Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
I would have found amusement in the situation if I hadn’t been so busy studying Theo’s movements as he was introduced to Walter’s beloved Lenny who stood protectively next to Walter. No doubt it wouldn’t be long before Theo learned of Walter and Lenny’s seventy-year-plus odyssey to finally be together. It was a tale I never tired of hearing.
Theo kept his distance from Lenny and Walter but once they introduced him to their pride and joy, Puddles, Theo did what most people did upon encountering the cute little white dog—he leaned down to give her a little pat as she squirmed on Walter’s lap. The smile that passed over his features was very different from the ones he’d given to the other occupants of the room. It was softer somehow.
It was real.
And I felt it like a punch to the gut.
What would it take to get him to bestow one of those beautiful smiles in my direction?
Focus, Lincoln.
I did as my inner voice said and studied Theo as he moved. I finally noticed that he seemed to be holding one arm close to his body. At one point when Puddles lurched forward and put her little paws on that arm, Theo flinched but his features remained frozen. There were no outward signs of pain, but he had no way of masking the tiny dots of perspiration on his forehead.
It took everything in me not to step forward and force Theo to show me his arm or to spread my palm over his forehead to see if his skin was hot to the touch. A foreign sensation stole over me as I watched Theo accompany Walter and Lenny as well as Riley, the teenager Ford and Cam had taken in when he’d been disowned by his family, into the house.
I thought it was fear at first—that I was afraid for the young man and whatever pains ailed him—but it didn’t take long for me to realize that wasn’t it. I knew fear. It had followed me for years on the battlefield as I’d fought for my country, and it still followed me as I tried to outrun my sins.
This wasn’t fear.
It was something that came on the heels of fear… something I hadn’t felt in a really long time. Something I’d hoped to never feel again.
Helplessness.
“He seemed good, right?” I heard Ford murmur softly to Cam.
I didn’t hear what Cam said in response but from the way Ford leaned into him as I stepped away to give the men more privacy, I knew that Ford was on the same page about his best friend as I was.
Theo wasn’t good.
Not even close to it.
They’d put him in the room across from mine.
He was only a dozen feet away.
Completely within my reach.
I sighed as I forced myself to turn over on my bed so I was facing the windows instead of my closed door. Theo had been in the house for less than six hours and yet he was all I could think about. I hadn’t even seen him since he’d arrived but that hadn’t mattered to my dick. All it took was the memory of him saying my name to send my body into overdrive. I’d already jacked off twice in the bathroom—the bathroom that I was now sharing with the object of my lust—but it hadn’t taken the edge off.
Keeping busy with my charge hadn’t done it, either. Walter was the kind of patient you had to keep your eyes on at all times, but not because of his medical issues. No, the man was notorious for the pranks he played on me. It had started from the second I’d accepted the job as his live-in nurse. The old man had even roped Riley into helping him. I’d assumed it was Walter’s attempt to drive me away but as cranky and cantankerous as he behaved, he was actually a pretty good patient. It helped that Lenny had come back into his life after more than fifty years apart. Walter might not have cared as much about his health before the love of his life had been returned to him but he sure as shit did now.
Normally I was on point when it came to dealing with Walter, but I hadn’t been in the right headspace all day. Thankfully, Walter hadn’t called me out on it and I fortunately hadn’t made any mistakes when it had come to his medications and other treatments, but I couldn’t let that kind of inattention happen ever again.
Which meant I needed to get control of whatever the hell was going on with my attraction to Theo.
At thirty-two, I was well-versed when it came to the intricacies of casual sex versus relationships. I tended toward the former since the latter hadn’t ever been something that had worked out for me. The few relationships I had been in had been nothing short of disastrous, so I usually got my needs met at one of the very few gay bars in the surrounding towns. Northern Minnesota wasn’t exactly teeming with openly gay men, so it was slim pickings, and I’d started to let more and more time go between trips that resulted in nothing more than sating my body for a few minutes.