Page 12 of Wrestling with Daddy

“Shit,” he muttered.

He’d always thought it was stupid when people talked to their screens. It was obvious the other person wasn’t able to hear, and inside voices were there for a reason.

Ken couldn’t help the quiet curse, though, not even when it spooked Plum. At least the cat jumped to him, instead of zooming in the opposite direction.

His hand instinctively petting the soft fur, he took a deep breath.

A visit to the club was overdue. Maybe he could see if Lee wasn’t busy with his pup.

Ken certainly needed to talk with someone before he completely lost his shit over a virtual stranger or the thoughts of loneliness that startled him with a pang in his chest more and more often.

Ken

I’m sorry

Nathan

don’t be. not the worst thing I’ve heard, believe it or not

Ken

Do you want to keep doing this? You still have 12 questions left

Nathan

don’t know

what are you trying to get out of it?

Ken didn’t know.

He thought he owed it to Nathan—stranger or not—and to himself to figure it out, though.

* * *

Ken didn’t end up going to the club. He thought about it for the longest time, but in the end, it held no interest. Even if someone had been available for an impromptu visit downtown, there was no appeal in it.

Spilling his guts wasn’t something that came easily to him, and the idea of watching the boys there wasn’t drawing him in.

Ken shook his head as he popped in the shower for a quick wash before bed. He hadn’t found himself attached to a person in a long time. None of the guys he might’ve had his fun at the club with had him later fantasizing about them, or hoping that he could touch them, comfort them.

Nathan was a brat, but he was also an enigma. That might be why Ken was struggling to get him out of his head.

Maybe he’d manage as the new week started and he went back to his routine of calls and files and hands to shake—of assuring whoever it was that their designs were top notch and that he trusted his teams completely.

Until then, as soon as he was under the covers, Ken reread the short yet poignant text exchange with Nathan, pausing at the parts he thought were showing more of the boy than he’d intended.

Perhaps if he managed to resolve the enigma, he could keep going, moving on with his life and his routines as he’d been all along.

Curiosity had always been his biggest motivator. Curiosity about how eco-friendly or how tall he could make a building. Curiosity about how far he could take a boy before he neared his boundaries. Curiosity about how loud or how quiet they could be when he commanded it.

How long they could last.

Curiosity about the boy who sounded as prickly as he would’ve come to expect from a kitten, yet identified as a pup.

It was late, and Nathan would probably be in the demo—if that demo had even existed in the first place—but Ken sat up on the bed.

Sleep wasn’t going to come easily, and he thought he had the answer to Nathan’s question.