Whirlwind by Bailey Bradford (reading the story of the .txt) 📕

“We won’t,” Jordan assured him, wondering what, exactly, Stefan was to Conner. The big blond spirit was certainly protective of Stefan. “We aren’t assholes. We just don’t know anything about any of this.” He waved a hand around the room in general. “One minute we were alive, then Gid was dead and I was dying. Then we were both dead, and confused. It took us a week to get here, and now I’m thinking we could have probably gotten here a hell of a lot quicker.”

“Yup,” Stefan said before Conner even got his mouth opened. “You sure could have. All you do is—”

“Stefan,” Conner growled.

Stefan didn’t even acknowledge Conner. “Think of where you want to be. It’s hard at first, but you kind of picture it, or the idea of it if wherever you’re going isn’t somewhere you’ve actually seen. And don’t freak out if you appear in a wall or a sidewalk. It’s not like you’re stuck, you know. You just float out of it.”

“I was going to explain it,” Conner was whispering to Ro. “I wasn’t going to be mean.”

“The firming up is harder,” Stefan continued. “We can touch each other.” Stefan’s smile was devastating as he approached Jordan. He placed his hand right over Jordan’s heart, which fluttered wildly. “See? No problem. And you can touch me, too.”

Stefan used his other hand to grab Jordan’s right wrist. “Like this.” Jordan sucked in a noisy breath when he felt the warmth of Stefan’s body through his clothes. Stefan was slight of build, but he wasn’t too thin, and he was simply gorgeous with those big eyes and that trusting expression.

“Are you—” Conner broke off with a grunt. “What, Ro?”

Stefan used the hand he’d grabbed Jordan’s wrist with to touch Gideon’s chest. Jordan knew the ticking at the joint of Gideon’s jaw was a sign of arousal. He’d seen it before.

“But touching another spirit is different from touching something more…” Stefan pulled his hands back and rolled his eyes up to stare at the ceiling as he seemed to search for a word. Finally he looked at them again. “Something more substantial, for lack of a better word. We only have substance here, in our afterlife, not in the real world that the living are in. It’s weird, but what can you do?” He hitched a shoulder up and let it drop. “It is what it is. You have to really concentrate to have an effect on things. If you don’t want to fall through a barn roof, for example, you just concentrate on not doing that.”

“Think stop,” Ro said. “Envision yourself doing it.”

“Instead of panicking,” Conner added. “See?” He turned to Ro. “I can be helpful.”

“Conner says it gets easier to do the more you practice,” Stefan said. He moved over to his laptop and tapped a button. Porn music blared as a raunchy video began playing.

“Seriously?” someone hollered from another room. “Turn it down!”

“Whoops. Forgot about the volume.” Stefan tapped a button and the sound was turned off.

Conner shot over to get between Stefan and the laptop. “Don’t stop the video on our account. I haven’t seen this one before.”

“Why don’t we watch it somewhere more private?” Ro asked, gliding over to press up against Conner’s side. “Now that you know Stefan’s okay, and these two weren’t trying to hurt him.”

Conner gave Jordan and Gideon a stern look before looping an arm around Stefan’s neck and knuckling his hair. “They give you any shit, holler.”

“I will.” Stefan giggled and slipped out of Conner’s grasp. “Have fun.”

Ro hugged Stefan. “You, don’t have too much fun.”

“I’m not a kid,” Stefan said gruffly.

Jordan warmed up inside. He knew he was probably reading more into Ro’s words and Stefan’s reply than he should, but Stefan was a sexy young man and Jordan…

Jordan couldn’t affirm that he was still alive by having rough, mind-blowing sex, but he could remind himself that at least he and Gideon weren’t completely gone.

Chapter Six

Maybe he was being presumptuous, but Stefan was pretty damned sure that’d been lust he’d seen in Jordan’s eyes. Gideon, he couldn’t read, but Jordan had this hungry look about him, and now that he knew neither of them was out to harm him, Stefan could admit they were both gorgeous.

Not model-perfect, but rough paragons of masculinity that made Stefan want to drop and worship at their feet. These weren’t boys, either, like Johnny had been. No, Gideon and Jordan were grown men, with more experiences in their too-short lives than Stefan could ever hope to have.

Both men had darkly tanned skin, and crow’s feet spreading from the outer corners of their eyes. Gideon had a single shallow line running almost fully across his forehead. Jordan had two thin ones right in the center of his brow.

They looked hard, lived-in and sexier than anyone else Stefan had ever seen. Jordan watched him with something that Stefan could only describe as hunger. He peeked at Gideon. Nope, he couldn’t read that man’s expression at all.

“What do you think, Gid?” Jordan asked, never looking away from Stefan. He reached down and adjusted his cock. Stefan wanted to offer to do it for him, but that was more forward than he could be just then. He’d flirted, touched both men, then flicked on the porn just to see if he got a hit on either being gay. He knew Jordan was, at least. Gay, and interested.

Gideon didn’t answer, but he watched Stefan steadily.

Stefan cleared his throat and ran his fingers through his hair. He felt warm, flushed and aroused but above all of that, he experienced a sudden surge of trepidation. Something was going on that he couldn’t quite grasp and that he wasn’t ready for after all.

He looked over at Gideon then flicked his gaze to Jordan. “I, um. Have to—” Stefan didn’t know what to do with his hands. They seemed to be fluttering in front of him all of their own accord. Damn, he was nervous. “Gotta go. Feel free to watch