Six Degrees of Lust (6 page)

Mac wasn’t going to lie. He was impressed.

And although he’d had some fun wondering what the “S”

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35

stood for by running a litany of words to describe the gorgeous

man—Sexy, Stud, and Super Suckable being his favorites—he’d

much rather ask him in person about it.

Mac couldn’t think of any other time he’d felt this way over

the prospect of a fuck. It was insane. Desire drove him a little

nuts every passing day, plaguing his mind, and eventually he’d had

to admit jerking off to the guy wasn’t going to cut it.

That morning, after realizing it was already Friday and his

time was running out, he’d made the call.

It went straight to voice mail.

Mac couldn’t make sense out of the shivers that once again

ran down his spine when he heard the “This is Special Agent

Shaughnessy. Leave a brief message and I’ll return your call”

greeting. And he couldn’t help but feel like an idiot after leaving

what was probably the dorkiest message in gay history, which

was most likely the reason why Sexy Super Agent never returned

his call.

He wanted the Yankee so much he even considered calling

again before leaving his room. If it weren’t for the fact that he’d

sound like a horny teenager or worse, desperate, he would have.

Instead he called home to make sure everything was okay and,

after grabbing his room key, he headed out the door to go meet

Braxton and Christian down in the lobby.

No sense in dwelling over something that was now out of his

hands.

§ § § §

Bruised knuckles hurt like the devil, especially when the skin

was cut open. After two days the swelling should have gone down

a little, if only he’d taken a moment to put some ice on them right

after he’d hit the stars out of that piece of shit known as his

brother in law. But he hadn’t had the head for it as, at the time, a

few possibly broken fingers were the least of his concerns.

Sam emptied his bathroom sink and, after moving his fingers

carefully, lifted his hand for a closer inspection. Significant

36 Taylor V. Donovan

swelling, a few open cuts, and early scabbing. He’d live.

He gulped down some ibuprofen and walked into his bedroom,

shaking his head when the events that went down on Wednesday

crossed his mind. He hadn’t been so close to domestic violence

since his days in uniform and, albeit disturbing, none of the calls

he ever responded to had touched him in a personal way. This

was completely different.

He lay down on his bed and absently rubbed his fingers up

and down his stomach. A knot of apprehension had formed

there the moment he arrived at his sister’s house, and it hadn’t left

him since, even though he had effectively removed both her and

his nephew from harm’s way. Now that he’d sent that jerk off

to jail and brought Sandy and Nicky home with him, he needed

to figure out what the heck he was going to do. He had to find

a way to make it up to Nicky for not realizing earlier the hell he

had been living in.

God, he’d been so blind. His nephew, a normally chipper and

outgoing kid had been introverted and bashful the last time Sam

had been over to visit him a few weeks ago. He should’ve known

there was a reason, other than Nick getting older, that he hadn’t

hugged Sam the way he always did, a reason why Nick seemed to

be walking on egg shells and behaved like a miniature grown up

even though he was only twelve. The signs had been there and

Sam had managed to miss them all. Granted Sandy living upstate

didn’t make it exactly easy for Sam to be around them enough to

observe much of anything, but he’d tried his best.

Despite his crazy busy schedule at work, he stopped by to

see his mother and called his sister and nephew at least twice a

week, refusing to allow his emotional impairment to extend to

his immediate family. He might have no problem staying away

from relationships, and the responsibility and emotional turmoil

that were invariably attached to them, but he still cared for a few

individuals. Sam had been certain that they knew he would always

make himself available if they needed him, but apparently he

hadn’t been that clear.

That would certainly explain why his sister failed to mention

six DegRees of Lust
37

her husband was physically abusing her. It would also explain

why she seemed to be more withdrawn every time he talked to

her; why she kept quiet even when the abuse extended to her

own son. It’d only taken a fifteen second phone call from his

terrified nephew to get Sam to drop everything and run to the

airport to catch the next flight to Buffalo.

That he’d failed to make her understand she could count

on him no matter what. Yeah… that had to be it, because the

alternative would be Sandy knowing she could call and deciding

against it. That was something he couldn’t even contemplate

when his own guilt was so overwhelming it felt like a ton of

bricks lying heavily on his chest.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed himself out of bed and

threw on some sweats and a t-shirt. He was so emotionally and

psychologically drained that his body felt like he’d gone ten

rounds with a heavy weight champion. He needed to get some

sleep, clear his mind enough to figure out what he was going to

do now that his house had transformed from a bachelor pad into

a shelter overnight. But first he needed to go check on his guests.

He walked down the hallway to the bedroom Sandy had holed

up in the moment they got home earlier that day and opened

the door quietly, thanking all that was sacred when he saw she’d

finally fallen asleep. Next door down, Nicky slept on his side,

his left hand carefully resting on a pillow, his lanky body tightly

embraced by his grandma’s arms.

Sam hadn’t left his side for more than ten minutes throughout

the entire ordeal. But his mother, who had shown up hours ago

ready to help, had talked him into having something to eat and

taking a shower. She argued he’d be no good to Nicky if he wasn’t

up to speed. She was right.

At some point between dinner and shower time, Nicky had

come to him and announced he was ready to go to bed with

Granma and watch some cartoons. He’d hugged Sam tightly

and given him a tremulous smile. Sam had almost wept from

relief. Even now his eyes teared up a little at the memory of the

too bright, too white cast his nephew was sporting, but Nicky

38 Taylor V. Donovan

seemed to be fine. More importantly, he was protected and safe.

He closed the door and headed back to his own room, taking

in the silence of the house. This was the first moment he’d had

to himself in the past two days, but he couldn’t relax for shit. Too

much was going on in his mind.

Normally, he would work that stress out by hitting the gym

or sparring with Kostas, but his body couldn’t manage that at

the moment. He could also fuck the bejesus out of whatever

stranger he felt like hooking up with for a few hours. The third

option was to call his best friend.

At the moment that seemed to be the best alternative. He

could vent to him and even ask for some professional advice to

help Sandy and Nick, because Logan would know what to do.

His mind made up he grabbed his phone from the nightstand,

frowning when he saw he had several missed calls. That wasn’t

good. He needed to be accessible to his teammates even when he

was off, especially when they had a serial killer to catch.

He quickly went through his message list, only listening to

the ones left by Logan and Duncan. The rest could wait. He was

about to disconnect when he noticed he had a message from an

out of town number. He wasn’t prepared for the huge smile that

spread across his face when he heard it.

“Hey it’s me, the guy from the airport on Wednesday. We

bumped into each other? I’m Mac, and I was kind of hopin’

we could, you know, get together, since I’m leavin’ tomorrow. I

would’ve called sooner but it’s been a crazy few days… Anyway,

you mentioned somethin’ about showin’ me the goods and, if you

are still up for it… Shit… I didn’t mean up as in up… just…” A

little groan, then he cleared his throat and continued. “If you’re

still interested give me a call, ’cause I am. My number should

show up on your missed calls, so, if you want… Okay. Bye.”

Sam chuckled a little at the “showing me the goods” comment.

He couldn’t believe he’d said something so corny to the guy.

During the flight to Buffalo, when Sam hadn’t known he was

about to walk into a hornets’ nest of drama, he hadn’t been able

six DegRees of Lust
39

to get the Texan out of his mind. Their encounter was brief at

best, but everything about it spoke of naughty, wicked, raunchy

animal sex. One look at the big guy had Sam wanting to drag him

to the nearest secluded corner so that he could have his way with

him. Drop to his knees and find out if his cock matched the rest

of his body, which was a first in and of itself.

Sam couldn’t remember ever dropping to his knees, or going

for someone that size. He had no interest in having anyone

overpower him, in or out of bed. He liked his guys to be shorter

than his own six-three and have sleek, trim bodies.

But there was no denying his powerful reaction to the blond

guy’s muscled, probably six-five frame. Homeboy was built like a

brick shit-house and Sam wanted to show him the goods all right.

He had also scolded himself a little during that flight. As a

general rule, whenever he was on the prowl he’d hit bars, maybe

a club, like any other bisexual, reasonably attractive professional

male in his early thirties would do. Buy someone a drink, chat

him or her up a bit, go to their place, fuck their brains out and get

the hell out of Dodge. He had very strict rules. He only fucked a

person once, and he didn’t do romantic relationships at all.

Sex always happened in a very controlled environment. It was

a calculated situation with an even more calculated time frame

and unforeseen, fortuitous encounters were never an option.

Especially when he was worried out of his mind and rushing his

way through one of the busiest airports on the planet.

But for some reason Sam had taken the time to check out the

dude, flirt a little, and make sure the blond returned his interest.

And then he’d broken more rules by giving the guy a business

card that not only included his cell phone number and email

address, but his fucking job title to boot.

Tex, which was what Sam had been calling the guy, had

obviously blown Sam’s precautions all the way to Stupidland with

his too hot for words looks.

“Mac.”

He liked it. The name totally fit the gorgeous southerner.

40 Taylor V. Donovan

Sam smiled again.

All of a sudden, he didn’t mind breaking his own rules that

much. What consequences could it have when the guy lived

hundreds of miles away and was only in town for a few days?

“Fuck!”

Sam twisted his head to look at the clock and winced a little

when his shoulder muscle pulled. Boy, he felt like shit. He blinked

twice, making sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.

11:45.

“Shit. Where’d the time go?”

Tex had called hours ago. Was almost midnight too late to call

him back? Probably. Not to mention, Sam was exhausted.

But Tex said he was leaving the next day…

The entire household was sleeping. He could definitely get

away for a few hours.

What if Tex didn’t want to see him, though? What if he’d

found somebody else? God knew Sam wouldn’t wait hours for a

phone call, so why would Tex?

“Well…” He sat on the edge of his bed, dialed the number,

and waited for Mac to answer. “There’s only one way to find

out.”

§ § § §

Mac was enjoying himself like he hadn’t in longer than he

cared to remember. Once he’d accepted the sexy guy wasn’t

calling him back, he did his best to forget about it and have fun

during his last night in New York City. And why wouldn’t he? A

few more hours and it’d be his birthday, so a good ol’ celebration

was in order. Luckily for him, Braxton, Christian, and their friend

Gabriela were pros at having a great time. Mac couldn’t have

asked for better company.

After having dinner at some trendy French restaurant that

served more frou-frou than tasty, substantial food, Gabi said she

wanted to take him to a strip club that had gorgeous girls for

six DegRees of Lust
41

some heterosexual time. Mac thanked her but kindly declined,

arguing it wouldn’t have been fair to Chris and Brax. Gabi said it

was his birthday and insisted. He’d put his foot down.

“But you’re straight and already work at a gay friendly bar.