Love For Hire Read online

  Chapter Two

  Sunny warmth on his face, gently stroking his skin… he hummed, stretching languidly, body and mind slowly rising from the darkness of sleep.

  His forehead wrinkled, and even only half conscious, he knew something wasn’t quite right. A thought was nagging him, poking at the back of his mind. Where was he? Surely he hadn’t fallen asleep after his last customer. He carefully moved, still halfway asleep, his fingertips grazing the bed sheets. Soft, silken… not his sheets, then, because never in his lifetime would he be able to afford sheets like this.

  He couldn’t focus on the thought, though, since the unexpected sunrays kept warming his face, stroking his nose.

  And was it daylight already? What was going on?

  He shifted again, his body moving carefully, as if in his semiconscious state he was still aware of needing to pay attention to something. But what? His forehead creased, confusion flittering through his mind while he slowly rose even further from the recesses of sleep. He usually slept deeply, and waking up was a chore for him, which was why working at nights wasn’t such a hardship. He stretched his legs, back starting to arch because every morning he liked to pull his body taut like a well-coiled spring before going lax again when he was finally ready to embrace the day.

  But not today. Why?

  He aborted his movements midarch, body tensing anxiously as he waited for… pain?

  Why would he…?

  He had gotten stabbed!

  The events from the night before crashed over him like a tidal wave. His eyes flew open and then he practically leaped off the bed, totally forgetting about his injury in his nearly mindless panic.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” a strong voice replied from nearby, and suddenly someone was pushing him back down and the light was fading once more, darkness descending yet again.

  He idly noted, though, that the reason why it had been so bright, why he had been able to feel so much warmth on his face, was because night had already passed, giving way to the next day. Judging from how high the fiery ball was hanging in the sky, it must be close to midmorning.

  He managed a confused sort of sound before passing out again.

  When his mind struggled once more to break free from the chains of sleep, he was already aware of quite a few things, making his second awakening in a strange place way less confusing and scary.

  Still, his unease remained.

  He wasn’t ready yet to open his eyes, though, so he quietly twitched in the bed, noting how the silken sheets were rustling, feeling both cool and warm against his naked skin.

  In all his life he had never come across something this sensual, this pleasurable, against his bare skin, and he finally understood what all the big fuss about silk was about.

  He hummed in contentment, a soft smile on his face, moving slightly so the soft fabric slid against his bare body once more. He was just about to roll sideways to try and curl up into a tiny ball when strong arms came out of nowhere, restraining him, locking his hands to his sides and keeping him on his back.

  Danger, danger, his mind helpfully supplied, and he started struggling, trying to get out of the secure grip that had him pinned to the bed.

  Suddenly, the way the smooth cloth moved against his body wasn’t alluring and sensual anymore, it was terrifying, and his struggle only intensified when a sharp grunt above him told him whoever had a hold on him meant business.

  “Please don’t hurt me,” Jayden whispered.

  “Open your eyes,” the stranger commanded, and just as they had been ordered to, Jayden’s eyes snapped open. Terror surely danced in them, and he slowly focused on a blond man with amazing blue eyes, sitting on the bed next to him, holding him down.

  The man looked familiar. For a moment nothing happened, and then the events from last night slotted into place and he made the connection.

  The man… Jayden stopped midthought.

  Gods, what should he call him? Couldn’t keep calling him the man in his head over and over again, and there were only so many references to the stranger he could get away with before his head started to ache. He eyed him, gaze getting caught on the sun-kissed blond hair. Blondie—yes, Blondie would work!

  His aborted train of thought continued where it had broken off before.

  Blondie had rescued him last night. After getting lured to what would’ve probably been his death, this blond avenging angel had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, beating away the dark forces threatening his life.

  Yes, Jayden was aware of how dramatic he sounded, but frankly, he didn’t care.

  A stab of pain coming from down below reminded him of yet another important fact: his injury. His eyes widened even further, and he tried to twist his neck so he could see where he had been hurt.

  The silk sheets, though, pooled around his waist, and only a tiny tip of a bandage on his left side was visible.

  “Stop moving,” the guy insisted. “The stitches are all fairly new. I don’t want you tearing them open.”

  Jayden blinked, and then he nodded, his body going limp underneath the guy’s grip, and eventually, after a few tense moments, Blondie moved away, removing his hands from Jayden’s body.

  Jayden wanted to get up; he wanted to run his hands down his body, reassuring himself everything else was where it should be. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, sending feelers out through his mind, checking to see if he could move all his toes, if his arms and legs were working like they should, if there was any other pain lurking about, waiting for him to stumble across it when he least expected it.

  Most importantly, though? He wanted to go home and put last night’s events behind him.

  Home might not be much, but it was all he had, and those four walls made him feel safe. And besides, Danny would be there, and Danny, with his mischievous smile and sometimes-crazy comments, always made him feel safe.

  He tore his gaze away from the blond god and surveyed the room, fully expecting to still be in the motel room even though the silken sheets should’ve been an indication he was in a different place. His brain was still trying to catch up with what had happened, so it really wasn’t surprising that he was scrambling to keep up.

  “Where am I?” he asked slowly, taking in the wide windows, which seemed to be overlooking a vast garden. He strained his ears. Were those birds he heard singing? The place he and Danny had been calling home for a while was in the middle of a really awful part of town, and honestly, Jayden couldn’t recall the last time he had heard birds chirping in the sun. How could he have forgotten what a pleasant sound it was? Distantly, he noted huge trees, probably quite old to have grown into their current size, and for a moment, he stared at them in wonder. Trees… real live healthy trees. His fingers itched. He wanted to reach out, capture their unique colors and commit them to canvas for the whole world to see.

  The room was fully furnished, but it appeared as if no one was actually using it, because there were no personal items to speak of. On the nearby shelves, only emptiness stared back at him, and it appeared that the easy chair by the window had never been used.

  Even without having a look inside the wardrobe, he decided there probably weren’t any clothes in there either. It was made of dark wood, and he was no expert, but it looked sturdy and expensive enough for it to be an antique piece.

  The floor was tiled and sparkling and his bed was large and comfortable, big enough to allow room for at least two people to sprawl out in it, should they so desire.

  Jayden blinked away some moisture around his eyes, cursing his tendency to let his emotions to run away with him. It wasn’t manly to cry easily—at least that was what his father had delighted in telling him—but no amount of his special kind of persuasion to get Jayden to stop had done any good.

  The blond man was staring intensely at him. Jayden knew if he allowed his tears to fall freely, it would paint him in a bad light, and for some reason he couldn’t figure out, he wanted Blondie to like him and to respect him. His mind supplie
d him with the image of a small puppy eagerly wagging its tail, and he immediately squashed the ridiculous notion, because he wasn’t pathetic enough to fall for someone just because they had shown him some kindness.

  Wait a minute, Jayden thought, fear slowly crystallizing in the pit of his stomach, giving him the feeling that he had swallowed a stone. Why wasn’t he in a hospital? He had gotten stabbed, for crying out loud! Why had this guy taken him home instead? What did he want?

  A strand of dark hair dislodged itself, falling over Jayden’s eyes, and before he could brush it away, a strong hand reached out, doing it for him. This time Jayden blinked in confusion, and when the slender but still strong fingers came back, gently caressing his face before running through his hair, all he could do was look dumbly at the man sitting at his bedside.

  “You’re in my home,” he finally answered Jayden’s question, “and I need your help.”

  Jayden’s eyes widened, because what kind of help could he possibly want from someone like him?

  “The way I see it,” Blondie continued, his voice rumbling through Jayden, sending shivers down his spine. This was just odd, because Jayden had never reacted to a man like this before. As a matter of fact, he had never reacted to anyone in this manner, and it sort of threw him for a loop.

  He stared at the blue eyes of his rescuer. He hadn’t been delusional before; the color was really pretty indeed.

  Huh, was he perchance dosed up on the good stuff? He blinked, trying to gauge if he was on any medication. But despite the pretty eyes, there was something about the guy that had the tiny hairs at the back of Jayden’s neck standing up. He wasn’t given to flights of fancy, but in his short life he had learned a few things. Maybe this made him cynical or world-weary, as some might call it, but he knew a pretty package could hide a mean and downright evil spirit underneath the good-looking mask. And there was something else in those pretty blue eyes: a coldness that didn’t quite match the handsome face.

  Maybe it was a buried sixth sense all humans had when faced with predators. With a slight shake of his head, Jayden dismissed those thoughts as crazy talk. He couldn’t deny that being around his father had always made him feel wary, and even though so far the stranger had done nothing but rescue him, the alarm bells in his head were still going off.

  He didn’t like to think of himself as a rabbit and the stranger as the dog chasing him, but if the shoe fit…. Because this was exactly what he felt like: like a small hapless rabbit staring up at a dog that was getting ready to pounce.

  He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Maybe he had a concussion? That would surely explain why he was acting like a lunatic.

  So with a huff, Jayden narrowed his eyes, willing Blondie to keep on going.

  “You owe me,” Blondie continued. “I rescued you. You’re in my debt.”

  Jayden couldn’t deny being in his debt, but he also resented the calculating way he was talking about having saved his life. Was this a setup of some sort? Had his rescuer been planning the whole thing all along?

  He discarded the idea almost instantly, but he still didn’t like the way this stranger was claiming the favor Jayden owed him.

  What happened to a simple thank you? he wondered.

  He owed Blondie his life, so yes, he was going to help him, but this was no way to go about it. It simply wasn’t polite, and he resented how Blondie assumed he would get his way without even being courteous about it.

  “I apologize,” the stranger continued, his voice slightly stilted, but the deep rumble still did funny things to Jayden’s stomach, causing it to quiver and somersault. The pleasure and attraction from before were taking a back seat in the face of his rising anger. Who did he think he was?

  For some reason, Blondie aborted the sentence, but the somewhat loaded silence didn’t last for long. When he spoke again, his voice vibrated through Jayden’s entire body, sending little jolts of pleasure mixed with anger through his veins, making him quite uncomfortable. Maybe sitting in bed in his birthday suit while Blondie was dressed in neat jeans and a shirt had something to do with it as well. He wasn’t ashamed of his body—he couldn’t well afford such funny notions, not when he was selling what little goods he had—but he hated feeling inferior because of it.

  “I apologize for my uncle and his strange sense of fun. You can be assured I have dealt with him.” After a short pause, and in a more menacing tone of voice—one that had Jayden shivering slightly—he added, “And I took care of his friend as well.”

  Jayden blinked; this information needed a moment to be processed. The attacker wasn’t just some random man? He was the blond man’s uncle? He gulped. What if the uncle was the same man who had been attacking other young men in the area? He had no proof, of course, but thinking back and comparing what little he had heard through the grapevine and read in the papers, it did seem as if the attack on him had been similar to all the others.

  And the cold way his rescuer was talking about it made him uneasy.

  “Are you in any pain?” Blondie changed the topic, and Jayden shook his head before nodding slowly. He wasn’t in as much pain as he thought getting stabbed would warrant, but he was in some discomfort, and somehow lying to the scary man by his side didn’t seem like such a good idea.

  “I’ve had my doctor look you over,” he continued in his sexy voice.

  Jayden’s toes curled as tiny sparks of pleasure erupted from his groin. It wasn’t fair! Lamenting inside his head wasn’t something he usually did, but somehow he couldn’t seem to help himself. How did this guy manage to have him tingling all over simply by talking? If he ever truly touched him, Jayden’s world would probably shatter on impact. How could one man have that much power? A soft whine escaped his lips, but he managed to abort the sound before Blondie could pick up on it.

  Of course the object of Jayden’s lust wasn’t even aware what was happening, so while Jayden was fighting with himself, he simply kept on talking.

  “Thankfully you were only grazed. There might not even be a scar later on. You’ve got a few stitches, though, to avoid you accidentally tearing it further open. They should dissolve in a few days.”

  There was something fundamentally wrong when discussing nearly getting sliced in half only merited a casual tone, no hint of any kind of panic anywhere. What kind of family was this?

  The uncle thought cutting people open was a good way to spend his time, and his nephew had a doctor on call who apparently had no qualms about looking after a complete stranger, no questions asked. What had he gotten himself into?

  The thought alone was nearly enough to have him scrambling out of bed, running for the hills, but then his self-preservation instinct kicked in. So he stayed put, deciding to play this by the ears. Still, he couldn’t help himself; the wariness in his eyes was there for everyone to see. Despite his lax posture, his shoulders were throbbing, knotted tightly with tension, and if he had thought he could do it without being detected, his fingers would have been drumming a nervous rhythm on the mattress.

  “There’s some good pain meds on the nightstand. Take one every few hours but no more than four,” Blondie instructed, eyes never leaving Jayden’s face until he nodded.

  Showing weakness before a predator was a sure way to end up eaten, and while the reference to Animal Planet was probably flawed, Jayden was still convinced the analogy was sound. Even when his father had proceeded to beat the prettiness out of him, Jayden had always held his head high, refusing to let how much he was hurting on the inside show. He couldn’t be sure, of course, but there was something about Blondie’s mannerisms that told him to tread cautiously.

  His fingers twitched while he risked a quick glance toward the pills. He would love one right now, but even though he had never learned how to get used to pain, he had gotten good at pushing it aside until he could afford to curl up in a tight ball, bemoaning his existence. With all of that in mind, Jayden controlled his impulses, keeping a level eye on Blondie’s, not breaking contact
at all.

  Blue eyes stared back at him, and Jayden was once again confounded by how someone could look so nice, so harmless, even, while his entire demeanor clearly screamed danger.

  “You’re probably used to getting hurt,” the smooth voice continued, “but I still want to apologize again for my uncle’s actions.”

  “Uhm,” was Jayden’s only answer, while he narrowed his eyes to stare at the man.

  Contrary to popular belief, not every customer beat up the guy he was using to have a good time. It was an awkward although usually mutually beneficial arrangement, and while yes, there were times when it could get violent, it wasn’t as if that was the norm. And Jayden resented the casual way the man was talking about it, as if this had been a strange career choice of sorts!

  The former stirring in his loins was replaced by a heat of different kind. He opened his mouth to give Blondie a piece of his mind when suddenly a finger was placed over his lips to shush him.