Page 13

Daniel

L ast night was bothering me.

I could just ask him about it. Logic wasn’t always my best friend, but what guy got hard if he wasn’t at least a little interested, right?

Going there was a mistake. When I’d fooled around with Tilly and Art, I’d told Art about wanting to touch him as well, and he’d laughed at me. There wasn’t a possibility in hell of that happening. Just because Shawn had popped a boner while we’d been rolling around on the floor hadn’t meant he wanted me to touch him. But then what he’d said kept floating through my head…

“You’re squirming around on my lap and threatening me with a good time.”

Had he meant that? Was it because it was me, or just a person being on top of him?

The last thing I needed was to be thinking about Shawn like that. I shouldn’t be thinking about him at all. Shawn and Art were too similar personality-wise. I’d been down that road once before and got burned. I didn’t even like Shawn... maybe.

Fuck.

I finished the food on my plate and took it back to the kitchen. Having a freaking meal with him shouldn’t have my thoughts all jumbled like this. Or even considering propositioning him.

This was dumb. Part of me had always wanted to experiment to finally know what it was like to be with another guy. I’d always known that I found both men and women attractive, but my relationship with Art and Tilly had been the closest I’d ever gotten to experiencing it. Not that it was in any way healthy.

Space.

My skin crawled from being in such proximity to the man who was making me question so many things. Making me question the boundaries I’d put in place after Art and Tilly.

I marched back to my room, closing the door behind me. The phone, plugged into the charger on the nightstand, lit up. When my heart began to beat wildly in my chest, I knew I was overreacting. Chase had seemed genuinely concerned when he reached out to me yesterday about being stuck up here with Shawn. It could be him calling to check in with me. But Chase never called. He would text.

As I approached, I could see the familiar one eight hundred number on the screen. I could ignore it, and not answer it at all, but for whatever reason, it felt better to deny the calls. Like I had some control over them. But as I stood there, the phone went dark. That... felt different.

How many times would Art try to call before he got the picture that I was done? He wasn’t a part of my life anymore, and he was wasting his time. It had been months already. Maybe he’d never give up.

“Are you okay?”

Where was I? I shook my head. At some point, I’d left my room and stood in the hall again. Shawn watched me, eyes full of concern.

My heart was back to beating a rapid staccato. Sweat slicked my palms as I wiped them on my boxers. I should put pants on. With the way Shawn was looking at me, damn, all I wanted to do was run to him and wrap my arms around him. I hadn’t had a panic attack like this since the day of the arrests.

“I...” My voice trailed off as my eyes burned. Before I could hit the ground, strong arms wrapped around me and pulled me into a comforting chest. Thick fingers worked through my hair as Shawn whispered soothing words into my ear.

“Hey now, what happened? You’re okay. Talk to me.”

This was the last thing I wanted. This asshole didn’t deserve to see me at my weakest. I was tough, strong, and independent Daniel. I didn’t need anyone to help me keep it together, but here I was, crumbling under the pressure.

Instead of answering him, I did the stupidest thing I’d done to date. My fingers curled into his shirt, tugging the material to bring him closer. His sleepy morning smells, bacon grease, and coffee instantly overwhelmed me. The moment my lips crashed with his, it was game over. The chaos that had swirled around me ceased, and my mind quieted. I could only focus on how pillowy soft they were and how the flavor of the creamer still clung to them.

A shiver raced down my spine when he pulled back, hazel eyes searching mine. I blinked up at him a few times before he hesitantly leaned in and brushed his lips against mine once more. Fuck, I wanted to melt at how gentle he was. I never imagined that Shawn Stevens would be a gentle lover or at least a soft kisser, but this was everything I’d ever dreamed of.

When he pulled away this time, I was left cold, sitting on the floor as he stood and walked away.

Who the hell was I kidding? No one actually wanted me.

I f I had known how damn awkward kissing someone you hated would make things, I wouldn’t have done it. I had said it was the stupidest thing I’d ever done.

If Shawn thought I’d been pouting and locking myself in my room, it was nothing compared to what he was doing now. I hadn’t seen him since he’d walked away. The TV was still playing in the living room, the weather forecast still saying that snow would be our prison for the foreseeable future. Oddly, it didn’t make me feel as panicked as I’d been.

Strange how just kissing the guy had done that.

My fingers trailed to my lips, feeling them, and trying to remember how they’d felt a couple of hours ago. Warmth spread through my limbs as I closed my eyes. Standing there fantasizing about my mouth on Shawn’s yet again was a mistake. Doing it the first time shouldn’t have happened. But damn, it had felt right. Like a huge part of me that had been missing finally clicked into place.

Damn that it was Shawn to give it to me.

“Did you hear that?”

My eyes popped open, arm dropping to my side as I looked down the hall and prayed he hadn’t seen what I was doing.

“Did I hear what?”

Shawn shook his head and stood still, looking around the room. He furrowed his brow in concentration before walking across the room to mute the TV.

And that was when I heard it, too. The tiniest of squeaks.

“Is there a mouse problem up here?”

Shawn glared at me before grabbing his jacket and heading outside. My eyes widened because I had nothing remotely warm to put on to follow him. Ripped jeans and a hoodie it was…

By the time I was dressed and had my shoes tied, wishing once more that I’d had something other than canvas shoes, it took me a few minutes to locate Shawn around the side of the cabin. He was moving a pile of wood and waved me over to help him.

The cold air bit at my face, but it didn’t seem to bother me so much as we worked. Once the stack of logs was moved, it uncovered a small door that led under the cabin. It was open slightly, and Shawn yanked it the rest of the way from the wall. “There’s this crawl space. Sometimes animals get under here. Dad tries to keep it covered, but it doesn’t always stop them...”

Without further explanation, Shawn dropped to all fours and crawled into the space. It was dark and I wouldn’t have gone in there so willingly, which probably made him a better person than me. There was no telling what type of creature we were hearing. My mind spiraled to all sorts of worst-case scenarios. What if it was something that would bite him and give him rabies? Did the animals in this area have rabies?

The longer I stood there, the more the icy temperatures sank into my clothes. I was shivering by the time Shawn made a reappearance. He had something tucked under his arm, but it was too small for me to see.

“What is it?”

He didn’t answer, only looked around before heading straight back to the house. “Look around. See if you spot any more of them.”

I wanted to laugh. “It would help if I knew what the fuck I was looking for.”

And that’s when he held it up. It was small, orange, and striped. My lungs seized, and it didn’t matter that it was so little. My eyes widened. There was no way I was helping him look for more cats. Not that I could tell him that before he disappeared through the front door.

Shit.

There went my feelings that this trip might not be too bad.