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Theo wasn’t good.
Not even close to it.
* * *
They’d put him in the room across from mine.
He was only a dozen feet away.
Completely within my reach.
I sighed as I forced myself to turn over on my bed so I was facing the windows instead of my closed door. Theo had been in the house for less than six hours and yet he was all I could think about. I hadn’t even seen him since he’d arrived but that hadn’t mattered to my dick. All it took was the memory of him saying my name to send my body into overdrive. I’d already jacked off twice in the bathroom—the bathroom that I was now sharing with the object of my lust—but it hadn’t taken the edge off.
Keeping busy with my charge hadn’t done it, either. Walter was the kind of patient you had to keep your eyes on at all times, but not because of his medical issues. No, the man was notorious for the pranks he played on me. It had started from the second I’d accepted the job as his live-in nurse. The old man had even roped Riley into helping him. I’d assumed it was Walter’s attempt to drive me away but as cranky and cantankerous as he behaved, he was actually a pretty good patient. It helped that Lenny had come back into his life after more than fifty years apart. Walter might not have cared as much about his health before the love of his life had been returned to him but he sure as shit did now.
Normally I was on point when it came to dealing with Walter, but I hadn’t been in the right headspace all day. Thankfully, Walter hadn’t called me out on it and I fortunately hadn’t made any mistakes when it had come to his medications and other treatments, but I couldn’t let that kind of inattention happen ever again.
Which meant I needed to get control of whatever the hell was going on with my attraction to Theo.
At thirty-two, I was well-versed when it came to the intricacies of casual sex versus relationships. I tended toward the former since the latter hadn’t ever been something that had worked out for me. The few relationships Ihadbeen in had been nothing short of disastrous, so I usually got my needs met at one of the very few gay bars in the surrounding towns. Northern Minnesota wasn’t exactly teeming with openly gay men, so it was slim pickings, and I’d started to let more and more time go between trips that resulted in nothing more than sating my body for a few minutes.
Thatwas the reason I was fast becoming obsessed with Theo. I needed a good fuck; that was all.
I actually laughed out loud at the ridiculous notion before flopping on my back so I could stare at the ceiling. Cam and Ford had put me in one of the two rooms on the third floor of the old farmhouse they were in the midst of remodeling. My room was spacious and simply furnished, and even though Cam and Ford had invited me to decorate the room in any way I wanted, I hadn’t touched a thing.
Mostly because the room was perfect as it was.
But also because it wasn’tmine.
I needed to remember that.
I needed to remember that I wasn’t home… that I wasn’t truly part of the weirdly perfect little family Cam and Ford had created.
The nature of my work didn’t allow me to stay in one place for too long, and I was perfectly content with that.
Yes, I was.
“Jesus,” I muttered as I threw the covers off and dropped my legs to the floor. I ran my fingers through my loose hair before searching out the small black hair tie on my nightstand.
A resounding thump had me pausing.
Silence.
It was probably the house settling. Old houses tend to do that.
Even as I mentally said the words, I was climbing to my feet, hair tie forgotten. I cast a glance at my bedroom door but didn’t move toward it, choosing instead to follow my gut and head for the bathroom. I listened for the sound of running water or the toilet flushing but didn’t hear anything.
It was only when I pressed my ear up to the small gap between the door and the frame that I heard it.
Crying.
No, not just crying.
Sobbing.
Sobbing that someone was trying very hard to muffle.
“Theo?” I called quietly as I gently rapped my knuckles on the door. I was too on edge to even give him time to answer before I grabbed the doorknob and turned it, hoping like hell that it would move beneath my fingers.
