Page 29 of Catching Flynn

Something flashed behind Zavier’s blues eyes. Hunger and a strange kind of wildness Flynn couldn’t quite name.

“Be careful what you offer me, kitten.” Zavier’s smoldering blue eyes locked onto him. “I’m a very possessive man.”

Flynn’s breath hitched, his body growing completely still. The hell? How did he even respond to that? His brain was glitching so hard right now, it was throwing out error codes.

From the moment they’d met, Flynn felt drawn to Zavier. The sensation went beyond looks. It settled somewhere much deeper, more primal level.

It wasn’t only because of his stunning looks. Flynn had felt something pulling in his chest. He’d dismissed it as attraction. Because damn, Zavier was beautiful. But the feeling had only intensified.

“Rains coming in,” a gentleman announced before poking a head of thinning gray hair around the corner. “Shuttin’ down due to inclement weather.” He coughed into his elbow. “Get your refund for the remaining time on your lane at the office. Fellas drive safely.”

Flynn blinked a few dozen times, feeling like he was pulling out of a trance.

Zavier placed the shotgun back inside the box. Flynn studied him, noticing how stiff Zavier moved.

Maybe five recoils to the shoulder hurt, and he just wasn’t admitting it. Flynn had watched him too many times slotting or stacking books. Zavier didn’t do jerky. His movement flowed through a room, the space bending around him. Okay, so maybe Flynn sucks at poetry, but that definitely wasn’t how Zavier moved.

“You okay?” Flynn started toward the table to help, but Zavier held up a hand without turning around.

“I need a moment.”

Lowering to one knee, Flynn gathered all the shells ejected from the gun. Zavier’s five. Flynn’s had been placed neatly on the table.

Still, he’d hit two. That was something. Flynn closed his fingers around the spent casings he planned to frame. Keepsakes from the best day of his life.

Chapter Seven

The storm had swallowed the evening early, dark clouds rolling low over the mountains until the back roads to Crimson Hollow looked more like midnight than dusk.

The air felt thick through the cracked window, charged with that strange pressure that came before rain. Not rain yet. Just static. A few heavy drops struck the windshield every now and then, slow and fat enough to leave smeared trails beneath the wipers before disappearing.

Inside the pickup, soft blue dashboard lights cast dim shadows across the cab. The tires hummed steadily against the pavement, gravel occasionally cracking beneath them when Zavier took the narrower curves too close. Thunder rolled somewhere far off through the hills, deep enough to feel more than hear.

Flynn slept curled in the passenger seat beside him.

At some point during the drive, he’d folded in toward the center console, knees tucked up slightly, cheek pressed against the seat beneath Zavier’s flannel bundled under his head. The oversized hoodie swallowed him whole. Even asleep, he leaned unconsciously toward Zavier’s side of the truck like instinct had decided something Flynn himself hadn’t yet.

Zavier tightened his grip slightly on the steering wheel.

Kitten.

The word rose instinctively now.

His tiger stirred at the sight of Flynn sleeping there, small and warm and entirely defenseless.

That alone should’ve unsettled Zavier less than it did.

Another flicker of lightning illuminated the cab silver-white for half a second, and Zavier’s jaw tightened as the scene at the shooting range replayed again whether he wanted it to or not.

Flynn hitting the second clay target.

That surprised look flashing across his face before excitement overtook it completely. The ridiculous little dance afterward. The way he’d pointed the shotgun dramatically and grinned, quoting Scarface with absolutely no business since he didn’t even know the character’s name.

Say hello to my little friend.

Zavier could still hear it. Still feel him. Bright. Open. Looking toward Zavier first for approval without even realizing he’d done it.

Something inside Zavier had gone dangerously still after that.