Sleeping ’til Sunrise Read Online Free PDF Page A

were they like Hutch or Kelly Seaton or Britton Lassiter. They kept to themselves, and so when I ran with Dwyer in the mornings, no one ever just joined us, because he was with me. It was actually very nice.
    “If I wanted to run alone, I would,” he teased, easily keeping pace with me even though I was taller and my stride was longer.
    “Sorry.”
    He grunted. “What’s on your mind this fine morning?”
    “Nothing.”
    His snort of laughter made me smile.
    “Try again.”
    “Yeah, okay,” I huffed out. “Roark Hammond.”
    He squinted at me. “I thought we were holding off on dating until your kid went off to college.”
    “Shit, I know.”
    “Oh, no, don’t get me wrong,” Dwyer said quickly. “I think that makes a lot of sense, and you and the doctor—that totally works, but it was your mandate, so I’m just wondering what changed your mind.”
    I groaned.
    “Need to get laid?”
    “Yes,” I replied honestly. “But there’s more to it than that.”
    “I get it, he’s husband material.”
    “What? No.”
    “What? No,” he repeated with a snicker. “That was so convincing, I think you should get an Oscar or something.”
    “Why don’t you run that way,” I said, pointing out to the ocean.
    He bumped into me, gently, just a nudge of comradery. “Knock it off. I’ve seen the way you look at him, and I’ve seen the way he looks at you. You’re both idiots.”
    “I—that’s not—what makes you… I don’t—”
    “Wow,” he scoffed. “All that?”
    “No, it’s—no. We’re just talking about hanging out.”
    “Oh yeah?”
    “Yeah, it would just be casual.”
    “I see,” he said, his voice dripping with judgment.
    “What?”
    “Nothing.”
    “For crissakes, just spit it out.”
    He shrugged as he jogged along at my side. “Roark doesn’t seem like a guy you do casual with.”
    “Are you kidding? As far as I can tell he only does casual.”
    “Because he’s been keeping himself from doing anything at all with you,” he concluded.
    “And you know this how?”
    His grin was really just filthy; it was the first thing I ever noticed about him. He had been drinking at Wrecked, a bar on the boardwalk, and no one else got near him. I’d left Hutch and Mike, and Kelly and Coz, and leaned close to him. Dwyer hadn’t noticed, but I’d felt the lime wedge hit my back. When I turned, everyone at the table was waving at me to get the hell away from him. But the town was not full of gay men, they were few and far between, and when I’d smiled at him earlier, the openness of the smile I got back had made me brave.
    “Can I buy you a drink?” I asked as I got close, breathing in his musky, and at the same time citrusy, scent.
    He turned then and gifted me with that grin, ripe with heat and sex and daring, and the turquoise of his eyes reminded me of the ocean first thing in the morning. He was breathtaking. No other man besides Roark had me more interested.
    “I would,” he said, his voice a sensuous, smooth rasp that I liked. “But I’m spoken for, finally, and you know how it is when you have the guy you can’t breathe without.”
    I sighed. “Not yet.”
    The laugh lines around his eyes deepened as he turned in his chair to offer me his hand. “Well, then, brother, we better get on that.”
    It was the best start to a friendship I’d yet to experience. As a rule, I didn’t have a lot of male friends, gay or straight, so meeting Dwyer Knolls, having him steer me out of the bar and into his life, was so very welcome. Meeting his husband, Takeo, had been such a nice surprise as well. The few times I had connected with someone, the wife, girlfriend, husband, or boyfriend had either liked me too much or not enough. I was worried before Takeo breezed into the room and first bowed, then took my hand.
    He was quiet and reserved, but not cold, and really funny and very quick, but most of all, his observations about people were so spot-on it was sort of terrifying. It was all