Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
My Matt.
Harry would always say that, even back when we were kids. I always thought it was just a friendly way of referring to his best friend, but over time, the true meaning started to become clear.
“And how’s that going?” he asked. Harry knew shit went down between me and Matt, but only vaguely. He didn’t know what happened, what words were said, why they were said.
Still, he knew enough to understand how awkward our meeting had been.
And how charged it remained.
“It’s going fine. He hasn’t even been here a full day and we already had to go to a crime scene together. He’s supposed to be working at Stonewall while he’s here, so there’s plenty of time for shit to go south again.”
Harry’s eyes narrowed. He quirked his mouth to the left, creating a dimple the size of the Grand Canyon’s asshole. I always joked about it with him, since it only ever appeared when he was either skeptical of something or lying about something. Made it extremely difficult for him to ever get addicted to poker.
“You two could never be in a room for too long without either fighting or fucking.”
My eyebrows shot to my forehead.
“Those kinds of friendships are hard to maintain. They just are.”
I swallowed, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the talk of Matt and me fucking. Not that the act itself made me uncomfortable—complete opposite happened, actually. The thought of us writhing and rolling together, naked bodies hard and wet with sweat, made my blood rush straight to my cock.
It was the thought of Harry acknowledging it that made me uncomfortable. Knowing how he felt about Matt…
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, though.” Harry’s smile didn’t flare up with a dimple; he was telling the truth. “You guys also work extremely well together. How many cases did you successfully work on together when you were in the FBI?”
“Fifty-three in a four-year span.”
“Fucking insane. Whoever the Pegasus is better be shaking in their thigh-high boots right now.”
Harry was right, of course. Matt and I had been a dynamite pair, able to feed off each other’s drive and ideas while also challenging each other without pushing too hard. It was a tightrope walk of passion and tension, a pit of alligators waiting underneath us for the slightest little slip.
My brother pushed off the wall and clapped his hands. “Come on. Let’s go to the Library. We can have some drinks and see if there’s anyone there who might help you forget about this roller coaster of a day.”
I glanced at the clock on the wall. I’d been working all day, nearly eleven hours. I could honestly use a drink, and I wouldn’t turn down some affection either. Whether it was a drunken kiss and some subtle petting under the bar or more, I just knew I had to do something to get Matt off my mind. He’d come back into my world after all these years and thrown me right back to being twenty-four years old and head over heels in love with someone I could never have.
So yeah. I needed a drink or five, and I needed to not see Matt for at least a full twenty-four hours.
“All right,” I said, shutting down my computer and putting away my files. “Let’s go.”
6
MATTHEW HALE
The streetlights soaked the sidewalk in a golden yellow light as I walked down the main street, hands in my pockets and head in the cloudless night sky. My job often took me around the world to a wide range of cities and towns, and I had to admit that not many of them had the same charm as this little town had. It oozed from the eye-catching and bold storefronts, from the beautiful potted plants and trees on every corner, from the friendly and always smiling folk who casually strolled past me without a damn care in the world. Blue Creek was certainly like no other small town I’d ever been to, and I’d visited plenty.
Yet all the bottled-up and magical charm in the world couldn’t stop me from thinking about Jason Quill.
I wanted to see him again. Fuck. I couldn’t sit still, couldn’t focus, couldn’t lie down. There was a subtle buzz in my bones, a sparking current running through my veins. It was that glittery kind of feeling I used to have all the time when I was around Jason, back when we were two horny and confused kids trying to figure things out.
Now we were just two horny and confused adults trying to figure things out, and for some reason, that didn’t feel as fun. Kids could waste time figuring shit out; they had their entire lives still waiting to unfurl. Now, though, every wasted second felt heavier than the last. The ticking of the clock grew louder with every passing year.
One thing that always helped drown out the tick—tock—tick—tock? Alcohol. That made the bar I stopped in front of seem extra alluring.