Don't Read in the Closet: Volume Four (124 page)

block letters. The hunger, the ache. Because he wanted it, too. Had

wanted it since that first, truly exceptional fuck, and more every

damned time he’d seen Rio, smelled him, felt the brush of that hard,

slender body passing by on the dance floor.

He didn’t answer, couldn’t force out the words, but he didn’t have

to. The hand Rio’d knotted in his shirt twisted the fabric tighter, so it

was squeezing Tim’s lungs. Or maybe he couldn’t breathe because

Rio was leaning in, in, in, until his face filled Tim’s vision, bleached,

spiky hair washed with the stained glass lights.

“Say yes.” The words vibrated against Tim’s lips, vibrated

through his body stronger than the music, stronger than his own

heartbeat. It was everything he wanted and had
known
he couldn’t

have. There really wasn’t any other answer.

“Yes…” The word was a sigh, breathed into Rio’s mouth. The

man’s breath hitched, drinking Tim’s answer in, sucking in his breath

and, it felt like, his very soul.

Then, Rio kissed him.

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 758

THE END

Author bio:
When not working the EDJfH (Evil Day Job from

Hell), obsessing over whether her parents are getting enough to eat,

obsessing that her kid is sexting the boyfriend, making coffee, drinking

coffee, or feeding the two cats who allow her to live with them, VJ can

be found reading or writing erotic romance – either solo as m/m

author VJ Summers, or as the shorter, more quiet half of the “Violet

Summers” writing team (the tall half is Sierra Summers). You can find

her books at Changeling, Phaze, Liquid Silver and the original

Candyland story,
Under the Influence
at Ellora’s Cave.

VJ
loves
to hear from readers – especially when they like her

stories! Email her at [email protected], and visit her blog at

vjsummersandsmut.wordpress.com.

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 759

Fae Sutherland – MORE THAN WORDS (Guy-liner/Public Sex)

Genre:
contemporary

Tags:
flowers, public sex, hot men in eyeliner,

Dear Author,

guy next door, blue-collar

This young guy is a shy

Warning:
mild assault

florist.

Words:
9,853

[PHOTO: A lithe, dark-

haired man hugs a bouquet

MORE THAN WORDS

of white lilies to his bare

by Fae Sutherland

chest, face tilted to the

flowers until one silky petal

Blurb: Painfully shy, slightly awkward

lies against his chin. The

florist Elias has daydreamed about Mateo – the

curve of his muscled arm,

and the wistful look on his

hot mechanic from the shop across the street –

face, suggest it is not

for months. When he finally gets his chance to

flowers he imagines in his

talk to him, Mateo’s response, or lack thereof,

embrace.]

is enough to have Elias vowing to never make

His dream is to build up a

such a fool of himself again, not for any guy, no

courage to ask out the sexy

mechanic who works across

matter how hot.

the street. A mechanic who

But then the flowers start arriving. Every

wears EYELINER that

drives our florist crazy. He

day, each with a special meaning, a story to tell

just doesn’t know what to

him – a secret admirer who has a way with

do! He doesn’t even know if

words even though Elias doesn’t even know

the sexy mechanic knows

who he is.

he’s alive.

Wearing this kind of t-shirt

When Elias finds himself in over his head

(below) is a bit too blatant,

late one night and Mateo comes to his rescue,

isn’t it? *grin*.

can Elias learn to stop expecting pretty words

[PHOTO: a young man

and start listening to his heart instead?

wearing a white t-shirt with

the phrase ‘I love boys in

****

Just talk to him.

Well, if you can help him to

get his HEA, you will make

So much easier said than done. Elias bit his

my florist’s summer.

lip, shifting from one foot to the other,

Thank you,

clutching his sandwich and bottled water and

Ami

trying to ignore the man standing in line in front

of him.

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 760

Also easier said than done.

It wasn’t as if Elias even knew him. He knew his name – Mateo.

Or so the patch on his coveralls said. For all Elias knew, it might not

even be right, maybe they’d belonged to the last mechanic who’d

worked at the shop across the street.

But whether the name was right or not didn’t change the fact that

Elias was standing there having an internal battle with himself over

whether or not to say hello. If he went back to his shop – conveniently

located directly across the street from Mateo’s – and Kira, his co-

worker and dearest friend, found out Elias hadn’t said anything when

given the opportunity, he was never going to live it down.

So he sucked in a nervous breath and glanced up at the back of

Mateo’s head. “Hello.”

Nothing. Elias frowned, glancing around nervously, then back at

the man in front of him. He cleared his throat, boldly reaching out to

lightly tap Mateo’s arm.
Jeez, hard as a rock.
His mouth watered.

Then Mateo turned, and Elias was pinned by a pair of black as

night eyes, fringed with thick black lashes and rimmed, god help him,

in smudged kohl black liner. Black on black on black – the man was a

walking sin and oh, Elias wanted something to confess to his priest

come Sunday mass.

Elias swallowed hard and forced his lips to smile, hoping for

casual but probably achieving something closer to nausea. “Hello.”

Heavy brows, drawn down in a frown at first, lifted slightly as if

in question. And it was right about then that Elias realized he had no

idea what to say. No conversational topic popped to mind. Of course,

his mind was more than a little muddled thanks to the erotic punch of

the man he’d been lusting after for months finally standing there

looking right at him. He was even more beautiful up close. A smudge

of oil or engine grease or something marked his cheek, heavily

shadowed with unshaven scruff, and for some reason the smudge

made Elias’s knees weak.

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 761

Then, before Elias could try to wrangle his brain into obedience

and come up with something clever to say, the cashier let out a string

of rapid Spanish and Mateo turned away to hand her his purchases.

Elias wished the ground would open up and swallow him. He was

mortified. Clearly, the man thought he was an idiot child, and why

wouldn’t he? Elias had certainly done nothing to prove the impression

wrong. He heaved a sigh as, a minute later, Mateo took his bag and

was gone, with just a single glance back at Elias. That might have

given him hope, but the frown on Mateo’s face, as if Elias might be

from some other planet or something, killed hope like a bug

underfoot.

Elias sighed again, handing over his lunch to the cashier. Well,

there went that opportunity. Five minutes later, he dropped his bag

behind the counter at
A Rose By Any Other Name
and slumped onto

the stool with a heavy sigh.

“Well, he knows I exist now. The bad news is, he thinks I’m a

freak and will probably run in the other direction if I ever dare

approach him again.”

Kira spun around from where she was refilling the orchids. “You

mean Mateo?” Her gaze flicked to the front window, then back to

Elias. “He was at the market?”

Elias rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately for me, yes.”

She darted over to the counter, leaning against the customer side

and grinning at him. “Tell me everything!”

“That’s nothing to tell. You said talk to him. ‘Just talk to him,

Elias, how hard is that?’ Well let me tell you, harder than you think!”

Elias let out another sigh and dropped his forehead to his arms folded

on the counter. “Oh god, it was a disaster.” He peeked up at his best

friend again. “I couldn’t help it. He was
looking
right at me, and he

was wearing that damn eyeliner and my brain just…poof!”

Kira made a sympathetic sound. “It couldn’t have been that bad.

Tell me everything, come on.”

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 762

So Elias did. And when he finished she had an expression on her

face that was sort of a non-verbal ‘Oh dear’. Elias nodded. “See? I

told you it was a disaster.”

Kira didn’t deny it. “Well…it’s not good, that’s for sure. But

disaster might be overstating things.”

“He just looked at me! He didn’t say anything! Trust me, disaster

is – if anything – underestimating my level of fail right now.”

“Well, you can’t just never speak to him again, Elias. That’s

silly.” Kira leaned against the counter. “I don’t know why you have

such a hard time talking to guys. You talk to girls just fine.”

“I’m not hoping girls will tear all my clothes off and – ”

Kira reached over and slapped a hand over his mouth. “That’s

enough, I get the point! I do not need to think about you having sex,

honey.”

Elias sighed as she dropped her hand. “You know, I saw this t-

shirt in the store the other day that said ‘I <3 boys in eyeliner’ and I

swear to God, I thought for a second that might be a viable option for

getting my interest across.” He lifted his brows. “Do you see what

I’ve come to? This is absurd. I’m going to die alone.”

Kira scoffed with a smile. “That’s not even possible. You are far

too lovely, inside as well as out, for that to ever happen. I know for a

fact men hit on you all the time.”

“Yes. Frat boys on spring break looking for a little Latino flavor

before they go back to their nice, homogenized lives in Bumfuck,

Oklahoma. Old men with skin like leather from too much tanning who

want a boytoy to keep in their creepy mansions.” Elias shuddered.

“No, thank you.”

Men like Mateo, though…those weren’t a dime a dozen. Oh,

Miami had more than its fair share of sizzling Cuban hotties, but there

was just something about Mateo. He was different. Quiet. Intense.

Elias wouldn’t mind if he never said a word, as long as the man used

his mouth – which was mind-numbingly sexy – for better things.

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 763

“True.” Kira wrinkled her nose. “Alright, well you shouldn’t give

up so easy on Mateo, then. He’s too gorgeous to let a little awkward

moment chase you away forever.”

“I am never doing that again.”

Kira snickered and pushed away from the counter. “We’ll see.

Tell me that again the next time he’s out there in the middle of the day

all sweaty with the tank top looking dirty and delicious.”