Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,29

boyfriend.”

“They were looking for you, said you’d gone missing.” He slumped forward and stayed silent. “Seb?”

He shook his head, and I moved around to face him. His brow was furrowed, and his breathing was short and quick again. I knelt in front of him and put a hand on his knee.

“Was the accident in the river a domestic dispute?” I searched his face for a tell, but he was as blank as a stone wall. “Has Pete threatened you before?”

“Pete?” He reeled back and frowned.

Uncertainty pinged in my chest. Maybe I got the name wrong. “Your boyfriend—”

“I told you, I don’t have a boyfriend!” Seb raised his voice and it pinched into a high pitch at the end of his words, echoing the sudden panic in his eyes.

“But your brother? Ben?” I hoped mentioning his family would remind him he had people looking out for him. “He seemed worried, and I’m sure he’d like to know you’re safe. Have you called him? You can use my phone—”

“Can I take a shower?” His jaw muscles popped, and his nostrils flared. My heart stung when I caught tears welling in his eyes.

“Of course. There are extra towels in the bathroom. It’s just down there, the room with the broken toilet seat.”

He managed a half-hearted scoff, and relieved me of the tension in my chest until he bunched the oversized, pastel shirt into his fist and made his way out of the room silently, and I was left alone with a painful hollowness and a sense something was deeply wrong and about to get even more complicated.

10

Sebastian

I basked under the warm spray of the showerhead, feeling like I was being bathed beneath a tropical waterfall. Everything about Dr. Dish’s apartment was luxe. The whole place smelled like wood, and something fresh like lemon or grapefruit—but not the sickly fake kind from a cheap air freshener. Did the guy burn scented candles every night or something? Probably. He had his life so put together that he could afford to do something like that.

And all seven of his brothers had their lives together, too. Each of them the total opposite of my own brother—who was apparently a thief, but he was still alive, and looking for me with some guy named Pete, and maybe he wanted to kill me. The dichotomy between Derek’s family and my own was painful to think about, and I felt empty inside when I imagined about how nice it would be to have a team behind me.

I turned my back to the shower and let the hot water ease the tension out of my shoulder muscles. I was rattled by the information that Ben and this ‘boyfriend’ had shown up at the hospital looking for me. And this Pete was masquerading as my so-called boyfriend? With Ben? Who hated everything about the fact I was gay. None of it made sense. Ben was homophobic to the core, and I couldn’t imagine him keeping a straight face around a man claiming to be my lover.

I soaped under my arms with a body wash that smelled like sandalwood and heaven, and I wondered if one of my exes could have been involved in this. Had one of them changed his name to Pete? Ew. I highly doubted it. None of them were that tasteless. Besides, it had been a long time since I’d seen any of them. Years since I’d even had a steady thing with anyone. Thanks to school and work, and it was hard meeting my type. I was interested in older guys but not interested in being their arm candy—a hard to find delicate balance. I just hadn’t met the right guy.

I worked the suds into the sticky residue on my chest and remembered Derek’s gentle touch as he’d placed the stethoscope there. Dr. Dish was my type, at least on paper. Intelligent, quick on the uptake, stable…and fucking hot. Damn, he looked good even after a twelve-hour shift, ducking a flying toilet seat, tending to my injuries.

My cock tingled as I soaped its base and thought about Derek’s hands. My poor dick was tired, but the minute I started to think about Derek’s stubbled jaw, it stiffened.

“I thought you were exhausted.” I stroked it twice, and then hissed as my wrist twinged. My other hand wasn’t nearly as good, but it was good enough. I moaned and leaned back against the warm tiles as I gripped my cock tightly at the base and watched as it reached its