The Teacher and the Soldier (6 page)

Maybe if he talked to Luke he could get him to smile.

* * * *

Luke owed Daniel an apology. More than that really. An apology and a thank you for not beating him the hell up. Apparently football hadn’t figured in Daniel Skylar’s adult life and according to back issues of the Ellery Herald he was an ex-soldier. No one gets to be a soldier by pussyfooting around idiots like Luke. You got to be a soldier because you took charge and was, brave and, God, everything Luke wasn’t.

From sixteen until the day he’d woken up in hospital a little after his eighteenth birthday he had taken every blow his dad had meted out. He’d heard every single thing his dad had to say about his son, about the faults that lay with his son. He’d believed them all. Only some intense support at college and new groups of friends who knew nothing of what he used to be had given him hope. He’d met Zach and fucked that up as well even though he’d found a good teaching role at a new school. The same school that had reluctantly let him go three weeks before. On top of that he’d come back to Ellery and was confronted with all the shit he had tried to run from. No wonder he’d freaking lost it.

Lost it in front of the most gorgeous man he’d ever laid eyes on. Just this side of dangerous, Daniel Skylar was everything Luke fantasised about but never allowed himself to have. From the dark hair and the stubble on his face to the gleam of heat and understanding in his glorious green eyes, Daniel ticked every box. Add in full lips, broad shoulders and chest and legs that seemed to go on for miles. Luke was banging his head on the proverbial wall with sexual frustration.

He pulled out a small leather bound box from the bottom of his nearest bag and sat back on his bed. He opened the box, then looked in at the smashed watch inside. Nothing expensive, it was still a solid capable watch that had stopped the very second his dad had hit him so hard that he’d broken one of Luke’s ribs. Most of the time the alcohol that Mike near on inhaled was enough to make him think he was strong but at the same time uncoordinated and sloppy. Luke could avoid most of it but that night—the last night—Mike had been using as well as drinking. He had to have been on some kind of narcotic that had given him that extra strength, and fuck, had Luke paid for it. Idly he rubbed a hand on his chest right over where the rib had cracked.

He’d booked it from Ellery’s small hospital aided and abetted by old Doctor Campion. Then he’d hitchhiked out and away, past Knoxville and east into North Carolina, all the time with the cracked rib and feeling like he was dying. God knows how he’d managed it, or had avoided being picked up by cops, but he had. A week in a hospital and he had been at college and Ellery had been transferred to his past.

Then he’d proceeded to spend the ten years after that moving on. And as for Zach—six years he’d stuck with Zach playing house and pretending he was secure.

All bullshit.

He hadn’t even cared that Zach had been seeing someone behind his back. He couldn’t blame Zach. Who the hell would want to bother with Luke’s shit? Then he’d seen exactly what he was using as a barrier. This place and what had happened to him.

He’d had to go back to Ellery. If nothing else it was vital to shake off the past before he could even think of the future. Then he’d find a school, a good one where he could make a difference, and he would settle down and maybe even get his toes dipping back in the dating pool. Twenty-nine wasn’t old. He still had youth on his side and he wasn’t bad looking. Zach used to call him gorgeous. But then he called good coffee and cake gorgeous as well.

Without thinking he picked up his cell and redialled the top number. Zach.

“Hi, Luke,” Zach answered immediately.

“Hey. Do you have a minute?”

“Anything for you, gorgeous,” Zach said.

Luke stifled a laugh. “So I had this meltdown.”
May as well jump straight into it, no point in hanging around and waiting for Zach to ask.

“Shit. Are you okay?”

“Why do you care about me so much, Zach?” Luke hadn’t asked the question with any hint of malice. He desperately wanted to know the answer.

“You’re my friend, Luke. I think you can stand to have a few of those. So how is the fair town of Ellery? Still small?”

“Small. Showing signs of wear, couple of the places I remember shut down now, no cinema.”

“Tell me about the meltdown.”

“I met Daniel Skylar, remember, he’s the son of the woman who owns the other half of the mountain resort?”

“I remember. One of those who didn’t do shit about helping you.” Anger tinged Zach’s voice.

“You know altogether too many of my secrets, Zachary Sweeton. So, this Daniel, he’s this crazy assed ex-soldier with green eyes, dark hair and two day stubble and he wears sunglasses indoors. I hit him.”

Zach didn’t immediately reply and Luke wasn’t surprised. According to Zach the most emotion Luke ever managed to gather together was during sex. Luke often said it was because it was the only time he could connect to himself. Zach agreed. Hitting someone was so not on Luke’s to-do list usually.

“Did the hot ex-soldier with the dark hair and green eyes hit you back?” Zach asked thoughtfully.

“I never said he was hot,” Luke defended quickly.

“You didn’t have to. Your voice went all weird on me. Anyway, this hot soldier, did he hit you back?”

“No. He didn’t touch me. Well, he touched me, but it wasn’t violent, or him defending himself. He tipped back my chin and looked me right in the eyes.”

“Hang on,” Zach said quickly. “I need to sit down. Then I need you to tell me everything. Start with hot and end up with touching and eyes.”

So Luke did.

When he hung up he felt lighter. Zach hadn’t just been his lover the past six years he had been an emotional crutch and what the hell kind of job must that have been? Zach agreed that Luke should find Daniel. Thereafter they disagreed. Luke just wanted to apologise and put things behind him to sell the cabins. Zach wanted him to jump Daniel the first opportunity he had for what Zach termed ‘hot-sweaty-balls-deep-ass-up sex’.

Luke had pointed out that he didn’t even think Daniel was gay because of what the waitress had said. Zach had simply said, “‘the man didn’t hit you. Then he tipped your chin up, stared into your eyes and connected to show compassion. Of course he’s gay’.”

Lying back on his bed and staring up at the smoke alarm’s rhythmic flashing red light he realised what he was feeling coursing through him was attraction. His dick even filled halfway to fully erect when he the thought about the type of sex Zach had described. He closed the curtains then grabbed lube from his wash bag. When he unbuttoned his jeans and slid a hand under his cotton boxers to wrap around his dick he coaxed an erection at the thoughts flying through his mind. When the gentle hold wasn’t enough, he pushed his jeans down to his hips then in frustration pulled them off and his boxers too. After ensuring the door was locked, he lay back on the bed and this time he spread his legs and bent his knees to keep himself stable. The anticipation of orgasm spiked in him and he reached for the bottle of lube and slicked his fingers. He hadn’t seen Daniel as something to incite this feeling in him. What he had connected to was the compassion, but Zach talking and encouraging was enough to have Luke closing his eyes and imagining.

Daniel was a strong guy, capable of holding Luke still, pushing him to feel. Luke could imagine Daniel biting, sucking, and licking kisses over his entire body, from his sensitive throat across his chest focusing on nipples then finally following his treasure trail and sucking him down whole. His phantom lover with Daniel’s face would focus entirely on Luke’s needs, setting a rhythm that had Luke edging before grasping the base of his dick and licking his way lower taking first one then the other of his balls in his mouth. All the time his hands would be busy loosening Luke, one, two, then more, nearly a whole hand.

Not listening to Luke’s whimpered pleas, he would screw into Luke’s ass with his fingers then take the very tip of Luke’s dick into his mouth. Luke, in his fantasy, didn’t know whether to push up into Daniel’s mouth or push down on his hand. Daniel was turning him, forcing him onto all fours, then in him without stopping. Luke had no choice but to feel. To actually think he was wanted. The thought of Daniel cursing and demanding and losing it inside him had Luke coming over his hand and arching off the bed.

He should clean away the evidence. He should move. He could do neither. With the cum cooling on his stomach he refused to let himself open his eyes until only wisps of the memory of the fantasy remained. Hell, he needed to apologise to Daniel and he’d just masturbated over a fantasy featuring him front and centre.

Awkward.

Chapter Four

Luke pushed through the door of the building housing the mayor’s office. He was looking for Finn, but where the police station had been was little more than a cleared and charred area. Apparently the cops were sharing half of the mayor’s building.

“Can I help you, sir?” A short woman with a pixie haircut looked up at him expectantly.

“I was looking for Finn Ryan,” Luke said.

“He’s due back in at three. She glanced at the clock that showed two then indicated the seat against the wall. “You can wait if you like. Or is there something I can help you with?”

Sitting opposite her desk for an hour? That was not going to be happening. Also he didn’t know her from Adam and there was no reason she would give him details of where Daniel Skylar lived. He wasn’t asking anyone else. Just Finn.

“I’ll call back later,” he said. “Thank you.” Walking back to the exit he was in a world of his own and missed someone opening the door for him until they spoke his name.

“Luke, hey,” the voice said.

Luke stopped and looked up, then frowned. A short man stood in front of him with hand extended and a ready grin on his face. Luke shook it, all the time trying to place the person. He was a cute guy with a smile that reached his eyes and hair which was a study in effortlessly fluffy.

“You won’t remember me,” short and fluffy started. “I’m Kieran Dexter. You were in a basketball training course back at school and told me my height shouldn’t be a barrier to me playing. Do you remember that? God, that was so many years ago now. I never did make it on the team, but then I discovered I was good with my hands. Not in a sexual way, although people have said I am, but that’s not important. I design furniture now, but I also work up at the cabins.”

The words simply flowed from Kieran’s mouth in a stream of thought that Luke had difficulty in following until he’d had a couple of seconds to process. He remembered Kieran now.

“You didn’t grow much then,” he said. He added a smile and wondered if that had been the right thing to say. It didn’t appear Kieran was that fazed by the fact his growth had stopped at five nine. He was cute. All energy and fun bundled up in a lithe body. He could even be called pretty. Luke would call him pretty.

Kieran looked down at himself ruefully. “Not so much, no. Is everything okay?”

“Yes. Why wouldn’t it be okay?” Luke was suddenly on the defensive.

“Well, given this is the place where the cops are, or the mayor is, I am assuming you wanted either of them?”

Stupid
. He could smack his stupid defensive self sometimes.

“Daniel,” he blurted out. “Daniel Skylar.”

“What about him?” Kieran asked. He tilted his head and regarded Luke with a thoughtful gaze.

“I need to see him. To apologise.”

“Oh cool. I can give you a ride. No worries.”

Kieran turned on his heel. He hadn’t questioned why Luke felt he needed to apologise to Daniel. Kind of sideswiped by the effervescent man, he followed him to an old plate 4x4 and climbed in. Kieran drove out of town talking about things that must have changed since Luke’s last visit, and asking how long was it since he had been there, and if he know that Mace’s mercantile had shut down only two weeks before, and wasn’t it awful about the economy. Luke, somewhat bemused, answered each question or acknowledged every comment then grew quieter and quieter as he realised where Kieran was heading.

“Tell me Daniel isn’t living in Ellery cabins,” he managed to force out.

“Yep. One of the older ones that need work. He has been since he was discharged from the hospital. Keeps him close to his mom.” Kieran clearly didn’t notice Luke’s discomfort. He signalled his turn, checked mirrors then turned onto the long sweeping slope to the main reception area. As soon as they passed the high gates Luke began to panic. Ten years since he had driven in here. Ten years since the night everything had changed. Kieran took a turn up the private road to where the family cabins were. His father’s and Brenda Skylar’s.

“Stop the car,” Luke said softly.
I can’t see this.

“Daniel’s farther up. We’ll go the back way, easier to park.”

“Stop the car.” This time he was pleading and his chest felt tight.

“Okay, dude, you okay? Luke?” The car stopped and Luke was out before it had finally finished rolling, bent at the waist and tense. As soon as his feet hit terra firma he felt more settled and consciously he slowed his breathing rate. Standing straight he looked ahead and when he realised what he was looking at bile climbed in his throat.