Dirty Secret Read Free Page B

at the end of my name was a term of affection, but the flick stung. He’d let go of my waist, and pushed me away gently. I reluctantly let go, telling myself I was too tired for a romp on the washing machine anyway. “I said, nuna is here.”
    “I know. I saw the kim chee mafia outside,” I replied, leaning over to bite his neck gently before he could pull away further. He let me, and I briefly worried at the skin before letting him go. “Is she okay?”
    “She wants to talk to you. She brought someone for you to meet. They want to hire you for something,” Jae murmured. His high cheekbones went pink, a blush over his skin, and he rubbed at the spot where I could still see the dimples left by my teeth. “What took you so long to get home?”
    “I had to go watch a doctor pick glass out of some guy’s dick.” I shrugged. “Is there coffee I can warm up in the microwave? I’ll need something to keep me awake for a little bit.”
    “I’m not enough?” His smile was brief, a flirtatious smirk that left me no doubt I could have dragged him away to the laundry room if I’d tried hard enough.
    “Jae, you aren’t something to get me into the living room to talk,” I murmured, hooking my hand behind his neck and pulling him into another kiss. “You’re inspiration for me to head upstairs and see if we can make enough noise to get the cops called on us.”
    “ Aish .” It was a guttural sound, a rasp of a rattle in his throat. “There’s coffee. I’ll get you a cup. And something to eat. Go talk to nuna so she can go home and we can get some… sleep.”
     
     
    O THER than the office space in the front of the building, I’d spent the most time renovating the living room. The enormous fireplace fought me every step of the way, and it’d taken me the better part of two weeks to get rid of decades of paint and smoke. What I got out of it was an elegantly carved mantelpiece and a place I could hang my flat-screen television. Most of the long wall and bookcases were set around and below the windows. I’d tried to find furniture to match the clean lined fireplace, but I’d missed the gay designing gene, and finally settled on buying long, wide overstuffed sofas and a low, squat apothecary chest I used as a coffee table. It was big enough to host a small family if they didn’t mind kneeling.
    Jae’d declared the chest was off limits for sex. We ate off it all the time. I had to give him that.
    I didn’t like it, but sometimes, common sense did win out.
    “Hello, baby,” Scarlet purred, standing to give me a kiss on the cheek.
    Despite the late night waiting up for me to come home, she looked incredible, her skin luminous against an untucked white men’s shirt. Her trim legs were showcased in black skin-tight leggings, and she’d taken off her flats at the door, leaving her tiny feet bare. Her fingers were naked except for a plain gold band on her left hand, and the jade and gold ring on her right index finger. The band was from her lover. The jade was a gift from me. She’d been there for Jae during the hardest times of his life. I’d have bought her the moon for that if I could.
    “Hello, nuna .” I used the Korean honorific Jae used for her, an intimate word from a young man to an older woman he was close to. It meant the world to Scarlet that he called her that. The first time I did, her tears threatened her makeup, and I’d earned a slap on the arm for teasing her about it. “You should have called me. I’d have come home sooner.”
    There was a young Korean man about the same age as Jae-Min sitting next to her. He stood as I came in, giving me a slight bow. His black hair was cut tight to the sides of his head and only a little bit longer on top. He was shorter than I was by about a head, but his arms bulged with muscles when he extended his hand for me to shake. A slight tan darkened his skin, and his palm was dry and rough from physical labor. We shook hands briefly as Scarlet introduced