Page 6

Shawn

W atching him go was weird.

I’d never seen someone so pigheaded and stubborn in my life. He didn’t even let me get to the point where Dad was giving us all a holiday bonus anyway, so if he was worried about missing pay from work, he shouldn’t stress about it too much. Unless he was counting on that money for other things.

Was it insensitive of me not to think about that? Probably.

He had two friends that were still sitting in jail after all. And who was to say he didn’t plan on visiting his family? Though, he hadn’t brought up his family once in the months that he’d been here in Seattle.

I itched to get home and dig up more on him. Who the hell was Daniel Morgan, and why did he have so many secrets?

“Get your ass back in here before you freeze.”

I turned just as Chase opened the door and held out my jacket. A shiver raced through me at the mention of the cold and I hadn’t realized just how frigid it was until that moment. I’d been too consumed by Daniel.

When I approached the door, I grabbed my coat and shoved my arms inside, instantly grateful as the blood flow returned to my limbs. Chase stood there for a moment, staring at me like he was waiting for me to tell him what had just happened.

“I’m going to convince him to come.”

Chase laughed, running a hand through his blond hair and locking the door behind him. He tossed the keys at me and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Please be gentle with him. He’s been through some shit. I don’t have a lot from home. He and Oreo are basically it.”

My brows scrunched together. That was multiple times now that I’d been told that he’d been through something, but no one was telling me what. “Is this about the arrest?”

Chase froze as he walked down the sidewalk. “You know about that?”

I licked my lips, shifting from side to side. My heart slammed against my ribs because, no, I wasn’t supposed to know about that. “It’s not that hard to look someone up on the internet.”

Chase sagged for a moment. “He—he didn’t do anything. He was lied to. That’s all I can tell you.”

I nodded, knowing that Chase was only telling me what he could. Maybe he didn’t know much more himself. Just because the two of them were friends, didn’t mean they disclosed all the dirty details.

That was when I noticed it. Chase was walking in the same direction that Daniel had gone, and Daniel hadn’t gone his usual way home. What the hell was happening?

I tried not to dwell on it. It wasn’t any of my business other than knowing that Chase’s friend was upset. Maybe he was checking in on him?

My feet carried me to the parking lot, and I turned on my car. The windows had iced over and I grabbed the scraper and removed what I could from my windshield while my vehicle warned up. If there was anything about winter that I didn’t like, it was that I couldn’t just get in my car and go.

The soulful whiskey tones of Matt Meason floated over my speaker system when I finally climbed into the warm interior. My hands gripped the steering wheel as I let the words of the song wash over me. It was some sort of song about how everyone had problems, and I wanted to snort at the irony of it all.

The drive home was quick and once I parked and entered my building, I kept thinking back to the way Daniel’s arm had felt in my grasp. He was thin, with the barest hint of muscle. The guy knew how to take care of himself. It was a lie to say I hadn’t noticed how he was built all the times I’d touched him when he would have rather me not…

My jacket hit the ground as I walked deeper into the apartment. My mother would have a heart attack if she saw me just leave it there like that, but those dark brown eyes and the way they swirled with so much hate and resentment consumed my mind. All directed at me. My breathing picked up as I approached the bedroom and I kicked off my shoes as I entered the space.

This was wrong.

So fucking wrong.

The second my back hit the mattress, my fingers worked my belt and pants open, and my hand dove inside. My groan was low and guttural, filling the room around me, the only sound punctuating just how fucked up it was that I was jerking off, thinking about the guy who couldn’t stand to breathe the same air as me.

My shaft was hard and warm in my hand, smooth. My toes curled against the carpet as I dragged my fist along the length to swirl around the tip. When my eyes slammed closed, all I could picture was that shaggy brown hair and how good Daniel would look if he were kneeling between my thighs as my hand worked faster.

Fuck.

Pre-cum oozed from my tip and I dragged it down my length as the fantasy played out behind my eyelids. Daniel wouldn’t be delicate or gentle with me. He’d rip my pants to my ankles before taking me between his lips and sucking me down.

My hand was a blur, working faster, causing my wrist to cramp. My free hand dipped behind my balls, fondling them in time with my thrusts, causing my hips to lift from the bed. The faster I worked myself over, the shorter my breaths became. It was only a matter of time before I leapt over the edge.

“You’re such an asshole.”

Words of truth. And it shouldn’t have been what shoved me over the edge, but even thinking about it and knowing that this was what I was doing. That it was Daniel’s face in my mind while I pleasured myself…

I was done.

Sticky cum coated my fingers as I rode out my orgasm, panting to catch my breath. Holy . Shit .

When all was said and done, I sat up quickly, grabbing for a dirty t-shirt that sat on the edge of my bed. I wiped down quickly before making my way to the bathroom to clean up properly.

I had bigger problems. How the hell was I going to convince Daniel to come on this trip, and how the fuck was I going to keep this growing obsession with him under wraps?

“ H e’s not coming.”

“Bullshit. I’m not taking no for an answer.” My arms crossed over my chest as I pressed the phone to my ear. Chase had tried talking some sense into Daniel, but he wasn’t having much luck convincing him to come for the trip, either.

“I’m telling you, man. Just let it be.”

I shook my head. Chase would kill me if he knew where I was right now. We were a week away from the trip as it was, a couple of days before Christmas, and my stalker ass was standing outside of Daniel’s apartment building. Yeah, I looked up his address. Sue me.

The place was a dump. Homeless people lined the sidewalk and the air stank of piss. I knew Seattle had its rougher parts, but this guy walked back to this place every time he got off shift. Sometimes that was at two in the morning. It said something about his character that he felt safe doing that, but I sure as hell must have been a privileged douchebag if I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around it.

“I told you, if this was for me, I’d drop it. It’s for our friend, so he’s coming.” Before Chase could argue, I disconnected the call and shoved my phone back into my pocket.

A man sitting on the stoop of the building blinked at me as I approached and I gave him a smile and a small wave. I frowned when I saw the front door of the building propped open. At least the leasing office was right inside, and there was a security guard standing there. I wasn’t sure how much good it did, as the guy didn’t bother to stop me as I walked straight to the stairs and up the three flights to Daniel’s apartment. Maybe I didn’t look threatening?

Now that I stood in front of apartment three twenty, my palms grew sweaty. I’d been brave until this point. How pissed was he going to be that I turned up here?

Instead of talking myself out of it, I raised my hand and knocked.

Nothing. Not a peep from inside.

Maybe he wasn’t home?

I stood there for a moment longer before knocking again.

“I told you that you don’t need to come...” The words died the second Daniel opened the door and saw me. The amusement that I caught in his eyes quickly vanished, and anger replaced it. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“You expecting someone?”

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest, but didn’t grace me with an answer. He didn’t owe it to me, anyway.

We stood there for a few moments in awkward silence. The longer he glared, the more I debated if it was possible for him to burn holes in my head.

Daniel’s eyes pinched closed as more footsteps coming up the stairs had me turning in that direction. An older couple was climbing and stopping at the floor. They started down the hall, but paused when they saw me standing next to Daniel outside of his apartment.

“Daniel?” The woman turned toward him in the doorway, and he scowled.

Daniel took a deep breath and opened his eyes, looking even more annoyed than he had when he opened the door to find me standing there. “Mom, what are you doing here? I thought I said you didn’t need to come?”

The woman, who I now knew was his mother, shook her head. She smiled before reaching out and pulling him into a hug. He flailed his arms, looking over her shoulder at me like a deer caught in the headlights. This probably was the worst thing for me to be witnessing.

“Nonsense. It’s two days before Christmas. I’m not letting you spend another holiday by yourself. Why didn’t you tell us more about this place? Your father and I could have helped you out some more...” She let go of Daniel and brushed past him into the apartment, still talking. The man, who must have been Daniel’s father, followed close behind.

I stood there for a moment, debating what to do. This wasn’t how I envisioned today going. My goal had been to come here and convince Daniel to come for the trip to Snoqualmie.

“I guess... I should just...”

“You’re not leaving, are you?”

My head snapped up to see Daniel’s mom standing there again, an arm wrapped around his shoulder. He looked so damn tense, trying to convey in the best way possible that I needed to go.

“I think that’s—”

“No, you don’t. Daniel has been in Seattle for six months and he’s not told us about any of his new friends. You have to stay.”

Before I knew what was happening, her manicured fingers wrapped around my wrist and pulled me across the threshold.