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Martin’s salt-and-pepper eyebrows drew together. “Did they kick you out?”
This was Nick’s chance, the point where he could lie and say yes. He could skip past the part about actually being in Martin’s geology lecture. But his lips refused to form those words.
“Ah, no. The gay thing is the least of my failings, not that I ever knew what most of them were. We haven’t talked since I failed out of the UW.”
Martin cocked his head and stared intently at Nick, his eyes narrowing as comprehension dawned.
“You were in my class, weren’t you?I knew it.”
Martin crossed his arms over his chest and he chewed at his bottom lip, thinking, trying to place Nick. For his part, Nick felt like a spotlight had been turned on and pointed directly at him. The silence stretched thin as Martin kept staring at him, and Nick’s brain refused to come up with anything but the truth.
Finally, Nick settled with nodding.
“Am I right in assuming my lecture had something to do with your failing out?” Martin asked. “I thought you seemed familiar. But honestly, the classes were so large, it was impossible to know all my students. That must have been ten or twelve years ago, right?”
“Twelve and change,” Nick grumbled, not wanting his anger toward Martin to soften further. He needed something to keep his other feelings about him at bay. It was bad enough the sex had been literally fucking incredible. He needed to remember that living in Martin’s cabin wasn’t permanent. Nick wasn’t permanent. There was no way an intelligent man like Martin Purdy would want to keep someone like Nick around.
Not that Nick wanted that, either. Nope.
“If it means anything, I’m sorry that happened to you,” Martin offered, surprising Nick. “The academic machine can be a bastard. A faceless machine doesn’t recognize individuals and certainly doesn’t make a great enough effort to help those who need it. But your parents”—Martin scowled, taking Nick by surprise—“just… fucked off?”
“I really don’t want to talk about this.”
“Not ever or not right now?”
“Not ever, but I’ll settle for not right now.”
“Sure, I can respect that. But I am sorry.” The scowl morphed into a positively evil smile. “But not about what happened last night. Just to make that crystal clear.”
Turning back around, Martin pulled out a skillet and turned on the stove, humming as he did so. Nick stared at his back for a long minute before returning to the West Coast Forensics website.
“Nick, get in bed with me,” Martin ordered. “Or make yourself comfortable on the floor if you insist on that nonsense. But quit standing out there, you’re making the floorboards creak.”
Nick grimaced; he didn’twantto sleep on the floor. It was where heshouldsleep. He stared at Kitten tucked into the corner of the couch. She stared back at him with an expression that said,Don’t look at me, I’m perfectly comfortable.
Dinner had been great, as usual. Martin was a good cook. Afterwards, Nick cleaned up the mess and straightened the kitchen while Martin sat at the table, checked emails, and made triple sure that Dane and Zeke, the guys he’d hired to help them out with the cabins, were still coming the next day.
Then Martin had announced he was taking a shower and going to bed.
“It’s been a damn long day. I’m going to bed,” he’d said as he’d left the kitchen. A minute later, the shower had come on. Almost immediately, Nick had been assailed with visions of a naked Martin standing under the spray, soaping himself up. His broad, slightly furred chest. The firm abs. His well-hung cock.
In fact, Nick had stood there the entire time, up until the shower turned off again. Just before Martin had opened the bathroom door, he’d sat back down at the table and opened his laptop, pretending he was engrossed in something. It was a good thing Martin had gone straight to his room instead of peeking over Nick’s shoulder. He would have seen Nick was blankly staring at a pop-up ad for outdoor lawn furniture. He didn’t have a lawn, or a house, for that matter.
Getting ready for bed officially stalled out on the cabin’s equator, the center line between the too-short couch and the too-comfortable bed. The bed that had Martin in it.
Martin continued, “If you’re worried that I regret last night, or that it was a one-off, rest assured I have no remorse for anything we did. And I hope I’ve made it clear that, for some unfathomable reason, I find both your body and your brain attractive.” He paused. “Maybe the heart attack gave me brain damage, although my doctor never said anything.”
“Fucker,” Nick grumbled. His body made the decision for him and his feet moved toward the bedroom instead of the floor.
“I would be if you would get your sexy ass in here.”
Nick’s heart was racing as he stepped into the bedroom. Martin was waiting for him, propped up against the headboard with a cocky grin plastered his face—the rest of him naked. Desire flooded Nick’s system, propelling him forward.
Martin Purdy was everything he’d ever fantasized about and more.
“Take those clothes off,” Martin ordered. Nodding stupidly, Nick stepped closer to the bed and tugged off the shirt and briefs he’d changed into only minutes before.
Reaching out, Martin took his hand, effortlessly pulling Nick onto the bed. “You are damn sexy,” he murmured, his thick fingers tracing a delicate pattern over Nick’s skin.
