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

Laine’s eyes narrowed until they were almost shut as he took a step forward. “His father said Rich needed help, and you know fuck-all about Rich or what happened to him. Rich hasn’t wanted to talk to anyone for a year or more, and I can’t see that he’d want to start with some jackass with a piece of jewelry dangling from his chin.”

Chris was not impressed. “If his friends had given a shit, they’d have known he needed them after your stalker sliced and diced him up and left him feeling—in his own word, which I very much disagree with—grotesque. So don’t tell me he wouldn’t talk to me. He needed someone, and sure as shit you weren’t there.”

Then Chris got angry, or the anger that had been building burst through the dam of calm he’d tried to keep up. Chris lunged forward and had the man by both arms before the sheriff could do more than blink. He bent until he could look the man square in the eyes. “He came here to help you, but where have you been the past year? That man in there sleeping has nightmares, and he’s haunted in ways I don’t think either of us can ever comprehend, and here you are playing house with your partner. So don’t give me any shit when I’m not eager to leave Rich here, somewhere he’s afraid to be.”

“That’s enough,” a raspy voice called out from behind him. Laine gasped and went so white Chris was afraid to let him go for fear he’d hit the ground. He kept his grip on the man and craned his neck around to find a sexy, sleep-rumpled Rich leaning out of the rolled down window.

“Rich.” Laine put enough pain and guilt into the name that Chris was tempted to let him off the hook. But he didn’t, not when he knew how many notches there were in Rich’s spine, when he knew the number of cuts on his thin legs and sweet groin. Not when he’d licked and kissed as much of the man as he could, but hadn’t got to kiss Rich like he longed to.

“You left him,” Chris whispered then let the sheriff go. He could stand or fall all on his own. Chris turned away and jogged to the rig. “Hey, honey, you’re looking all rumply and hot.” He didn’t have to fake a smile, not with the way he got all tingly just looking at Rich. Rich’s slow smile was genuine as well, and so sweet it made Chris ache to touch him. “I’m coming up.” Rich scooted back as Chris climbed up and opened the door. He plopped in the driver’s seat and pulled Rich onto his lap all in one smooth move. Man, Rich has such pretty eyes. Chris could get lost in them for days, or maybe the rest of his life. Maybe his mom wasn’t so far off the mark after all. Whatever was happening between them wasn’t over, and had the potential to be so much more. Chris held Rich a little tighter and nuzzled the top of his dark silky hair.

“You don’t have to stay. I can take you home with me.” He tossed it out there and was relieved when Rich didn’t laugh at him, only looked up at him with those big eyes. “I won’t leave you here if you don’t want to be here. I mean it, Rich. If you don’t want to stay with me, I’ll take you somewhere else, or you could go on the road with me for a while, get away from everything.”

Rich shook his head and Chris tried not to let his disappointment show. It was easier than hiding the strangely sharp burst of pain that speared through his heart.

He didn’t want to be here, but maybe he needed to be. The fear of returning to the town where he’d been carved up, of seeing Laine and—something Rich could hardly bear to think about, the man Rich had casually and cruelly dismissed when he’d came to at the hospital—might be part of the problem. Maybe those were the things that were haunting him, not some dead sociopath who tormented him just as he had in life. Rich hadn’t wanted to come here, but he felt like, now he was here, he had to stay and see how it all played out.

“I have to stay, have to face it,” Rich admitted, hating the words even as he said them. “You want to blame Laine and everyone else, but I wouldn’t let them help me. I even got the psych I was seeing right after I got back to Houston tell them it was in my best interest to leave me alone. He wasn’t a very good shrink and was easy to manipulate.” And he was a total shit for working the man like a puppet.

Chris growled and glared out of the window. “They should have known better. If Laine knew you at all—”

“He didn’t,” Rich cut in. “He didn’t know I was gay, he didn’t know I knew he was gay until I told him three years after Conner was killed. Laine didn’t know me, no one did, because I only let them see the flirty, charming guy who could wind anyone around his finger, or the dedicated detective who wouldn’t take no for an answer.” He wiggled off Chris’ lap and cupped his face. “Those were parts of me, not all good parts, but only parts, and all they ever saw.” But you see me, and did it in less than a day. How did you do that?

“No one is all good, Rich. I think you’re kicking yourself for that very human part of you.” Chris nailed it, so simply it made Rich wonder why he hadn’t ever figured it out.

“You’ve gotta be close to it,” Rich murmured. His gaze dipped down to the full lips that had been wrapped around his cock hours earlier. How had he