never noticed how dingy my office actually looked until that very moment. "No, ma'am. I think we have some other business to take care of. You know what you tried to do to Mr. Lee was wrong, don't you?"
Elizabeth nodded and dipped her head. "Yeah, and I never liked Griz anyhow. He smelled and had really bad teeth." From all his drug use, I presumed.
"That's not the point, Elizabeth. Any kind of sex at your age is not acceptable and certainly not with someone so much older." He turned to Jade and me. "I'd appreciate some advice on this situation, gentlemen. If you don't think I've been too much of an ass, that is."
I stepped back into my professional role. "I think you need to call the police, Mr. Durango. Elizabeth, do you have a phone number for Griz?" I didn't even like saying his name.
She nodded. "I was supposed to go to his gross hotel again tonight." She looked up at her father. "I never ... did it all the way with him, Daddy. Just, you know … stuff with my mouth, and it was gross."
Durango pulled his daughter into his arms, a look of distress shadowing his face. "We're gonna go talk to someone about it, sweetheart. We'll get through it together, and I'll make damn sure that man goes to jail." He held out his hand to Jade and Jade enclosed it in his. "I'm truly sorry for all this, Mr. Lee, and I swear your name will not be dragged into it."
"You just do what you have to do for your daughter, sir. Mason and I can handle ourselves."
My turn was next and I accepted his handshake with pride. "I'd like to return your deposit, Mr. Durango."
"Nonsense," he scoffed. "You earned it, and I'm going to ask you a favor as well, one that I probably have no right to ask, but will anyhow for the sake of my daughter."
I had already anticipated the request. "The pictures will be destroyed," I said. "Except I suggest you hang onto a couple as proof for the police."
"Yeah, that's a good idea."
We said our goodbyes, Elizabeth giving Jade no less than three hugs. She even seemed to suck up her jealousy to hug me. Jade told her that anytime she wanted to get in touch with him, to just call me at the office, but that part of the arrangement was definitely a secret. The two people who walked out of my office barely resembled the pair I'd met only days ago. It felt really good to have helped.
"I think you should start cutting me a paycheck since I'm so influential in solving your cases and all." I turned to see Jade sprawled out in my big comfy chair, feet swinging over the armrest and a big, honest-to-goodness grin on his face.
I snorted in his general direction. "You can't solve the case if you are the case. Besides, you have more money than God."
He reached out and grabbed my hand, dragging me to him then tugging me so I sprawled into his lap. Not the most comfortable position for either of us, but I guessed I'd live.
"Maybe not God but definitely Adam Levine. And despite being old, he's fucking hot." He managed to duck the swat I directed at his head before trapping my wrist and pressing it to his lips. "But you're definitely hotter."
"Idiot," I growled as his lips moved down my arm. "I guess I could take you out to dinner for your help in diffusing the situation."
He stopped licking me to answer. "Or we could just go home and I could cook for you?"
"Meat?"
"Yep."
"Real meat, not that tofu, veggie, soy crap?"
He snickered, causing my body to bounce on top of him, which in turn made his noticeably half-hard dick more noticeable as it dug into my ass. "Pinky swear," he said. He smirked in that way I knew either meant he was feeling mischievous or horny—or more often than not, both. One of his hands still held my wrist to his mouth while the other inched its way down my belly.
I moaned when his fingers slid under my shirt, one digit slowly circling my sensitive-as-fuck belly button. "Never understood pinky swear," I whispered, tilting my head back as his lips moved over my jaw.
"Have we ever made love in your office?" His words vibrated against my skin.
"You know we have."
"But in this chair?"
Groaning when he raked his teeth over the sensitive spot behind my ear, I struggled to find my words. "Mmm, no … no, not in the chair."
His fingers slithered higher, finding one of my nipples and giving it a hard tweak. "Speaking of chairs …"
"I'm pretty sure there have been no chairs mentioned" I groaned again and arched my back, attempting to arrange my backside into a better position against his erection
"Do you have one of those office furniture catalogues?"
I stopped my squirming and shifted my head so I could him in the eye. "You're kidding me, right?"
He pecked at my mouth. "No. Have you ever sat in that chair in the other room? Fucking brutal, babe. And you really need an interior designer to spruce up this place. Shahara was right; it's kind of depressing."
His words sparked an earlier question I'd stuffed to the back of my mind. "Are you seriously considering taking some time off?" I asked.
"I dunno, maybe. I have a while to think about it. It'd be cool though, right? Solving cases together. Being together twenty-four seven. We could change the name to Cason Lee Investigations. No! Lee Cason." His eyes opened wide and he half-smiled. "Why are you looking at me like that? Don't wanna be my partner?"
I wrapped a hand behind his head and touched our foreheads together. "More than anything."