Sage's Mystery (4 page)

Good god almighty.
The man was a walking fucking billboard for eroticism
.

He moved aside as Sage walked by and disappeared into the bedroom they had slept in the night before. William wasn’t sure if he should follow, but he wasn’t about to just stand there. As Sage pointed out, they had a lot of work to get done today.

The days were growing darker earlier, so they needed to get started now. He walked to the bedroom door, seeing Sage squatting in front of his duffel bag, the towel hanging over his shoulder.

William swallowed around his dry throat, trying his best not to gawk at all the luscious skin exposed to him. If Sage caught him staring at his naked and godlike form, he’d be sporting a fat lip and most likely a broken jaw. “What do you want me to do?” he asked as
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his eyes darted around the room, refusing to settle his sights on Sage.

It was just too damn tempting.

The man stood, turning around to face William with a pair of jeans and a T-shirt clutched in one hand and a pair of socks in the other. From the one millisecond that William had looked, he hadn’t seen any underwear.

Fuck, the man went commando. That was an image William didn’t need. Not if he didn’t want to get busted looking at Sage’s groin all day.

“Go grab the box of industrial-size trash bags and the broom and dustpan. I’m going to need the debris and cobwebs cleared away so I can work. I wouldn’t mop, though. We have no hot water yet, and I’m going to be making a mess anyway.”

William nodded rapidly as Sage spoke, sneaking pound-you-into-mud glances at Sage every few seconds. He spun around, damn near breaking his neck as he ran down the steps to get away before the man caught on to what he had been doing.

“Stop running!” Sage yelled from the bedroom.

William would rather have the house fall in on him than have Sage use him as a punching bag for ogling his sun-kissed body and pronounced muscles. He hadn’t been brave enough to look at Sage’s groin.

He wasn’t suicidal, after all.

William searched through the pile of supplies as he took deep and measured breaths, trying his best to make his erection go away. He grabbed the big yellow box of trash bags and then walked over to the wall under the steps and grabbed the broom and dustpan in his other hand from where they had been resting.

William stood still, wondering if enough time had passed for Sage to get dressed and cover what William was dying to look at. The image of Sage’s squatting backside was burned into William’s memory forever.

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29

He took a deep breath to steady his nerves and then climb the steps. Relief washed over him, and a bit of disappointment, when he saw that Sage was fully dressed. “Are we starting up here?”

He was dying to run his tongue over the stubble lining of the man’s jaw. It was sexy as fuck and not helping his erection go away in the least.

“I want to get the side of the house tarped first.”

William nodded, not really hearing him as he listened with his cock. His tongue ran along his bottom lip as his eyes settled on well-honed muscles that stretched and flexed as Sage moved his arms. The T-shirt looked one size too small as it stretched around biceps that had veins running down the course of them.

“Did you hear me, slim?”

William blinked, looking up into eyes so dark, they almost looked black. “W–What?” His eyes quickly lowered to the floor as a blush crept across his face.

“I said to grab a hammer from downstairs and a box of nails.”

William sat the yellow box of trash bags and dustpan on the floor, leaned the broom against the wall, and hurried from the room. If he didn’t rein in his infatuation with Sage’s body soon, the man was going to bust him, and then bust him up.

William almost ran down the steps until he remembered Sage’s warning earlier. He took the steps slowly as he pressed the palm of his hand into his raging hard-on.

This was going to be a long day.

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Lynn Hagen

Sage hammered the nails into dry rot as he hung the tarp. He wasn’t sure how well it would hold, but it was better than leaving the rooms exposed to the elements. He rolled his shoulders, his skin tight and itchy as he hammered another nail into the wood.

Looking over his shoulder, Sage watched William bend down, picking up the debris that littered the room as Terror carried over a small piece, setting it on the floor and running to grab another.

His eyes locked onto the small patch of exposed skin between William’s shirt and the waistband of his jeans. His back was creamy smooth, pale, and perfect. Sage glanced away. He had already pushed the envelope when he had stood in front of the man this morning, exposing himself.

He felt like shit now for doing that. William trusted him, and Sage was lusting after the man like a dog in heat. Besides, William was human. He wouldn’t understand about the dark magic that flowed through Sage’s blood or the change that took over his body every full moon.

How could William accept him when he was a
vârcolac
? The human knew nothing about werewolves, or Romania, or even about choosing a mate to stop the uncontrollable shifts.

Sage wouldn’t be able to shift at will until he found someone he wanted as a mate and claimed him. Then the full moon would only be a glowing planet in the sky, not his torturer.

The problem was, he had never heard of two men mating. It was unheard of. Sage wasn’t even sure it would work. Males mated females, produced pups, and continued the population of their kind.

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31

He knew for a fact William wouldn’t be producing a damn thing for him to take back to his pack to prove he could carry on the family name.

Did he even want to prove to his father that he was a fit leader?

Not really.

Sage glanced back over at William, watching him pick up the small pieces of scrap that Terror was bringing him. He smiled at the teamwork the two were engaging in. William was a breath of fresh air, something Sage would not be inhaling.

He did have to figure out what he was going to do when the full moon rose high in the night sky in five days. He vowed to himself right there that he wouldn’t pull William into his crazy life. The man was too innocent in all of this.

He wasn’t even sure if William was gay.

No. He had to fight the attraction that was starting to form for the small man. It wouldn’t be healthy for either of them. Sage was a beast and William…well, was a beauty, if he had to compare the two.

Sage set his hammer down and crossed the room. “Let me get that.” He grabbed the oversize bag from William and carried it out of the room. He needed a moment to clear his head anyway.

In five days he was going to shift into a werewolf. What the fuck was he going to do about William? His mood was going to turn irritable and sour the closer the shift came, and he didn’t want to take it out on the man that had done nothing but try and please him.

Sage took the bag outside, placing it on the side of the house.

When he had gone to get supplies, he had also rented a Dumpster. He hoped it got there soon. It would make things easier on William if he could just chuck the bags and larger debris down a chute instead of struggling to carry them downstairs.

Why the hell did William have to be in his small deserted town?

Sage had accepted the fact that he was going to be alone on his drive down here. It sucked, but he knew he would learn to deal with it.

But now the tables had turned on him.

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Upstairs was a tempting treat that made Sage want to howl at the moon and pin the man down. He stretched his neck as he rolled his shoulders, trying his best to shake off the symptoms of his impending shift.

Like that would happen.

Sage prayed he didn’t bite the guy while in werewolf form. That would suck big-time. One bite and William would go through the change. It was a curse he wouldn’t pass on to his worst…well, maybe his worst enemy, but not William.

It wasn’t that Sage hated being a werewolf. It had its perks, but it was a rough and dangerous life, one he knew William wasn’t cut out to live.

Dust blew up in a cloud down the road, the hulking truck carrying his Dumpster heading his way. Sage took a seat on the top step, waiting for it to arrive so he could tell them where to place it.

This would make William’s day go easier, and his. Sage wouldn’t have to stop working every time William overloaded a bag. The damn bag weighed more than the human did.

Sage stood and dusted his bottom off as the truck turned into his driveway.

* * * *

William pushed the tarp aside, watching as a very large metal container was hauled to the backyard. Sage stood there talking with some guy as the stranger pushed a long lever down, the container rising high into the air. It slid from the truck, a loud thud vibrating through the air as it landed on the ground.

He spotted round, plastic orange things lying inside the Dumpster.

Sage was still talking with the guy, waving his hand up toward the second floor…and then looking directly at William.

Busted.

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33

The tarp fell from William’s fingers and settled back into place as he took a few steps back, looking around the room as his face flushed.

It was just William’s luck to find the man of his dreams in this deserted town. The guy probably wasn’t even gay. William snorted.

There was no
probably
about it. Sage was too rough, too manly to be gay.

He was glad to know there was one stable thing in his life, one thing he could count on to always be there for him. His bad luck was always there to make sure William was happy.
Not!

William glanced around quickly, his eyes settling on Terror, who was growling and yapping at a trash bag. He opened the bedroom door and gently shoved her into the hallway. “Okay, here’s the plan.

If Sage says
anything
about me watching him, I was looking for you.

Got it? I was
not
ogling him in any shape, form, or fashion. You have to back me up on this one, girl, or my new name will be toast.”

Terror sat on her haunches, yapped, and then got up and chased her tail. William groaned. He was dead meat. His head snapped up when he heard the screen doorframe squeak on its hinges.

Shit!

William ran back into the bedroom, grabbed the broom, and began to sweep the dirt around in circles. When Terror ran into the room, William devised another plan. “There you are, girl. I was looking for you,” he said loud enough for Sage to hear.

“She playing hide-and-seek again?” Sage asked as he entered the room.

“Uh, yeah. I heard the screen door bang and knew she went outside. That’s why I was looking out.”

“She grow thumbs?”

“Huh?”

“Why would she open the door when she could have just hopped through the frame?”

William took a step back. He didn’t like the irritation he heard in Sage’s voice. Had he seen through William’s ruse? Oh god, this was
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Lynn Hagen

it. Sage must have put two and two together and came up with a very gay man standing in front of him.

He was going to die.

Sage crossed the room, giving William his back as he pushed the tarp aside and hooked it on a nail. “I’m having chutes set up so all you have to do is toss the trash down to the Dumpster.”

William nodded even though Sage couldn’t see him. His voice was gentler, but William wasn’t sure that was a good sign. If Sage suspected him of lusting after the big guy, it just might be a way to lure the truth out of him and then toss William down the chute.

William watched as the chutes were set into place. He had to admit, it did make his job a lot easier. Once they were set up, William tossed a few long pieces of broken wood with fabric attached, watching them slide down into the Dumpster.

This was kind of fun.

“I’m going down to check out the fuse box. Try and get this room finished and start on the next one.”

“Okay,” he said as he looked over his shoulder at Sage. The man was standing there looking stressed, as if he had been doing this all on his own with no help. William felt guilt swamp him at the stress lines pulling at Sage’s face. He really hadn’t been that much help at all. He couldn’t carry anything heavy, and he knew absolutely nothing about interior restoration.

As he made quick work of cleaning the bedroom, William glanced back at the door to make sure Sage wasn’t around. “It’s not like I’m not trying,” he said to Terror. “I’m giving him one hundred and ten percent.”

He kicked the last piece of debris over to the chute and then picked it up, tossing it away from him. It seriously messed with his head how hot and cold Sage was acting, but what could William do?

Honestly? The guy looked like he could wrestle a damn bear with one hand tied behind his back, albeit a very sexy back.

Ugh!

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Frustrated with himself, his hard cock, and Sage’s PMS, William grabbed what he needed and headed to the next room. It was worse than the last one.

“Who the hell had lived here? A hoarder?” There were stacks upon stacks of newspapers and worn and broken bric-a-brac strewn about the room. One man’s treasures were another man’s nightmare!

It was going to take him the entire day, and maybe a few more, to get this mess cleaned out.

William was seriously considering asking Sage to move the chute from the missing wall to the window in this room. The problem was he couldn’t even see the ledge from the crap piled for a mile in front of it.

After two thousand trips to the next room and pile after pile of trash being tossed down the chute, William hadn’t made a noticeable dent.

“Come get some lunch,” Sage shouted up the stairs. William’s stomach growled in agreement as he walked to the bathroom and tried to wash as much filth off of him as he could. His teeth chattered with the cold water as he splashed it over his arms and face.