Liability (Suncoast Society #33)(5)

“Tell me, exactly, what do we have in common?” Mason asked.

More silence. “We have fun in bed.” Mason could practically picture Freddie’s pout based on the man’s tone of voice.

“You hate my music. You don’t like the same books or movies that I like. You don’t—”

“They say opposites attract.”

“I think going back to school, there, would be a good option for you. You’re single, so hopefully your family will quit being a dick to you for now. Use the money your mom is willing to throw at you to go get a degree. A two-year, at least. You might even meet someone while you’re in school. That would be the most likely place to meet new people.”

“But I don’t want to live here anymore.” Whiny.

God, that grated on Mason. Why had he put up with Freddie and that whiny shit for so long?

Oh, yeah. A five-plus-year-long dry spell, at the time, when he’d met Freddie.

Ugh.

Never. Again.

“Freddie, I’m hanging up. My friends are waiting inside for me.”

“Inside where?” Whiny gave way to petulant again. It’d be funny if Mason was watching someone else go through this. In fact, he’d counsel a friend to grow a pair and just cut all contact with the guy.

Not nearly as amusing when it was happening to him, and not nearly as easy to do. He didn’t want to be a dick, although it seemed Freddie was bound and determined to force him into that role.

“One more time. Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m at a BDSM club. You need to go out tonight with your friends.”

Then again, Mason couldn’t name any friends Freddie had that hadn’t been his own to start with. Mason had made plenty of vanilla friends, straight and gay, while in Nebraska.

Freddie…not so much.

Now Mason could see why. Freddie clung like a damned sandspur when he got his hooks into you.

Freddie’s pendulum swung back to sweet. “It’s not the same without you here.”

Mason bit his tongue not to say it, that if Freddie wasn’t being such a clingy whiner and would go out, he might actually have friends of his own.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Freddie. You’re not moving down here to live with me, and you’re not coming down here and staying with me even just to visit. If you move down here, we’re still only going to be just friends. Stay up there. You don’t have any kind of degree that will help you get a better-paying job down here. I have been honest with you from the start. I will be your friend, and I will give you encouragement, but that’s all. Nothing more. Just friends. You have a life to live, I have a life to live. The end.”

Maybe he should have been an * and cut off all contact with the guy months ago when he knew for certain he was moving to Florida, but he’d felt genuinely sorry for Freddie. Figured that maybe Freddie would pick up some life skills he didn’t get from his * family.

Freddie was the youngest of five siblings, three older brothers and a sister. He’d come out to his family two years before, but they basically treated him like it was a phase he was going through.

Mason had only met them twice, and Freddie had introduced him as just a friend both times.

“Why are you being so mean to me?”

It was like talking to a teenager.

And this is why I don’t want kids.

“I’m not being mean.” Mason rubbed at his forehead. “You want mean? Here’s mean. I’m a damn sadist, so I can give you mean. If you want to stay friends with me, you will start adulting, quit guilt-tripping me, and grow the f*ck up. We are not in a relationship. I broke up with you before I left Nebraska. We are not ever going to be in a relationship, other than friends, ever again. Period. I’m damn sure not putting myself through this kind of bullshit with you again. You want to stay friends with me? Start acting like one. Stop calling and texting me every day and get out and find someone else to try that whiny act on, because it’s not working on me. I’m getting off here now. Do not spend all night calling or texting me, or you’ll force me to block your number. Good night.”

Mason hung up before Freddie could reply. He stared at his phone for a moment, irritated and more than ready to block Freddie’s number if the guy immediately called him back or texted him.

He didn’t.

After a few moments, Mason took a deep breath and slid his phone into his shirt pocket before heading inside.

He also fought the urge to feel like the world’s biggest *. This was exactly the kind of scene he’d hoped to avoid with Freddie, but the guy refused to grok the message.

I have a life to live. I refuse to feel guilty just because he doesn’t know how to have one.





Chapter Three


Early Sunday evening, Cole Singleton nervously drove south on US 41, heading for his girlfriend’s apartment to pick her up. He and Kim had been dating for nearly two years now, and while she hadn’t exactly dropped a bombshell on him the other night when she’d brought up going out tonight, it certainly had been an unexpected surprise.

She wanted to openly explore BDSM by going to a munch.

Before now, they’d had what he’d already considered a frisky sex life. He’d readily gone along with her wanting him to blindfold her in bed, or tie her hands, or talk dirty to her, but now he wasn’t sure to what other lengths she wanted him to go.