Chapter 24

Shawn

D aniel was being cagey.

As much as I’d wanted to get up and follow him, giving him space was probably the best idea. He hadn’t been telling the truth in the kitchen. There was no way he’d been thinking about Aiden when I’d been basically humping his ass.

Every time I thought I had Daniel figured out, he threw another puzzle at me to solve.

His so-called friend must have really made him feel bad about himself if this was how he responded. No one should ever feel ashamed of wanting the things they crave. Sex was a normal function. Daniel trusted someone enough to confide in them about being attracted to both men and women, but they made fun of him for it. That was never okay. Yet he still called them a friend.

My thoughts broke off when the phone on the mattress next to me vibrated. Daniel must have left it behind in his rush to get away from me.

There was no name attached to the phone number, just an obscure one eight hundred number. Probably a telemarketer, but what caught my attention was the display telling me that this particular number had called more than a few times. Normally, those calls trying to sell you shit or attempting to scam you switched it up.

It was probably a dumb idea, but I picked up the phone, sliding my finger across the screen to answer it. I pressed the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“This is a collect call from the Grays Harbor County Jail. Do you wish to accept the charges?”

My heart pounded against my ribcage. This asshole was really trying to call Daniel. From the looks of it, he did it often. Hell, I knew that from my digging and finding the phone records.

Blood rushed in my ears because I knew I was playing with fire. I’d pay the damn fees, but this fucker needed to back off. “I accept.”

It took a moment, and the call connected through. “About fucking time you answered my damn calls, asshole. They’re about to stop letting me make them.”

I cleared my throat, my mouth suddenly dry with the prospect of having to talk to this douchebag.

“This—this isn’t Daniel.”

The line was quiet for a moment before a laugh filtered across it. “Well, shit. Cock sucker finally found himself someone, did he?”

I pulled the phone away from my head and stared at the device for a moment. This was supposed to be Daniel’s friend, and this was how he talked about him?

“Watch your mouth.”

“Or what? Not like you can fucking do anything to me. Not any worse than being locked up. You want to tell your little butt buddy that he needs to fucking talk to me?”

All I could see was red as my grip on the phone tightened. “Listen here—”

“No, you listen. I don’t know what the hell he’s told you, but he was mine first.”

Something in my chest squeezed. What the hell was this fucker talking about? He’d been making it very clear that he had a distaste for Daniel’s preferences.

Art let out a wicked laugh. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see him like that at all, but it doesn’t change anything. He belongs to me. That asshole wanted me first.”

I sat frozen as what he was saying washed over me.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It doesn’t? Let me spell it out for you. Daniel wants my ass. Mine. I wouldn’t give it to him, but I sure as fuck shared my girlfriend with him. Dude has seen me naked on more than one occasion, even slept with my girlfriend at the same time as me. Me in the front, him in the back. Mostly because I knew he’d like it like that.”

He was being vulgar and disgusting. “Watch it.”

“Or what? We’ve already established that you can’t do shit to me.”

I stood from the bed and walked out of the bedroom. Daniel was standing on the front porch, leaning against the railing, clouds of steam coming from his mouth with each exhale. He was going to kill me if he knew what I was doing.

“You need to leave him alone. He’s moved on. You need to as well.”

There was that cruel laughter again. “We’ll see about that. I don’t think he’s let go as much as you think he has.”

The call dropped just as Daniel looked up and saw me through the window. His brow creased, seeing me standing there. Maybe Art was right. Daniel certainly wasn’t letting me in all the way and perhaps he hadn’t completely let go. Why the hell would he hold on to someone like that?

“What are you doing?”

I shook my head, lowering the phone and holding it out to Daniel as he came through the door.

“Someone called.”

His brows pulled in further before his expression morphed to anger. Daniel’s shoulders rose and fell as his breathing picked up. “So you answered it? Why the hell would you answer a phone that wasn’t yours?”

“I didn’t think—”

“Damn right, you didn’t think.”

Daniel was across the room, yanking the phone from my hand. He didn’t move from in front of me. We stood there in some sort of awkward stare-off. The anger rolled off him in waves. I braced for the moment he hauled off and hit me again. The sad part was that I wouldn’t even blame him this time. What I’d done had been a major invasion of privacy.

“How often does he harass you like that?”

And there it was. The betrayal was clear as day in those big brown eyes of his as Daniel spun away from me. He didn’t answer me as he walked to the front door again and out on the front porch. There would be no running this time. No. We needed to talk. What was going on between him and this so-called friend wasn’t okay.

“Daniel.”

He stopped as I slammed the door behind me and ran down the steps after him into the snow. The blast of chilly air did nothing to calm me down as Daniel turned to face me again. Maybe coming out here without a damn shirt on wasn’t the best idea and the shiver that raced through me wasn’t only because of the icy breeze, but because of the cold look the other man was giving me.

“It’s none of your damn business. It’s nobody’s business.”

“He’s why you keep freaking out, right? I don’t know about you, but that sort of makes it my business. You collapsed the last time he called.”

Daniel squared his shoulders, casting a glare my way. “You have no way of knowing that’s what happened.”

“I can look at your call record. I bet you anything, there’d be a missed call from a one-eight hundred number right before it happened.”

He deflated then, his shoulders dropping. Daniel looked so lost as he wrapped his arms around himself and looked around the landscape. Holy fuck, it was freezing, but I needed him to understand that I wanted to be there for him with this.

“I never...” he swallowed before he continued. “I never asked you to care. Please, just leave this one alone.”

Before my balls could freeze off, I grabbed his arm and hauled his ass back inside.

Once the door was closed behind us, I caged him in against it, one arm resting on either side of his head. Daniel blinked at me as I continued to stare at him, thinking of the right words to say.

“Here’s the thing. The second you opened up to me and told me what that asshole did, that he made you feel like an idiot for being yourself? I became involved. I care, even if you don’t want me to.”

Daniel huffed and rolled his eyes. Nope. Not having any of that. I grabbed his chin and forced him to look at me.

“Don’t you get it? The second you crawled into my bed, you became mine. I take care of what’s mine.”

Something akin to heat flashed behind Daniel’s irises, and my mouth crashed down on his. He whimpered at the contact, but his arms wound around my waist, infusing me with warmth on my still cool skin.

His mouth opened for my tongue, and we kissed there against the door until we were breathless. He hooked his leg over my hip and ground the hard ridge of his cock against my thigh, dragging a delicious groan from deep in his chest. I soaked up the taste of his pleasure.

Daniel’s eyes were glassy, pupils blown wide with lust when we parted. His lips were puffy and saliva slick, but it didn’t stop him from swiping his tongue across them to collect the moisture. He would be my complete undoing. Temptation at its finest.

“Fuck me.”

The words filled the void around us, and I continued to stare at the man panting in front of me. He rolled his hips again to drive home his point. “You say I’m yours, then fucking prove it. Own me. Fuck me within an inch of my sanity. Do it, Shawn. I want it to be you.”