“Robbie Phillips?”

“Very, very, very, very good looking.”

“In a hayloft?”

“Itchy. I don’t recommend it.”

“Unless Robbie Phillips is available.”

“Not anymore. I found him on Facebook, and his thirties hit him harder than a dump truck.”

“So your first was older than you?” Shaw plucked at his Lululemon shirt. “I guess that explains why you’ve got a thing for older men.”

The crinkles were back, and Reck nodded slowly, his eyes raking Shaw up and down.

“This has something to do with firsts? Is that it?”

Another slow nod. Heat prickled across Shaw’s chest.

“I’m not going to break my client’s confidentiality,” Shaw said. “But I can tell you that I’m working a case that sounds similar.”

“First-time sexual encounters videotaped and then used as blackmail material?”

Shaw nodded.

“You’re not going to tell me that Matty Fennmore is a victim.”

Shaw shook his head. “No comment.”

“And you’re not going to recommend to this client, even if he happens to be a very pretty twink that you tote around like you keep him in your pocket, that he go to the police.”

“We advise all our clients to go to the police with legal issues.”

“Of course.”

Shaw shrugged.

“There are a lot of people on the hook for this investigation, Mr. Aldrich. Some of them are important people. Some of them aren’t. Either way, I’m going to find the asshole who did this and make sure he pays for it.”

“Because you’re a tough guy,” Shaw said. “I get it.”

“Because this guy took the most vulnerable moment of an already-vulnerable population and turned it against them. Because that’s the kind of thing monsters do. And because yeah, I am a tough guy, and I’m going to find this monster and rip his head off.”

It shouldn’t have sounded hot. But it kind of did.

At the end of the hall, the door to Matty’s loft clicked open, and Reck spun away from Shaw as smooth as silk. Matty emerged into the hallway, dragging a roller suitcase behind him, and he paused and studied the two of them, twisting the hem of his cardigan.

“It’s ok,” Shaw said. “He only looks like an asshole.”

Reck had a little smirk on his face like he thought he’d scored a point.

“He’s really just an enormous, gaping, monster dick.”

“Keep talking about Daddy’s dick,” Reck whispered as Matty trudged toward them.

Shaw, for some reason he couldn’t articulate, found himself blushing like crazy as he shepherded Matty into the elevator.

Reck watched them, and as the doors closed, he called, “Make sure you find him a nice . . . hotel.”

Shaw tried really, really hard not to flip Reck the bird.

He lost.

Chapter 19

You can sleep on the sofa,” Shaw said, pointing across the bedroom to the hall. When Matty had dragged his bag off the landing, Shaw shut the door with his hip and locked it. “You are now officially in the safest bedroom in America.”