Question Mark by S.E. Culpepper Read Free Book Online

admit it aloud, but he was pretty sure he’d seen tabloid pics of Zane in some tropical places—bare chested and bronzed, of course, and once sharing a beach blanket with a hottie. At least that other dude was long gone. Not that Mark read tabloids. He had to pass time in the checkout stand doing something, though. He could either read a couple tabloid covers or stare lasers at the lady in front of him paying for a pack of gum with a check.
    Zane shifted in his chair, his earlier nerves seemingly gone. “I don’t actually get a lot of free time and as far as vacation spots go, I like that it’s not only totally off the beaten path but across an ocean, too. Mikey and James convinced me that time off was a good idea. I needed a vacation.”
     “I can understand that completely.” Mark took a sip of the beer that the ghosting server dropped off and met Zane’s eyes with a knowing look. “There was too much in Albuquerque to deal with, so I did the research, found this place and made the reservations. Of course, I had to work for two months before I could get an open week to come out here and my mom was pissed I blew off my usual trip home, but it’s looking to be a wise decision so far. Everything… everybody …I just left it there. I’m sure that without me nothing will fall to the ground. It’s a freeing feeling.”
    Zane cocked his head, and Mark noticed a question in his eyes as he mentioned the  “everybody” he was leaving behind, but the expression was there and gone the next second. It made it seem like he might not be single. Shit.
    “You were working, too?” Mark asked, trying to cover up his blunder.
    “I was wrapping up some work in L.A. and it was like the same thing was happening to me there; life was getting to be too much to handle. So I said, the hell with it, and made the arrangements. I didn’t think of this before, but we must’ve been on the same flight.”
    “Know what’s funnier? I read an article about you on the plane.” Mark teased and Zane winced, hiding his face behind his menu. That wasn’t the reaction Mark expected and his heart went the way of total goo.
    “Which one…?” Zane groaned as he waved his words away. “No, don’t tell me. Wait—it was the one in GQ , wasn’t it?” Mark grinned wickedly as Zane lifted his head and grimaced. “Those pictures are so…so…”
    “Hot?”
    “Mortifying,” Zane said at the same time
    “How could those shots embarrass you? Man, if someone took such great pictures of me, I’d be thrilled.” The thought of Zane in that black suit with his dress shirt undone and his pants opened so his black briefs showed, nearly had Mark scraping the plane’s cabin walls for his oxygen mask.
    Zane blinked in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? The photographer was, like, ordering me to crawl all over these sofas and desks. My shirt’s wide open and my pants are practically falling off and the dude keeps saying, ‘No Zane. We want secksy. We want pout-ty. Think of your lovah, caressing your skeen.’ ” He mimicked the accent of his photographer and continued as Mark leaned forward in laughter.
    “So I’m supposed to think about a non-existent lover with all these scantily clad ladies posing next to me while I’m in these awkward positions on office furniture? I wanted to tell the guy that my freaking mom was going to buy this magazine and show it to the ladies in her book club , which doesn’t get my motor running… But it was his vision.”
    When Mark’s chuckles slowed he took another pull from his beer and said, “You couldn’t let him down.”
    “Nah. I couldn’t. I pouted and ‘secksied’ until he got those shots. The animal. I felt so used. Plus, I pulled my groin when I got caught in a phone cord.”
    Mark almost snorted beer through his nose and hastily grabbed for his napkin. Zane seemed so down-to-earth and it was blowing holes in all of Mark’s preconceptions. It created a giddy feeling…like maybe his love