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

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.”

Matt’s smile faded and he glanced at Chris for a long moment before facing Rich again. “I’ll accept that if you’ll tell me why.”

Chris stood up and joined them on the couch while Rich filled Matt in on the reasons he’d pushed the man away and what hell Rich’s life had been since.

* * * *

Severo picked up the file on McAlister’s second victim, William Trenton. This wasn’t the way he usually worked, looking over files and pictures and trying to feel a link. Severo’s experience was communing with spirits, and the ones fucking with Rich hadn’t been in any mood to chat when Severo and Laine had encountered them. Seeing Rich’s lifeless eyes, pitch as a starless night, had scared the crap out of Severo. His knowledge of spirits and their abilities was growing all the time, and he didn’t like what he was finding out. Visions of the movie The Exorcist were frequently flitting through his mind, and that movie had given him nightmares off and on for years when he’d seen it. Granted, he’d been six at the time, and his cousins hadn’t noticed him hovering behind them where they’d been crammed on the couch, but still. Thinking about the movie gave him the willies to this day.

“You keep looking at that one.” Laine flicked the edge of William Trenton’s file.

Severo nodded as he touched it again. Every time he did it the tips of his fingers went jarringly cold. Was it Conner, or was he right in thinking William Trenton was the one forcing his way into Rich? How had Rich survived a year of being violated like that? And how much had McAlister tormented him? Severo could only conclude—maybe incorrectly, he wasn’t a psychiatrist—that Rich thought he deserved to be punished.

“Why didn’t he tell us? With what I am, what I do, he had to have known we’d believe him.”

Laine took the file from him and started flipping through it. “Guilt. He worked with McAlister right across from him for three years and never suspected the man. Add to that, if he couldn’t get rid of McAlister, the last thing Rich would want would be to lead him back to me. Then there’s the fact that McAlister fucking tortured him for hours, left him cut—”

Severo bolted out of his chair and wrapped his arms around Laine, offering him comfort and support.

“He was always this happy, gorgeous guy, least that’s all he’d let anyone see. Even when I was his partner, he kept everything inside, only showing what he wanted people to see. McAlister took that from him, left Rich with nothing to hide behind.”

Severo thought about smacking Laine on the ass. Men. Severo rolled that over and clarified it. Some men. “Rich is still a gorgeous guy. If anything, the scar makes him sexier, and while I think he could stand to gain some weight, he has a vulnerable look about him now, and his face is thinner, his cheekbones sharp enough to cut glass. It sets off his big eyes and those full lips.”

Laine looked down at him and glowered. Severo’s dick got hard in an instant. “What? I never said he was sexier than you.”

Laine grinned and Severo pushed his butt back into the hand palming his cheek. “And you never would say that, even if it was true.”

“You’re a crazy man. No one will ever make that true. You are the sexiest fucker on the planet, and I’d probably extend that to the universe, even though I’d really need to see some aliens just to be accurate.” Severo practically purred when his butt was squeezed by both of Laine’s hands. The man did know how to flip Sev’s switches. “How’s your ass feel?” Sev reached down and smoothed a hand over Laine’s taut flank.

“Like someone fucked it with a two-by-four.”

Sev let go of his lover’s ass and tried to push away. “Sorry, I haven’t—”

“Hey.” Laine’s arms tightened, his hands digging into the globes of Sev’s bottom. Without even a grunt, Laine lifted him until Sev wound his legs around his lover’s narrow hips. The hard bulge jamming against his crease just about had Sev begging to be fucked there in the kitchen while Rich and Matt—and Chris—dealt with whatever had happened between Rich and Matt after McAlister had been killed.

“Sev,” Laine said softly as he brushed his lips over Sev’s. That never failed to send the signal to Sev’s balls for them to draw tight because there would be fucking involved very soon. He moaned as he opened for Laine, relishing the way his lover knew him so well. For a man who’d never even considered a relationship until he’d met Laine, Severo thought he was doing a pretty damn good job, along with his partner, of keeping their relationship strong and the passion explosive.

“I meant that in a good way.”

Yeah, he probably did. Sev was just insecure about being the fucker rather than the fuckee. Hadn’t Laine spread and pleaded? Taken it all and wanted more? “For future reference, saying something like ‘I can still feel you in my ass and it’s the best damned thing ever’ is much more accurate. Just so you know.”

“Got it.” Laine kissed the tip of his nose before setting him back on his feet. “It’ll be dark soon, though I guess we all learned the spirits using Rich don’t come exclusively at night now.”

“Yeah, now he won’t ever get any sleep.”

The kitchen door swung open as Carlin Douglas, Matt’s partner, entered. He noted their erections right away, judging by the sly grin on his face. His words confirmed it. “And here I thought you two were working away on those files. If I’d have known what was really going