White hot fire flared in Sirus’s eyes, and Grey knew he had misread his opponent.
A fatal mistake.
Sirus took in the arrogance surrounding Greyson Cole like a full-body cloak and wanted to punch the bastard.
“You fucking smug suit,” he said, his voice whisper soft, but deadly. He fumed inside and had no idea how he managed to keep his outward appearance so still and calm.
“You set your sister up with your best friend for a week in your cabin, and you automatically think she’s gonna turn around and do the same thing to you?” Awareness flared in Grey’s eyes, and Sirus chalked up one point for the home team. “That’s right, Kelsie is my friend, and she did tell me how she and John ended up together. And while
she
might want to return the favor one day, what in the hell makes you think for one second I would agree to do it? I never even saw your face before yesterday afternoon.
Maybe you go around fucking everything with a tight ass that likes cock, but that isn’t me.” Sirus let his gaze drop and linger over the fine lines of Grey’s body that no amount of winter clothing could hide, and he cursed under his breath at the waste of such a thing of perfection attached to such an asshole of a person. “I actually like to know the person I’m screwing, and I like to think they
don’t
,” his focus came back up and locked right on Grey’s eyes, “believe I’m a liar when we’re doing it.”
Grey shoved into Sirus, and suddenly they were toe-to-toe, circling and pushing into each other’s space. Grey’s hazel eyes darkened to almost green, and an arrogant smile twisted his hard lips. “You flatter yourself, Wilder, if you think I would ever bend over for you.”
Sirus snorted right in Grey’s face. “You think I’m insulted by that statement,
Cole
?
All I have to do is look at you to know you wouldn’t spread yourself open for anybody.”
God, Sirus fought the urge to shove Grey onto the floor and penetrate his ass, just to prove how much the man would love a fucking between them. Sirus’s cock stirred to do just that, but he ignored it for the purely physical response it was. “Don’t pretend your refusal has anything to do with me.”
“I’m not pretending one goddamn thing.” Grey snarled and pushed, as if Sirus had just accused him of murder. “You’re the one who has water,” he reached back, opened the spray, and waved his arm across the basin in a sarcastic sweeping gesture, “when you told me yesterday that you didn’t.”
“And in my house,” Sirus spoke each world very deliberately, “I still don’t.” He shoved Grey’s arm aside and shut off the water. A rich bastard like Grey might not care, but Sirus didn’t waste money just to prove a point. Curling his hands into tight fists, he bared his teeth right back at Grey. “You want to go take a shit or a shower in my bathroom and find out?” He grabbed Grey’s arm and hauled him out of his workspace toward the cabin. “The water that runs in the shed doesn’t have anything to do with the pipes in my cabin, so yeah, I can have water down there and still not have it in my home.”
Grey struggled against Sirus’s rough hold, but Sirus couldn’t stop walking or make his hand release the hard, toned muscles that strained under his digging fingers.
“Which attack from you should I defend next, huh?” Sirus threw the words out over his shoulder. “That I knew you hadn’t taken a vacation in a long time? Guess what, asshole? I already told you that your sister and I are friends. She loves you so she talks about you, and that’s how I knew. There is no vast conspiracy to get me into your cabin and your bed, so get the hell over yourself. You want to be alone, then be alone. Nobody gives a shit.”
Grey yanked his arm out of Sirus’s grasp with a surprising burst of strength, growling as he did it. He spun Sirus around and jammed him into the cabin wall with a palm pressed flat against his chest. His fingers curled and dug into Sirus’s pecs, and his face seemed to become a creation of all hard lines and angles, with mossy coldness in his eyes, and lips that thinned down to little more than a slash. “You don’t know anything about my life, or why I’m alone.” Grey flinched as he spoke those words; Sirus saw it. He watched as the man shook off the tell and regrouped. “But don’t you dare say nobody gives a shit about me. Kelsie cares. John cares. I have people.” His chest heaved, and his voice cracked. “I do.”
Sirus stared at the man before him, at a hard shell straining on all four corners, struggling to contain whatever volatile emotions lived inside him. Sirus’s chest squeezed and he slumped against the wall at his back, all the strung-tight tension melting right out of him. “Okay,” he said softly, uncertain about speaking loudly in Grey’s presence right now. “I believe you. I apologize. You implied I was a liar and it pissed me off. I retaliated. You can call me a lot of harsh names, and some of them will even be true, but I’m not a liar, and I won’t just stand quietly when someone implies that I am.”
Grey let go of his hold on Sirus and shoved his hands into his pockets. “And maybe it just seemed like too many coincidences, so I put pieces together and drew a conclusion that wasn’t fair.” Puffs of clouds swirled in front of Grey’s face, proving just how hot the man was inside, when matched against the frigid air outside “But you have to understand I came up to my cabin to get away from everybody and everything, and found an almost naked man in my living room. Within less than twenty-four hours, I find out he’s gay too.
I wouldn’t put it past my sister to think it very clever to set me up in the same way I helped John do with her. If you really do know her as well as you say you do then you know that’s true.”
Sirus thought about tattooed, pink-haired, fireball Kelsie, and chuckled. “Yeah, I suppose you would think that.”
Rocking back on the heels of thick-soled boots, Grey’s gaze drifted to the right, to across the lake. “Pair that with the fact that you were gone this morning when I woke up, and didn’t return once all day, and I wasn’t sure what to think. I came here to apologize for running you off, only to find you do have some water running, and I began to question—”
“Wait.” Sirus reached out and touched Grey’s forearm, drawing the man’s attention back to the two of them. “Run me off?” His brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?
I probably lost track of time, but I really don’t have water. I was—am—coming back.”
Grey pointed in the direction of his cabin, confusion mapping his face. “But there’s nothing of yours left at my place.”
“Yeah, I know.” Sirus bit his cheek, determined not to laugh. He somehow didn’t think Greyson Cole had a very big sense of humor about himself or liked to admit he had jumped to
very
wrong conclusions—so
very
quickly. He seemed more well thought out than that. “I’ve been at your place for three days already. I brought my dirty stuff home and traded it for clean. My shaving kit is still there.”
“I guess I didn’t see that.” Shifting his stance again, Grey took his hands out of his pockets, crossed his arms against his chest, and looked Sirus straight in the eyes. “Look, I figured when you saw me watching you jerk off, and then were gone all day, that I’d freaked you out and you ran. I came here with the intent to apologize, but then you so casually knew I hadn’t taken a vacation in a long time, and you had the water in the shed, and my plan went to shit. So I apologize for that too, on top of pulling my dick out while watching you masturbate. That was what I really came over here to say. When I heard you this morning and saw your door wasn’t entirely closed, I should have just walked away.”
Sirus wasn’t so sure he wished the same. He had gotten ten times harder this morning when he realized he had an audience. That
Grey
was his audience. “I wondered if you would admit you got off watching me, or would act like it never happened.”
“Hey,” Grey dropped his arms and moved in on Sirus again, “I know I’m an asshole sometimes, but I’m not a liar. I came here wanting to make my behavior right, and to tell you that you can use the extra bedroom for as long as you need it. Anything beyond that, and I’m not interested. You might have one fucking insane body,” Grey leaned in and inhaled, but abruptly stepped back, “but I am not in the market for a partner. Not right now. Not ever. I just want to make that clear.”
Sirus conjured the crushing pain that consumed him at the end of his relationship with Paul, and thought about the permanent evidence inked into his chest he still bore as a result of his blindness. The hard-on threatening to emerge right this moment disappeared. “Then we’re on the same page.” Fuck, why couldn’t he be one of those one-night-stand kind of guys? “That makes everything a whole lot easier.”
“Excellent.” Grey pursed his lips and nodded. “Then I’ll see you back at the cabin in a bit.” He looked up at the sky as he started back-walking toward the lake. “It’s getting dark fast. Feels like rain is coming too. You might not want to wait much longer.”
A shiver rolled through Sirus, and he suddenly realized he stood outside in an unbuttoned flannel shirt. “I won’t.” He wrapped the two halves of material around his middle. “See you in a while.”
“Okay.” Grey stopped and turned back around. More than half in shadows, Sirus could only see one eye and sharp cheek, and the back edge of Grey’s jaw line. “One more thing,” Grey added.
What now?
“Go ahead.”
His jaw ticked visibly, and when Grey spoke, his voice was full of grit. “You’re an amazingly talented artist, and I’d buy your work for my home any day of the week.” Grey looked down and shrugged. “Just wanted to say that. ’Night.”
Sirus stood locked in place, watching as Grey climbed back in his boat and sped away across the water. A tremble rocked through Sirus again. This time, Sirus knew it didn’t have anything to do with the cold.
Greyson Cole.
The man sat on the couch with his laptop in hand, an external battery allowing him to go right on working without a pause. The fire and a half-dozen kerosene lanterns cast the entire living room in a soft glow, cast
Grey
in a soft glow, and Sirus couldn’t keep his cock down to save his life. He stood by the window, forced himself to watch the rainstorm putting on a show outside, and tried to ignore the silhouette of Grey he could see out of the corner of his eye.
Fuck, though, the guy was so damn sexy, and Sirus hadn’t been with a man in over two years. He’d done a lot of yanking on his dick during that time, and he had a handful of toys for when he craved feeling something inside him. Playing with himself satisfied the physical need for release, but it didn’t stop the craving for companionship … or for something more. Sirus had learned how to cope with the wanting, and he even understood it had its place. He also knew he had a tendency to pick men who would not stand up and be with him out in the open. After his last break-up, he swore he would never again pursue someone who wouldn’t be out and equal with him. Sirus had a damn good feeling that included Greyson Cole.
Sirus was an adult, and he knew how to control his physical needs and desires. As attractive as Grey was, Sirus could easily share a cabin with him and not be overly tempted. That was, until Grey had to go let that slip of vulnerability show through earlier today and mess with Sirus’s head. How could Sirus have complete disdain for someone so clearly alone that he almost attacked in his need to prove he had people who cared about him? And beyond that, to stop himself and compliment Sirus’s art, when he so clearly wanted to get the hell off Sirus’s side of the lake, burrowed its way under Sirus’s skin and wouldn’t let him go.
His attention strayed Grey’s way again. He latched his gaze onto the solid frame of the man, watching Grey as he focused so intensely on whatever project he had open on his laptop. Grey had his feet kicked up on the coffee table, his legs stretched out, covered in dark denim, his feet bare. The man looked sexy when he worked. Sirus rubbed one of his own bare feet against the other, his toes curling at the curious intimacy of them both, together, without shoes and socks. It made Sirus think he had every right to walk over to Grey, extricate the laptop from his hands, and sink into a deep, distracting kiss. He would settle in on Grey’s lap, straddle him, lean in close, and rub his ass against Grey’s dick.
Sirus would tease the hard ridge of flesh until they tore each other’s jeans down and, with a cry, Sirus impaled himself on Grey’s cock. He bit down a moan, almost able to feel the claiming right where he stood.
Stop it, goddamnit!
Snapping out of his fantasy, Sirus’s heart slammed with fear as he looked for awareness in Grey. Grey went on, unaware, typing away on his keyboard, and Sirus slipped again, immediately imagining the damage those fingers could do in his ass.
Fuck
. Sirus’s channel clenched, begging for attention, for a complete filling. His gaze drifted Grey’s way again, and he took a step forward, even as he knew this guy was so, so wrong for him. A picture of Paul flashed before Sirus’s eyes right then and stopped him dead in his tracks. Sandy blond hair and blue eyes seemed to look right into Sirus’s soul, suffocating him, forcing him to relive the last time he had taken a chance on someone that deep down he knew wasn’t right for him. Still, as Sirus stood there and experienced the brutal break-up again, his body ached for a man and he took another step closer to Grey.
No!
That scream of denial woke Sirus up, resonating in his head. He turned, rushing to the door.
I
have to get out of this place
.
Now.
Sirus threw open the door and a blast of wind and rain soaked his front before he took one step outside. He forged into the frigid display of nature, letting the cold wash over him and cool his insides. Sirus made it halfway down the steps, almost to freedom, when a ruthless grip locked on his arm and jerked him into the step railing.
Sirus looked up into the rage of Grey’s face.