Page 28 of Sapphire Spring

“You’re drunk.” Naser had meant it as a whisper.Insteadthe words came out at full voice.

As if he’d been struck by a blow he could vaguely feel,Mason closed his eyes, then he rested his forehead against Naser’s.

“I’m always drunk.” He rolled sideways off Naser’s body, butone giant arm stayed sprawled across Naser’s chest.

Silence fell, silence except for the rush of the surfoutside and the occasional clink of the windblown drapes knocking against theirsteel curtain rod. For a while, Naser just lay there. He was sober as a stone,but his head was spinning. His world, his history, his sense of who he had beenand where he’d come from, had been tilted on its axis. MasonWortherhad just admitted he’d fantasized about having sexwith him even as he bullied him. Part of him had suspected that might be true,and another part of him thought it was a tired cliché queer men used to consolethemselves about past abuse.

It didn’t exactly warm the heart, but it did melt someassumptions about Naser’s history.

And MasonWorther’s.

A thing that was not supposed to happen had happened, andnow there was no telling what would happen next. And Naser could still tastethat thing on his lips and feel the aftereffect of it like a velvet coating onhis skin.

And across his chest.

He studied Mason’s hand and fought an insane urge to bringthe man’s fingers to his lips and kiss them and won. When he turned his head,Mason’s face was close to his, full and insanely kissable lips puffed against apillowcase that probably cost more than Naser’s car note. His breaths were slowand even.

Naser slid out from under Mason’s arm.

In the kitchen, he took the phone off the counter, carriedit up to Mason’s bedroom, and set it on the nightstand. The man still hadn’tmoved an inch. This time, Naser backed slowly away from the bed, unable to takehis eyes off the fallen giant. But his feet felt heavy. Was he passing up adeliriously hot opportunity? To spend the night snuggled up against MasonWorther’sbig, hard body? Yes. Because MasonWortherwas both wasted and possibly sexually confused.Which meant the morning after would be a nightmare for them both. For Naser, itcould be downright dangerous.

Downstairs, he studied theFerarri’sdistant shadow and decided that sports car extraction wasn’t part of theservices he’d offered that evening. When he turned to go, an animalistic growlswept in through the open back door—some ludicrous sports car, he was sure, andit had pulled to a stop outside the garage.

A door popped shut, and footsteps scraped concrete.

“Whosefuckin’ Volvo is that?”

He knew that voice. Had heard it croon “Praaaaaaaaancer”more times than he could count.

Chadwick Brody.

A white-hot bolt of terror shot up his spine.

Naser started sweating from places he’d never sweated frombefore.

A full-body stress reaction of the kind he hadn’texperienced since high school.

Memories pelted him. His nostrils flared with the turned-up soilsmell that had always blanketed Laguna Mesa’s football field. The dirt underthe bleachers scraped his knees again as shame clogged his throat. Running intoMason that night had been disturbing. Running into Chadwick Brody was out ofthefucking question, a minefield of memories he’dtried to keep buried for years.

Naser panicked. His planned method of escape was about to beChadwick’s entry point.

Heart racing, he hurried for the front door. Heard morevoices outside, mostly female, clearly waiting for Chadwick’s return. They’dspot him if he left.

As he heard Chadwick’s footsteps enter the kitchen, hegrabbed for a door handle nearby, ducked inside, and drew the door shut,holding the handle in place even as his palm greased it with sweat. The upper partof the door was slatted, but their angle was so sharp there was no seeingthrough them. The slats were probably meant for ventilation. Sensing space inthe shadows behind him, he figured he’d stepped into the laundry room.

Chadwick’s footsteps rattled the stairs to the second floor,accompanied by the high-heel clacks of his date. “Mason, you beautiful blondson of abitch! Get up! This is Carmen, and she wantsto be your firstbestestfriend. Naked.”

SoMasonWortherwas still close with this bastard? Then MasonWortherwas still trash.

He could hear Chadwick’s shouts as he tried and failed to rouseMason, followed by the complaints of Chadwick’s female companion that the guywasn’t waking up and they should leave.

“He’s breathing though, right?” Chadwick posed the questionas if they were checking on a dog. “Yeah, he’s still breathing.Mason,quitbeing afucking pussyand get up!”

A few more attempts, each met with silence. After acomplaint from the woman Naser couldn’t make out, Chadwick unleashed a streamof profanity. Her abrupt silence suggested he’d directed it at her.

The stairs rattled again. Heart in his throat, he held on tothe door handle as if the door would come free of its hinges thesecondhe let go.

He half expected Chadwick to pause in the foyer, scentingNaser like a dog.

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