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.It was something close tocomfort.Familiarity.Friendship. I missed you, Trigger! he exclaimed happily. I can t breathe! Carl responded as he tapped at Brandt s shoulder andsputtered slightly. Oh, sorry, Brandt said as he pulled away and held Carl at arm s length. I missed you too, mate.It was almost dull without you around to instill thefear of God into me here and there, Carl told him with a wry smile.Brandt grinned at him and pulled him close once more. Well, as soon as wefind that timer we ll have a spot of fun, Brandt said indulgently. But I need to talkto you first. Fun? Yeah.But no worries, we ve got a good hour before the thing goes off. Uh&. Have you ever been in love, Trigger? What? Love. Uh& not& not that I know of, Carl answered uneasily as Brandt movedaway and flopped himself down on the bed. Is that& is that what you think hashappened? To you, I mean? I thought so.And I think Shawn thought so too.And I think he thought Ithought so. Wait  But I don t know what I m supposed to be looking for and  Hold on  And since we both thought the other thought it then we never talked about itwe just thought it and  But The Archer 245Abigail Roux When we finally stopped thinking it and started talking we were on theplane and  Wally  We never actually finished talking about it so we just went back to thinkingand now something s changed and I don t know what the hell to think and I don tknow what he s thinking and I don t know what he thinks I think and I don t knowwhat to do about thinking that something s changed.What do you think? What? Carl asked desperately as he stared down at Brandt incredulously.A knock at the door stopped Brandt s response, and he and Carl looked atone another blankly before Brandt called out,  It s open.Nikolaus opened the door and stepped into the room, dragging Shawn alongby the arm.Brandt was a bit surprised to see how miserable Shawn looked. What s wrong? Carl asked immediately as Nikolaus let Shawn s arm dropand closed the door behind them. He s a bastard, Nikolaus said without further explanation as he sat himselfdown on the bed beside Brandt and glared up at Shawn. That s all? Brandt asked distractedly. Ja.I smacked him for it, Nikolaus responded.Brandt watched in amusement as Carl walked up to Shawn, looking verysympathetic and understanding, and smacked him on the side of the head. Ow! What the hell? Shawn snarled as he rubbed his ear and glared at thebigger man. I wanted to get one in, too, Carl explained with a shrug as he crossed hisarms and looked threatening.Brandt really liked it when Carl looked threatening.It was such a contrast tohis gentle character.It was sexy as hell, too.Was he allowed to think other people were sexy if he thought he was inlove? Brandt really didn t know.That was another of those tricky etiquette questions.As if lightning had struck him, Brandt s entire body began to sizzle with thespark of revelation.He knew now what was going on in his head.The spark wasback.That glorious flame of slight madness.He d been broken.Driven temporarilysane by Shawn s grounding presence.But now he was back to his good old skewedself, and he could see clearly.In pairs, perhaps, they d needed the added trust ofstronger feelings, and maybe they d manufactured them a bit.Brandt loved Shawn.But no more than he did Carl.Or Nikolaus.Or Remy or Thiago.As a group, they dbeen split apart by their pairings, but now Brandt saw the light and he knew how tofix it.246 The ArcherAbigail Roux Fucking hell! Shawn growled as he looked from Carl to Brandt. Youwant one too, do you?Brandt lunged to his feet and gave Shawn a good smack before the otherman could take back the offer.Then he took him by the shoulders and steered himtoward the bed as Shawn swatted at him irritably. We have to talk, Brandt said seriously as he knelt in front of Shawn.Shawn stared at him blankly. Trigger s convinced me that we re not quite so in loveas we thought we were.Shawn s green eyes clouded over and Brandt heard Carl stammer,  What?I& no& but  When you were sitting out there in the floor letting Gizmo work you over,where were your thoughts? Brandt asked Shawn as the older man looked from Carlto Brandt and back again. What? Shawn asked in confusion. Where were your thoughts? Brandt repeated calmly. I don t& I don t understand. Were they in here, wondering why Trigger was calling out for help, or werethey out there on the balcony having a smoke?XX.REMY stood at the railing, tense and expectant after hearing the sharp inhalation hiswords caused behind him.Thiago moved almost as silently as Remy did.Remy would have toremember that from here on out.He was playing a dangerous game.One that couldvery well get him killed now that he d lost his only real ally.Thiago hadn t moved yet, and Remy suspected the other man could sensehow tense he was.He tried to relax his body slightly, but he couldn t quite manage it.He had to get off this balcony.Now [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]