Page 20 of Mutual Obsessions

“Oh no, I fear we’ve broken him,” I responded.

We pulled Ryker into our arms to keep him from hurting himself. “Shh. It’s okay, Ryker.” Stephen’s voice was soothing for the first time I’d ever heard.

Ryker pulled away when we relaxed our hold before he began screaming. “Okay? Okay? Are you out of your fucking—”

Stephen touched Ryker’s chest to calm him. “It’s going to be okay, Ryker. Neither of us want to do you harm. We want you to be ours. We’ll talk about forever another time, but we want to date you, Ryker.”

“Forever?” I wanted to strangle Stephen. “No way will we make him ours forever. We absolutely will not turn him.” Was he crazy? He knew how I felt about turning humans.

“Listen, Etienne, I’m not saying now, or maybe not for a long time, but will you ever want to be without him? He will grow older, and he may become ill. Would you stand by and forbid me from turning him if he became terminally ill? I know we both love him already. He is our mate. We just have to help him see that we want him as ours, and then we can worry about the rest.”

Stephen made some good points, but turning him? How would we share him if we turned him?

Chapter Eleven

Ryker

My eyes popped open, but I had no idea where I was. The room was opulent, with hanging tapestries covering pewter-toned walls. The bed was black lacquer, and the comforter and sheets were gunmetal-gray silk. It was impressive, but nothing hinted at my location.

I pushed the comforter and sheet off, finding I was still wearing my work clothes. I glanced around the room but found no clocks, radios, or televisions. I also noticed blackout shades on the window, and across from a plush gray velvet couch was a strange black box that— “Is that a coffin?”

Standing from the bed, I slowly approached the box, knocking on it. It was definitely made from wood and ornately decorated with silver adornments, much like the tapestries on the walls. Who the hell would have a—

“Come on. This is taking it a bit too far. Let me out!” I shouted. Maybe that crap I’d walked in on was a bad dream, or maybe I was in a coma from a fall? I just wanted it over. “Anyone?”

There was a knock, but I didn’t see a door anywhere. “Come in?”

A wall panel opened, and Etienne Tremblay came inside with a tray. “You fainted, so we put you in here. I thought perhaps you needed a snack, though Stephen suggested perhaps something else would work better, but I put my foot down.”

“Where is Stephen?” I had to have dreamed all that shit, right?

“I’m here.” The voice changed, but Etienne looked the same. Was this the other personality?

“I can’t do this. I’m going to leave, and I want you to stay as far away from me as possible before I call the police and report you as a stalker. You need help.”

I slid on my shoes and rushed out of that room and down the stairs as fast as possible. I didn’t even go to my car. I just ran all the way home. Once I got there, I was surprised to see Lance standing at the kitchen counter having a beer. There were moving boxes filling the living room, but I was home, and I was with someone I knew.

“You look like you saw a ghost. I thought you were standing me up. Where you wanna go?” Lance let out a huge burp before he grinned, the mannerless idiot.

“I, uh. Look, Lance. I had a really shitty day, and I just wanna go to bed. Do you really have to leave tomorrow? Maybe we can go to lunch tomorrow?”

Lance laughed. “Sure, man. No worries, but I can’t make lunch. Movers are getting here at ten, and my flight leaves at three. I’m gonna go out and see if I can find that chick from the other night. I wouldn’t mind a last bang before I head to the Pacific Northwest.”

Lance gave me a back-slapping hug, and we said goodbye. He left through the front door, and I went upstairs to my room, closing and locking the door. I kicked off my loafers and crawled into my messy bed, pulling the covers over my head in hopes of waking the next morning to find it was all one long fucking nightmare.

Bang! Bang! Bang! “Hey, Ryker! Open up, man.”

My eyes opened but I couldn’t see anything. I quickly realized the blanket was over my head, so I pushed it down, seeing it was light out. What fucking time was it?

“Who’s there?” I got up and quietly made my way to the door, realizing I’d already given myself away. I must have been suffering from some kind of shock.

“It’s me, man, Cubby. Let me in. What’s going on, Ryker?”

I hurriedly opened the door and flung my arms around my best friend’s neck. “God, I’m glad you’re here. I think I’m losing my mind, Cubby. What day is it?”

“It’s Wednesday. I went by your office, but the receptionist told me you were at meetings outside the office. What’s going on with you?”

God, finally someone with some sense. Then I remembered something. “I was told you were in Biloxi for a few days.”

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