Leopard's Spots 2: Oscar (22 page)
But he wasn’t senseless, he was tired, hungry and anxious to get on with his work. Work was, after all, the reason he was here. Dane, too, which, it wouldn’t hurt to remind his drooling friend of. It was a huge coup, to be accepted into the Snow Leopard Conservation Program. The SLCP was the major driving force behind protecting endangered cats, and there were a lot of applicants who were rejected for the programme.
Tim elbowed Dane, earning him an evil glare. “Come on. I need a shower and so do you. And quit looking at the pretty man. The last thing either of us needs is to wind up beat to hell in some Mongolian alley or…or whatever they do to someone who pisses them off here.”
“Spoilsport,” Dane muttered, but it was just for show and Tim knew it by the way his friend turned away from the object of his admiration. “Fine. If we get absolutely desperate enough, we can beat each other off or blow each other, whatever.”
Tim stumbled over—he looked down—okay, he stumbled over air, apparently, but Dane was talking shit, pure and simple. “Why in the hell would we want to do something we already tried and decided didn’t work for us? You said yourself, the sex we had together wasn’t much of a big deal.”
Dane looked at him like he was an idiot. “It wasn’t. It was good, but I want great. Fireworks and orgasms, the kind guaranteed to leave me unconscious. But I can’t suck my own dick, and friends lend each other a hand—”
Tim waved off the rest of Dane’s sentence. “Don’t even try those skeezy lines with me. Take up yoga. I’m sure you can learn flexibility, and with a dick the size of yours, you shouldn’t have to bend too much to suck it.” Damned guy was hung like a bull. Tim had been glad Dane was strictly a bottom when they’d been together, or at least, that’s what he’d told himself.
“You’re a jerk,” Dane groused, “but yeah, I do have a great dick.”
Whereas I am just a dick
. At least sometimes he was, like when he was worn out, stressed, and in a country Tim had hoped would maybe feel like home. It didn’t. He just felt like an outsider, something he was used to in a way, except for when he was around his family. Probably to be expected, considering what he was, and the necessity to keep it secret.
Dane chattered on beside him while Tim cast occasional glances towards the stranger in what he hoped was an unobtrusive manner. He wondered what the man was doing, and if he was aware of Tim’s appreciative observation.
“I wish we could have stayed in Ulaanbaatar City for a few days. It was like an oasis in a desert. I’m telling you, the hotel clerk there wanted me. He was undressing me with his eyes.”
Tim tuned Dane out for the most part. He’d catch it if his friend said anything important, but Dane, for all his brilliant intellect, loved to babble and gossip like a star-struck teenager. Sometimes Tim wished they could have made their attempt at being partners work. Dane was his opposite in every way but intellect, when it came to personality and looks.
Tim was tall and lanky, his hair long and a dirty blond. Usually it was a tangled mess most of the time despite how often he brushed it. Tim had considered doing something to it to make it look not so boring a colour, but he just didn’t have enough vanity to deal with it.
His eyes were a dull shade of blue, in his opinion. They weren’t a vivid colour like his cousin Oscar’s. Sometimes Tim thought of himself as a washed-out version of Oscar. He always compared himself to Oscar, he supposed, since they were the only two in the family who didn’t have dark auburn hair and green or brown eyes.
He’d been teased about his features, called a girl by more than one asswipe when he’d been in school, even a couple of times in college, although once he’d hit his Masters’ degree stupid things like that had ceased happening. Dane, despite being on the short side, was bulky with muscles and had the chiselled jaw and masculine features Tim had always envied.
Kind of like the sexy stud Dane had pointed out, actually, although the stud’s masculinity seemed to be so apparent Tim thought he could almost touch it.
A shiver trailed down his spine, an imaginary icy finger. Tim stopped, his instincts kicking in. Goose bumps prickled his skin. Dane kept chatting, although now he was managing to converse in one of the Mongolian dialects, most likely Khalkha Mongol, or maybe he was speaking Turkic, Tim wasn’t sure. Languages weren’t his forte. He was damned lucky not to mangle English too badly.
His lack of language skills didn’t matter, not when he looked across the dirt roadway into a pair of eyes so dark brown they appeared black. Maybe they were, because Tim, with his enhanced shifter abilities, couldn’t detect a hint of any lighter colour in the man’s irises even though he’d removed his sunglasses.
There it was, one of the very things that made Tim have to keep himself apart. His ability to see and hear and scent things a regular human being couldn’t were parts of himself he couldn’t share with anyone other than family. It made having a lover difficult, and Tim had spent more time alone than he’d have liked.
Something about those dark eyes brought a heat to Tim’s groin, spread down to his cock and balls, arousing him terribly. He didn’t understand it, considering there was nothing encouraging in the man’s expression. Indeed, tall dark and handsome sure appeared to be angry, very, very angry. His full lips were twisted into an almost painful looking sneer, and for some reason Tim wanted to laugh at him. Or lie down and roll onto his back. Neither were wise choices.
Tim didn’t look away from TDH. He liked the acronym for the man, especially since TDH could stand for total dick head as well as tall dark and handsome, and considering the glare and the sneer, yeah, TDH worked in both respects.
What the hell was he doing, standing there in some kind of testosterone-infused visual equation of a pissing match? He didn’t have time for stupidity like this. Tim turned away and realised Dane had shut up finally and was staring at him with a knowing look.
“What?” Tim grumbled. He was not blushing. He was just hot, even if it was only about sixty degrees Fahrenheit. They’d been walking, and he wasn’t anywhere near being used to the altitude or atmosphere or travelling halfway across the world.
“He’s coming this way,” Dane said, hissing the s’s and sprinkling Tim’s forearm with spit. “Whoops. Sorry about the spontaneous spit shower. But he’s coming, seriously.”
Tim’s stomach dipped. He was surprised he didn’t hear it go splat on the ground. What was wrong with him? He grabbed Dane’s wrist. “Come on, I don’t think he appreciated us checking him out. We aren’t in a gay-friendly country, remember.” Tim sure did, and he didn’t dare to glance back, instead propelling Dane forward with a shove. “Let’s get out of here!”
Tim had never been the panicky sort, but for some reason, he felt as if he were being stalked. It was creepy, being the prey instead of the hunter. Tim didn’t care for it, yet his cock hardened and his heartbeat sped up. His pulse rushed through his veins and a weird euphoric sensation rolled over him.
Jesus Christ, I must be hallucinating! Sleep, sleep and drink lots of water and I’ll feel better.
He hoped so, anyway. Distractions and carelessness were dangerous, and being worn out could certainly make each of those more likely. Tim weaved around several people grouped by a doorway. The sound of their voices was an unfamiliar mixture of tones and tempos, yet the language they spoke was oddly musical to Tim’s ears.
But he was no less aware of the man he thought of as TDH behind them. Tim would bet every fine hair on his body was standing up and vibrating from the sensation of being watched. Tim tried to focus on hearing TDH, but there was too much noise with the group of people he’d just passed, and he wasn’t downwind, so there was no scenting his pursuer.
“Why are we running away from Mr Gorgeous again?” Dane huffed.
“Why is he chasing us?” Tim retorted. “Didn’t I just remind you about this not being the most gay-friendly place?” He lengthened his strides and wished Dane wasn’t with him. If he was alone, he’d confront TDH. Tim was, due to his shifter nature, quite stronger than the average male, and if worst came to worst, he could let his beast loose, although shifting wasn’t a speedy thing for him. And it hurt, which certainly didn’t encourage him to do it more often. It was wholly possible he could be killed mid-shift, so he’d not do it unless he absolutely had no other choice.
Tim scowled and darted a glance over his shoulder as they turned down a street leading away from their hotel.
Dane started to dig his heels in. “Hey! We need to go—”
“I know where we need to go,” Tim growled, jerking Dane’s arm and propelling him back into moving. “I don’t want TDH to figure out where we’re at.”
Dane’s laughter had a slightly hysterical tinge to it and Tim glowered at his friend. “What?”
Dane shook his head. “How many hotels do you think there are in this place? And TDH? Really? Tall dark and handsome—”
“Or total dick head,” Tim snarled. “Fuck!”
“Exactly.” Dane didn’t slow down, though. “That guy, whoever he is, looks kind of like a native, or at least more like one than we ever will. I doubt he’s gonna have to guess where we are, or who we are, or who we’re with. He probably just has to ask someone who’s seen us. Or he could watch us from gods knows where.”
Tim knew Dane was right. He and Dane stood out for their Western clothes as well as their different physical appearances. They weren’t the only people here not native to Mongolia, but they were the only ones he saw in the nearby area. If their stalker was from here, he probably had friends or knew shortcuts Tim and Dane would never find.
Added to that, the organisation they were working with had established a base camp here almost a decade ago. It wasn’t an unknown entity in Dalanzadgad. The Snow Leopard Conservation Program had been established here by Dr Marquat years ago and was still running strong.
Idiot. Dumb, narrow-sighted idiot!
Tim scolded himself some more as they turned left. Why were they even bothering? Dane was right. If Tim hadn’t been so beat, maybe he’d have realised the same things Dane had.
Right, Tim thought scathingly. He never had been any kind of brilliant, and yes, he had his PhD, but it was due more to very hard work and determination than his IQ. Tim wasn’t stupid, though. He wasn’t. He just tended to be very focused and not blessed with a lot of common sense. Book smart, he’d heard it called, but Tim didn’t even think of himself in such a manner. It’d damn near killed him getting his degrees.
Tim was pulled out of his self-chastisement when Dane nearly yanked his arm out of its socket. “Stop!”
Like he had a choice, short of dragging Dane off? Tim spun around and tried not to appear as freaked out as he was beginning to realise he felt. He didn’t see TDH anywhere.
“Yeah, I was trying to tell you, but you were in the flee-zone,” Dane huffed. “He quit following us.”
“Maybe he just got a kick out of fucking with us.” Tim didn’t see TDH but he felt him still, like a prick of fine needles over his skin. He looked until his eyes ached, straining to see a hint of the stranger. He didn’t catch even a glimpse of the man.
“What if he’s waiting at our hotel to kill us or something?” Dane whispered, his voice laced with mock-fear. “Ohhhh, maybe he is going to nab us and make us his sex-slaves!”
“Shut up, Dane.” Tim fought against a grin at his friend’s ridiculous imaginings. “Besides, I doubt being abducted would ever be fun. That’s one of those fantasies best left as—”
“No no no no,” Dane interrupted, wagging a finger at Tim. “Don’t drag reality into it! Nothing bad can happen to us in my fantasy! It’s all consensual, and everyone comes until we pass out.”
Tim snorted despite his best efforts not to. Dane didn’t need the encouragement he’d get if he knew how entertaining Tim found him. “Right. Well. Let’s head back to our room and see if we have to fend off any stalker—I mean, valiant hero.” Tim thought he did pretty good spinning his own little piece of the tale, but Dane’s burst of laughter told him otherwise.
Well, what did he expect? He’d never been the most imaginative of people, either. He didn’t have the talent for making beautiful things from his imagination like his cousin Levi did. No, what Tim did was plod along resolutely, always keeping his eye on the task at hand. Bland hair, bland eyes, bland body. Of course he had the personality to match.
No wonder he didn’t have a boyfriend. He was about as exciting as a bowl of oatmeal. Not the sugared kind either, but just the plain, mushy, beige stuff, all unflavoured and tasteless.
And whose fault is my uneventful plodding through life so far? Is it fate, destiny, the hand of some god—or is it my own fault? What do I believe?
It was a startlingly spiritual question for Tim to ask himself. He was floored by it, actually, although he was careful not to slow down or give any hint of his deep thoughts to Dane. It wouldn’t do to hand his best bud any ammunition to tease him with.
Tim couldn’t let the question go, however, and he pondered it the entire walk back to their hotel even as he kept an eye out for TDH. Tim told himself he was relieved not to see the man again, but the hot ball of disappointment in his gut called him a liar. He’d just ignore that reaction. It was a silly one to have, considering how he’d felt out there earlier—stalked, hunted, vulnerable. Like prey.
So why did it make him so horny he couldn’t draw a deep breathe?
* * * *
Tim rolled onto his belly in the darkened hotel room he shared with Dane. There was nothing he could do about his erection, not with Dane right there. Dane was a light sleeper, and Tim knew beyond a doubt he couldn’t jerk off without waking his friend. So, he was simply going to have to deal with being uncomfortable for a while.
Maybe he’d just go back to dwelling on why he had always seemed to follow the path that appeared before him in life rather than trying to discover what he wanted.
