Man Candy Read Online Free

close as I’d ever thought
    I’d get to the real thing.
    So of course when she came on to
    me in the bathroom during the party, I’d
    reacted badly. I hadn’t meant to laugh,
    but what else was there to do? I was off
    guard and nervous and so fucking turned
    on, I couldn’t help it. It was so unfair,
    like God was testing me, seeing if I was
    really worthy of her family’s generosity.
    The one girl I couldn’t have was the one
    I wanted, and there she was with her
    hand on my dick, her perfect tits filling
    out that red bikini, and that pouty little
    mouth begging to be kissed (seriously,
    the number of times I’ve jerked off to the
    memory of her in that red bikini is
    staggering). I’d been so close to giving
    in.
    And then she told me she loved me,
    and I lost it.
    It was just so sweet, and her eyes
    were so sincere. She trusted me. She’d
    have done anything I wanted her to.
    I couldn’t take advantage of it.
    Believe me, in my fantasies, that
    night went down a whole different way,
    but I stand by my choice to be a
    gentleman.
    Except now I was being punished for
    it!
    OK, maybe I shouldn’t have poked at
    her just now, but fuck, that’s what felt
    natural with us—I hadn’t seen her in a
    while, but sometimes being with
    someone from your past is like going
    home again. No matter how long it’s
    been, you don’t forget the way.
    I went back into my temporary digs
    and sat on the couch, thinking about the
    last ten years, and how far from home
    they’d taken me. Although modeling had
    never been my dream job, I’d jumped at
    the opportunity to make the kind of
    money the scout had promised—and he
    hadn’t lied.
    The amount of money I made
    shocked me—enough to live well in
    L.A. and pay off all my mother’s debt,
    make it so she’d never have to clean
    houses again (although I couldn’t
    convince her to leave her house or her
    restaurant job). Enough to cover all her
    medical expenses after I discovered how
    sick she was. Enough to make the end of
    her life as peaceful and full as possible.
    But not enough to buy her time.
    It made me pause and take stock. Ask
    myself some questions.
    Life was short—what did I want to
    do with mine? What did I want to learn,
    accomplish, leave behind? What
    memories would I cherish when it was
    time to look back? What would matter
    most?
    The amount of money in my bank
    account?
    The number of beautiful women I’d
    fucked?
    The square footage of my house?
    As impressive as those figures were,
    I realized they’d be meaningless in the
    end. And after the bombings in Paris,
    where I witnessed firsthand how quickly
    and cruelly life can be snuffed out, I
    knew I had to change things. I just didn’t
    know how.
    Alex had been my first call.
    We hadn’t been as close in the last
    ten years of our lives as we’d been in
    the first eighteen, but we had the kind of
    friendship that didn’t require a quota of
    check-ins or a constant stream of
    updates. He might have grown up in a
    six-bedroom Tudor with a three-car
    garage and a pool in the yard while I
    grew up in a tiny two-bedroom
    bungalow on a street lined with the
    century-old homes of servants from
    another era, but we got each other.
    He’d always be there for me; I’d
    always be there for him. Period. I’d
    already been planning on coming in for
    his wedding, but he’d been the one to
    suggest maybe moving back for a time,
    or trying school again, and as soon as he
    said it, I knew it was the right idea.
    The last two months had been a
    whirlwind of buying the condo, leasing
    my L.A. home, shipping my stuff to
    Detroit for storage, cancelling what jobs
    I could get out of, moving into a hotel
    downtown, and enrolling in a couple
    classes at Wayne State. I’d hardly had
    time to breathe.
    But things were starting to settle a
    little, and living here would be so much
    nicer than staying in a cold, impersonal
    hotel room for the next few weeks while
    I waited for the work on my condo to be
    completed.