Page 24 of Aftermath

"What the fuck happened?" He didn’t stop until he was right in front of Austin. "Why are you here?"Of all places, he wanted to add.

Reaching up, he adjusted Austin's glasses then touched the bruise forming on his jaw. The man had obviously been in a fight, but he still looked good. Damn good. Sexy, even.

Fuuuck.

"Angelo thinks I'm gay," Austin answered dumbly. It caused Cam's eyebrows to shoot up. "I wanted to go out—he said I should go to LA instead. But he mentioned this place, so…"

"And that gave you bruises," Cam said sarcastically. He took a step back and inhaled from his smoke. Being close to this man was easy, but it wasn’t right. It made Cam want more. He felt so fucking drawn to him.

"No, just…" Austin muttered something under his breath. "Some asshole wanted trouble. I let him know what I thought about it." He took a seemingly unconscious step toward Cam.

"Does he look worse?" Cam's mouth quirked up. Not for one second did he doubt Austin's strength. Yeah, he came off as a straitlaced family man, but Cam knew better.

"Damn right," Austin chuckled and touched his bottom lip. "He left a while ago."

Cam followed the movement before he looked away and cleared his throat. "So, you ended up at a gay bar by mistake, huh?" He took another pull and flicked away some ash.

Austin's eyes were intense, and there was something hidden in that gaze. Almost as if Cam was supposed to read between the lines. Then that intensity morphed into an obvious nervousness, and Austin took yet another step closer. "No." They looked down on the few inches that separated them as Austin reached for the hem of Cam's shirt. He just fidgeted with it loosely, brushing his thumb over the soft fabric. "I looked it up before I came here."

"Oh." Cam swallowed and briefly closed his eyes. He was close enough now to smell Austin, and he fought a shiver. "So, uh…" He wet his lips, his eyes flicking up to Austin's face. So close. "Why—"

He wanted to finish his fucking question about why Austin had gone to a gay bar, but Brian chose that moment to interrupt.

"My savior!" Brian dramatically clung to Cam's arm, as he reluctantly stepped away from Austin. "I'm ready to go home—oh, Austin!" He grinned, then frowned, then frowned deeper. "Do you two know each other?"

"Yeah," Cam replied, uncomfortable and irritated. He moved away from Brian. "He and I were…I mean, Austin was also one of the guys who was kidnapped."

"Oh!" Brian gasped. "That’s why you looked so familiar." He nodded sadly and touched Austin's exposed forearm. "I read about you in the papers."

"Right." Austin was uncomfortable, too. "Well, uh, I should call a cab—"

"Fuck that." Cam had a chance to see Austin; he would make the most of it. He just had to get rid of Brian first. "I'll drive you." He jerked his chin toward his car. "We'll drop off Brian first, then I can take you home."

"But…" Brian looked a bit put out. "Maybe we should take Austin home first, and then—"

Cam didn’t catch Austin's scowl that he directed at the ground.

"You live five minutes away from here." Cam grew impatient and started walking to his car. "Come on." As he threw away his cigarette, he noticed that Austin wasn’t putting a lot of pressure on his left leg, and that worried him. "You okay?" He cupped Austin's elbow to support him, remembering how Psycho had injured him in the first place. If someone had made it worse inside that bar, Cam wanted to hunt that motherfucker down and rearrange his face.

"It's nothing." Austin grimaced, swallowed his pride, and allowed Cam to help him.

The ride to Brian's apartment building was pretty quiet. He didn’t look happy about sitting in the back while Austin sat in the front next to Cam, but what-the-fuck-ever. Cam had been honest from the beginning; it was just sex. Now it was over. End of story. But Cam wasn’t stupid. He could see that Austin had gotten in the way of Brian's plans. As if Cam wouldn’t say no if they'd been alone. Fucking ridiculous.

"Thanks for picking me up." Brian sighed softly as they arrived at his place. "Maybe we can meet up sometime, Cam?"

Cam just gave him a look in the rearview mirror. He didn’t wanna be a dick, but he had more important shit going on in his life.

"Fine. Be that way." Brian offered a bitchface in return, then got out of the car. "It was nice meeting you, Austin."

"You too." Austin nodded curtly. And once Cam pulled away from the sidewalk again, he shifted in his seat. "So, you're the guy who got away."

Cam side-eyed him. "What?"

"Brian came up to me in that bar—said he was trying to get over the guy he loved or something. And coupled with his description, I'm guessing it's you."

Oh,thisCam wanted to hear. "What description would that be? By the way, tell me where to drive." He didn’t know exactly where Austin lived.

"Are you tired?" Austin asked. "Jade and Riley are in Delano over the weekend, and I really don’t feel like going home."

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