When the Dead Speak, Bailey Bradford [new ebook reader .TXT] 📗

a way that frightened Severo, and fascinated him. He had the feeling there were so many layers to Stenley, and Severo wanted nothing more than to peel each layer back and bury himself in the man.

Well, I’d rather him be buried in me, as deep and hard as possible…as often as possible. Severo’s fingers fumbled on the button of his jeans. Oh, no. No, no, no, no! What am I thinking? That man is too scared to take what I offered him anyway—and I don’t do as often as possible, that implies a relationship. That freaked Severo more than anything, because he wanted Stenley more than he could remember ever wanting a man before, but Stenley didn’t seem to be the one-night stand type, and Severo didn’t know how to be anything else.

Then again, he mused, the sheriff felt the need to keep the closet door shut tight, so maybe there was more than one reason for today’s visit. The man probably hadn’t been laid in a while. He might be open to the suggestion of a one nighter after all. Surely Sev could keep his heart safe for a night? He’d been able to bury everything except his attraction to Stenley yesterday in the man’s office. Sev had come dangerously close to begging the guy to fuck him. All those feelings of doom and gloom and shattered…whatever had just been his hyperactive imagination, right? He’d never been at any emotional risk before when he’d had a quick fuck, so this wouldn’t be any different. Once they’d gotten each other out of their systems, they could walk away happy—and a lot less horny. The more he thought about it, the better the idea sounded. Now, if he could just convince the sheriff to go along with it…

Severo stepped out of the bathroom wearing his most seductive smile, which quickly slipped away as the fine hairs on the back of his neck stood up, as it always did when the dead made their presence known. He’d have sworn his stomach dropped to his ankles as it occurred to him that the man in his room was, most likely, the reason Sev had been led here.

Sheriff Stenley was muttering and glaring at a piece of paper lying on the floor by his feet. He bent down to pick up the paper, only to end up cursing soundly when the sheet fluttered a few feet away before dropping back to the floor.

“Oh, come on, now! That’s enough!” Stenley threw his hands up in the air and froze as he spotted Severo. Sev watched with fascination as a pink flush crawled over Stenley’s neck and face, his gray eyes widening in a way that should have been funny but instead shot a bolt of need straight to Sev’s cock. Damn, the man is freakin’ sexy!

Stenley’s mouth opened and closed twice before he cleared his throat and shook his head. “Think maybe he—or she, I don’t know what the hell it is—will let you grab that?” Stenley pointed at the paper.

“Well. No wonder you didn’t laugh at me once you read that report.”

The sheriff’s blush deepened. “I’d be hard-pressed not to believe you can speak to the dead, not when you’ve consulted on several investigations and helped solve so many of them.” He sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly. “And not when I’ve got this character giving me shit all the time.”

Sev sucked the air back into his lungs—he’d forgotten to breathe apparently, fascinated by the deep color marking Stenley’s skin—but couldn’t look away from the sheriff’s silvery gaze. The paper whipped up into the air and started spinning, snapping Sev out of his stupor. He lunged for the paper at the same time Stenley did, crashing into the bigger man. Laine gripped Sev’s shoulders, jerking him forward just as his heels rocked back. He collided with Stenley’s hard body, the impact knocking the breath from his lungs. Heat surged through Sev, his dick swelling painfully fast, the friction of Stenley’s thigh as the man sought to keep Sev upright drawing a groan from Sev’s lips—and he wasn’t alone in his arousal. Stenley’s cock was thick and scorching against Sev’s stomach.

Every reason for him not to get involved with the sheriff fled and the only thought remaining in Sev’s mind was the knowledge that he planned to offer this man his body. Sev’s head felt heavy despite the fact that all the blood in his body seemed to have shot down south. He looked up at the sheriff and felt seared by those molten silver eyes. Sev pushed aside the nervousness that threatened to bubble up and over. This, seduction and sex, he knew how to do.

“Laine.” Sev didn’t know if it was a prayer or a protest. He licked his lips and ground his cock against the thick thigh, whimpering as jolts of pleasure spread throughout his body. A look of torment dimmed Laine’s pretty eyes even as the man ground his cock against Sev’s abs.

“I can’t do this…” The anguish in Laine’s voice was impossible to miss, but his body was telling Sev a different tale.

“You can.” Sev tugged on Laine’s shirt, jerking the tails from Laine’s waistband. He shoved his hands underneath the starched material and the cotton shirt as well, shuddering when he felt the smooth, hard planes of Laine’s stomach. “Who’s gonna know but you and me? And I promise not to tell.” Sev dragged his nails over the taut muscles, just hard enough to push the spark between them into a fury of flames.

Laine rocked against Sev, his hands tightening on Sev’s shoulders. “I can’t, I shouldn’t—”

Sev found Laine’s nipples, tight and pebbled, just waiting for Sev’s touch. He flicked them once, then pinched. Laine’s back arched and he growled, and Sev had more than a fleeting thought that he might be in trouble after all, because that was a sound he wanted to hear again and again, a sound he’d never grow tired of.

“I ca—” Laine’s grip started to