Page 154 of Naughty November
Blushing to the roots of his shoulder-length, layered, wavy, lightbrown hair, he glanced down at his lap, fidgeting with his work clothes. “I just, umm… didn’t have anywhere else to go? My roommate kicked me out last night.”
“So you slept here last night, too?”
His eyes popped wide. “No, sir! I swear.”
“Then where?”
“Well, it was two in the morning when I got home from cleaning and then Jared kicked me out ten minutes later. I wasn’t able to grab more than a sweatshirt before he shoved me out the door. I tried the two local shelters, but there weren’t any beds available. So I found a bench at the bus station.”
Fucking hell, this kid. “And what, no shelters tonight?”
“Hm-mmm,” he said, shaking his head as he kept his eyes averted and bit his chapped lip. “I went before my shift to get a bed for when I got off, but there’s a curfew and I wouldn’t have made it.”
“So you decided your new employer wouldn’t mind if you made use of the facilities?”
On a shaky breath, Julien met my gaze. “I wasn’t planning to, but when the shift was over I just… I-I…” Closing his eyes, he shook his head in what I assumed was annoyance with himself and took a deep breath. “I didn’t know where else to go. I was cold as hell last night. I figured I could just sleep on a comfortable sofa or curl up on one of the booth seats and then sneak out before anyone came in.”
“You’re aware we have security on all the exits here. You had to have noticed your boss disarming it before letting you inside.”
“Yeah, I just… I figured it would go off, but I’d be long gone before anyone got here to check.”
“So, let me get this straight… You figured you’d illegally make yourself at home here, take advantage of your employer, break all the rules you signed off on in your employment contract, use the facilities, take illegal substances while doing so, and essentially make yourself at home?”
Shaking his head frantically, Jules stood up, the clothing on his lap falling to the floor. “I didn’t know what else to do. Fuck. I work three jobs, and I’d never make it in time to get to a shelter. I was scared tosleep out—wait! Illegal substances? I don’t do drugs, man! What the fuck?”
I wrapped my hand around his slender neck and squeezed, feeling a sick sense of satisfaction when his Adam’s apple bobbed under my palm as he swallowed reflexively. Leaning down into his face so our foreheads were nearly touching, I growled, “The fuck you don’t. You seem to think alarms on the outer doors are the only things we have here in terms of security. There are cameras with motion sensors covering every fucking inch of this club. I got a notification the second you moved from wherever you’d hidden yourself when your boss left. The cameras provide video and audio recordings.”
“Fuck. I didn’t… I never saw any cameras.”
“Obviously. They are discreet by design.”
“Shit. Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was going to do it until the opportunity presented itself. It won’t happen again. I’ll figure something out. But, dude, I don’t take illegal drugs.”
Dude? For fuck’s sake, this kid.
“Like hell. I saw you swallow some pills from a little baggie. If that doesn’t scream street drugs, I don’t know what does.”
His eyes popped wide and he shook his head. “Those were prescription meds. I swear. Look, I’ll show you.”
I still held him by his throat and watched as he raised his arm to clasp my wrist with his much smaller hand. I glared and shook his hand off with a growl. “Watch yourself, boy.”
He held his hands up until I stepped back, crossing my arms over my chest again. Turning, he dug into his bag and pulled out a small ziplock bag—of all the fucking things—brandishing it right in my face, his expression triumphant.
Sighing, I rolled my eyes and scrubbed my face, frustration nearly seeping out of my pores, I was sure. I didn’t know why the fuck I hadn’t just grabbed him by the scruff and tossed him out yet. Okay, that wasn’t true exactly. The boy was absolutely stunning, and so far his story was amusing me, so I continued with my inquisition, all while knowing—but ignoring the fact—that I should get back to work.
“So, you’re trying to convince me that the drugs in your baggie are prescriptions? Drugs in baggies literally scream illegal substance.”
Frowning, Jules dug into his bag again, grabbed his phone and tapped a few times, then waved it in my face. What I saw was the close-up of a prescription bottle with a script number and drug info. “If you have the bottle, why put it in a bag?”
He sighed, turning and then putting the phone and the bag back in his backpack, then faced me again. “I have a picture of it in case I’m out and need the script number to call in for a refill. And if youmustknow, I’m clumsy, and one night the bottle fell on the floor and I was rushing around trying to find the damn thing when I stepped on it and broke it. So, I stole one of my roommate’s drug bags to put them in.”
“So, you’re not a druggie, but your roommate is.”
“Yeah. Well… he’s a dealeranda junkie. If he knew I had this prescription, he’d be stealing it from me. This way, he doesn’t know it’s mine if I lose it somewhere in the apartment. And don’t look at me like that. Beggars can’t be choosers. I didn’t exactly have a lot of options. He’s a piece of shit, really, but he didn’t charge much because he owed my brother a huge favor. And I basically did everything around the place, like cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping. So…”
“So, why did he kick you out?”
Cheeks flaming, Jules huffed out a breath and muttered sulkily, “He said I fucked him over by leaving the front door unlocked, but that only happened once when I first moved in because my brain is broken and I had no mantra. But?—”