Nate was exceedingly happy that Joe wasn’t angry with him. At least he didn’t seem angry, but Nate had to be sure. “You’re not angry?”
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Joe, still chuckling, turned off the light and lay back down on the bed, pulling Nate into his arms as he pulled the covers back up over both of them. He gently patted Nate on the shoulder.
“No, I’m not angry. But I would like you to answer some questions for me if you’re willing to.”
“I’ll answer what I can.”
“Is your name really Nate?”
“Nathan James Summers.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-three. And no, I wasn’t lying when I told your mother that I don’t remember where I am from. I’ve moved around so much that I just don’t remember.”
“Fair enough. Can you tell me why you’ve moved around so much?” Joe asked.
Nate was silent for a moment as he tried to think of an answer.
“I’d rather not. It’s nothing illegal or anything. I’m not a criminal. I just…Someone wants something from me that I can’t give them, and so…”
“You move around a lot.” It was a statement, not a question. Nate nodded anyway. “Can you answer this? Is this person trying to hurt you?”
“Sort of…” Nate murmured quietly.
“Does it have anything to do with your not liking people to touch you?” he asked cautiously.
“You know about that?” Nate shuddered.
“I know you don’t like people to touch you. It seems to hurt you physically when they do,” Joe said.
Nate nodded slowly. He wasn’t sure how much he should tell Joe.
Once he told them, people tended to treat him like a leper and not want to be near him, or a circus freak to be laughed at and ridiculed.
He was afraid of Joe’s reaction. Nate didn’t know if he could handle Joe treating him that way. He just couldn’t think of any other
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explanation to give him. It wasn’t like he had some type of skin allergy or anything.
Knowing that he might as well get it out of the way now, before he became more attached to Joe than he already was, Nate took a deep breath and stated simply, “I’m a sempath.”
“A what?”
“A sempath…a sensitive emotion empath. I can read people’s emotions, their feelings, by touching them or them touching me.
That’s why it hurts. Most people don’t know how to filter their emotions, so when they touch me, I get all of it.”
Joe was so still, so quiet, that Nate was afraid that he had horrified him. He started to move out of Joe’s arms to the side of the bed, afraid of Joe for the first time since he had laid eyes on him. How would he react?
“Does it hurt when I touch you?” Joe asked quietly.
Nate’s eyes swung up to Joe’s curious ones. He was surprised by the question. No one had ever asked him that. They just always assumed that he could read them and tried to stay away from him, or they wanted to exploit him like the Teacher did.
“No. It doesn’t hurt when you touch me. I can barely even read you. Your emotions are…muted.”
“Muted?”
“Most people have their emotions just under the surface. When they touch me, I feel all of those emotions…sadness, happiness, apathy…You name it, I feel it. And most times, it hurts. But you…you’re muted. I can feel that your emotions are there, but it’s like you can bury them deeper. So, no, it doesn’t hurt when you touch me.”
Joe pulled Nate back down into his arms. “I’m glad. I don’t think I could live with myself if I hurt you.”
“You don’t,” Nate assured him. “In fact, you seem to be some kind of filter.”
“Filter? What do you mean?”
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“Remember when the nurse was working on me in the hospital?
She was all business, but her emotions were in turmoil. She was very upset, sad, depressed. It hurt a lot. But then you put your hand on my arm, and the pain went away. I could still feel her emotions, but it no longer hurt.”
“Really?” Joe asked, looking down into Nate’s face. “Cool.”
“Yeah,” Nate replied as he laid his head down on Joe’s shoulder.
“But you can read my emotions, even if it doesn’t hurt?”
“Ye-yes,” Nate answered tentatively. “But I have to concentrate to do it.”
“What am I feeling right now?”
Nate closed his eyes sadly. Well, that answered one question for him. Joe wasn’t going to treat him like he had some sort of disease and try to stay away from him. He was going to treat him like a circus freak who could do tricks.
He had hoped so much that Joe would treat him like he was normal, but he guessed that that had been too much to ask. He would never be normal. He was born with this…this thing inside of him. He would probably have it until the day he died, a day that seemed to be better-looking each moment.
“Nate? Baby? Are you okay?” Joe asked, sounding concerned when Nate didn’t immediately answer his question. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“No, it’s okay. Sometimes I have to concentrate to separate the different emotions. Just give me a minute.”
“Nate…” Joe began, only to stop when Nate placed his hand on his chest over his heart.
“Shh, you need to be quiet,” Nate whispered.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on reading Joe’s emotions.
He could feel his hands heat up where they touched Joe’s skin, wondering if Joe felt the same heat. Nate suddenly inhaled. His eyes popped open to look up at Joe in surprise, sudden heat filling his eyes.
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“Joe,” he whispered. It had been hard to reach Joe’s emotions and sort them out, harder than he had ever encountered before.
When he finally did, Nate was filled with rolling hot lust and desire. Joe’s emotions were practically on fire, and Nate wanted nothing more than to climb inside of Joe and be warmed by that fire.
He felt Joe gently cup his face and look down into his eyes. “What am I feeling, baby?”
“You…you want me?” Nate asked breathlessly, as if he couldn’t believe the emotions he was getting from Joe.
“Oh yeah,” Joe whispered back.
Nate could see all that Joe was feeling in his eyes. He was aroused and wanting but apprehensive at the same time. “Does that bother you?”
“Even knowing…even knowing what I am? You still want me?”
Nate’s voice was filled with disbelief and uncertainty.
“Yes.” One word, one simple word. How could one simple word fill Nate with such joy and happiness and scare him out of his mind at the same time? Would Joe still feel the same if he knew everything?
“Joe…I haven’t told you everything. How can you feel this way?
You don’t even know me. I could be some horrible person or an axe murderer for all you know.”
“Are you?” Joe asked with a small smirk.
“Am I what?” Nate was so caught up in his thoughts he lost track of the conversation.
“Are you an axe murderer?”
“No! Of course not!” Nate exclaimed, sitting up on his knees and facing Joe. Joe just scooted back to lean against the headboard, chuckling at the outraged look on Nate’s face.
“Well, see, not a problem then.”
“But…but…I haven’t told you…You don’t know…” Nate stammered.
Joe grabbed his hands. “Nate, I don’t care. Do you understand? I don’t care. Even if you were an axe murderer, I wouldn’t care. I’d
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insist on some serious therapy, but other than that, unless you tell me you don’t want me, the rest doesn’t matter to me.”
Nate could tell that Joe was telling him the truth. He could feel it.
“But don’t you want to know…”
“Come here, baby.” Joe held his arms out to Nate, careful to keep the sheet pulled up to cover his naked groin.
Nate slowly crawled over to lean against Joe. He let out a small yelp of surprise when Joe lifted him up to straddle his thighs, pulling his face down to his. His legs slid down to rest on the mattress on each side of Joe’s warm body.
Joe took Nate’s face in his hands. “I just need to know one thing from you. Do you want me? Do you feel anything for me at all?”
“Yeesss,” Nate moaned out, his eyes falling closed. “But there’s so much you don’t know.”
“That’s the only thing I need to know. You will tell me the rest when you’re ready. I know this is sudden, but I felt a connection to you the minute I saw you. It’s only getting stronger the more I’m with you. I’m not one to sit around and wait for things to happen. If I see something I want, I’m going to go after it. And I want you!”
Joe leaned up and took Nate’s lips with his, his tongue fighting its way in, demanding entrance in a way that Nate was helpless to resist.
Nate opened his mouth allowing Joe in. He explored with his tongue, feeling every inch of Nate’s mouth.
He felt Joe’s hands moved down his face, tracing across his naked shoulders and back to grab his hips. Nate groaned when Joe pressed their erections together. Nate’s emotions were in overdrive. He could feel the touch of Joe’s hands on his hips, his knees at his back, the hard cock underneath him grinding against his. The desire and caring coming off of Joe swirled around him in one big red haze. It was addictive. He wanted more. Burying his hands in Joe’s long black hair, he pressed their chests together, moving his hips against Joe’s.
“Joe,” Nate whispered desperately against his lips. He was frantic.
He could feel something coming, something building in Joe and
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himself, but he didn’t know what it was. It frightened him, this unknown feeling.
“It’s okay, baby. Let it happen. I’ll be here to catch you.” Joe watched in awe as Nate’s eyes glazed over, his head falling back as he cried out. Reaching between them, Joe shoved his hand under the waistband of Nate’s pajamas, grabbing his throbbing cock just as he exploded, filling Joe’s hand with thick ropes of white cum.
* * * *
The sound and smell of Nate finding his pleasure tipped Joe over the edge, and he let out his own roar, drenching the sheet between their bodies. His orgasm seemed to go on and on as he was filled with a red haze, Nate at the center.
As Joe lay there, his breathing rapid and desperate, he felt Nate’s hands settled on his chest, right over his heart, the heat in them filling him, overpowering him with emotions. He grabbed Nate’s hips again, holding on for dear life as his orgasm seemed to ebb, then flair to life again, milking him for every last drop.
“Nathan!” he cried out frantically as heat filled every inch of his body, taking him over until he could swear he was surrounded by a warm glow. When he thought about it later, he couldn’t tell what made him do it, but Joe reached up and placed his own hands on Nate’s chest, mirroring Nate’s.
His eyes widened as the red haze surrounding him began enveloping Nate until they were wrapped together, just the two of them, separated from the outside world. He could feel Nate’s heartbeat like it was his own.
Nate’s eyes drilled into his, glowing in the soft light. Every breath that Joe let out, Nate took in. Every breath he took in came from Nate.
Their hearts beat together, their bodies still in the soft light from the nightstand.
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Joe could read Nate’s every emotion in his eyes…the desperate need to be wanted, possessed, the longing to have Joe as his own, the physical desire Nate felt, the love for Joe that was building in his heart, even the fear that he wouldn’t be wanted in the end.
He knew instinctively that his own emotions were shining in his eyes for Nate to see…the longing to have Nate as his own, the necessity to protect Nate from harm, the need to possess Nate, the surprising love he felt for a man who he had just met. He knew Nate could even see his fear that Nate wouldn’t want him because of his need to dominate and claim him.
Joe couldn’t tear his eyes away from Nate’s. He didn’t want to.
He wanted to drink him in, to wrap himself around Nate and never let him go, to keep the sexy little man tied to his side for all time.
He tried to convey these feelings through their locked gaze, desperately wanting Nate to understand the promise written in his heart. The slow grin spreading across Nate’s lips told him that his message had been received and gladly accepted.
Nate leaned down to place his lips against Joe’s. The red haze surrounding them seemed to fade away. Joe’s orgasm finally ended as Nate collapsed onto his chest. Joe lifted his arms and wrapped them around Nate as reality began to force its way back and his vision cleared.
“Nathan?” he murmured quietly.
“Mmmm?”
“What just happened?”
“You tell me,” Nate replied as he sank further into Joe’s embrace, burrowing in like he had been there a million times.
“Nate…”
Joe was bewildered. He glanced down at Nate when he folded his hands rested his chin on them. “Maybe you should both tell me?”
“Both?”
Huh?
“You…and what’s inside of you.” He smiled.
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Joe stared at Nate in shock. He knew? How could he know?
“Nate—”
“Joe, you can’t hide it from me anymore. I know that you’re different…that there’s more to you than meets the eye. If you need to keep your secret, I understand. I have my own. But don’t think you’re hiding it from me anymore.”
“You don’t…” Joe took a deep breath. “You may not want to know.”
“Joe, I’m a sempath. I doubt there is much you can tell me that I wouldn’t understand. And after what we just went through together, well, I think maybe I need to know.”
“I don’t want to lose you!” Joe cried out desperately.
“You won’t.”
“After this, I might,” Joe said sadly.
“Just tell me, Joe,” Nate demanded.
“I’m a shapeshifter.”
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Joe opened his eyes slowly, wincing at the morning sunshine streaming through the windows. He reached out with his hand for Nate, finding the bed beside him empty. He quickly sat up and looked around the room. No Nate.
Jumping from bed, Joe reached for his jeans. He pulled them on as he hopped down the hallway towards the guestroom. It was empty also. He ran down the hallways to the stairs. He didn’t know how he made it down the stairs without breaking his neck, but he did, following the sudden noise coming from the kitchen. He came to a sudden halt seeing Nate standing at the stove dressed in another pair of pajama pants, the bottoms rolled up so he wouldn’t trip.