Strolling into the room that they shared, Ryan looked around and found Josh in the adjoining room that had once also been a bedroom in the old Victorian house. When he remodeled the house, Josh had taken out a wall and made a sitting room adjacent to the master bedroom out of it. He’d also added a bathroom with a shower that was unbelievable, having both a rain and waterfall effect. Ryan smiled. They’d had a lot of fun in that shower.

Ryan loved everything about the master suite, but what he loved most was being in here with Josh. Looking over at him now, studiously ignoring him and looking sexy as hell, Ryan couldn’t help but smile. Josh was sitting in the big overstuffed chair with his feet on the matching ottoman. His knees were up and his Kindle was propped in his lap. He was wearing nothing but sweatpants and those damn glasses of his that always turned Ryan on, for some reason. Nobody else wearing glasses affected him that way, but something about Josh and those damn glasses did it for him. Some kind of weird fetish that only had to do with Josh? Strange, but true.

Ryan stood in the bedroom looking at Josh, who never glanced up. “Hey.”

“Mm.”

Was that all he was going to get by way of a response? Yep, Josh was pissed and no, he was not going to make this easy. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier.”

“Mm.”

This was not going well, but he hadn’t expected it to. Ryan paused for a minute, staring at Josh, who had not deigned to look up from his Kindle. “Okay, I’m going to take a shower and then, maybe we can talk about what we’re having for dinner.”

****

Josh watched Ryan walk into the bathroom. Dinner, my ass. Honest to God, Ryan could eat if the world was ending.

Well, he sure as hell couldn’t. He didn’t think he could eat a bite right now. Josh couldn’t believe what Ryan had said to him, couldn’t believe that Ryan would think that he’d be happy about the damage to his hand. It had really pissed him off, but more than that, he was hurt. They’d been together for over a year now and Josh had felt a closeness with Ryan that he’d never felt with anyone else. He’d thought that Ryan felt the same, but how could he if he believed that Josh was that self-centered? Sure, they’d had issues—some that they’d worked through and some they hadn’t. All couples had that.

Of course, a major problem had been Ryan’s job. That was a big one that they’d confronted from time to time, with no solution. Josh wanted Ryan to quit the job for two reasons, both of which he felt were equally important. One was that, of course, he was worried about his safety. The other being that as long as he worked for the police department, he was going to stay in the closet and Josh was tired of pretending that they were just good friends. Not even that, really. Landlord and boarder, who happened to hang out with each other once in a while. They never appeared together at any functions involving the Bar Association or Police Department. As a matter of fact, they’d had an argument about that very thing the morning of Ryan’s accident. Josh had wanted Ryan to attend a charity function sponsored by the Bar Association at the country club and Ryan didn’t want to go, so they’d argued about it.

Any time that they went out as a couple, they had to go out of town, and that was bothering Josh more and more. Damn. Beneath his anger and hurt, another feeling made its presence known. What was that? Guilt? No, surely not. But that little voice inside his head was saying, wouldn’t it solve that problem? Ryan would leave the department and it wouldn’t be because you insisted. He couldn’t resent you for it or blame you. The only person he could blame would be the guy driving the vehicle that hit him. You could live together, as a couple, openly.

No, he didn’t feel that way. He had not thought that at all until Ryan had accused him of it. He refused to feel guilty about a thought that Ryan had put in his head. He was the one with the right to be angry and hurt, not Ryan. Asshole. I’ll just give him the cold shoulder for the rest of the night. He’s already trying to make up, but it’s not that simple. He said some terrible things and deserves to be punished.

About the time that Josh had made up his mind to ignore Ryan, the subject of his thoughts came out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. He watched Ryan’s tight, round ass as he walked toward the bed. One thing was for sure, he’d kept his body in shape during his recuperation and he was sexy as hell. Josh felt his cock responding. Stop. We’re mad and hurt and we’re not doing that tonight.

This had to stop, since he was now talking to his dick. He just wouldn’t look at Ryan. He picked up his Kindle and began reading again. Two sentences. He’d read two sentences when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the towel drop to the floor. Damn it to hell. He was trying not to look as Ryan crawled onto the bed, but it was a struggle.