Indulgence (246 page)

Michael was a powerful-looking man, with broad shoulders and
muscled arms. There was a vicious red band crossing his chest where the
seatbelt gripped him during the crash. It would darken with bruise tomorrow. He
eyed the dark chest hair then his gaze followed the light trail of hair down
the classic six-pack abs until it disappeared beneath the waistband of his
boxers. He wasn’t sure the jeans he’d loaned Michael would fit over his
well-developed thighs.

When he glanced back up, he saw that Michael was watching
him with what looked suspiciously like amusement in his one good eye.

Caught, Graeme said, “Sorry, I was wondering if I should
throw your jeans in the washer, I don’t think the ones I loaned you are going
to fit.”

“I’ll take a pair of shorts or sweats for the morning if you
have them. I’m a bit overdressed for sleep right now,” Michael said, a smile
tugging at his mouth.

Graeme ignored Michael’s teasing. He handed him a bag of
frozen peas from the freezer. “Put this over your eye. You should’ve let the
paramedics take a look at you, too.”

“I’m all right. It was mostly the gravel that was hard to
get out in the shower. I would take some ibuprofen if you have it and then a
quick tour of the rest of the place. I’ll get the specifics for the security
system in the morning, but I want to get a feel for what we’ll need to set up.
I like the location, nice and isolated but with plenty of clearing around the
house. Shouldn’t be hard to set up a perimeter alarm.”

He led the way around his home and watched as Michael
examined every window, checking the locks. He paused outside Elizabeth’s room,
hesitant to violate her privacy.

Michael nodded. “I know,” he whispered. We’ll just go in and
out quickly. I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t check every window, and hers
is the most important one.”

Together they walked quietly across the room, and he noted
Michael kept his eyes focused on the window, not sparing a glance for
Elizabeth. Graeme wasn’t so noble. He walked to the bed and gently pulled the
sheet up to cover her exposed shoulder and pressed a quick kiss to her temple
before they walked to the door.

“Does she know you’re in love with her?” Michael asked,
closing the door gently behind them.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Graeme’s fingers went
to his head, and he ran his hand through his hair. “We’re friends. At least, we
were friends. We’ve known each other since school. We drifted apart when she married
and I took a job up here, but I think we’re still friends. I’d do anything for
Lizzie,” Graeme said.

“Yep, you love her,” Michael said with a grin and led them
away from her door. “You should tell her. Not tomorrow maybe, what with
everything else going on, but soon. It might help her.”

“Shut the fuck up. You don’t understand. You don’t know what
you’re talking about. We’ve been friends for years. Of course I love her, just
not the way you mean. It’s complicated,” Graeme finished lamely.

Heading into his bedroom, Michael said, “Yes, I can see
that. I’m an expert at seeing what people don’t want me to see. Now unless you
want me to test my next theory, get out. I’m going to bed.” He turned his back
on the sheriff and slipped off the borrowed boxers. He took his time pulling
back the sheets before collapsing facedown onto the crisp cotton with a sigh.

He smiled to himself when Graeme finally shut the door and
walked away. That was two questions answered. Graeme did love Elizabeth, but
given the amount of time he’d stood in the doorway and stared, it was a safe
bet he liked men, too. It wasn’t the Michael swung, but he liked to know as
much as he could about the people he worked with.

Jolynn’s preliminary report indicated the sheriff was a
former Phoenix detective, before taking the job in the small town halfway to
Flagstaff. Was that why he’d left his job to come north? He knew life could be
hell for a gay man in a macho occupation. A gay man in love with another man’s
wife? Well, it wasn’t his concern unless it had something to do with keeping
Elizabeth safe and catching the bastard that had tried to kill them both.

The supplies he’d requested would be here by noon, and the
team would have the windows and perimeter alarms up before dinner. He wanted to
work fast, because Barry wouldn’t be a patient man. As far as they knew, Barry
was unaware that Graeme was the local sheriff, but all bets were off once the
news media started reporting.

Although a domestic dispute was hardly newsworthy, one
involving the head of Enwright Security would bring out the vultures. He’d
lived his life as a relative recluse as far as the press was concerned yet
hardly a month went by without a request for a personal interview. This would
set off a feeding frenzy. As if the life of a man who ran security could be
interesting to anyone.

*****

Graeme fisted his straining cock. Damn. After years of
fantasizing about her, Lizzie was here, sleeping under his roof. So why was he
in alone in his bed stroking his cock over another guy?

That fucking Michael was hot. H-O-T! The little trick in the
bedroom had been clever. It had been a test, not an invitation. In just a few
hours, Michael had figured out that Graeme loved Lizzie and yet was still
attracted to men. A man that observant would make a dangerous enemy.

He’d never told Lizzie it was his desire for men that kept
him from completely committing to her when they were younger. He’d pushed her
into another man’s arms, rather than let her know the truth of it. Now that
other man had nearly killed her.

Firmly, Graeme turned his imagination away from Michael to
Lizzie. Despite his decision to move on all those years ago, he’d never stopped
loving Lizzie. She’d been the reason his last lover had walked away. He’d said
he couldn’t compete with a memory.

His hand moved faster, eyes closed, picturing silky auburn
hair spilling over his stomach as Lizzie’s dusty pink lips wrapped around his
cock. He wanted to see her jade green eyes fill with a sleepy passion.

He cupped his balls with one hand, feeling the weight of
them draw up as his other hand moved faster. Michael showed back up in the
fantasy to lick his balls while Lizzie took him deep in her throat. Biting back
a moan, he made two more short strokes before cum spurted white hot across his
chest. He lay there panting, the vision of Michael and Lizzie together fresh in
his mind. God, now that was really hot.

He was wrenched from his fantasy by a bloodcurdling scream.

*****

It’s not real, it’s not real. Just a dream. Still, she
couldn’t stop the sobs that followed the scream that awakened her. Everything
hurt. Her ribs, her stomach, her head. Her heart. She knew she had to stop
crying or Barry would start beating on her again.

The door flew open, and a man she didn’t know burst through,
sweeping the room with a gun in his hand. She started to scream again.

“Shh, Lizzie, you’re all right. I’ve got you. You’re safe
now,” Graeme’s voice soothed, as he came in quickly behind the first man. He
climbed on the bed and stroked her hair.

“It’s clear, Graeme,” said the stranger. “I’ll get her meds
and a glass of water.” He left her alone with Graeme.

Graeme? How had he gotten here? Where was here? Everything
felt fuzzy in her head.

“Graeme, is it really you?” she asked.

“Yes, little bit,” he said, using his pet name for her.
“You’re at my place, and you’re safe.”

The stranger returned and sat on the opposite side of the
bed, holding out a glass and a pill. “Take this. You’ll feel better.”

Panic started to rise, again. “I don’t—”

“Shh, Lizzie, it’s okay. This is Michael, remember? He saved
you. We’re going to keep you safe. Take your pill. Now lie back down,
sweetheart. We’ll talk in the morning. You’re safe for tonight.”

“Oh Graeme, I really fucked everything up,” she said.

“No, honey. You said Barry beat you. That’s not your fault.
You don’t need to talk about it now, it’ll wait for morning.”

She sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees. “I need
to, need to—you should know that he wasn’t always like that. Barry’s in the
Army, you know? He gets deployed a lot. It’s been getting to him. This last
time…well, he wasn’t right when he came back from his last deployment to
Afghanistan. He’s always been jealous, but he started accusing me of cheating
on him, of not loving him. I came home from work about a month ago, excited
because Allen...my boss—”

She swallowed. “Allen promoted me to vice president in
charge of operations. It’s a big job. I work at Brooker Technologies, and the
promotion was one I’d worked hard for. Barry wanted me to turn it down, said
I’d only gotten it because I was sleeping with Allen. It was so absurd, I
laughed. Allen is…was—” she swallowed again “—was a mentor, not a lover. Not
ever.

“I should’ve recognized the danger. I shouldn’t have
laughed. Barry exploded. He hit me, screamed at me, and called me a whore,” she
said quietly.

“When I got away, I locked myself in the bedroom and packed
a bag. There was no way I was going to stay with him after that. Then I heard
him sobbing. Great wracking sobs, and I let guilt override my common sense. I went
to him, and he told me stories about Afghanistan, about the horrors he’d seen.
He promised to get help, begged my forgiveness.

“God help me, I stayed. If I’d only left that first time,
maybe nothing else would’ve happened. He seemed okay for the next little while,
quiet, but better. He said the doctor had given him meds, said he was getting
help. We still weren’t okay, I was having a hard time forgiving what he’d done
to me, but he seemed to be really trying.

“Then we had another fight, and he hit me again. I swear, it
was the last straw. I was packing to leave when he told me about the tumor. The
doctors found a brain tumor, and he was dying. He said it was causing him to
act out when he didn’t mean it. He begged me not to let him die alone.” She knew
the men would hear the bitterness in her voice now, but she needed to get it
all out. “How could I leave a dying man, right? What kind of a cruel bitch
would that make me? I stayed but I refused to stay in the same room with him
and made him promise to take me to talk to his doctors.”

“Then last week…Oh God! Allen was killed walking to lunch.
He left and never came back. The police said he was pushed in front of a bus,
but no one saw who did it. When I came home from work, I could tell Barry
already knew. He had that secret smile I hate so much.

“I tried to be smart and not let on that I suspected him. I
was scared, seriously scared he’d kill me. He knew I’d figured it out though,
and he went wild. He kicked and punched, and it was like nothing because I knew
he’d killed Allen and if I fought back, he would kill me, too.

“I just wanted it to end, wanted to wait until he was asleep
or passed out so I could get away. Instead, he knocked me out and when I woke
up I was shackled. He made me call in to work and tell them I needed a break
after Allen’s death.

“He kept me home and shackled for the past week. He acted
like everything was normal, like I wanted to be there and we were happy. If I
complained or tried to get away he beat me again. The only way to avoid his
fits was to pretend it was all business as usual. It was so bizarre, I was
tethered to the wall, and cooking him dinner like a happy little wife. Just so
he wouldn’t beat me. God!

“Tonight he was taking me to a cabin, but I don’t know
where. He told me it was the last phase of my punishment, and then we would
both be free. I’m sure he planned to kill me. I told him I had to go to the
bathroom, promised I wouldn’t leave him. He let me go, and you know the rest.”

Her eyes felt heavy. The drugs had kicked in while she’d
been talking. She lay back against her pillow and waited for the
recriminations. The men were silent for a long time.

“I don’t understand—” Graeme began, his voice quivering.

“It’ll wait until morning,” Michael interrupted. “Let her
sleep now.”

She saw their gazes meet, and she didn’t recognize the look
on Graeme’s face. Her mind couldn’t keep a hold of reality. She was sinking,
her eyes heavy, questions slipping away on a cloud. Wanted to know…so much.
Safe for now. Could sleep…safe for now. Graeme’s house. In a final moment of
consciousness, she thought that Graeme’s boyfriend was hot and they were both
nude. She would have giggled if she could have. It was the very last thought
she had before she slipped into a deep slumber.

Graeme stroked Lizzie’s hair until her breathing was deep
and even. He looked up to find Michael watching him. Their gazes locked for a
long minute, and he wished he knew what the other man was thinking.

“She should sleep through the night now,” Michael said,
finally.

“Yes,” Graeme agreed and got up from the bed. He was going
to kill Barry.

*****

“Hell of a fucking story. God, she scared the shit out of me
with that scream,” Graeme said. “Another whisky before you go back to bed?”

“Yes,” Michael replied, eyes restless. Maybe it was their
nakedness or maybe it was the same hate he felt burning through his own veins.

He’d been fully prepared to dislike Michael, both before and
after he’d found out who he was. It certainly hadn’t helped the budding
animosity when two FBI agents showed up at the scene, despite the all clear on
the possible Enwright kidnapping. Then the state police sent a lieutenant
instead of an investigative officer, and he’d had to listen to the three of
them try to outmaneuver each other trying to get close to Michael. Bunch of ass
lickers.

He’d left them to it and went to stand by the ambulance and
Lizzie. Michael had joined him a few minutes later, after telling the other
three he was putting his faith in the sheriff. As lead balloons go, that
information hadn’t gone over well. All of that plus practically blackmailing
him to bring him along hadn’t exactly boded well for friendship.