Out of Nowhere (Balls and Brawn Bodyguard #4)

14. Chapter Fourteen Seo-jun

Chapter Fourteen: Seo-jun

T he third time Seo-jun caught himself listening to the Taylor Swift’s song “Lover” while thinking of Dex, he erased it from his Spotify playlist only to upload it again a day later. He liked to think about how Dex had looked when he’d said he loved the song, eyes wide and face lighting up. He wanted to see Dex look like that again.

He had to admit, he also liked the song. It would be nice to belong to a person like that , he thought as he took a shower, the song playing on his phone propped on the counter. Seo-jun’s relationship with Haru certainly hadn’t been like that.

When he finished showering, Seo-jun turned off Spotify, and looked at himself in the mirror.

“Seriously, Seo-jun? Are you a twelve-year-old with a crush?” he asked his reflection. Shaking his head, he grabbed a towel off the rack and dried off.

Standing in front of his closet in his apartment, he looked through his clothes with a critical eye. It was their fourth night going to Trend , and a Tuesday. So far, there had been no sign of the vandal. He was just about to grab a pair of black jeans when he spotted something on a hanger in the back that he’d forgotten he owned. Smiling, he put together an outfit that was sure to…

To what?

He’d been teasing Dex a lot lately, testing the waters, yes, but also because a blushing Dex did things to him. He was pretty sure Dex was into him, too. But how to proceed? Seo-jun was sailing in uncharted waters.

Picking up his phone, he pushed play, listening to the words of “Lover” for several minutes while imagining what it would be like to slow dance with Dex.

Can I go where you go?

Can we always be this close?

Forever and ever…

Seo-jun closed his eyes. He wanted to see that look on Dex’s face again.

A half hour later, dressed in a pair of leather pants he’d once worn clubbing that had been stuck in the back of his closet for years, coupled with a snug white T-shirt, Seo-jun pulled his car up to where Dex was waiting for him outside the mansion’s gate. Seo-jun’s eyes swept over him. He was wearing a pair of cream-colored chinos and a black button-down shirt, and with his tan and the thin layer of stubble on his jaw, he looked incredibly sexy. As Dex lowered himself into the passenger seat of Seo-jun’s black Mercedes GT Coupe, Seo-jun hurriedly rearranged his cock in the constrictive pants he was wearing.

“Oh, my God,” Dex said, turning in his seat to look at Seo-jun, and for a moment Seo-jun was afraid he’d noticed his hard-on. He squinted when Dex reached up and flicked on the interior light in the car. “Are those leather pants you’re wearing? I never would have thought you’d own something like that.”

“I’ve done my share of partying in the past,” Seo-jun said, positioning his hand as best he could to hide his stiff cock.

“Well, you look really hot.”

Seo-jun was surprised to feel his face burning at the compliment as he reached up and flicked off the revealing light.

“It’s Hot Bottom Night at Trend ,“ Dex said. “The guys will be all over you.”

Seo-jun just shook his head and shifted the car into drive.

“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, are you straight?”

Glancing at him, Seo-jun said, “I like both men and women.” Had he really never made that clear to Dex? He probably hadn’t.

Dex relaxed back into the seat. “Okay. I just wondered. Thank you for telling me. I’m gay, but you’ve probably figured that out since the night we all went to that gay club.” He looked down at this hands, and, seeming to suddenly realize he was twisting his fingers anxiously, pressed his palms against his thighs. “I’m just not out to my family.”

“Do you want to be out to them?” Seo-jun asked, although he knew the answer. Dex just didn’t know he knew the answer because Dex didn’t remember the drunken conversation they’d had out on the beach one night. When Dex tensed up again, he added, “We don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.”

Dex sighed. “I would like to be out to everyone. It feels so good that a lot of my friends know now. But my mother won’t take it well. Honestly, I don’t know if it matters. We don’t even live in the same state.”

“A person will always care about what their parents think,” Seo-jun said. It was true. Even though he and his mother barely shared a phone call a year, he yearned for her to tell him she was proud of him, which she usually did.

“I heard there was some trouble at the casino job and you took out two guys at once.”

It was true, the two men had come into the casino with weapons on them. When confronted, they’d refused to give them up. When one went to pull his gun, Seo-jun knocked it out of his hand with a well-aimed kick, then rounded on the other in time to stop him from doing the same.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” Seo-jun said.

“I heard it was,” Dex said, and when Seo-jun gave him a quelling look, he just smiled. “Okay, I won’t talk about how you’re a hero and kept one of the guys from taking a lady hostage.”

Seo-jun remembered the second guy had been reaching for a woman standing nearby while drawing his gun.

“Can we talk about something else, please?”

“Fine, fine.” Dex was still smiling.

They remained quiet until they got to the club and past the bouncer.

“I can’t believe this is a Sunday night,” Seo-jun said loudly so that Dex could hear him over the music and chatter.

“Like I said, Hot Bottom Night,” Dex said.

As Seo-jun and Dex made their way through the crowd to the bar. Seo-jun noticed that a fair number of men were dressed provocatively, presumably to go with the Hot Bottom vibe.

“My God, Jake, look at this one here,” a man said, stepping up to stand next to him at the bar. The man beside him, who was wearing a one-piece outfit that fit like a second skin, leaned around his friend to let his gaze run over first Seo-jun, and the Dex, who eyed both of the men warily.

“The muscles,” he said over the music, staring hungrily at Seo-jun’s biceps. He reached out to touch, and before Seo-jun could move away, Dex grabbed the man’s wrist in a firm grip.

“No,” he said, looking so angry , Seo-jun swallowed hard. This was new.

“Jealous?” the man asked Dex, and Dex cast an abashed look at Seo-jun before the man stepped into Dex’s personal space and rested his hand on Dex’s chest.

Oh, fuck no. Seo-jun had the guy’s arm twisted behind his back in seconds.

“Easy, honey,” the man said, blinking over his shoulder at him, a flirtatious smile playing about his mouth and his eyes glazed with drink.

Letting him go, Seo-jun stepped back. “Keep your hands to yourself.”

“Sorry,” Jake said. “I didn’t know you were together. Come on, Steve. Let’s dance.”

The two men walked off.

Dex cleared his throat. “Let’s go sit at the bar.”