Blood Claim by Laura Mykles (free e books to read .txt) 📕

but the line clicked off. He frowned at the lighted screen until the Call Ended message blinked off. With a frustrated moan, he propped his elbows on the desk, then rested his forehead in his palms.

Now he'd gone and done it. Wolfe had been nothing but good to him in the relatively short time they'd almost known each other, and he'd gone and let his stupid paranoia ruin it.

He dug his fingers into his scalp. Maybe he should call Wolfe back. He could apologize, and they could meet for dinner. Maybe he could get Wolfe to make it early. Hope blossomed in his chest as he raised his head, staring at the wall behind his monitors. It would be all right. It had been two years, after all. Surely it was safe to go out now? Just one night? Surely just a few hours would be okay?

But the simple thought of going outside his apartment made his blood run cold. The thought of doing it after the sun had gone down froze him in his tracks. Daniel hanging limp in another man's embrace ... He pushed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets to dispel the image. Nope. He couldn't do it.

Sighing, he turned his head so that one cheek rested heavily on his palm and used the other hand on the mouse to open a web browser window. One click on a handy bookmark and up came the company website. Very corporate, very clean and informative about their product. The main attraction—in Matt's view, at least—was a terrific picture of owner Wolfe Larsen. It was a professional portrait of the man in a sharp suit and tie before a washed-out pastel blue background. Shining black hair was pulled back behind his neck, which made it look short in this picture. The hair was sacrificed, in Matt's opinion, the better to show off the sharp, classic lines of Wolfe's brow, cheeks, nose, and chin, the deep, intriguing hollows that couched sparkling green eyes. His smile in this picture was mildly amused.

As opposed to the second picture Matt gained with the click of the mouse button. This page had a picture of Wolfe at a charity party. Matt was pretty sure Wolfe would have started the night dressed up, but by the time the picture was taken, any jacket and tie he might have worn were long discarded. The white dress shirt might have started the night buttoned up, but in the picture all but maybe the bottom two or three buttons were undone, exposing a luscious display of bare, hairless chest and one enticing brown nipple. Here Wolfe's hair was unbound, spilling in decadent waves over one side of his face and nearly half of that exposed chest. From the looks of it, those lovely locks had to go to at least mid back, if not farther. A good-looking young man sat on the arm of the sprawling chair or couch on which Wolfe sat. The casual touch of the man's hand on Wolfe's shoulder—a touch that looked more personal than just a friendly pat—had first given Matt the impression that Wolfe was gay. Now that he had confirmation, all he wanted to do was crawl into the picture and straddle that narrow lap to let those long, wicked fingers do naughty things to him.

Grunting, Matt found his hand gone from the mouse to stroking the erection underneath his zipper. He gave partial thought to indulging—wouldn't be the first time he'd jerked off to Wolfe's picture—but he closed the browser window instead and pushed back from the desk. He stood and headed for the kitchen, needing to distract himself. Jerking off would just make him think of Wolfe more, and he'd be tempted to call. But he couldn't call Wolfe. Much as he wanted to, he couldn't bring himself to go out at night. Besides, Wolfe Larsen wouldn't want anything to do with a misfit recluse like him, despite what he said on the phone.

* * * *

"Where is he?” Matt gripped the steering wheel, muttering to himself as he inched his Jeep down the dark road. “First he insists on coming to this damn party. Then he ditches me?"

Newly outed and summarily rejected by his parents, Daniel had wanted to be surrounded “by all things gay” tonight. Matt could understand the thought, but he and Daniel were so not right for this scene. Matt had known from the moment they'd arrived and seen the drugged-out smiles and frantic dancing to the endless thump-thump music. They were geeks, for God's sake! Both of them almost done with technical school. They didn't belong at these types of parties.

But they'd stayed, and now Matt had lost Daniel. At some point, Daniel had wandered off with a new friend. Matt had lurked in the drunken crowd around the park's closed recreation center for nearly forty-five minutes, dodging unwanted advances and alarming offers, waiting for Daniel to come back as promised. But his lover had never shown up. Pissed, he'd finally climbed into his Jeep to go search. Maybe Daniel was by one of the other park buildings. Far more comfortable and safe in his car, Matt drove down the narrow roads that meandered under the towering cypress trees, keeping his eyes peeled for a glimpse of Daniel.

He saw a lot else. A lot. He'd never have been able to have sex out in the open like he'd seen in the last twenty minutes. The threesome in particular had blown his mind. He hadn't realized that two guys could do that to another at the same time!

He really needed to find Daniel and get back to sanity at home.

Wait! Light blue shirt with a garish logo on the back. Was that...? Oh, that had better not be Daniel! Not in the arms of some other guy!

Matt inched the Jeep forward, taking in the details. Yeah, that was Daniel's shirt with that huge hot pink “I like boys” logo blazoned across the back.