Running Wild Read Online Free PDF Page B

deeply the man could sleep, when Ri always slept with one eye open.
He slipped in that same window, since Seamus had taken to locking the door, and walked past to the bedroom to pull on a T-shirt and boxers. He liked to shave when he arrived as human, but that would make too much noise and be inconsiderate. He considered lying down on his grandfather’s bed, but post-shift he was, as always, wide-awake.
So he walked back out to the living room and stared down at Seamus. Mostly he was hidden in darkness, but a sliver of moonlight through the kitchen allowed Ri to see his dark brown hair and freckled face.
A strange emotion turned over in Ri’s chest then, something he couldn’t quite identify, but he was glad he had saved Seamus’s younger self all those years ago.
He was trying not to think of the earlier conversation Seamus had had with his horse, specifically his mention of a boyfriend. It set something going within him that he found rather alarming.
“Jesus!” Seamus shot up to sitting while Ri startled back, and they stared at each other in the dark, a just-woken Seamus peering blindly while Ri could see the man’s outline. “Would you stop doing that?”
“Doing what?”
“Looming over me while I sleep. It’s creepy. I do not need you stalking me for Christ’s sake, so cut it out.”
“Oh.” Ri bit his lip, uncomfortable. “Should I wake you up next time?”
“ Yes . Even better, visit during the fucking day and knock on the door.”
Ri preferred shifting at night, and he didn’t like to stay human long, but he found himself saying, “Okay.” Then added, “I apologize.”
Seamus jerked himself up to standing, still angry, and Ri backed up. Then Seamus stopped moving, and his voice softened. “I’m going to turn on the light, alright? I can barely see you.”
“Okay.” Ri hated when Seamus turned on the light, preferred shadows where he wasn’t properly seen or recognized by humans. That was all too late anyway. After two visits, it wasn’t like his face could be scrubbed from Seamus’s memory.
As they blinked at each other in the sudden light, Seamus ran a hand through his sleep-mussed hair. His arm was thick, almost bulky, and quite a different shape than Ri’s, and for a moment, the play of skin over muscle mesmerized Ri. He brought his gaze to meet Seamus’s, to find those gray eyes amused.
That was a relief, better than pissed off.
Seamus’s mouth quirked. “We have to stop meeting like this.”
Crossing his arms, Ri puzzled over the meaning of it and gave up. “We do?”
That charming quirk disappeared. Seamus rubbed his neck. “What I mean is, you need to stop arriving like this.”
Ri’s heart sank. He supposed he’d held out more hope for Seamus than he’d acknowledged to himself. He’d always told himself and his grandfather that the idea of befriending Seamus was a dream. That he couldn’t declare himself to a human. But he’d been toying with some kind of friendship here, and Seamus didn’t want that.
Seamus sighed. “Alright. I don’t know what is going on with you, but I am making coffee. Want some?”
“Before I go?”
Seamus set his hands on his hips and looked up at Ri through his eyelashes. Ri couldn’t interpret that look, but it made his heart beat faster.
“I was hoping to come back,” he blurted out. There was a clutch in his voice, he heard it, and the loneliness that he kept so well contained was suddenly straining to get out. He held still, his own words having startled him.
“You were, eh?” Seamus eyed him, like a specimen perhaps.
Ri didn’t know what to make of it, but he nodded.
“Why?”
He might not be the most socially adept person who ever walked the earth, but even Ri knew this answer was make or break, and he didn’t know what to say.
“Something is going on with you,” Seamus said quietly. “Isn’t there?”
Ri froze. It was that or bolt.
“Is someone after you, Ri?”
It was painful, but he just couldn’t speak. If he started