Just a Sketch (16 page)

“That’s where I had my appendix removed a few years ago.” Leo shuddered slightly. “Up until recently, that was one of the scariest things I’d been through. I didn’t go in as soon as it started hurting and nearly died before they got it out.” He kissed Aud. “I can be fairly stubborn sometimes.”

Moving his caress from the scar down Leo’s stomach, Aud kissed him back. “I’m glad you didn’t die.”

Leo pushed Aud’s shirt off his shoulders. “I’m glad too. I would’ve missed all this.” He bent and nibbled Aud’s neck.

A soft moan escaped Aud and he surrendered to Leo’s attention. Shivers ran through him as Leo slowly licked, sucked, and nipped down his torso.

“You sound as if you like that.” Leo looked up at Aud as he opened the button on Aud’s jeans and reached in to fondle Aud’s rock-hard cock.

Aud ran his hands through Leo’s hair and grinned like a fool. “Oh, definitely. You are very skilled with your mouth.”

Leo pulled Aud’s pants and underwear down. “Good.” He swallowed Aud’s cock in a quick, smooth motion that caused Aud to slam his head back against the bed and moan.

For several minutes Leo sucked on Aud’s hard cock before Aud grabbed his head and pulled him off. “That’s awesome. Let me work yours a bit.”

“Okay.” Leo grinned and leaned over Aud to kiss him before rolling to the side, giving Aud easy access to Leo’s own raging hard-on.

Aud slowly kissed his way down Leo’s body while he squeezed Leo’s cock in preparation for sucking it. As his lips closed over it, he let the musky smell of Leo’s crotch fill his nose. There was a hint of sweat there, but mostly it was just Leo.

Moaning, Leo traced his fingers down the contours of Aud’s face. His fingertips left a trail of heat in their wake and encouraged Aud to keep doing what he was doing.

“God, that feels great.” Leo’s voice was husky with need. “I need you inside me. God, I need you so badly.”

Aud lifted his mouth off Leo’s cock. “Are you sure? I don’t know if we have any lube or lotion.”

“Do you have a condom?” Leo didn’t move from where he lay under Aud.

“Yeah.” Aud didn’t bother mentioning that he’d made a point to always have at least one in a small tin in his wallet since he was eighteen.

“Get it. I’ll check the bathroom for some lotion.” Leo grabbed Aud’s shoulders and pulled him down for a lusty kiss, then rolled out from under him and headed for the bathroom.

A cell phone rang as Leo disappeared around the bathroom door.

Aud paused with his jeans in his hands. “It’s late. Should you get that?”

Leo reappeared with a comp-size bottle of lotion in his hand. A frown marred his handsome face. “Maybe. Damn it. Felix and Julie wouldn’t be calling if it wasn’t important.” He rushed to his pants and fumbled around.

Sitting back on the bed, Aud waited patiently as Leo pulled out his phone.

“It’s Julie.” He tapped it to answer the call. “Hey, what’s up?”

As Aud watched, Leo’s face fell. “What? Are you sure?”

Julie’s voice raised enough that Aud could hear her speak, but he couldn’t make out the words.

“Call the cops!” Leo started putting his pants on without bothering to find his underwear. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.” There was a pause. “No, you know I don’t have a gun. I’ve got a baseball bat. It’s next to the bookcase near the front door. Make some noise, and maybe you’ll scare them off, but stay inside.” Another pause. “Okay. We’re on our way.”

Aud followed Leo’s example and slipped his jeans on before Leo had time to end his call. “What’s up?”

Leo buttoned his jeans and glanced around for a second before bending over for his shirt. “Someone just tried to break into my place. Honestly, what’s going on?”

“Did they call the cops?” Aud’s heart leapt.

“Yeah, right before they called me. Hopefully they’ll arrive before we get there.” He paused after pulling on his shirt. A pained looked hardened his face, the five-o’clock shadow darkened. “Why do we always seem to be interrupted? It would be awesome to settle down and have hot sex with you and not have something happen before we can finish, or a couple of times now, even get started good.”

“We’ll get through this.” Aud paused with his shirt in his hand and pulled Leo into his arms. “I wouldn’t be surprised if my stalker was the culprit at your house. He’s probably trying to shake you up and make you think it’s not worth the hassle dating me.”

Leo hugged him tightly. “We come from very different worlds, but I definitely think you’re worth dating, even with all this crap happening. I’m just hoping this doesn’t make Felix feel worse.”

“I hope so too.” Aud kissed Leo. It was a brief, passionate kiss that held a promise of things to come, once life calmed down.

Leo pushed away from him and grabbed his glasses before pulling on his shoes. “Okay, we need to get to the house.”

Aud followed suit, biting back a yawn for a long day that was getting longer by the minute, and not in good ways.

THE TRIP
from the motel to Leo’s apartment went by agonizingly slowly considering it was late enough that they didn’t encounter any traffic and the stoplights mostly went their way. Leo’s phone rang when they were about two blocks away. He glanced at it.

“Julie,” he said as he swiped the phone to answer. “Hey, are the cops there?”

“Yeah, and your landlord.” There was an embarrassed tone to her voice.

“My landlord? It’s nearly midnight. What’s Steven doing there?”

Julie swallowed loud enough that he could hear it over the phone. “I’ll let him explain it to you when you get here. Let’s just say everything’s fine.”

Aud made the final turn. Before them, bright red and blue lights were turned off as police cars pulled away from the curb.

“Julie, why are the cops leaving?”

“I’ll tell you when you get in here.” She disconnected the call.

Leo glanced across the Jeep at Aud as they pulled into the spot where a police car had just been parked. “Okay, something odd happened.”

“Odd as in good? Or bad?” Aud turned off the Jeep.

“I don’t know.” Leo undid his seat belt and got out.

They hurried down the sidewalk and through the chain-link gate. The porch light shone on an empty deck. The screen door was closed, but the front door was open.

Inside Felix sat on the couch with Sofi on his lap while Julie stood, nervously twirling her hair and watching Leo’s landlord, Steven.

“What’s going on?” Leo asked before Aud had time to slip through the screen door.

Steven looked unhappy and about as tired as Leo felt. “I stopped by to get a couple things out of the downstairs storage and the cops showed up. I even called you and left a message about the late hour.”

Leo pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. The yellow envelope flashed, indicating voice mail. The blood drained from his face. “I never heard the phone ring or checked messages. It’s been one of those days.”

“Tell me about it.” Steven walked toward the door. “Look, I’m going to finish getting the stuff I need and leave. My wife kicked me out today, and I just want to go get some sleep.”

“Sorry to hear that, Steven.” Leo couldn’t think of anything else to say.

The landlord shrugged his broad shoulders. “It’s okay, I guess. Can’t say as I didn’t see this coming.” He paused at the door. “Leo, I know the neighborhood is going down around here, so having your friends call the cops is actually a good thing.” He looked at Julie but didn’t smile. “Thanks for trying to protect the property.”

“I’m so sorry that I made your day worse.” Julie sounded horrible.

“If there’d been an actual robbery, it would’ve been much worse.” Steven sighed. “I hate having to replace broken glass or banged-up doorjambs.”

“If you need any help getting things out of the storage room, let me know.” Leo didn’t want to do anything more than just crawl into a bed and pull the covers over his head until the chaos that had engulfed his life was over.

“I should be fine tonight.” Steven opened the door and walked out. “Hopefully next time I’ll be able to give you a day or more warning before having to traipse through the yard to the side stairs.”

“Sorry I missed the call.” Leo stood there as Steven walked off the porch, then turned and moved down the far side of the house so he could get to the stairs that went to the basement storage room. The adrenaline rush that had engulfed Leo at the hotel dissipated, leaving him even more ready to go crawl into a bed somewhere.

An uneasy silence engulfed them until the sounds of Steven’s old truck broke the night as he started it and drove away.

Julie collapsed into the recliner. “I’m so sorry I called the cops. After everything that’s gone on recently, I figured it was the right thing to do.”

Leo walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. “It was. Don’t worry about it. Better safe than sorry. If I hadn’t missed the call earlier, or had listened to the message, none of this would’ve happened.”

She shook her head. “With everything that’s happened recently, I guess it’s a mistake any of us could’ve made. But the timing of it sucks.”

Felix looked up from petting Sofi. “I’m actually glad you called the cops, Julie. Having them show up made me feel a lot better about things.” A soft shudder passed over him. If Leo didn’t know Felix as well as he did, it’s something he would’ve missed. “I can’t believe I’m so scared of things right now. This is awful.”

“At least this time it was a false alarm.” Aud leaned against the wall. “I’d have hated for something to have happened to you two while I had Leo off by myself.”

“So what are we going to do now?” Julie asked.

A yawn escaped Leo as he settled onto the arm of the recliner next to her. “I’d love to sit and chat—careful not to slip on the sarcasm of that statement—but I think it’s been a long day for all of us and we could really use some sleep.”

“Are you going back with Aud?” There was a pleading note to Felix’s question.

Leo glanced from Aud to Felix. The idea of sleeping in Aud’s strong arms was very appealing, but Felix sounded like he needed Leo more. He frowned. “Aud, what do you say I stay here with Felix tonight? Julie might sleep better in her own bed.”

A look of relief washed over Julie. “Maybe. I don’t know. I might not sleep at all tonight.”

Leo squeezed her shoulder. “You need the rest as much as all of us.” He turned his focus back to Aud. “Is that okay with you?”

“Sure.” Disappointment danced across Aud’s rugged features, then quickly vanished. “Whatever works best for you. We’ve all been through a lot today.”

“Do you want to join us for brunch tomorrow?” Leo got up from the arm of the recliner and strolled toward Aud.

“I need to call the house insurance folks as soon as I get up. My schedule will all depend on them and getting things cleaned up. I can call you when I know more.”

Leo took his hands. “Okay. What do you say I walk you out to your car?”

A faint smile played at the corners of Aud’s mouth. “I’d like that.”

Looking back over his shoulder at his friends, Leo resisted the sigh that threatened to come out. “I’ll be right back.” He took Aud’s hand and headed for the door.

“We’re okay.” Felix kept petting Sofi, who didn’t show any sign of getting out of his lap in the near future.

They walked in silence until they reached the sidewalk. Leo squeezed Aud’s hand. “I’m so sorry this is happening. I really wanted us to spend the night together, but Felix needs me.”

At the curb Aud turned and hugged Leo. “I understand. You’re being there for your friends. That’s one of the cool things about you. So many people nowadays are so wrapped up in their own lives they don’t care about anyone other than themselves. It’s wonderful to be with a guy who puts others ahead of himself.”

Leo kissed him. “Thanks for understanding. That makes you fairly awesome in my book. We’ll get our alone time really soon.”

“I hope so. But even if it takes a while, that doesn’t matter to me. I just want to get some of your time now and again. Every minute I spend with you becomes more precious.” A deep resonating chuckle came from Aud. “Wow, that sounded mushy. I’m not normally like that.”

“That’s okay.” Leo kissed him again. “You bring out mushy feelings in me too. I hope you can make brunch with us tomorrow. Since it’s late now, it’ll probably be closer to lunch than brunch.”

“That might work out better anyway.” Aud smiled and pushed his hand slowly through Leo’s hair. “If not then, I’ll come see you as soon as I’ve got the mess cleaned up and the insurance folks have made their visit.”

“Good.” Leo ran his hands down Aud’s spine, enjoying the feel of his muscles through the shirt and flashing back to the two of them lying on the bed naked, preparing for some intense sex. His body stirred.

Aud kissed him, and the stirring thrust upward into a raging hard-on.

Leo stood it as long as he could before he stepped away from Aud. “Okay. You’d probably better go before I lie back on the hood of your car and scream for you to take me right here on the street.”

Aud laughed. “Gee, and here I was thinking along similar lines.” He gave Leo another kiss. “Okay, then. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He glanced at his watch. “Correction, later today.”

“Definitely.” Leo stepped away from Aud but continued to watch him as he walked around to the driver’s side and opened the door. He blew Leo a kiss as he slipped into the car. A silly grin spread over Leo’s face as he watched Aud drive away.

Even after his taillights disappeared around a turn two blocks down, Leo stood there.
Do I really deserve such an understanding guy? Aud’s awesome. I don’t know how anyone could resist his hot looks and perfect personality. He’s the best guy I’ve ever gone out with.

“Why are you still standing out here?” Julie asked, coming up behind him.

Leo jumped slightly, then turned toward her. “What?”

“Aud’s gone. Tell me you didn’t just stand here and watch him drive off. That’s so sappy. It’s been a while since a guy made you sappy.”

He gestured toward the house. “Are you going back in?”

“I don’t think so.” She yawned. “I’m going to take the opportunity to head home and sleep in my own bed. I might get more rest that way.”