Wait Until Dawn by Bailey Bradford (chrysanthemum read aloud txt) 📗

for a small towns in Texas, as far as he could tell. McKinton wasn’t huge by any means, but it wouldn’t have hurt them to have a hotel. Chris would have liked to get a really nice room and attempt to seduce Rich in it. A motel just wasn’t good enough for Rich.

It didn’t matter, though. Rich had made arrangements already. Chris just had to get him there.

‘There’ was a residence almost twenty minutes outside of McKinton, but probably no more than ten miles as the crow flies. Chris pulled into the unpaved driveway of a cute house that looked kind of like a cottage. He hadn’t seen a lot of cottages that he knew of, but he imagined they looked like this, square and white with big windows and lots of plants in the yard. Not fancy, but comfortable. Would Rich like a cottage?

Movement in his peripheral vision had Chris turning his head to find a big, although not as big as him, and broad—again, he was the winner there—older man standing beside his door. The dude could win in the age category, no skin off Chris’ nose. The Stetson the guy had on gave him a dangerous look, but… Chris squinted at the man he was sure had to be Laine. His lips quirked up on one side as he checked the guy’s aura. Not a total asshole, so why then had he let Rich end up alone and hurting?

A small dark-haired man with golden brown skin darted from the house to the older man’s side. Chris looked over at Rich, finding him still soundly asleep. He probably wouldn’t have a better opportunity than this. Chris turned the radio up a little more then quietly let himself out of the cab. And damn if it didn’t make him feel kind of good to see the older man’s eyes widen in surprise. Hopefully it wasn’t all due to the chin piercing, but just in case… Chris flicked the ball of his tongue piercing against the front of his teeth and arched an eyebrow as he kept his muscles loose.

“Oh my God, Laine, that’s so sexy! I want one!”

Chris couldn’t help but grin at the cute little dude with the pale green eyes. Severo, Rich had said during one of their first conversations. Well, it wasn’t like they’d had many, really, all things considered. Chris watched the hard look melt from had-to-be-Laine’s face as he glanced at his lover.

“You can’t have him.”

Ah. An asshole with a sense of humor. Who knew? Chris was tempted to be contrary and say yes, little dude could have him, except that’d be stirring up a pot full of shit which was just stupid. Some things should never be in a pot, much less stirred.

The cute guy rolled his eyes and muttered, “Guess you’ll never know how good that could feel on your dick then.”

Chris couldn’t have kept quiet if his life depended on it. “Good doesn’t begin to describe it, especially if you know how to work it over the head and under the rim.”

“I like you,” the man announced, stepping forward to offer his hand. “Severo Robledo. Maybe you can talk Laine into agreeing on the piercing.”

“Christian Neeland.” Chris shook then hitched his thumb at Laine. “Just tell him it’s him or you that’s gonna get pierced. Your tongue or his dick. Hurts about the same, but I doubt he’d go for a piercing.” He kept his voice light, his tone teasing, even though he was itching to have a private talk with the sheriff. The man must have picked up on it because his expression hardened and he patted his partner once on the ass before asking him to please give him a few minutes with Christian. Severo rolled his eyes and told his lover not to make him sic Brendon on him, and Chris was pretty much lost on that one.

“Brendon’s one of our friends, and he always calls Laine on being a dumbass.” Severo pointed at Laine. “Like he’d do it now, when you’re being rude and not bothering to introduce yourself because you’d rather do some chest thumping. Just don’t whip out the dicks unless I’m out here. Pretty sure what Chris was saying is he’s got a PA and I’ve never seen one live and in person before.” With that spiel, Severo grinned and turned, jogging back to their house without looking back.

Chris only watched for a second. The guy had a cute ass, but he wasn’t Rich and therefore not interesting in a sexual manner. Laine watched with a lusty look until Severo was inside the house. Then he turned and gave Chris the same hard look he had at first. Chris grinned, he couldn’t help it, and the bigger he grinned, the narrower the sheriff’s icy gray eyes got. Who would win—him when he smiled so wide his face split, or the sheriff who’d have to find a way to glare at him through his eyelids pretty damn quick?

Three things happened in a split second to wipe Chris’ grin away. The sheriff’s hat tumbled off his head, landing behind him with a dull thud at the same time as his tin star badge popped off and spun on the ground, and a stream of white appeared in his aura.

“I really have to call my mom,” Chris muttered, watching the star spin in the dirt.

“Yeah, like that would help,” Laine grumbled. “Where’s Rich?”

Chris dragged his gaze from the star and studied the sheriff. The white tendrils in his aura were pulsing. Something brushed over Chris’s groin that felt an awful lot like a hand. He was ninety-nine percent certain it wasn’t the sheriff, and the slap to his ass confirmed it. Chris took a slow step back and pointed at Laine, trying not to freak over the touches that shouldn’t have been possible. Rich, think of Rich, and how this guy left him alone.

“He doesn’t even want to come here,” Chris said coolly. “Can’t blame him