“What would you call it then? They’re in me, and at least one of them can control me.”
Chris seemed to mull it over before giving him a serious look. “I think you’re a conduit. Somehow McAllister tapped into it, and I have to wonder if the second spirit isn’t after him. It’s not Conner, I don’t think. You said he’d murdered other men?”
The extra sense that had made Rich the good detective he used to be tingled, setting the fine hairs on his forearms to vibrating. “He did. There were some murders in Houston, men who looked a lot like Laine. McAlister raped them, sometimes before he killed them, sometimes…”
“That’s…” Chris shook his head as he rubbed at his scalp. “I don’t have words for how sick that is.” He sat up and tugged Rich up as well. “We need to know about those men. What if one of them had some history of being psychic or something? Maybe not, maybe he was just so furious he couldn’t go wherever he was supposed to go. Maybe he was waiting for a chance to get McAlister, although I really want to kick both their asses. If this is someone after McAlister, they don’t seem to care what they’re doing to you, so we should see if any of the victims were kind of jerks.”
Rich opened his mouth to reply but the stinging cold bloomed in his jaw, spreading rapidly up to his head and down through his chest. He tried to warn Chris, say something, but his vocal chords were as frozen as the rest of him. This is wrong! It’s close to noon, not dark! This can’t be happening!
He heard his name being called, faintly as if from far away, then his vision began shifting, images blurring until he couldn’t focus on any one thing. Then as suddenly as it began, the sensation left him. Rich blinked and found himself on his back, Chris straddling his hips. Chris’ hand was fisted on Rich’s chest.
“What happened?”
Chris exhaled an obviously pent up breath, the strength of it gusting over Rich. “One of them, the not McAlister one I think, because one second you were fine then the next your fingers and toes were freaking freezing. You weren’t responsive until I slipped this”—he tugged at the leather strap—“over your head. I kept the crystals in my hand on your chest. It worked.”
“This time,” Rich murmured, staring at that big hand clenched on his bony chest. “What happens if you’re not here?”
“I’ll be here, even if you tell me not to be.”
Rich wanted to laugh. How could this one man know him so well when no one else had got a clue until Chris had smacked them with it? A tap on the door followed by the door knob turning was all the warning Rich got that their time alone was coming to an end for now. Chris evidently saw the knob moving as well because he snarled and got off Rich long enough to pull the sheet over him. Rich murmured a quiet, “Thank you,” as Severo and Laine entered the room. Both men’s jaws dropped when they saw a very sexy, very naked Chris kneeling on the bed beside him. Rich felt justifiably smug. His guy was definitely smoking.
Chris’ lips tipped up in a grin as he tapped the PA. “Guess Laine agreed to the free peek?”
That was the first Rich had heard about a free peek, but he didn’t mind. Neither Laine nor Severo would touch, and there was nothing wrong with admiring. Of course, Laine looked more like he was queasy, what with the way his skin had lightened quite a bit from its normal tan. Rich glanced at Chris, who winked and tipped his chin toward the other two men. Rich watched with Chris as Severo took a step closer, his eyes drilling the piercing… At least, Rich hoped it was the piercing, but Chris did have an impressive cock.
“Laine?” Severo took another step closer, frowning slightly. “I think I want one of those, what do you think? Would you like it?” Severo turned back to his lover when Laine didn’t reply. “Oh shit!” He ran back and slid his arm around Laine’s waist. “I guess that’s a no since you look ready to pass out.”
“I don’t do that shit,” Laine grumbled. “That just, uh, I haven’t seen that before.”
“Not even in porn?” Chris beat Rich to the question.
Laine’s cheeks at least had some color to them, a deep red that made his silver eyes even paler. “I don’t, I never—I have him—” Laine pointed to his partner. “Why the hell would I need porn?”
“Aw, baby, you say the sweetest things,” Severo cooed while Rich rolled his eyes at Chris. Chris shook his head in return and twirled a finger beside his temple.
Rich agreed. Laine had to be crazy for dismissing porn. It could be a lot of fun to watch with a lover. Maybe he could slip a disc in the DVD player and surprise Laine sometime, or better yet, encourage Severo to, because Laine might find that he enjoyed watching porn with his lover.
Laine looked torn between being embarrassed or smug. He settled for impassive, evidently, because his expression was bland when he faced Rich. “First, tell your boyfriend to cover his junk up.”
“But I like it.” Rich couldn’t resist teasing, the flirt he’d buried a year ago rising easily to the surface as he gave Laine a smile he used to use to charm anyone, except for Laine’s secretary Doreen. She’d been pretty damn resistant to manipulation. Rich might have loved her if he’d been straight. “And it’s not junk, as you can see. He has a very fine set of balls and—”
“Rich!” Laine’s face was incredibly red and Rich snickered as he held up part of the sheet for Chris. “You always did like poking at me,” Laine accused as he kept his gaze on Rich.
“Well, yeah,” Rich admitted. “You were always so easy to get a rise out of.”
“Still is,” Severo chimed in, leering as he brushed a hand close to Laine’s groin.
Laine groaned and rubbed his forehead with one hand. “Can we all just, please, please be serious for a minute? Did something happen in here?” Laine’s pleading look said ‘Please don’t make that into the smut story it could be’. Rich was debating when Chris answered. As Laine listened to Chris’ retelling of the events, and their conversation leading up to it, he began pacing the small room.
“I still have the file, Rich, the one you brought with you. It had the reports on those Houston murders.” Laine touched Severo’s shoulder, a brush of fingers that Rich could see sent a shiver through Severo. “Baby, will you call Matt and ask him to get the file and bring it over?”
Matt. Shit! Rich could feel two sets of eyes on him, but there was only one he owed any explanation to, at least one besides Matt, who wasn’t around. Yet. Rich ignored Severo’s questioning look as he left the room, followed shortly thereafter by Laine, who’d only stayed long enough to tell them both to shower and get dressed because they smelled like cum. The fact Laine had blushed to the roots of his hair when he’d said it had just set Rich and Chris both into a fit of laughter, but they were alone now, and as Chris had said yesterday, Rich had some explaining to do.
“Come on, you can tell me.” Chris knew it couldn’t be as bad as Rich thought it was. He wasn’t a cruel man, and Chris said as much.
“I have been bad, sometimes, or at least selfish. With Matt, I was both.” Rich twisted the edge of the sheet between his fingers. “You probably caught that he’s a deputy here, right?” At Chris’ nod, he continued. “Yeah. Well there were some sparks, kind of that hate-but-want-to-fuck thing, you know? Not that we hated each other, but we definitely had two different set of sparks between us, personalities and that lust that sometimes flares up between two people.”
Okay, Chris maybe didn’t want to hear this after all. He’d only known Rich for a little over twenty-four hours, and this Matt guy had probably known him longer than that.
“I was staying at the motel, the one you asked about staying at. We’d all had dinner at Zeke and Brendon’s, another couple who are friends of Laine and Severo’s. I went back to the motel and walked right into my room, not thinking of anything other than how much I wanted to—” Rich gave him an apologetic look. “You know.”
“Yeah, sure. It’s not like I haven’t messed around.”
Rich didn’t seem any happier to hear that than Chris was to hear Rich’s explanation.
>
“I’d rather not think about that,” Rich said gruffly. “I don’t have to finish—”
Chris hugged Rich to him. “Yes, you do, because it’s obviously eating at you. I’m a big boy, I can handle it.”
Rich burrowed against him and slid a hand over his stomach. “If it helps, I wasn’t nearly as attracted to him as I am to you. I never so much as made a pass at him, and you had me in a matter of hours, and I still want you, more than before.”
That did help, a lot. Chris kissed the top of Rich’s head. “Same here, minus the whole wanting Matt thing. I haven’t ever been so drawn to someone before.”
“That’s good, right?” Rich sounded worried, and that wouldn’t do at all.
Chris cupped Rich’s chin and tipped his head back for a long, thorough kiss that left them both breathless and shaking with need. “I’d say that’s better than good. It’s perfect, okay?”
Rich nodded and licked his kiss-swollen lips. “Perfect. Got it. So, I went back to the room, and…”
Now Chris was certain Rich’s shaking was due to something else. McAlister. “Hey now, you don’t have to tell anything that you don’t feel comfortable telling. It’s enough, you said you walked into a trap, I got it.”
Rich’s sigh brushed over Chris’ skin, cooling it. “So Matt came looking for me the next morning, and McAlister was waiting for him there. He stabbed Matt, left him bleeding out on the floor with orders to call Laine and tell him where I was being held. I came to in the hospital, had two of those out-of-body experiences, watched the doctors trying to bring me back and couldn’t figure out why they should.”
“Rich,” Chris whispered, wishing he could carry the man’s wounds for him, physically and emotionally.
“No, no, it’s…it’s good for me to talk about it. The shrink even tried to get me to. It’s just hard.” Rich was silent for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts or maybe his courage. “When I finally woke up, Matt was there. He’d been there since he’d been released, seemed like I had so many memories of hearing him or seeing him briefly, and I couldn’t deal with him. I couldn’t look at him without feeling like I was going to be crushed under this huge wave of guilt. I’d almost got him killed, hadn’t done anything other than bitch at him, and yet he’d held his own personal vigil watching over me. I couldn’t—”
“How long were you awake before you tossed him out?” Chris said it without accusation, careful of Rich’s feelings. Rich looked miserable regardless.
“As soon as I could speak. I don’t remember what all I said, but it was cruel, something about him being a fool and I wouldn’t want some closeted hick like him.”
Ouch. That had to have hurt. But Chris understood, even if Rich didn’t. “First off, I don’t think you were all there yet. Second, how long has McAlister been at you?”
Rich blinked owlishly at him. “How long?”
Chris nodded. “Yup. When is the first time you remember feeling him?”
“It doesn’t matter—I was still an asshole who kicked a puppy, pretty much. Matt was a sweet guy, innocent, you could tell, and I crushed him like he was nothing.”
“How long?” Chris wasn’t giving up until he got the answer.
Rich glared at him for a minute before lowering his lids. “I felt him the first time I died.”
“You don’t think maybe you were trying to protect Matt, even just a little?” Chris knew his man better than Rich knew himself. Rich’s shrug was slight but unacceptable. Chris jostled him a bit until Rich met his gaze. “Then why? You gonna keep trying to tell me it was just guilt?”
Rich opened his mouth, a ‘Yes’ clearly forming on his lips. He shook his head. “No. But I needed to keep him away. He’d already been so loyal to me, and I didn’t know how else to keep him safe from the man who’d tried to kill us both, not when I suspected the fucker was in me somehow.”
Chris couldn’t deny he felt bad for Matt, but the man wasn’t for Rich. If he had been, he’d not have given up so easily. Just like everyone else had given up when Rich had shoved them away. But Chris wouldn’t. He had Rich’s number now.
“Come on. Let’s wash off the good smell before Laine has a coronary over it.” He nudged Rich’s hip playfully, grinning at Rich’s stunned expression. “What?”
“That’s it?” Rich sat up with a huff. “You’re not going to tell me I did the right thing, or I could have done it different, or—anything?”
“Nope,” Chris said as he took Rich’s hand and pulled him up off the bed. “You already know what you did and why you did it. Now you just have to make peace with it and it wouldn’t hurt to explain it to Matt. Now let’s get clean. Last one in the shower blows the other!”
“Like either of those options is losing,” Rich quipped, but his long legs carried him right past Chris, who happened to agree wholeheartedly.
Chapter Ten
He could do this. Rich peered out of the bedroom door, listening to the sounds of the other men’s voices. Chris had slipped out while Rich had tried to recover from having his eyeballs sucked out through his dick. There was something to be said for having such a strong lover, especially when that strength extended to his mouth. Chris could put more pressure on a suck than a pit bull clamping down on a bone.
“Probably not the best analogy,” Rich muttered as his dick tried to crawl to safety. He patted his groin lovingly then tugged at the cuffs of his long-sleeved shirt. Bad enough Rich couldn’t hide the scar on his face or the fact that he was skin and bones—he didn’t want to appear to be a callous, sloppily dressed asshole to boot. Not that Matt would care, since Rich had been a callous, ass-baring, gown-clad asshole the last time Matt had seen him. It wasn’t like he could make the guy hate him any more. Probably one look at Rich and Matt would sing a chorus of hallelujahs at having escaped a relationship with him. He fingered the leather necklace, careful to keep from touching the crystals. “Time to quit stalling.”
Chris must have agreed, because he stepped into the hallway as Rich left the guestroom.
“Making sure I’m not going to run?”
Chris’ smile lit up his eyes as he bent to kiss Rich. Rich cupped the back of his lover’s head, his fingers stroking over the soft skin. “You wouldn’t run. Come on, Matt seems like a decent guy. He’s got a partner.”
Rich was surprised, but— “I’m happy for him. Doesn’t make me feel like less of a jerk.”
Chris snorted and tucked Rich’s arm under his. Rich liked the way his lover felt, the way he cared for Rich. “Stop it. If you hadn’t set the guy free, he might have missed finding his true love.”
“I somehow doubt he’ll thank me,” Rich muttered as they stepped into the living room. “This is so weird.” He looked at Laine and Severo sitting together in a recliner, Laine in the chair and Severo on the arm of it. Matt’s back was to Rich, since he was sitting on the couch. Rich panicked when he realized he and Chris were going to have to sit on the couch, too. Chris didn’t give him time for the panic to set in, leading him right to the couch. Rich found himself staring into Matt’s blue eyes. He was pretty sure he might have run after all if Chris hadn’t had a grip on his arm.
“Matt,” Rich finally managed. What else he was supposed to say, especially with an audience?
Matt stood and looked him over, frowning by the time he reached Rich’s face. “You look a hell of a lot better than the last time I saw you.”
There wasn’t a trace of anger or judgment in the words, but Rich still burned with embarrassment. “Matt, I—” God, Rich couldn’t talk to him, not with Laine and Severo here. He looked up at Chris, who arched an eyebrow then looked at Laine and Severo. As simple as that, Rich found himself in the room with Chris and Matt, Laine and Severo having excused themselves. Now Rich really didn’t know what to say. And Matt watched him steadily, those blue eyes giving away not a hint of what he was thinking.
“Why don’t we sit?” Chris suggested. He didn’t offer to leave, and Rich was grateful. If he didn’t offer,
Rich didn’t have to ask him to stay, which he knew he’d do and probably whine a bit when he asked. Matt sat on the couch and Chris led Rich over to the recliner Laine and Severo had vacated. When Rich went to sit on the arm of the chair like Severo had, he found himself gently pulled down onto Chris’ lap. Chris nestled Rich against him, his big arms resting casually against Rich’s stomach.
Rich caught the barest hint of a smile from Matt who then nodded at them.
“Looks like Chris is good for you.” Matt’s smile now was genuine, the outer corners of his eyes crinkling. “Glad you found each other.” The smile dimmed as Matt glanced away. “I wondered how you’d been.”
“Not so good until yesterday,” Rich admitted. “There’s still, uh, some problems.”
“Yesterday?” Matt’s eyebrows crawled up his forehead. “Y’all just met yesterday?”
“Yup,” Chris answered, sounding happier than a pig rolling in mud. “My mom said I’d meet my partner and he’d impact me like a bolt of lightning. She knew what she was talking about.”
Rich reeled from that not-so-little revelation, the word ‘partner’ spinning around his head and muddling up any coherent thoughts he’d had.
Matt’s laughter helped knock Rich’s thoughts back into order. “I’d say your mom described it perfectly. That’s what it felt like when I met Carlin, and it hasn’t done anything but get stronger every day.”
Rich hadn’t ruined Matt’s life. How vain he’d been to think he’d wounded the man beyond all repair. But he had hurt him. Rich was man enough to admit it. He tapped Chris’ arms and his lover released him, giving his butt a squeeze as he helped Rich up. It wasn’t as hard to walk over and sit beside Matt as Rich had feared it’d be, not when the man was still glowing with pride over his partner.
“Matt.” Rich looked into those happy eyes and hoped they saw the sincerity in his own worried ones. “I’m sorry for being such a dick.”
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