An Unlocked Mind (Secrets #2)(57)

Fuck. He’s beautiful.

“Rob, come see this,” Vic urged, holding out a hand.

Rob walked over to where Vic waited.

“Look at that view.” Vic wrapped an arm around Rob’s shoulder.

Rob wanted to. He really and truly did. For some reason, however, he couldn’t take his eyes off Vic. He’d never had such a visceral reaction before. Not to any woman he’d ever been with, and certainly not to a man. Vic was all Rob could see. The way the sun kissed his skin, the quirk of his lip as he stared out at the treetops, the relaxed posture. It was all… perfect.

Rob shivered and stepped back, too overwhelmed to consider the implications of his hammering heart, sweaty palms, and desperate need to… what?

To touch him? Be touched by him? Fragments of his dream rose up in his mind: the memory of warm hands, cool eyes. Was I dreaming of Vic? Was it Vic who kissed me? A shudder rippled through him.

Vic turned toward him. “You okay?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.

Was he? Rob had no idea. This wasn’t like how he’d felt with Jamie. That had been purely physical, a reaction born out of sex. He couldn’t use that as an excuse here. He wasn’t seeing Vic naked, so he had no reason for his body’s reaction. Except….

“Rob?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he managed to get out.

“You don’t look it,” Vic murmured.

Rob barely heard him, lost in his own thoughts. From the moment he’d first met Vic, Rob had known there was something special about him. His attitude and charm, certainly. But now? Rob couldn’t help it. He was attracted to Vic. On some deep level, he’d known it, but he had denied his feelings.

Then why am I only seeing it now?

“Fuck,” he whispered. Ebb and flow. Life is going to take us where it wants us.

“What?”

What the hell could he say now? I told you I wanted you, so you already know that. What you don’t know is that I only realized just now what that meant? He wanted to touch Vic, to feel those muscles as they flexed. He wanted those arms wrapped around him again, but not just as a hug. He wanted them to embrace him, to press their bodies together. He wanted Vic to consume him, just as he’d seen the men at Secrets doing with one another.

“I….” Fuck. I have no idea what to say.

“Hey.” Vic drew closer and cupped Rob’s chin. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Rob nodded, but there was a growing pressure in his chest. A gnawing desire to blurt out what he’d realized. A dawning hope that Vic felt the same. Rob had never cared before when he and a girl had gone their separate ways. They’d had fun together and that was all he’d expected.

This? It was uncharted territory. He wanted to know what it was like when another man—no, not just any man, Vic—touched him. To feel his hands on Rob’s body, touching him intimately. To feel as their bodies came together, igniting in passion. To nestle together after in bed, maintaining that connection, clutching one another.

For the first time in Rob’s life, he wanted more of another person. Not just a body to sate his lust, but a person to calm his inner fires as well.

And that realization overwhelmed him.

Say something. Say anything. He couldn’t let Vic glimpse his inner turmoil. Rob pushed down hard on his feelings of panic and bewilderment.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You say that, but I’m not convinced.” Vic reached over, put his arm around Rob once more, and pulled him close. “Are you tired? Do you want to go home?”

Rob put his head on Vic’s shoulder. The aroma of the sunscreen mingled with the perfumed air and Vic’s own scent to create another thing Rob had never really sought.

A memory.

No matter what else, Rob doubted he could forget this day or this man.





Chapter Seventeen


“I TOLD you, I’m fine,” Rob insisted. He knew Vic wouldn’t buy it. Try as he might, Rob hadn’t been able to act normally since his… epiphany.

Vic fixed him with a steady look. “If there’s one thing I’m certain of right now, it’s that you are definitely not fine. You haven’t been yourself since we got home last night. Before that, even.”

Rob regarded him with a calm he didn’t feel. “Well, you wanted me to change.”

Vic widened his eyes. “No, I damn well did not. Don’t even try to pull that crap on me. I wanted you to find your center so that we could build on it. Right now you’re acting like a Stepford Wife, and you know what? It’s freaking me out. I want you to go have a lie down—”

Rob had to say something. “Lie down? We just got up, for God’s sake. I don’t need a lie down. I… I just have a few things on my mind.”

Vic regarded him in silence for a moment. “And that’s what concerns me. Is it something I need to worry about?”

The thought was there. No, I’m the one who’s just woken up to the fact that I’m attracted to you. Vic was blissfully unaware, and that was the way Rob wanted it to stay. Anything rather than be rejected.

Except he had to say something.

“Can I ask a question?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

“Do you… you know, shave your head?”