A footstep shuffled across the floor behind him, andthen Vic heard a familiar voice echo in the deserted locker room.“Hey, man,” Kyle drawled.
Narrowing his eyes at that grating voice, Vic hunchedhis shoulders and wished he could disappear. Just wink out ofexistence. Why couldn’t he have drawn the invisibility power thelast time he and Matt made love? Maybe Kyle wasn’t talking to him.Maybe—
A heavy hand clapped his back. Maybe nothing, hethought. With a perturbed sigh, Vic muttered, “Don’t touch me.”
That hand drew away; Vic turned to find Kyle besidehim, hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry, guy. Long day,ain’t it? Can’t wait ‘til these double shifts are over. They’rekilling me! Not to mention screwing up my love life.”
The last thing Vic wanted to hear about was whateverpassed for Kyle’s love life. Shouldering his coworker aside, Vicgrowled, “I’ve got to go.”
“Matt waiting up for you?” Kyle asked. An innocentenough question, but there was an almost imperceptible leer in hisvoice that made Vic’s step falter. Kyle noticed; quickly he added,“That’s cool. You lucked out when you stole that sexy piece of assfrom me, I’m telling you. I’m having a hell of a time trying totalk my boyfriend into moving into my place.”
Vic folded one hand into a hard fist and his knucklespopped, a loud sound in the empty locker room. From the corner ofhis eye, he glared at Kyle. Was the man trying to piss him off? Ordid he just not think before opening that big mouth of his? Vic’svoice was low when he asked, “Did you just call my man a ‘sexypiece of ass’?”
Kyle’s pale face blanched. “No, um…” He laughed,high-pitched, nervous. “What I meant to say was—I mean…hey! Whatabout that cookout I’m having this weekend? You guys coming orwhat?”
Vic stood there a moment longer, silent, pinning Kylewith a fierce look that made his coworker squirm. “It should befun,” Kyle told him, hunting for something to say. Vic could sensethe fear racing around Kyle’s thoughts; more than once, he glancedat Vic’s clenched fist. “It’s sort of turning into a couples thing,you know? Bunch of my buddies from the bar will be there. My man,your man, you…the neighbors will think Pride’s come early thisyear.”
Kyle’s laugh died when he realized Vic hadn’t so muchas cracked a grin. “You’ll be there, right? Matt still knows how tofind my place?”
That startled Vic. He took an involuntary step back,then sort of turned to face Kyle, a frown furrowing his brow. “Whyshould he know where you live?”
Kyle’s smile slipped a notch, but he elbowed Vic asif to remind him of a secret they shared. Vic couldn’t imagine whyKyle would even think…”He was mine first,” Kyle joked.“Bring your swim trunks, Vic. You can swim in the pool where Mattand I first got it on—”
The next thing Vic knew, he had Kyle pinned backagainst the lockers, one hand on his coworker’s thick neck, fingersclosing in a chokehold that raised the man up on the tips of histoes. Kyle’s eyes were wide and wild, his lips twisted in agrotesque grimace as he clawed at Vic’s uncompromising grip. WhenVic stepped over the bench that separated them, Kyle tried tospeak, but all that came out was an unintelligible gargle.
In a voice of pure anger, Vic growled, “Stoplying, you bastard. You never had my man.Never. You can pretend he was one of your imaginaryconquests on whatever scorecard you’re keeping inside that tinylittle head of yours, but don’t try to tell me you fuckedhim. Because you didn’t.” His fingers tightened, turning Kyle’sface a livid shade of red. Flailing hands scratched at his. “Iknow you didn’t. Don’t you dare try to tell medifferent.”
For a moment longer he throttled Kyle, glaring intothose scared eyes until he saw some flicker of defeat. Satisfiedhe’d made his point, Vic released his coworker, who slid down thelockers to the floor in one fluid motion. Kyle massaged his neck ashe sputtered for breath; turning on his heel, Vic stormed off. Hehad a shower to take, and a lover to attend to, and could waste nomore time on shit like this.
Behind him Kyle coughed, then called out, “So you’recoming Saturday, right?”
Vic didn’t bother to reply.
* * * *
Vic’s foul mood followed him home. As he unlocked thefront door, he could sense Matt’s sleeping presence in the bedroom;sure enough, the only light inside their apartment spilled out intothe hallway from the lamp Matt had left on by Vic’s side of thebed. His lover lay curled in the bed sheets, a paperback forgottenbeside him, one hand marking his place. The glasses he wore to readwere pushed up off his face at a rakish angle. His pink lips wereparted in sleep.
Whatever anger Vic still harbored against the rest ofthe world drained away when he looked at Matt. The man was an angelfallen to earth, captured in perfect flesh. Too beautiful to bereal, yet here he lay in Vic’s bed, living, breathing, dreamingbeside him. Vic felt his chest swell with pride—this man washis. To hold, to comfort, to love. His, and nothinganyone could say or do would ever come between them. Vic refused tolet it.
Carefully he removed Matt’s wire-frame glasses andfolded them onto his bedside table. Then he eased the book fromMatt’s hand; his lover’s fingers flexed for a moment, holdingtight, then relaxed and let go. Vic tucked a bookmark between theopen pages and set the book on the table beside the glasses. As hepulled the covers up over Matt’s bare shoulder, his lover turnedonto his back and stretched
