Summary: AU set approximately three years after Adam Lambert won Season 8 of American Idol. He has a successful career but after a string of failed relationships, has more or less given up on romance and is focusing on his career to the point of being a workaholic. He still has trouble with inappropriate appearances of the glambulge during performance and still loves glitter. Kris Allen is a singer/guitarist from Arkansas who moved to LA nearly two years ago to try and break into the business and get away from a small town and family life that became uncomfortable after he came out of the closet. He's just about ready to give up hope of making it into the business. He's still wearing plaid.
Rating: This chapter is PG-15.
Ship:: Adam/Kris
Story chapters:
Chapter 1: Meet cute in coffee shop Chapter 2: Car trouble Chapter 3: Geocaching? Chapter 4: Dinner and a picture Chapter 5: Bring your boyfriend to work day Chapter 6: Date at the museum Chapter 7: Opening the door Chapter 8: Showing the cracks Chapter 9: Cracked eggs, cracked plaster, cracked plans Chapter 10: Hunger games Chapter 11: Inspired, tested, and almost-dazzled Chapter 12: Define slutty for me Chapter 13: Decisions, decisions Chapter 14: Of moms and meat Chapter 15: Holding on Chapter 16: Coming clean Chapter 17: Dusty disguises and dodging the issue Chapter 18: Punked and paint Chapter 19: This glitter is not meant for internal use Chapter 20: Home improvement Chapter 21.1: Sharp edges and sweet tongues Chapter 21.2: Sharp edges and sweet tongues SECOND HALF Chapter 22.1: Holding close and laying out Chapter 22.2: Holding close and laying out SECOND HALF Chapter 23.1: Messes and make up Chapter 23.2: Messes and make up SECOND HALF Chapter 24: Taken Chapter 25: Stuffing Chapter 25.2: Stuffing CONTINUED Chapter 26.1: Feeling full Chapter 26.2: Second entry Chapter 27: Winning Chapter 28: Thirty-eight cents Chapter 29: When you walked in the joint Chapter 30.1: I could tell you were a man of distinction Chapter 30.2: A real big spender Chapter 30.3: Good looking, so refined Chapter 31: Spend a little time with me Chapter 32.1: Spend a lotta time with me Chapter 32.2: Chapter 32.3 Chapter 32.4 Chapter 32.5 Chapter 33: Well, I can do the mashed potato. Well, I can do the twist Chapter 34: Leashes, collars and cuffs! Oh my! Chapter 35: On the carpet, off the script, on the table Chapter 36.1: Consequences, unintended and otherwise Chapter 36.2: Consequences cont'd Chapter 37: Turkey baster bukkake Chapter 38: Ball juggling Chapter 39: The minor fall, the major lift Chapter 40.1: Walking the Shar-Peis of life Chapter 40.2: Walking the Shar-Peis of life part 2 Chapter 41: Is this the real life?
Chapter 42: Baggage handling
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Picking at his nail polish -- or what remained of his nail polish after three days of Kris ignoring him, Adam slowly walked back towards the storeroom. As a stream of soft southern-accented curse words slid out of the storeroom, he hesitated in front of the open door way. The confident answer he'd given John about de-twitchifying Kris had been nothing more than acting. His smirk was a facade to hide the reality that he had no idea what to do about Kris because Kris was giving him nothing. Nothing. His only hint was his memory of Kris bitching about how Cale had given up contacting him four years ago -- he was assuming that Kris wanted to be poked and prodded until he got over his anger. But you know what they said about assuming... Damn it... What to do?
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Kicking at a box of bourbon on the floor, Kris groaned aloud and stared at his sneaker, wishing he could find a way to sneak out. Adam had seen him acting like a two year old pitching a tantrum. Because Adam was standing in the door. Because of course, Adam was following him. Because Adam was the most persistent person on the face of the earth which was... well, good. Because he knew he needed Adam to be pushy -- Cale's text about him playing possum was probably -- damn it all to hell-- correct. But still. Was Adam picking at his polish? Uh-oh, that meant Adam was nervous. Well, good. Except that... so was he. He kicked the box again.
Well, Adam decided, when in doubt, ask the obvious. "Why are you doing that?"
"I'm all twitchy and flaily!" Kris burst out. At least here was a question he could answer. He hadn't known the answers to the questions Adam had been asking the last three days. "And I feel like my body is trying to come out of itself! Ack! I don't know how to explain it..." He grimaced and slapped his palm hard onto the side of a box once, twice, three times, then winced. That had kinda hurt.
Adam bit his lip to keep from telling Kris to stop hurting his hands. He played the guitar for godssakes -- he should know better.
"Aren't you gonna tell me not to hit my hands?" Kris demanded, looking down at the stacks of boxes around his feet. He was probably confusing Adam because he was confusing himself given that he really didn't have a leg to stand on, as Geoffrey had pointed out, but he did know that Adam bossed people around because he cared about them. Didn't Adam care about him any more?
"I'm not sure what to say any more," Adam admitted as he carefully navigated his way through what felt like a minefield, all while standing still. He felt like he'd been following Kris around for three days, trying to get him to talk with no luck, so maybe he just needed to stand still, stand his ground. "Do you want me to tell you not to hit your hands?"
"Of course! Why are you being so... cautious?" Kris glared at Adam as he turned around to face him fully, kicking his heel at the box behind him. "Why are you out there?"
"Because if I'm standing in the doorway, then you can't run away from me!" Adam blurted out, realizing in that instant that he'd had enough, that mixed in with his guilt was anger. He leaned one shoulder against the door frame and pushed his leg out until it rested against the opposite side, feeling as though he needed to contain Kris. He had so much negative, anxious energy popping out of him, it wouldn't surprise him if Kris took off again. "Stop running away from me. And talk."
"I haven't been..." Sighing, Kris looked fully at Adam for the first time in three days. Adam looked watchful, but calm. Unlike him. Then he stared into Adam's eyes and realized that it was just a mask. Adam was anything but calm. He was nervous and angry. Well, hell. Kris could relate. And then there was determination in the set of Adam's jaw. Okay, now Kris was really nervous. He wiped his damp hands on his shirt. Maybe he could avoid hearing what he was sure Adam was going to say if he kept avoiding it. "I haven't been running away."
"I know you're pissed at me, but do me the courtesy of telling me the truth," Adam snapped impatiently. He didn't have much patience on an ordinary occasion, but after three days of the Kris cold shoulder treatment, he was ready to lose it. Whatever it was. "I cannot abide lying."
"Oh, but you could lie by the sin of omission?" Kris challenged, slapping his palm on a box, welcoming the pain this time.
"I didn't not tell you in order to hurt you, but to help you!" Adam snapped defensively, then subsided. "You're right. My intentions were good, but the consequences weren't. I did what I thought was right, but it wasn't right for you. I'm sorry. I'll say it again if it makes any difference..." But at least Kris was talking to him now so maybe they could get somewhere.
"Why are you so damn calm?" Kris once again slapped at a box. "I want to scream and yell and you're just so... not aggravated! And you're the one with the temper."
"Right. That's why I'm the one with the nickname of Hedgehog," Adam drawled sarcastically in a deliberate tone, working to tamp down his annoyance. Three days of being contrite and careful was a definite test of his limits.
Kris grunted and glared. Adam was obviously trying not to yell and why was that? Probably because once again, he didn't think Kris was man enough to handle it. Fuck. He stomped forward, intent upon leaving. He squeaked when Adam slammed the door closed, grabbed him by the upper arms and pushed him back into the room, then penned him up against a stack of boxes.
"What the hell--" Kris wiggled against Adam, sliding his hands up Adam's arms to his shoulders, wondering if Adam realized that he wasn't trying too hard to get loose. Lord knows he was relieved that Adam wasn't letting him get loose. That must mean that Adam still cared. But he should probably pretend like he was insulted. Or something. He wiggled harder. That counted, right?
"Oh hell to the no. I'm done. You want me to be aggravated? Okay, fine. Fine!" Adam pressed into Kris, their legs tangling as Kris leaned into him, the mingled heat from their bodies raising his temperature even more. "I'm aggravated that every time I come into a room you leave. I'm aggravated that every time I try to talk to you, you glare at me, then ignore me. I'm aggravated that you won't take Lane or Cale's calls. I'm aggravated that you stomp around the house except when you realize I'm nearby and then you tiptoe past so I won't know you're there. I'm aggravated that you hide yourself in the game room playing Wii bowling until you think I've gone to sleep. I'm aggravated that you wait until you think I've gone to bed and then you go to bed in the guest bedroom--" Adam stopped to take a breath.
"Yeah. And then when you think I'm asleep, you come into that bed with me!" Kris accused, pushing his body into Adam's, needing to get close. He was so warm and he smelled so good. Why had he kept himself away the last three days? He was starting to forget what with Adam staring down at him with intense eyes and his lips.... "So damn pushy!"
"And I'm aggravated that you ignore the hand I put on your back or me whispering, 'Good night,' because you're pretending to be asleep and then when you think I'm asleep, you wrap yourself around me!" That moment was the only moment he relaxed, when he felt like they were still connected.
Click
Hearing the sound of the guest room door closing with deliberate softness, Adam slapped his hand on the tangle of sheets criss-crossing the bed. Kris was trying to sneak past their bedroom -- their bedroom -- to hide in the guest bedroom.
Throwing his clothes into a pile somewhere towards the wall, Kris slid into the bed. The big empty bed. Cold sheets. Adam always made their bed nice and warm. Why had he thought he needed to sleep away from Adam? Oh yeah, he was pissed at him. Super pissed. Super duper pissed. Adam had to know he couldn't get away with pulling stunts like that. That's right. Kris sniffed, then buried his head in a pillow.
"Kris?" Adam whispered as he stood over the bed in the guest room. When Kris did not move, Adam frowned. Kris was seriously asleep? He didn't believe that. He was just pretending to be asleep.
Kris held his breath as he heard Adam swear while standing over him, half-wishing Adam would go away and half-wishing Adam would just jump on top of him and force them to fight it out. He wasn't sure how to fight it out or even if they should fight it out since Adam had already apologized -- a lot -- so he could just forgive him already, which probably meant that he really was a loser because he should probably still be angry or well, more angry than he was. And he was angry, but he was feeling more lonely and sad than angry. And he understood why Adam did what he did, but still, he had overstepped. Then again, Adam had been trying to pull back and not overstep since, although he'd been following Kris around trying to get him to talk, which was pushy but probably not overstepping, just...stepping. Although, he was angry and what the hell was Adam doing? Was he getting into this bed? Oh. He was. What next? Kris licked his lips in nervous anticipation.
In the darkness of the room, Adam held his breath and slid the palm of his hand slowly on Kris' back, starting at the base of his spine and ending at his neck. He gently curled his hand around it and whispered, "Good night."
Kris held himself still, fighting the urge to shiver at Adam's touch, fighting the urge to just roll over and throw himself at Adam. He was angry, damn it. Really angry. Furious, in fact. Yes, he was. He should be. And he certainly wasn't going to listen to Geoffrey's advice that it was his job or something to see Adam's side. Or Lane's side. Or Cale's side. Or the fact that the three people he trusted most had all made the same choice to protect him by keeping an important fact from him. Because then he'd have to ask why they'd all made the same decision which might lead him to wonder if his father was right and that he wasn't really a grown ass man at all. And...He paused in his endless cycling and circling of thoughts as he felt Adam relax into the bed. Was he asleep?
Sighing with relief that Kris hadn't shoved his hand away, Adam relaxed for the first time since the phone call with Kris' mother. Maybe just being still and waiting for Kris was, while against his own predilections, a better choice? Well, he could use his control freak tendencies to control himself and just lie here quietly.
Was Adam asleep? Kris wondered as the silence stretched out, his nerves taut as a bow string while Adam seemed to settle deeper into the bed. Maybe...He cautiously turned over and froze when Adam's hand fell onto the bed and somehow ended up under his neck. When Adam made no sound or movement, Kris sighed with relief and inched cautiously closer. He wasn't ready to talk to Adam, but he still wanted him.
Thank god for theater training, Adam thought as he held himself still but not too still, waiting and hoping as Kris slowly moved toward him. For the love of gods, how slowly could one man move? No, no, patience... he told himself. Concentrate on breathing normally, not too slowly, not too fast. No sudden moves. Like... taming a wild creature. His hedgehog. He fought the urge to smile.
Damn, he was breathing as hard as if they'd just had major sex. Kris took a shallow breath as he slid across the sheet that final inch and gently, carefully pressed his body against Adam's side. He bit his lip as Adam seemed to relax and turn slightly toward him which... was just like he did every night. So he was asleep. Kris let out the breath he'd been holding and wrapped his arm and leg around Adam's body and held on. This was where he belonged.
"You're aggravated by that?" Kris gasped, curling his hand around the edge of a box of vodka next to them and holding on. "Are you... Are you gonna kick me out?"
"What?" Momentarily stricken into silence by confusion, Adam looked down into Kris' worried brown eyes trying to understand. Seeing anxiety there, Adam automatically wrapped his arms around Kris and hugged him tightly. He smiled with his own relief as he felt Kris melt into him and then squeeze him back just as hard. "Now what did you say?"
"Are you gonna kick me out? If you don't want me to..."
"I came into bed with you! I've been following you around for the last few days! Of course I want you..." Adam paused while he freed one hand to tip Kris' face up to look into his eyes. He saw the hope mixed with fear and confusion and a touch of self-loathing, while wondering why in the world Kris would think he'd be kicked out. That made no sense -- except it did.
Adam hurried to say, "Oh. Baby, I'm not your parents. I'm not going to kick you out because we had a fight. Especially when it wasn't really a fight. It was you getting rightfully mad at me for being presumptuous and bossy. Back in the day, I had guys dump me because of it and here I went and did it again with something as critical as your mother contacting you. I thought I'd finally pushed you too far with my bossiness. I...was afraid you were going to leave because I was so damn bossy about what was right for you." His rush of words stopped abruptly. He was once again talking too much, but when was Kris going to talk? "Well, anyway, this is not about me, so talk!"
"I don't know..." Kris murmured, distracted by the feel of Adam's thigh against his hip and the feel of his bulge against his belly. Why hadn't he turned over to Adam and bed and used sex to figure this out? Adam Fucking Lambert had come into bed with him, sought him out and geez! No wonder Adam, Cale and Lane thought he needed protection! He was an idiot! Especially since Adam had just ordered him to talk -- that meant they were getting back to normal.
"If you want to yell at me, yell at me. Just talk to me or I'll make you talk to me because I'm so damn sick of -Oh!" Adam yelped as Kris abruptly raised his head and kissed him hard and bit his bottom lip.
"You. Can't. Make. Me. Talk!" Kris hissed out the words in between kissing and biting at Adam's lips and pulling Adam closer to him. Adam had started to get bossy again -- what a relief. "You can't."
His brain having stopped the more complex functions the second Kris' mouth had touched his, it took Adam some moments to realize that Kris was giving him a way in. Literally, a way in, given the way Kris had somehow managed to sit his ass on a box and was wrapping his legs around Adam's hips to pull him in. He got it -- he needed to get close too. Skin. Skin would be good. Skin would be excellent. Keeping their mouths fused in a heated kiss, Adam reached for the button on Kris' jeans.
"I'm so mad at you..." Kris growled as Adam's fingers made quick work of his jeans, shoving them down. "So fucking mad..." His mouth needed something, he decided and rose up to help Adam pull his jeans down and bite at Adam's neck.
"Are you really?" Adam challenged as he slid his hands around Kris' backside and squeezed. "Right. That's why you're sucking on my neck and wiggling your ass into my hands."
"Bitch!" Kris scraped his teeth along Adam's collarbone. God, he could just eat him up and -- what was Adam doing, why was he pulling back? He reached out with needy hands, pulling at Adam's bare arms... Oooh, bare arms.
"That's right. I'm the bitch who kept a secret from you for your own good." Adam grinned as he slid to his knees. "So show me my place. Go ahead, fuck my face."
"I..what?" Kris gaped in shock as Adam bent forward and pulled Kris' hips toward him at the same time, swiftly sucking Kris' cock into his hot mouth and taking him to the edge within moments. "I...you..." Kris groaned and began thrusting into the sucking wetness of Adam's mouth, watching those lips encircle him. "God, you have the hottest damn mouth I've ever seen... Mine..." Kris gritted out, forgetting momentarily that they'd been fighting, that they were in a storeroom and that Adam was probably up to something.
Kris was going to talk, Adam thought with determination, feeling the tightening of Kris' thigh muscles under his hands. He slid his mouth back up, giving a long lick and pulled free, smiling when Kris' hands moved into his hair and tried to push him back. "Tell me what you want or I'll keep you on the edge...just...like...this..." Adam taunted as his fingers rubbed the spot under the head of Kris' cock.
"I don't know!" Kris cried out in frustration. "Honestly, I don't, that's--" He broke off as Adam cupped his balls with one hand and licked the head of his cock. Oh god, too much and what was Adam's question again?
"Are you mad at us protecting you or are you mad that we think you need protection?" Adam flung the question out and seeing the widening of Kris' eyes and the shocked look on his face, realized that he had hit the jackpot. Speaking of which, he bent his head and gave a long loud swipe of his tongue across the head of Kris' cock, smiling when Kris jerked, then tried to shove himself into Adam's mouth. Adam shook his head and pulled back. "Oh no. I'm a bitch, remember? Answer me first. Are you mad about the protection or is it about you thinking we think less of you for needing it?"
Kris gasped and groaned, trying to respond like a man who could actually string sentences together. "Geoffrey said the same thing to me this morning..."
Well, Geoffrey had his uses, Adam thought as he licked a streak up the front of Kris' balls. Biting Kris' thigh and smiling at Kris' responsive groan at the little pain, Adam whispered in a low voice, "So is this about male ego?"
"I...don't know... I really don't," Kris protested, knowing that Adam had little patience with male ego. He groaned as Adam's hands abruptly stopped moving. God, what a bitch. "Okay, okay, probably."
"Newsflash, hedgehog." Adam smiled as he resumed pumping Kris' cock. "I have it on good authority -- my hands right now -- that you are indeed a man. Show me, come for me."
"I'll come when I want to!" Kris asserted, then spoiled his protest by groaning and thrusting and coming seconds later. Gulping as he watched Adam slowly swipe his tongue over his lips, Kris exclaimed, "I came because I wanted to, you know."
"I know." Adam nodded as he carefully licked Kris' dick clean, enjoying the tiny aftershocks he felt against his mouth. "And I also know we've probably been in here way too long. John's gonna have a few choice comments."
"Oh, like you care," Kris scoffed, pushing Adam's hands aside as he began pulling Kris' jeans back up. "I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself."
"I thought you were a grown ass man?" Adam asked, sighing with regret as Kris hauled his jeans over his ass. Some other time.
Correctly interpreting the desire on Adam's face, Kris flung his arms around Adam's shoulders and pressed close. "But you..." Kris tried to wiggle against Adam's dick, but even he knew his movements weren't sexy. Just... jerky, awkward. No wonder Adam wasn't interested.
"This wasn't about what I needed. And anyway, even if it was, you gave me what I needed when you started talking to me."
"But..." Kris stared at the base of Adam's neck rather than his eyes. Watching the pulse pound beneath the skin, Kris forced himself to breathe slowly. Geoffrey had asked him an important question just this morning, when he'd commented that maybe Kris wasn't so mad at being protected as that people felt he needed protection. Were Geoffrey and Adam right? And how was he going to figure it out without talking about it? What had he been thinking? Why had he been acting like that? He groaned and rested his forehead against Adam's shoulder.
"This cold shoulder business --" Adam began. He wasn't going to put up with that again.
"Which is exactly what my father used to do!" Kris realized that Cale's other text had been right too. "Oh god,I hated that shit. It made me so anxious and scared. It's...manipulative and controlling. Now, I'm the one who's sorry! It's a punishment that really hurts. Oh god, I was acting like my father."
Adam blinked in surprise. "That was... insightful."
"Cale..." Kris blushed. "Sometimes an old friend who knows you super well can be an advantage. He pointed stuff out to me. I read what he said -- you know, 'cause when I left Conway, he did contact me and I didn't look and thought he'd blown me off, but he hadn't, so I wasn't gonna make that mistake again and..." He paused to take a breath and then finished, "Well, anyway, he does know something. Sometimes. Maybe."
"Maybe you could let him know that," Adam suggested carefully. "You know, if you want..."
"But..."
"Just say it, whatever it is!"
Biting down into Adam's lip, Kris shuddered as he jerkily pushed his hips against Adam's thigh, trying but failing to find a rhythm. "Ugh, I'm so frustrated! It's like I can't do anything right. I've been dropping glasses and napkins all over and now..."
"You can't even hump my leg right?" Adam teased.
"Yeah, how pathetic is that?" Kris smiled as he ran his hands over Adam's arms and shoulders, pressing and smoothing, his movements still awkward as he both wanted to get closer and yet wanted to push... not away, but... push. "I just feel like there's this electrical charge under my skin and it's making me jumpy. And I need to find some way to get rid of it."
"You need an outlet?" Adam's hands spread wide on Kris' back, feeling the tremors under the skin.
Kris leaned forward and scraped his teeth along Adam's collarbone, blushing when Adam hissed in a breath and he pulled back to see red marks on Adam's fair skin. Maybe... sex right now wasn't the best idea. "Exactly."
"If you were me and I were you, you'd be telling me to go swimming or jogging," Adam observed.
"But that's too..." Kris lifted his arm and moved it in a slow waving motion. "Too calm, too measured, ya know? I feel like just... jumping or stomping... Racquetball? A batting cage? Touch football?"
"With me? Surely,you jest. But I have an idea. Let's go." Adam grabbed Kris' hand and pulled him out of the storeroom and into the bar.
"How's it goin'?" John called out, grinning as Adam hauled Kris through the room.
"Excuse him. I'm taking him away from all this," Adam called out as they hurried by.
"Thank god!" A small chorus of voices called out.
"Was I that bad?" Kris asked over his shoulder.
"Yes!"
"Ohmigod, I'm gonna suck at this! You know I can't dance!" Kris complained before taking a long gulp from his bottle of beer.
"First of all, yes, you can. Secondly, look at the dance floor. Are you seeing great technical skill out there?" Adam pointed toward the square in the center of the club.
Kris finished off his beer, plunked the bottle down on the bar and squinted in the general direction of the dance floor. Between the hazy atmosphere and flashing, multi-colored lights, he couldn't see much. "I see people..."
"Live people, you'll notice."
"Seriously? A Sixth Sense reference?"
"Well, you're not much bigger than Haley Joel Osment at the time -- how old was he? Eight or nine? So one can see how I might get confused..." Adam smirked, then grunted when Kris stepped on his toes. "So, what kind of live people are you seeing?"
"Well, they look more like they're jumping around and waving their arms... Oh." Kris grinned and leaned back against Adam. He smiled again when Adam's arm came up and hugged him close. "So, my kind of dancing. No rhythm or skill required. How did you know about this place?"
"Brad. Let's go expend some of that nervous energy!" Adam finished off his drink and pulled Kris onto the dance floor.
"I think I'm too exhausted to move...." Kris whined as Adam pulled his car into the garage hours later. He turned in his seat to smile at Adam, keeping his hand over Adam's bulge and stroking it as he'd done the entire way home. It had been a good way to keep Adam from talking more about the fight and well, hell, why wouldn't he want to grope the glambulge? He might do stupid things sometimes, but he wasn't stupid stupid.
"You'd better not be!" Adam shook his head as he parked the car and the garage door went down behind them. Kris had been teasing him ever since they'd left the club. "I'd hate to have to stop calling you hedgehog and start calling you cocktease." Getting out of the car, he stood and waited for Kris, laughing when Kris stayed stubbornly seated, shaking his head. Kris had been acting like he wanted to be manhandled around all night and apparently the theme was still in force.
Waiting eagerly, Kris grinned as Adam melodramatically flung open his car door and hauled him out, managing to stumble and fall into Adam's arms. He wiggled into the front of Adam's body as Adam slammed the car door and tried to urge him out of the garage."I'm all... " Kris giggled, absently wondering if he was really that drunk or if the drinks combined with the twitchy flailing on and off the dance floor plus anxiety and relief had made him... "Wlopsy... Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail!"
"I'll vote for Cottontail." Adam laughed as he squeezed Kris' ass in both hands and Kris wiggled against him. "I like your tail."
"I like that you like my tail, but I'm still Flopsy. Did you ever see that Easter claymation show with the bunny named Irontail? Probably not, since you're Jewish, but that was kinda twisted. Anyway, that's you! Iron..." Kris angled his hips up to try and rub against Adam's package. "Iron not tail, Ironcock! That's it. What are you gonna do with Flopsy, IronCock?"
Smiling, Adam turned Kris around and gently pushed him down on the hood of the car. "Just bend over and you'll find out."
TBC here ---->
Chapter 43: Tying ends up