Chapter 15

 

Sven woke early and stared in confusion at the blue wall he faced. It took him a moment to remember he’d spent the night in Geoffrey’s bed. The man had scrunched up against his back, throwing one arm over his waist. Sven rolled over, expecting he’d wake, but Geoffrey was dead to the world with one cheek smashed into the pillow, his mouth slack, hair flopping over one eye. Smiling, he tugged Geoffrey close. Burying his nose in his soft blond hair, he breathed Geoffrey in deep as he stroked his hand down his smooth back.

He was crazy about the man’s skin. It was beautiful and silky. He loved the soft blond hair on his legs. He’d thought Geoffrey bleached the hair on his head until he’d gotten him naked. He wanted to touch him all the time and having him so close and still smelling like sex woke other parts of Sven’s body. Hoping to wake him, he pulled Geoffrey onto his chest and chuckled when he still didn’t. He merely sprawled, arms and legs on either side of Sven—complete deadweight. Some of Sven’s chest hair must have tickled his nose because he wiggled it.

Yet he slept on, releasing a soft snore.

They’d worn each other out the night before, so Geoffrey apparently needed more sleep. Sven rolled him back to his side and slid out of the bed, chuckling when Geoffrey nestled into the warm spot he’d left. Sven looked around the floor, frowning until he remembered they’d left their clothes upstairs. He sure as hell wouldn’t fit into anything of Geoffrey’s, so he strode naked out of his room and got halfway through the living room before he realized Royce was sitting out back by the pool.

The asshole grinned and gave him a thumbs-up, not bothering to hide the fact that he was looking at all of Sven. Sven rolled his eyes and continued to the guest room. When he walked outside, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt—technically it was his day off—Royce was still smirking.

“Guess I can see why you forgot I was coming in to relieve you early. Don’t worry, I made the outdoor rounds already and all looks good. Except for the big-ass delivery on the front porch.” Royce leaned back on the plush black pillows on the white outdoor couch. His grin faded as he scrutinized Sven’s face more than he liked. “So, you and the golden boy, huh?”

Sven nodded slowly, not really sure what to say. He was still breaking the rules, but because he’d come clean with Rowe, he didn’t feel bad about it. Hell, he’d dropped all his rules at this point and his long-time worry over being with someone so much smaller had all but disappeared. Geoffrey had proved he was up for anything.

He thought about leaving Royce to the job and crawling back into bed.

Royce crossed his tattooed arms. “Good for you, Larsen. I knew you liked him, but could never see why you held back when he made it obvious he wanted you.” He laughed, the sound dark and low. “But damn, you’re going to have your hands full with that one.”

“No doubt,” Sven answered, looking forward to every crazy moment of it.

He eyed Royce, taking in the circles under his eyes and wondering what was happening in his private life. He’d hung out with the man, but Royce wasn’t one to share anything outside of work. The only things he knew about him were that he lived alone and he had the hots for buttoned-up, accountant-looking types. Sven had more than once watched him lure men like that home with his bad boy sneer.

Sven settled across from him on one of the wicker love seats and started to put his feet on the coffee table, but changed his mind because it looked thin.

Royce followed his gaze. “That’s the most ridiculous table I’ve ever seen. Outdoor furniture should be built for rowdy times. What purpose does this tiny table serve?”

Sven was about to make a quip about how small Geoffrey was but he lost Royce’s attention. The man looked at something over Sven’s shoulder, his eyebrows climbing his forehead and true pleasure darkening his eyes. Sven turned to see a naked Geoffrey padding through the room toward the stairs. He aimed a fierce frown back at Royce.

“Damn, Sven. Handful or not, your boy is gorgeous.”

“And off limits.”

Royce scowled. “You don’t have to warn me off him, Sven. I don’t go where I’m not welcome.”

He knew that—he did. But Geoffrey raised something unfamiliar in Sven. He really could take care of himself with his self-defense training, but there was a vulnerability to the man that raised Sven’s every protective instinct. And it was one of the things that attracted Sven so much. Geoffrey just seemed to go with those parts of himself.

One of the sliding glass doors opened, and Geoffrey came out wearing those ridiculously sexy pajama pants and nothing else. His gaze latched on to Sven, his half-asleep smile sending butterflies into Sven’s belly. He couldn’t help but smile back. Geoffrey curled up on the seat next to him, his head on Sven’s chest, his hand going up under his T-shirt to rest on his belly. Sven couldn’t stop himself from kissing the wavy blond hair, not giving a shit what Royce thought.

Geoffrey rested his weight against Sven—felt like he was still mostly asleep. “Did you make coffee?” he asked, voice slurred and rusty.

Royce pointed behind them. Sven glanced over his shoulder to see three tall cups of coffee in a holder.

“I brought some. They’ll need to be zapped because someone forgot I was coming.”

When Geoffrey didn’t move, Sven chuckled and tightened his arm around him. Geoffrey patted his stomach, hand still under his shirt and raised his face for a kiss that Sven didn’t mind giving him at all. Their lips lingered together.

“How about I zap the coffee and give you guys a couple of minutes to get that out of your system?” Royce stood and walked around them.

“It’ll take more than a couple of minutes,” Geoffrey murmured against his mouth. “Good morning. I missed you when I woke up.” He leaned back and grinned. “Did you try to wake me? I should warn you I sleep like the dead. If I ever have a house fire in the middle of the night, I’m toast.”

“You also cuddle.”

“I’m a heat-seeking missile when I’m out. I didn’t get that lucky inner high temp that most guys have, so I tend to burrow and you’re wonderfully warm.” He slumped back against Sven and was quiet.

Sven watched the sun sparkling on the pool, content to just sit and hold the man.

Royce came back out, cell phone in hand and set the holder of coffees on the coffee table. “Did you place a big order for delivery, Geoffrey? There’s a large box on the porch.”

He nodded and yawned again.

Quinn’s tinny voice came out of the phone. “Put me on speaker, Royce!”

“Gotta give me time, squirt,” Royce said as he messed with his phone and set it on the table, too. He settled back on the couch.

“What have I said about that nickname? I hate it.” Quinn’s voice came louder through the speaker.

Royce didn’t answer; he just grinned lazily at his phone.

“Can Geoffrey hear me?”

“I’m here.” Geoffrey took the lid off his coffee and blew on it. “Spill.”

“Okay, here’s the rundown of what we have so far. We’ve ruled out a bunch of the people you hang out with regularly, though we still have a few more to study. You have a lot of friends.”

“They’re not friends,” Sven said.

“They’re not,” Royce agreed with a fierce scowl that told Sven he’d seen the reactions to that video.

Geoffrey must have had the same thought because the memory of that video and the comments obviously hit him. His shoulders slumped and his face lost the sleepy affection it had held before.

Anger once again burned through Sven like fire. He patted his chest and Geoffrey gratefully slumped back against him.

Quinn spoke again. “With everyone Gidget and I’ve managed to rule out, there are a few we now have on a list of suspects. God, I love saying that.” He laughed. “I was hoping to discuss my top three with you.”

“Sure,” Geoffrey said, covering his mouth as he yawned. “Who are they?”

“Patrick Klein, your ex Brendon Somerville, and Kody Muse.”

Geoffrey snorted. “Nope. A big nope to all of them. Utterly impossible. Try again, Q-Man.”

“I’m not saying my list is perfect, but these are the three who are closest to you,” Quinn said. “The ones with the easiest access to you.”

“It would make Sven’s job a little easier if he knew for sure that these three men weren’t trying to hurt you,” Royce added.

Sven looked over Geoffrey’s head at the other bodyguard and just smirked. That was a damn dirty trick, but the loud, disgruntled sigh meant that it had worked.

“Okay, but I really don’t think it could be Brendon at all.” Geoffrey pulled away from Sven, shifting so that he was sitting on the edge of the seat closer to the phone. “He’s not that bright when it comes to computers. Hacking my accounts? Editing that video? He’d have to hire someone for that.”

Quinn snorted loudly. “I don’t know what you saw in that dweeb, by the way. He’s an asshole. Have you spent any time at all on his Facebook page? He has absolutely no ability to discern which news organizations are real and just randomly reposts the most ridiculous alarmist shit.” There was a clatter in the background and loud laughter. “Ignore the noise. I brought a laptop downstairs. Noah bet Andrei he could out-lift him.”

“They always wait to do the fun stuff when I’m not there,” Royce grouched. An eyebrow went up. “Are they doing it shirtless?”

“Why do you think I’m down here?”

“Take a picture,” Geoffrey blurted out.

Quinn ignored the request. “Anyway, Brendon may be jealous and have plenty of motive. But you’re right, he knows nothing about computers. He uses freaking password1234 as his damn password for several accounts.”

“Quinn,” Sven said in a low, warning voice. Rowe had set very strict parameters on where Quinn and Gidget were allowed to hack. Brendon might be on their list of suspects, but unless Quinn had solid proof that Brendon was the stalker, it was unlikely that Rowe would have set him free to play in Brendon’s accounts.

“What?” Quinn’s voice jumped several octaves. “It’s not hacking if you use a stupid password like that. It’s like you’re asking for other people to access your accounts.”

Geoffrey twisted around to look at Sven with a sheepish grin. “I’ve gotta agree with him on that one. If you want to protect your stuff, you’ve got to at least put a little effort in.”

“Anyway…I honestly can’t see Brendon knowing how to erase his footprint from videos, much less hack into so many sites. Not only was that video posted on your pages, whoever did this hacked other sites and uploaded it.” Quinn cleared his throat. “I’m so sorry, Geoffrey.”

“Not your fault. And it’s not mine either—no matter what all those assholes are saying.” Geoffrey shifted back and snuggled under Sven’s arm, his hand going right back up under his shirt.

Fuck, he was adorable. Sven squeezed him.

“We’ll check Brendon’s accounts and keep an eye on him to see if there’s any indication that he might have hired someone to hack you. If nothing shows up, he’s off the list of suspects.” The sound of Quinn typing on his keyboard was briefly muffled by the sounds of shouts and cheering for several seconds before Quinn spoke again.

“Patrick Klein is an IT specialist for Quantum Networks, which provides technical services to companies such as building servers, networks, websites, and even security. If anyone has the skills to hack your accounts and possibly even manipulate video, it’s Patrick. I have no doubt that he knows how to pull markers from video.”

“Patrick is dating Sean. They’ve just started living together,” Geoffrey said. He shook his head, rubbing it against Sven’s chest. “It doesn’t make any sense for him to stalk me.”

“Unless he’s obsessed with you,” Sven said.

“He’s very handsy with you,” Royce added. “I saw it at the club. He always has to be touching you, and you don’t look comfortable with it.”

With a groan, Geoffrey shoved to his feet, frowning down at Royce, who didn’t at all look perturbed. “That’s just how Patrick is. He’s one of those touchy-feely people. Like me. He touches everyone. That’s not a crime.”

“It’s worse with you,” Royce countered.

Sven leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees as he looked up at Geoffrey. “He also stopped by after the video was released to see you. He was very pushy about seeing you.”

“He’s a nice guy.” Geoffrey’s hands flew out in his agitation. “Nice people do things like check up on their friends when they are hurting. He can’t be the stalker.”

Sven reached up and gently wrapped his hand around Geoffrey’s wrist, drawing his wide blue eyes back to him. There was anger in his voice, but those eyes were filled with pain. “You’re probably right about Patrick, but we need to think logically about this. Your stalker has strong technical skills that aren’t easy to come by. Patrick fits that description. We should check him just for your safety. He’ll never have to know.”

A soft sigh slipped from Geoffrey before he sat back down. “Yeah, I know you’re right. It’s not like we’re close. It’s just…he’s a nice guy.”

“That leaves us with Kody Muse,” Quinn said. “And honestly, I’m not liking this guy.” There was a fresh clatter of keys. “Kody doesn’t have a lot of useful information. He has only a Facebook and Instagram account that I’ve found, and both pretty damn impersonal. Just the usual posts of food and some random memes. Nothing that shows family or even what he does for a living.”

Geoffrey snuggled up against Sven’s side again, but he could still feel the lingering tension in his slender frame. He hated putting Geoffrey through this, but he wanted to keep him safe. “He told me that he’s an independent contractor. He works short-term contracts building networks or working on some coding here and there. He mentioned going up to the Hamptons in the fall, so I always got the impression that he comes from money.”

“How did you meet Kody?”

“Like I met most of them—Instagram. He just started showing up at gatherings.”

“Wait, he appeared and instantly became a member of your friends?”

“They’re not—” Sven started but Geoffrey broke in.

“Yeah, yeah, big guy, we know they aren’t my friends.” Geoffrey stroked those slim fingers over his abs. “Like a dog with a bone, you are.”

“Channeling Yoda aside,” Quinn broke in. “There’s something about him nagging me like crazy, but I can’t figure out what. It’ll come to me when I’m gaming later.”

It was an inner-office joke that Quinn quit work with puzzles and returned with them solved. He’d told Sven he was able to solve problems or figure out strategies while gaming and for the last few months, he’d been gaming in the office at night. Rowe was cool with it, but they’d all been wondering why he didn’t like to go home to the apartment he shared with two other guys. Sven, often early to the office, had caught him napping on the couch in the roomy office space he shared with Gidget.

“When did he show up?” Royce asked.

It took Geoffrey a few moments to answer. “I think about two years ago. He was with a big group we had at Shiver. We spent most of the night swapping stories about how we learned to code. Had some laughs. We hit it off so he started showing up at all our hangouts. But why would he wait all this time?”

“Because crazy people don’t make sense. Think back. When did the stalker messages start appearing?”

Geoffrey sat up and grabbed his coffee, but just held it between his hands. He stared at the pool, his forehead bunched in thought. His back went tense. “Around the time Brendon and I stopped seeing each other. But the messages didn’t start threatening. They were kind of creepy, but got worse just before that night I was drugged at the club.”

“It looks like Patrick and Kody have the skills needed to pull off the tech stunts we’ve seen so far. We’re going to filter all their comments and see if we can match a pattern to the messages. Gidget is going to look into digging up more of Kody’s past. I’m going to dig around on Patrick and have Rowe keep eyes on Brendon for a while longer.”

“Anything else?” Sven asked.

“That’s it for now. We’ll call again if we get more.”

Royce shut off his phone. “I’ll go grab the big box off the porch. You care if I open it and make sure it’s what you ordered? Anything racy I can enjoy?” He winked.

“I saved ordering the life-sized sex toys and fifty-five-gallon drum of super lube for next week. Fortunately, these are just step stools.”

“As in more than one?” Royce asked.

Geoffrey nodded and flashed Sven a cheeky grin. “One for every room in the house.”

Royce groaned and went inside when Sven laughed and pulled Geoffrey onto his lap for a kiss.