Island Heat by E. Davies Read Free Book Online Page A

up on that.
    “No. The baker, Kevin, he's actually straight.”
    “You hired a straight man to come here? And he actually came?” Eli laughed. Bullshit. He's not straight. The look on his face in the shop earlier...
    Rube just said, “I had a feeling it would work out. They arrived just yesterday and they're almost set up. Mostly Kevin – he was working from five AM to when I checked in a few minutes before coming here, all day long. Troy was there for most of the day, too, but he's going to have more of the workload at nights and Kevin more work during the day. It'll be an interesting setup. That's why I wanted to try it.”
    Eli licked his lips and nodded, his mind already wandering. So they're definitely not together, which explains Troy hooking up with Dean last night, but... I can't fall for a straight guy.
    He changed the subject as Dean came around, and the three of them chatted about a few of the projects Rube had just finished up in London and Tokyo.
    Even as they talked, he couldn't keep his mind off Kevin. Gorgeous, ambitious, and a hard worker: exactly Eli's type.
    But Eli wasn't officially single yet, and Kevin was supposedly straight.
    He'd stop by the bakery the next morning just to apologize for intruding and... maybe chat with him a little more. Maybe he could even stop by that night and see if the poor guy was still trying to work his ass off to get ready for Friday, give him a little encouragement. They could be friends, even if they couldn't date.
    Eli ignored the part of his mind that told him that friends didn't look at each other like the counter was the only thing stopping them from kissing until they hit the floor. Friends didn't have chemistry that sparked to life at the lightest touch of their hands. Friends didn't find themselves unable to take their eyes off each other by the second meeting.
    And he wanted to explore that already. He barely knew the man, but he wanted to find out why he was both stern and shy, why he had that sharp edge to his voice, and why he seemed to lose that defensiveness whenever Eli looked at him for longer than a second.
    He wanted to know if that exciting, electrifying tingle he'd felt when their hands brushed on the dock was a one-time thing or not.
    Fuck. He was supposed to be getting his mind off Tom and flirting with other men, relearning how to date, but this wasn't the way Eli had envisioned it going.

Chapter 10
Kevin
    Main Street was peaceful at night – at least, this particular night. Kevin expected it would be far from quiet starting this weekend, but for now, it was a quiet evening and Kevin had the door propped open to the street.
    The only noise from the area was some faint din and music coming from Glam, the bar at the end of the street where they'd attended their business owners' kick-off party. Kevin figured there was another party for the island owners' friends or something, but he didn't think much of it. He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that it was about to be Thursday, and he wasn't feeling ready in the slightest for Friday.
    It was still unbelievable that he and Troy were two days away from opening their dream.
    “How about we shift around those tables?” Troy asked, frowning towards the window. “We want to encourage small group interaction, but those ones by the window are trapped.”
    “They're better for cozy dates,” Kevin argued.
    “Guys won't be having dates yet,” Troy laughed. “This is way too early in the season.”
    Kevin glanced over. “You think?”
    “Man, nobody goes on dates this early in the summer. It's all hookups, getting that tension out of the way with,” Troy told him. “Summer romances come later, in late June and July... hot afternoons spent walking on the beach together with ice cream...”
    Despite his best efforts, a certain handsome stranger came to mind as Kevin glanced at the bottles along the bar top that were filled with brightly-colored mixers. “Right,” Kevin nodded. “I wouldn't