Read Online Wild Raspberries by Jane Davitt - Free Book Online

Tyler looked like shit, which made it easier to be nice to him. “And anything I can’t figure out, you can tell me tomorrow. I’ll clean up and lock up. Don’t worry about a thing.”
    “There’s a sleeping bag and pillow in the chest by the window.” Tyler studied Dan’s face for a moment, making Dan feel transparent, and then made his way to his room without looking back. The door closed behind him with a snick that might have been a key turning, might not.
    Dan blew out a shaky breath and got busy. The kitchen was laid out neatly, with a logical place for everything that made it easy to work in. He made as little noise as possible, acutely aware of the man behind the closed door.
    So, Tyler had cracked his ribs as well? Dan had done that once after a football game, when a quarterback landed on him and his knee had done a good job of caving in Dan’s chest. It’d hurt like hell to breathe and laughing had been torment — which hadn’t stopped his friends from dreaming up as many jokes as they could when they came over to see him, until he was crying with pain, his face contorted in a grin, the mix of emotions enough to make his head spin.
    He remembered his hand pushing Tyler upright, the heel of his hand firm against Tyler’s ribcage; no wonder the man had groaned.
    The sleeping bag and pillow were right where Tyler said they were, clean enough, but, as Dan discovered when he shucked off his T-shirt and got into his makeshift bed, not freshly washed. They exuded Tyler’s smell, nothing Dan could have broken down into individual elements, but unmistakably him. He put his mouth against the pillow, breathed out, and then sniffed it, the scent stronger now, clinging to his lips. The soft, down-filled sleeping bag wrapped around him snugly, and he sighed in pure contentment. This beat bare ground studded with stones and twigs. He settled down on his front and just let himself relax into a sleepy jumble of thoughts, most of which were centered on Tyler.
    Something different about him… wonder what he does? Can’t live off veggies… God, really thought he was going to pull that trigger — scared the shit out of me, but he’s okay. Nice. Trust him. Shouldn’t trust him, shouldn’t trust anyone… Ten years younger, and I’d crawl into bed with him right now and — fuck, couldn’t do anything to him the way he’s hurting, even if he was interested and he might not be… no, he is. I can tell. I can tell he’s gay, anyway. Maybe not into me? Yeah… why would he be? Seeing as I told him — fuck, fuck, why did I… Older. I don’t go for that, but he’s so fucking big. Strong. Not a kid. Wonder what that’d be like. Doing it with him. He’d know what he was doing, not like Luke, shit, that hurt that time, but I know he didn’t mean to — Luke. God, I’ll never see him again —
    He stirred restlessly and moaned, sleep calling him, and fear of what he’d find waiting in his dreams keeping him from answering. His moan was echoed and he froze, jolted wide awake, his heart pounding.
    Tyler.
    A band of light was showing under Tyler’s bedroom door when Dan looked over the back of the couch, and he could hear the faint, irregular sounds of movement from the bedroom. Caution warred with concern and lost. The state Tyler was in, Dan was sure he could fight him off if he needed to, and if the man was hurting —
    He got up and ran his hands through his hair, dry now and snarl-free for the first time in a while. Without bothering to put his T-shirt on, he padded over to Tyler’s bedroom door and tapped on it softly. “Uh, Tyler? You okay, man?”
    There was a pause and then Tyler called back, a suggestion of a snarl in his voice, “I’m fine. Go back to sleep.”
    “I wasn’t asleep, and you don’t sound fine.” Dan tested the door, surprised when it opened. He peered around it and then pushed it wide and went over to the bed.
    The room was bigger than Dan had expected, airy and bare. The bed, high