Wait Until Dawn by Bailey Bradford (book club suggestions .txt) 📕

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