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talking at once.
"Aw, we embarrassed him."
"He's shy."
"Now we know they have something going on!"
"Sorry, Doc." Telly, who had come to stand beside him, patted his shoulder, voice apologetic.
"We get kind of nosy sometimes."
He took a deep breath, tried to will away his blush, and raised his head. "That's okay. I'm not used
to having anyone I can talk to."
The admission made him feel stupid until Dean grinned and punched him in the arm. "You can
talk to us. We'll give you a hard time about anything you tell us, but that means we care."
He had to laugh. "You're not inspiring a lot of confidence here, Dean."
Ned waggled his eyebrows. "Come on, spill."
"Are you sure you want to hear this?" In Tristan's experience, straight men didn't want to talk
about the love lives of their gay counterparts.
"You don't have to tell us everything," Telly put in.
He couldn't help smiling. It was good to be around people who would accept him. "Okay, I'll
spare you the details. There isn't much to tell anyway."
"You've been here, what, four days? There can't be much to tell."
Dean hooted. "Shows what you know, Ned."
Giving them a mock-stern glare, Telly laid down the law. "Children. Tristan's trying to talk."
"Sorry," the two men chorused, their expressions anything but.
Tristan tried not to burst out laughing again. With effort, he managed to keep a straight face. After
a couple of seconds he brought his mind back to the discussion at hand, which banished any
desire to laugh. "Like I said, there isn't much to tell. When I first got here, he took me on the tour.
We spent a lot of time together the first couple of days I was here. Last night he invited me over
for dinner." He broke off, not sure how much he wanted to tell them. In spite of the uncertainty he
felt today, last night had been incredible. Talking about it seemed wrong somehow.
"Oh, dude. You didn't." Dean gave him a look that was half sympathy, half reproach.
He shrugged, unable to deny the truth. "I did."
"I'm guessing y'all haven't done much talking since then."
Telly's observation summed up the entire situation. Tristan sighed. "You'd be right. I don't know
what to say. I mean, we hardly know each other. I'm not going to follow him around like a
puppy."
"Damn straight! He knows how to find you. Make him come to you." Dean nodded sagely as he
spoke.
"What do you know? You never let women come to you," Ned muttered, sotto voce.
Tristan snickered, a bit of his earlier good humor returning. Dean turned on Ned, ready with a
snappy comeback, and they were off. Everyone's attention drifted away from Tristan and Cam,
much to Tristan's relief.
A few minutes later, whatever game they'd been pretending to watch ended. Ned sighed and said
he had an early morning the next day. Dean said he had to go, too, and they left together, still
bickering about something.
Telly rolled his eyes at their departing backs and turned to Tristan. "Ready for your exciting
evening of laundry?"
Chapter 9
Cam gritted his teeth as he watched Telly and Tristan leave the rec room. So much for going out
with his friends and forgetting about the sexy doctor--and his own unsettled thoughts--for a while.
Instead of a fun night of not thinking, he'd spent the better part of an hour wishing he was across
the room with Tristan rather than here with his buddies from the team. He sighed and pinched the
bridge of his nose.
Waking up next to Tristan had been surprisingly comfortable, despite being awakened by the
shriek of his alarm well before he was ready to get up. It had been even better when Tristan
initiated their little rub-off session. There was nothing better than getting off first thing in the
morning, not that Cam got to experience it much with his love 'em and leave 'em style. What to do
after the sex had been kind of awkward, though. He really, really wanted to see Tristan again.
More than he thought he should. When he'd tried to tell him, though, the words had stuck in his
throat. He'd run off to shower instead. In the shower, he'd freaked over the idea of Tristan leaving
rather than being relieved, so he'd rushed out to kiss him goodbye.
All in all, his behavior had been uncharacteristic and indecisive. Throughout the workday, while
he was prepping for a mission they were supposed to be leaving for tomorrow, he kept thinking
about Tristan. His thoughts ran the gamut from X-rated, to warm and fuzzy, to angry. The plan
had been to sleep with Tristan and get the man out of his system, not think about him even more.
His plan hadn't worked, because he couldn't concentrate on anything else, including the briefing
for their mission.
Spoons's invitation to come out tonight had seemed like the perfect distraction, until Tristan
showed up with Telly. Even then Cam could have salvaged his night, if he hadn't spent the whole
time staring at Tristan like a lovesick moron and pretending he wasn't every time Telly and his
friends caught him. Could he be any more pathetic?
"What's wrong with you?" Dix whispered.
Cam wanted to ask himself the same question, not that he would admit it to Dix. He muttered,
"Nothing."
"You're not still mad about yesterday, are you? I said I was sorry."
The reminder of her crack about the new doctor liking him better as a woman made him smirk.
Tristan had definitely preferred him as a man. "No, I'm not mad. Quit worrying about it."
"Uh huh." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You could go talk to him, you know."
Cam jerked in surprise at the sound of Dixon's voice right by his ear. "Jesus, Dix. You scared the
hell out of me."
Rolling her eyes, she moved away about an inch. She kept her voice low. "Are you going to go
talk to the doctor, or just stare at him like he's a chocolate donut and you're on a diet?"
Scowling, he looked away from her and Tristan. "I don't know what you're talking about."
She laughed quietly. "Oh, come on. You've been crushing on that man since you brought him in.
You warned me off the first day. Does this mean he's fair game now?"
"No," he growled before he caught himself. "Besides, he already left."
"You noticed that, huh?" Her triumphant smile told him he was busted. "So, are you going to tell
me what's going on with you two, or am I going to have to go ask him?"
The thought of her interrogating Tristan about what had happened between them made him
cringe. His shy little doctor would probably never speak to him again if he let that happen. "Leave
him alone."
Her eyebrows went up. "Wow. You're serious. You really like this guy."
Scowl deepening, he glared down at the table. He wasn't about to talk to her about his feelings.
"What can I say? He's really hot." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]