Page 21 of His Surrender

Wanting a place where we could drink but still be able to talk—so nowhere frequented mostly by younger crowds who got rowdy and blared loud music—I’d taken him to the 906. A pretty dumb move on my part because right when we walked through the door, I made eye contact with Remi.

He sat at the piano, playing a slow song. The rest of the band wasn’t with him, and the music sounded a little different. Had more of a romantic feel than a jazz one. Christ, he looked good. He wasn’t wearing a hat that night, instead having his black hair classically styled in a shorter on the side, longer on top look. His clothes were less quirky street musician and more black-tie affair—I liked both styles on him.

He looked away first.

“Pick any place you like and I’ll be right with you,” Brent said to me, smiling as he gave Ivan the up-down.

Oh, baby boy. You are so barking up the wrong tree.

Ivan was as straight as they came.

“Nice place,” Ivan said, surveying the room. “Kind of fancy.”

I heard what he wasn’t saying:this place is expensive.He was always worrying about money.

“Well, I got the tab tonight,” I said, clapping him on the back. “Order some fancy drinks and shut the hell up.”

Seeing that my usual seat was taken, I led him to a set of plushy chairs near the front patio. One of the chairs gave a perfect view of the stage where Remi was performing.A perfect distractionwas more like it. I sat in the other one and had the stage at my back. Problem solved.

I had hoped my desire for Remi would fade over time, but it hadn’t. He was the one man I couldn’t have, and it made me want him even more. I was obsessed. So much so that I hadn’t fucked anyone in about two weeks.

“It’s cool that they have live music,” Ivan said, his gaze fixated where mine wished to be. But if I looked at the sexy pianist, I’d end up drooling over him the entire night, and that would defeat the whole purpose of me getting Ivan out of the house.

“Yeah, they sometimes have a jazz band here. Once, they had an acoustic guitarist too.”

Brent came over to take our drink orders, spending an awful lot of time ogling my brother, before walking away.

“You have an admirer.” I grinned when Ivan shot me a glare. There was an emotion in his eyes I couldn’t place, though. Something… dark.

“Not my type,” he responded.

“A lot of beautiful women come in here,” I said, motioning to a group of them across the room. They were in cocktail dresses, had their hair fixed up, and were all sporting the long fake lashes, smoky-eye look. “I’m sure one of them is your type.”

Ivan followed my line of sight before shrugging.

“You have to get back out there,” I said, my voice softer than before.

“I’m damaged goods, Jay. Broken. I’m not good for anyone, so why bother?”

“You arenotbroken. And I’m not saying you have to jump into a serious relationship. Just do a little catch-and-release fishing.”

A smile crossed his face. “Wow. That’s how you refer to casual hookups? Catch and release?”

Brent returned with our drinks. “Here you go. Anything else I can get for you guys?”

“No, thanks,” I said.

The music stopped, and I looked over my shoulder despite the warnings to myself not to do so. Remi had stood from the bench and was approaching the bar. For a glass of water, I was sure. Since he didn’t drink.

I hated how I remembered that.

Ineverremembered things about men I fucked or planned to fuck. Hell, I still didn’t even know ifDanielwas the real name of the fitness guy. It had been something with aD. The onlyDI had cared about, though, was the one in his pants.

Yet, Remi was different. For some damn reason.

“Who’s the guy?”

“Huh?” I looked back at Ivan. “What guy?”