Violated (2 page)

“I’m sorry,” Russ said again. “We were on the dock when he saw you and dove into the water. I had to run up the path to intercept.”

Since Russ couldn’t stand properly with his hand on his dog’s collar, Derek knelt and offered his hand to the dog to sniff. Max skipped that part and immediately started licking his face.

“Max!” Russ tried to pull the dog away, but Derek laughed and dug his fingers into the fur behind Max’s ears.

“Well, aren’t you friendly! That’s a good boy!” Gracie seemed to sense that Max wasn’t much of a threat, despite his high energy level, and jealously poked her nose in for some nuzzling too. Derek rewarded her with a good scratch on the head.

“Who’s your friend?” Tim’s voice cut through the orgy of doggy affection. Derek glanced over to the kitchen door and saw his fiancé leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest. He was smiling, but Derek knew that look. The question hadn’t been referring to Max—Tim wanted to know who the handsome man talking to Derek was.

“Hi, hon,” Derek said, trying to head off an argument, though he knew it was hopeless. Not that Tim would fight in front of Russ or the real estate agent. He’d wait until they were alone together. “This is Russ. He lives in the cabin next door.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Tim, Derek’s fiancé.”

Russ wasn’t an idiot. Derek could tell he picked up on the icy undercurrent in Tim’s voice instantly. The man smiled uncomfortably and stood, pulling Max back by the collar. “Nice to meet you too.” He glanced at Derek quickly and added, “I guess I should be getting back. I’m sure I’ll see you guys around.”

He left, awkwardly pulling Max down the path to his cabin and leaving a cold silence hanging in the air between Derek and Tim. Derek hated it when this happened, when Tim pulled this jealous lover shit in front of guys who weren’t doing anything to warrant it.

Derek stood up, scowling. Tim turned and disappeared back into the cabin without another word, so Derek followed, the serenity of the morning spoiled for him. He held the door open for Gracie, overhearing Tim mutter to the real estate agent, “We seem to have a very friendly next-door neighbor.”

“Oh, him?” she replied, oblivious to the tension in the air. “Isn’t he handsome?”

“Yes.”

“I hear he’s a policeman.”

“Well,” Tim replied, his expression one of utter boredom, “hopefully he’ll keep the neighborhood safe, then.”

F
IGURES
A
gorgeous gay man would move in next door… and turn out to be engaged
. Russ Thomas’s luck with men had always been crap. No reason this time should be any different. For a moment Derek had seemed perfect—tall and rugged, with short, sandy-blond hair, stormy gray eyes, and a surprisingly delicate, sensual mouth. Plus he loved dogs.

But he was engaged. Russ had never hit on a married man, and he wasn’t about to start now.

“Thanks a lot, pal,” he grumbled at Max as the dog trotted into the cabin through the side door while Russ held it open. “If you’re gonna embarrass me in front of a cute guy, couldn’t you at least pick one who’s available?”

Max ignored him and jumped up on the couch.

“Oh, terrific. Now I’ll have to wipe that down later.”

Max barked at him impatiently, and he relented. “Fine. I’ll put lunch on the grill. But no steak for you, brat. You’ll have a burger and like it.”

The threat of dire “punishment” didn’t seem to have much of an effect. Max merely panted happily at him and thumped his wet tail against one of the couch cushions.

As he took the meat out of the refrigerator, Russ thought about Derek’s fiancé, whatever his name was—it had already gone out of his head. The guy was good-looking in an understated way. Kind of thin, with glasses. Not really Russ’s type, though he could see some appeal there.
But God! That look he gave me!

Clearly there wouldn’t be any invites to come over for Scrabble in the near future.

T
HE
NEXT
weekend was the Fourth of July—the fourth being that Friday. Derek’s mother was still alive, but they weren’t in touch. Tim’s family was in Michigan. Victor, Derek’s best friend and manager at Top Circle Security, had invited them over for the day, but he and Tim loathed each other. Derek had no interest in spending the day caught between Tim’s sarcastic snipes at Victor and Victor’s less subtle insults aimed at Tim.

So that left just Derek and Tim to seek out fireworks, if they were motivated. They rarely were. Rockford, New Hampshire was too small to have its own fireworks display, and though the fireworks in Manchester could be spectacular, it wasn’t always worth enduring the traffic jam on the way out of the city afterward.

“Let’s spend the weekend at the cabin,” Derek proposed. “We can bring steaks or hamburgers. It’ll be perfect!”

Tim seemed less enthusiastic. “The bed needs a new mattress. I’m not sleeping on somebody’s old one.”

The previous tenants had left some furniture behind, but Derek had read about bedbugs hiding in yard-sale furniture—mostly in cushions and mattresses—so he couldn’t blame Tim for being cautious. “We’ll buy a new mattress.”

“No store will guarantee delivery by this weekend.”

That turned out not to be true. Derek found one, after calling nearly every mattress store within a fifty-mile radius. So Tim tentatively agreed to the plan. Of course, that meant he had to be at the cabin all day Thursday to wait for the delivery while Derek worked. It wasn’t particularly inconvenient for him, since he was a tech writer and did most of his work from home.

Derek remembered the hunky neighbor and came perilously close to making a joke about Tim not getting frisky while he was at work. Fortunately he was able to clamp down on it before it slipped out. Derek wasn’t at all concerned about Tim cheating on him—that was why he might have been able to joke about it—but the last thing he needed to do was remind Tim they had an attractive man living next door. Keeping Tim’s jealousy in check was becoming a full-time occupation.

R
USS
ARRIVED
home Thursday night right around sunset and spotted the car in the parking lot. Maybe they were spending the holiday weekend at the lake. The brief flicker of excitement he experienced, hoping he might have more company than just Max over the weekend, was immediately quashed by the memory of the cold look Tim had given him. Even if Derek might be up for a barbeque and a little late-night conversation, his boyfriend—
fiancé
—didn’t seem likely to be.

Russ put the thought out of his head and walked down the path to his cabin. There, Max was ecstatic to see him, even if nobody else was. Or at least the dog was ecstatic to be let outside to pee. After that he seemed at least
happy
to see Russ. And he was even happier when Russ laid down a bowl full of kibble for him.

If only men were so easy to please
, Russ thought.

He had a TV and an old DVD player, but no cable—a deliberate decision he’d made long ago—so he picked up his Kindle, grabbed a beer, and headed out back. He sat in one of his deck chairs, watching the sunset from the relatively bug-free safety of his screened-in porch and occasionally glancing down to read a few lines out of
The Fellowship of the Ring
. He’d read the book a million times, so it didn’t really matter which lines he read. They were all familiar.

As sunset faded to twilight, however, Russ started feeling the itch to
do
something. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to take Max for a walk along the paths near the lake. So he set the book down, along with the empty beer bottle, and stood. Max immediately jumped up from where he’d been stretched out on one of his dog beds, fully alert and ready for adventure.

Both man and dog stopped briefly to take a leak at the edge of the yard and then picked one of the worn paths through the pines to follow. It felt like a random choice, but it didn’t take long before Russ figured out where his feet were taking them—toward the cabin Derek and Tim occupied. He hadn’t planned to go there, but he wasn’t at all surprised he’d ended up there either. They were the only gay men within miles. Even if they were both unavailable, Russ still wanted to make an attempt at friendship. True, Tim hadn’t seemed very welcoming, but maybe he just needed to be won over. It couldn’t hurt to ask if they were going to be around tomorrow night and invite them over to barbeque something, could it?

He could see lights on in the cabin as he approached, and someone was moving around inside. He hoped he wouldn’t be interrupting dinner, but it was past eight thirty. They had to have eaten by now.

He knocked on the door and Tim opened it, looking puzzled.

“Oh! Hi!” he said. “I didn’t expect anybody at this hour.”

Russ had to jam his knee against the doorframe in order to prevent Max from charging into the cabin. That put him in an awkward position, to say the least. He was already regretting this. “Sorry. I saw the lights were on, so I thought I’d say hello.”

Tim didn’t appear to be too annoyed this time. He smiled faintly and shrugged. “Hello.” Then he added, “Um…. Derek’s not here, if you were looking for him.”

“Oh….” Max made another lunge as Derek and Tim’s aging mutt peered cautiously around Tim’s legs. “Max! Chill! Sorry, he’s just trying to be friendly.”

Tim looked thoughtful for a moment and then smiled again. “Would you like to come in? Derek should be home any minute now.”

“Um… sure.”

The moment Tim stepped back to open the door wider, Max slipped between Russ’s legs and ran into the house. Russ practically shoved Tim out of the way to go after the dog, afraid Max would do something stupid like attack Tim’s dog—had Derek mentioned her name?—or lift his leg on the furniture.
Why didn’t I think to bring his goddamn leash?

Tim clucked at him and closed the door behind them. “He’s certainly energetic.”

Not to mention embarrassing and utterly humiliating
. “Sorry,” Russ said again. Max had the other dog backed up against the wooden frame of a couch stripped of all its cushions, but she didn’t appear to be in distress. The dogs were merely sniffing, checking each other out.

“I apologize for the furnishings,” Tim said, walking over to the kitchenette. “They were left by the previous owner, but I had to throw out all the cushions.” Russ noticed now that it wasn’t just the couch but also three broad chairs that were stripped down to their frames. “You can come sit in the kitchen, if you’d like.”

He waved at the tall wooden stools gathered around the bar.

Since the dogs weren’t fighting, Russ went to the bar and took a seat. “What’s your dog’s name?”

Tim made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “She’s Derek’s dog. Gracie. She’s very sweet, but I’m more of a cat person and she knows it. We get along.”

Russ looked over at Gracie. Max was doing an excited “play bow”
—
lowering his head and slapping the floor with both forepaws, panting up at her in the hopes she’d take his invitation—but Gracie seemed uncertain. Not afraid, exactly, but Max was a big dog and he had boundless energy. Gracie was clearly used to a more sedate lifestyle. But she didn’t appear to need rescuing, so Russ turned back to his host. “So where are you guys from?”

“I have a condo in Portsmouth,” Tim said absently, opening the refrigerator and pulling Saran-wrapped bowls out to place them on the bar. They contained an assortment of salads, side dishes, and some kind of corn casserole. “Derek moved in with me a couple years ago, when we got engaged.”

He opened the oven, causing a wave of hot air to waft out and brush against Russ’s skin. Tim placed the casserole into it and closed the door again.

“Do you have a date set?” Russ asked.

Tim frowned. “We keep debating what kind of a ceremony we’d like to have. I’d like to do something big and elaborate with all of our family and friends, like Wentworth by the Sea or the Mount Washington Hotel.” Both of these, Russ knew, were Victorian resort hotels in New Hampshire—very beautiful and extremely expensive. “Derek wants to keep it small,” Tim went on. “Maybe just a few friends at a bed and breakfast somewhere.”

Russ didn’t comment, but privately he felt Derek’s idea was more appealing. A quaint little B and B out in the country with just his closest friends? Yeah, he could get behind that idea. Not just because it was cheaper, but because it would be every bit as beautiful as a fancy hotel but a thousand times more relaxing and peaceful. Now if he could just find a man to marry….

Christ
, he thought.
I’m starting to sound like a single girl in a 1950s movie, pining for her Prince Charming to come along
. He couldn’t deny, though, that despite the horrible cliché, he was lonely. Living out here by himself on the lake had seemed like a great idea a few years ago. But the quiet and isolation were beginning to wear on him.

Both dogs suddenly perked up their ears and turned their heads toward the front of the cabin. A second later Russ heard the sound of a car pulling into the dirt driveway, and the dogs jumped up and ran to the door.

“Here he is!” Tim announced cheerfully. “Oh! I haven’t asked yet. I was going to invite you to dinner. We’re having grilled chicken. If you’re hungry, that is. You’ve probably already had dinner.”

Russ was a little worried he might be imposing, but he felt compelled to accept. “Um… sure. That would be great.” He slapped his thigh and shouted, “Max! Come here!” The last thing Derek needed was another sneak attack from his dog.

Fortunately Max obeyed this time. Sort of. He immediately tried to make a U-turn and head back to the door, but Russ reached out and snagged his collar.

When Derek opened the door, his eyes automatically lowered, as if seeking out Gracie. “There’s my girl!” he cooed, leaning down to scratch her ears while she thumped her tail excitedly. Only then did he straighten up and glance over at the kitchenette. When his eyes fell on Russ, he seemed startled. His eyes flickered from Russ’s face to Tim’s and back again, almost guiltily. “Hey.”