by Aeryn Jaden
I turned to my laptop, like I always do when I’m feeling socially inept.
“Perkins replied.”
“Oh?”
A man of very few words. And penetrating stare. I was starting to feel like a bug under the microscope and focused my full attention on the chancellor’s reply.
“Matthers has received instructions to facilitate your studies, the teachers have received mails informing them of the problem and this transgression will be discussed further during the next meeting.”
“Am I making you nervous?”
I abruptly stopped bouncing my leg and hesitantly raised my flustered face.
“Uh. Yes?”
The man really liked to frown.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know how I should behave?”
My squeaky answer was almost dragged out of me by his steady gaze and by the looks of it, wasn’t deemed as very informative.
“I mean…”
I had the urge to tear my hair out, exasperated by my own shyness.
“I don’t do conversations.”
He tilted his head waiting for further explanations.
“I’m not good at it. I get all tongue tied and stutter or ramble and sputter all that’s crossing my mind. Give me computers any day. Hell, give me lectures and technical discussions. I’m a pro. I suck at chit-chat. I’m a socially challenged individual. “
The last resembled a whine. He was starting to smile at me and my expression probably promised retribution if he laughed because he quickly scolded his features.
“And you think I’m a paramount of social behavior?”
“Well, no. But you don’t need it. You have a well defined system of non-verbal communication. “
-Meaning I scare conversations off.
“I was trying to be polite.”
He laughed and the sound banished the rest of my tension. I was finding that the easiness with which I could talk with him on last Tuesday hadn’t been an odd occurrence.
After a quick glance around his eyebrow demanded another explanation.
“Long story short: had a eureka moment regarding my software on Thursday night and tried to accomplish the impossible in only one weekend. I’m burning on steam now so I’ll ask you to ignore if I say anything out of the ordinary.”
His amusement decrypted his thoughts for me.
“More out of the ordinary.”
“I take it you didn’t have the time to make a study schedule for me.”
“Sorry. Flew right out my mind.”
He came closer and I started fidgeting with my laptop’s keyboard. I was feeling awkward and very aware of him. He stopped too close and his breath tingled on my neck. I had the sudden urge to turn my head and kiss him to see if he tasted as good as he smelled.
As soon as the thought formed I flushed, embarrassed and mortified at having these kind of thoughts about one of my students and furthermore a male one. I must have fried my brain working for the last four days without interruption.
“What is that?”
I glanced at him alerted by his tense and cold voice. He was angrily studying the window with the e-mails from Sean. Next to them the IM window was also still open. I didn’t ever wanted to be at the other end of the stare Bain leveled on my poor laptop.
“Is someone threatening you?”
Shit. Fuck. I scanned the windows quickly searching for anything that could divulge the sender’s identity and released a relieved breath.
“Tyler. Is your boyfriend abusive?”
Huh?
“Huh?”
Chapter Two
The violent mails, the panic at him having saw them and Tyler’s typically oblivious and nervous behavior, they all made sense now forming an image to sick to contemplate.
Was Tyler hiding in his lab using work as an excuse to not go home? Seemed like it.
He wouldn’t have believed if someone else had told him that Tyler is in an abusive relationship. The guy who stood toe to toe with a guy one foot taller that him and didn’t even blink had too much guts and was too centered to suffer anyone’s misbehavior, be it towards himself or anyone else. He had passed by as focused and sure of himself and his place. Well, at least when the attention wasn’t centered on him, but a lot of people were shy that way. Yes, Bain had seen a lot of strange things in his twenty six years, and especially during his four years in the navy, but he would have never guessed something like this. Not in relation with the straightforward Tyler.
Bain had been very disappointed when coming to Tyler’s office he hadn’t found the man there. It wasn’t like him to get his hopes up that quickly about someone else , especially considering the circumstances but when he had spotted Tyler in the cafeteria something has just clicked for him. It wasn’t about the looks, although God knows Tyler’s were nothing to complain about. At maybe five foot six, he had a swimmer’s build with well defined muscles that suggested he practiced some kind of sport. His hair was brown with golden highlights probably from staying outdoors if he also took into consideration Tyler’s golden tan. He had velvet amber eyes with an open expression that made him look almost innocent and childlike, especially with that deer-in-the-trap look that suggested he felt unsure or cornered. Like he did now.
He was gorgeous. He was funny and smart. Sincere and considerate. More that all of that he wasn’t intimidated by him or the bad rumors that surrounded him.
And not to forget: he was taken.
Bain had a rule to never poach on another’s guy territory. Granted it seemed like this particular guy, Sean something, did not deserve such a great guy like Tyler.
Maybe it is better this way. Wrong place, wrong time.
It was still not his business. Tyler was not his business, no matter how much he would have liked it otherwise or how much time he had spent during the weekend waiting for his 6 o’clock presumed date with the guy. He had also presumed Tyler was unattached and now his hopes were paying the price. It figured. He’d always had the worse god-damned fucked luck. First guy who stirred him in ages, and not just sexually, those were a dime-a dozen, but with whom he could actually have an interesting conversation, and he was taken.
He took a steady breath trying to calm himself.
Focus on the current problem.
“Uh, Bain? You alright? You’re like, squashing my shoulder.”
Shit.
“Sorry, teach.”
Tyler frowned, turning those confused doe eyes on him and his heart stuttered. Shit. He was in deep shit
“Just answer the question, damn it.”
His irritation didn’t seem to faze Tyler and he wondered again at the guy’s calm. Usually by this point guys were falling over themselves to get away from him. Or they were frequenting the BDSM scene. Not that there was anything wrong with that but it was just soo not his thing. Being mean looking wasn’t a thing to be desired no matter what Tyler had said in the cafeteria.
“Uh? Repeat? I was kinda focusing on your facial expressions. You seem hard to read at first glance but did you know that even your frowns are different?”
Huh? Was he coming on to him? He studying Tyler’s curious eyes and groaned. This guy was really really oblivious about his appeal or what effect he had on others!
“Is your boyfriend abusing you?”
He pointed to the menacing mails and to the IMs that promised retribution when he got home. Tyler gazed incomprehensively to the screen, processing his question for a couple of minutes before turning an interesting shade of red.
Jesus. Even a blush looked good on this guy. Bain quickly stuffed his hands in the jeans front pockets before he could follow through with his impulse to check if the rosy skin felt as hot as it looked.
Besides, his otherwise comfortable jeans were now becoming restrictive and the bulge in front of them more and more evident. Maybe his hands would make it less obvious. Although if Tyler continued to stay this heedless he won’t have to come up with any explanations for his s
tate of arousal, it would surely pass unnoticed even if he did a lap dance for the guy.
That didn’t make it any easier for Bain to abstain from throwing Tyler on the desk and bring to life all the fantasies that have troubled his sleep since he had met the man.
“I…Huh. What made you think that?”
Bain shook his heat at his own wayward thoughts.
“Those mails are not really friendly.”
“Um… I get that part. I don’t get were the boyfriend part comes in.”
The boyfriend pa…?
“Sean is a guy’s name. And he obviously expects you home. He doesn’t seem to be only a friend.”
Was he going to deny it? Maybe Tyler wasn’t out yet and he had doubts about talking this with one of his students. That made sense.
“Look I’m not judging you or your choice of bed partners- hell, I’m gay too - but this guy sounds like bad news from what I can see in those mails. Maybe you don’t want to talk this with me and I understand that this should stay between these four walls, but please, please get some help. If you don’t want me to help, go to the police or…”
“Hold it there.”
Tyler raised his hands in the conventional sign of time-out.
“You know, I think that’s the longest speech I heard from you. Do you not speak a lot usually or you speak only with those you know better?”
Most disconcerting guy he ever met. Bain was not easily surprised or caught off balance. He was slowly learning he should just go with the flow since when it came to Tyler and his thinking process, things were a mystery.
“Both.”
“Ok. Well just to get rid of your worries, Sean is my younger brother.”
“Brother.”
“Yes.”
“Like brother- brother. Relative- brother.”
“Yeah, brother-brother. Born from the same womb brother.”
“Oh.”
That went well. Impress the guy you like by making an ass off yourself. At a first date that the same guy seems to have forgotten about and furthermore doesn’t look like he acknowledges as a date.
“But it’ll make his day to know that somebody thought he was dangerous enough to alert the police. Usually people don’t take anything he says too serious. You just made a new friend.”
Tyler mischievous eyes made Bain squirm. Thing he haven’t done since his momma had caught him playing hide-the-sausage with his best friend in high school.
“Thanks but no, thanks. I prefer my dumb moments to remain unknown.”
A sudden thought crossed his mind.
“Does this mean you don’t have a boyfriend?”
“Um,no. No boyfriend, no girlfriend. Too busy.”
The return of that blush alerted him there was more.
“There is no such thing as too busy.”
“There is too.”
Too cute for words. He had the impulse to taste that pout on Tyler’s lips.
“And …uh… it-may-have-something-to-do-with-the-socially-challenged-thing.”
It may have…? Oh! Oh. Oooh…
“Ever had one?”
Tyler quickly shook his head and hid his eyes by turning again towards his laptop.
Jesus! This guy was out to kill him. He had no fucking idea. A virgin! Jesus.
They had to get out of that lab or Tyler will soon get a sexual education lesson. On the damn desk. Or the floor. Against the wall was an option.
“It’s getting late.”
Tyler’s eyes zeroed on the wall clock and then boggled at the time.
“Shit! I’m gonna eat take out for at least a month!”
“I take it your brother is the cook in the house.”
“He’s the housewife. Do you know a good drycleaner?”
Housewife? He smirked, imagining a Tyler copy, taking care of the chores. The Tyler make-believe was wearing an apron and Tyler’s cute dumbfolded expression pointed at some pot cooking on a stove.
It was his turn to flush. Now he knew what straight guys felt when they imagined their crush cooking for them.
“He also does the laundry? You’re screwed.”
“And ironing and folding and cleaning.”
“Looks like you shouldn’t have got him pissed off. What did you do to get him that annoyed?”
He gestured inquiringly towards the bag where Tyler had already deposited his laptop.
“I may have forgotten to tell him where I am for a couple of days.”
Bain frowned not liking what he was hearing. Did his brother have so much power over Tyler that he was keeping tabs on him?
His silence brought rushed explications.
“It’s not as if I have a curtain or that kind of shit. It’s just that… God this is embarrassing. You would think that at twenty five I know better. I just… Sometimes I get so immersed in my work I forget anything else.”
Bain threw a glance around the devastated lab. Fist impression was that someone has ransacked the place with everything so scattered.
“I can see that,”
“Yeah. Um… Sean makes sure I don’t forget myself for more than let’s say two days.”
This guy needed a keeper. Bain wanted to apply for the position. Or at least see if they could have something real here.
“How many days?”
“Ahhh. Like four. Not counting Thursday night. Four.”
“You’re here since Thursday?!”
“Friday. Thursday night doesn’t count.”
The hell it didn’t!
“And I’m guessing sleep and food weren’t a priority.”
“Weren’t on the list, actually.”
He looked like a child waiting to be scolded and Bain stopped himself from doing exactly that. He didn’t have the right. At least not yet, he didn’t.
“I should have brought more food.”
We have quickly cleaned the bigger mess in the lab and then Bain helped me get my things ready to go. I never leave information on my softwares or projects at the university. Maybe it wasn’t customary but in this lab I was pretty much my own boss and Matthers could just shove it. When I was studying for my major, my prof had a break in and all his research destroyed. I wasn’t taking that chance and if Bain’s approving looks were to judge by, he agreed.
“What are you working on?”
“An advanced software for people with locomotoric disabilities.”
“Really?”
The surprise and pride in his voice made my chest constrict and that fluttery feeling in my stomach reappear. I was starting to suspect that had nothing to do with being hungry unless it was another type of hunger altogether. I may be a twenty-five years old virgin but a prude I wasn’t. I just haven’t been attracted to anybody in my life. And in my defense nobody had seem attracted to me either. Although if Sean was right, I was just blind as a bat and totally oblivious.
He got out before me and waited for me to close the lab. When I turned to take my stuff from him, he just ignored me and started down the quiet hall. I had to almost run to keep the pace with him. Long legs. Long muscular legs.
And now I was focusing on his ass.
I groaned. If salivating for his ass didn’t meant I was attracted to him then nothing would. I was a master at ignoring sticky situations and uncomfortable feelings, thus my present state of complete chastity at my age but even my devious mind couldn’t ignore that ass. And the guy was also fun to be with. I could actually relax around him and not guard my every word. Sure, he was huge and I should probably be intimidated by his size. Fuck that. Bain had practically jumped in my rescue for what he presumed to be an abusive relation. A guy like that didn’t have a mean bone in his body. For god’s sake, he even held the door for me!
“Have you ever kicked a puppy or hit a kitty?”
Okay, so maybe my out of nowhere question deserved that you-are-crazy look.
“Noo…”
“Hit a child or a defenseless person?”
“Jesus! Fuck no!”
“Steal, lie or cheat?”
“Um…”
“Spill.”
His expression was more perplexed that angry or guilty.
“Am I being interviewed for something? Do you want to make sure you’re safe in the campus’ parking lot at night? I can assure you I’ll never do anything to hurt you.”
He sounded hurt and I suddenly had the insight that his size and looks- which for me were the source of a newfound libido- for him were the source of a lot of headaches. I think I realized just then that the people’s reaction to him in the cafeteria was a common occurrence and despite his nonchalance about the subject, it was a touchy one for Bain. And I just made it worse with my moronic inquiries.
“And to answer your questions: Yes. I was four years in the military. I did steal. I did lie and cheat. And I did kill. Here, maybe you should take your things now.”
Fuck it. I was bad at this. Tomorrow I would search the web for some conversation guides.
“I’m all tuckered out.”
He continued to thrust forward my stuff but he had that perplexed expression again as if he didn’t know what to make of me and my statement. It was better than that hurt look but it still made me feel guilty about the way I had assaulted him with questions.
“My house is just two blocs away. Mind if I borrow a ride?”
“You want to borrow a ride. With me. Me to take you home. In my car.”
Huh. Obviously he hadn’t expected that. I have already had my daily run-for-the-hills moment and I was to tired to play word games with polite speech and other bullshit or skirt around the problem.
“Yes. I do. And yes, you don’t scare me. And before you ask, yes, I heard what you said and frankly I couldn’t care less. I’m sure you did only what you had to in order to survive. I see that it bothers you and I’ll try to remember not to butt in again. You have my permission to shut me up when that happens.”