GENRE: Gay Mystery Spicy Romance
LENGTH: 15,879 words
RATING:

Clay Tibor loves a wicked French heel, but not when the shoe is attached to a dead body sprawled on the floor of the shoe shop where he’s working. Two weeks ago, the owner of the shop passed away, and Clay now works for his son, Nathan. Nathan might be hot, but he knows nothing about shoes. Clay wished it was his biggest problem, but shoe ignorance is a mere inconvenience compared to being accused of murder.

Nathan’s brother, who is technically co-owner of the shoe shop, is a cop who is convinced Clay did it. To increase his chances of having a proper alibi should something else happen, Clay would do best to stay glued to Nathan’s side twenty-four-seven. Right?

EXCERPT:
Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

“Are you heading out for lunch?”

“Eh ...” Lunch? He’d forgotten about lunch. He had to walk Edgar. “I’ll take Edgar to the park.” He looked at the floor. “Where is he?” He’d left Anna’s baby in Nathan’s care, and then forgotten about him. Damn, it was a good thing he didn’t have any pets. He’d most likely forget them somewhere, and then be unable to remember where.

“Sleeping in one of the office chairs.” Nathan’s gaze swept over his face with such intensity, Clay forgot how to breathe. He put a little more distance between them. Was he looking for signs of Clay having placed the doll in the shop?

“Should we go at different times?” Walter had always closed the shop for lunch, had insisted people didn’t need to shop during their lunch hour. Clay had argued against it many times, but he wasn’t the boss.

“Why?”

“So no one dumps a sex doll in the shop.”

Nathan’s eyes widened. “Sex doll?”

“Anna says they make them in silicone these days, not the blow-up --” He made the O with his mouth Anna had tried to get him to promise to never do, and Nathan stared as if he’d lost his mind. Maybe he had. “-- anymore.”

Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose and looked everywhere but on Clay. Then he sighed. “You think it was a sex doll?”

“I don’t know. You were the one who touched him. Did he feel sexy?”

Nathan groan-growled. And interesting sound.

“Why would anyone have a life-like doll if they weren’t ... you know.” Clay shrugged.

“For fuck’s sake, Clay. Why would anyone dump a sex doll in a shoe shop?”

“I don’t know.”

They watched each other for a few seconds.

“Anna says they’re expensive.”

“And Anna knows a lot about sex dolls?”

Clay grimaced. “It would surprise me. I’m sure she has a toy or two in her bedside table drawer, but where do you store a doll? Her apartment only has so much storage room, you know.”

Nathan kept staring at him, and it made him squirm. Why did he look at him like that?

“Whether it was a sex doll or not doesn’t matter --”

“Unless he’s full of semen, then Jeffrey could do a DNA test.”

Nathan gagged, and Clay didn’t think he was joking. Funny. He raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t like semen?”

“Do you like semen? Old semen, stored in a sex doll.”

Someone cleared their throat, but Clay was busy watching Nathan. He had never been in contact with old semen stored inside a sex doll, but he didn’t think it squelched around in there. How did you clean a sex doll? Either way, couldn’t cops find traces? They only needed a drop, right? “I don’t think you’re supposed to leave it in there.”

Nathan looked green. Not a good color on him.

This time the throat-clearing was a lot more annoyed, and Clay looked at a glaring middle-aged man. “Hi.” He smiled sweetly. “Can I help you?”

The man was looking for something conservative and boring to go with a black suit. Men like him would never understand the magic of shoes, and Clay was tempted to have him order a pair of ugly Derbys off Amazon or something. In the end, he helped him to a pair of black leather double monk straps -- way too daring for him. Hopefully, they would make someone happy when they saw them.

All the while, Nathan was watching him. He could sense his gaze like a caress, and it was plain weird. Clay was seldom observant enough to notice when someone was watching him.

Once the man had left, he focused on Nathan again. “Lunch?”

“Yeah, let’s close up.”

“I can stay until you’re back and take Edgar out after.”

Nathan shook his head.

“But what if he comes back?”

“Who?”

“The doll guy.”

A crease formed between Nathan’s brows. “How do you know it’s a guy, and you said those dolls were expensive. Do you think someone will waste money by dumping them here?”

“You should Google and see how expensive they are.”

“Why?”

Clay shrugged. “To know how expensive they are, and if it was a sex doll.”

“Why should I Google? Why can’t you Google?”

Clay threw his hands in the air. “If your homophobic brother decides I’m guilty and checks my browser history, I don’t want him seeing me searching for sex dolls.”

“But you’re fine with him seeing me search for sex dolls?”

Clay snorted. “He won’t check you. He doesn’t suspect you.”

“Fine. I’ll go grab something to eat, then I’ll Google sex dolls.”

“Aww, you’re a doll.” Clay patted his arm before dashing toward the office to get Edgar.