“And he was right in what he said, but he wasn’t nice in how he said it. Then I got the phone call where the guy threatened to tie me up and whip me.”

“What?”

That came from all three of them.

I still persevered with what I had to tell them, but that time, it was because I’d be answering them.

“So I made the fateful decision to call Brett because it wasn’t that bad, just an obscene phone call. But, you know, shit happens.”

“Shit does happen,” Pepper muttered.

I looked to Ryn. “So that’s why Brett is picking me up at night. And he’s spending the night with me, sleeping on my couch, because he doesn’t want to take any chances. Which is good. But also bad, seeing as he was there this morning with me, having coffee on my deck, but he’d gone inside to figure out breakfast when Axl showed to apologize for getting in my face and then we started kissing.”

“Ohmigod,” Ryn breathed.

“Right on,” Pepper said.

“Then Brett broke it up because my caller is more of a stalker and he’d opened my mail and found the guy had sent me some hard-core BDSM stuff with some threats and…and…uh…”

I trailed off because none of them were looking at me anymore.

They were all looking beyond me.

I’d know why even before I turned because Sylvester greeted, “Yo, Ian.”

And Dorian, who, after I turned, I saw was standing behind me, replied, “Yo, Sly.”

But he did this scowling at me.

Another full confession: in the beginning, I had serious problems with Dorian mostly because he was utterly gorgeous. The most beautiful Black man I’d ever seen. And I know some might have an issue that I included the modifier of “Black” in that, but before I saw Axl, he was just the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.

Then I saw Axl.

So Dorian’s title had to change, slightly.

And because he was so handsome, I was shy and awkward around him.

This, even if he was incredibly nice and he could be funny when he wasn’t being serious (which was a lot, but he ran a strip club with his uncle, it wasn’t just staff who could get out of hand, it was patrons, so serious was a good quality to have).

But he sensed I was shy, so he put in the work to make himself approachable to me, make me understand he wasn’t just my boss, he was a friend and he cared about me, and now I liked him a whole lot.

It was on this thought I realized everyone around me put in a lot of work.

And me?

Well…

Hell.

“Hey, Ian,” I greeted.

“You got a stalker?” Ian did not greet back.