Xander
Leaning against the doorway to her office, I eyed Cait. “How’s it going out there?”
“Fine,” she said. “Colin reported back that there was no break or damage done, just a bad sprain. He should be back soon based on his last report. Jake is taking them back to meet the ambulance at the drop-off point.”
“An ambulance for a sprain?” I asked, frowning.
“Better safe than sorry were his words. There was a fall involved.”
“And this isn’t one of ours, right?”
“Yes, Xander. One of ours was hurt in the line of duty and I casually forgot to mention it to you.”
“He let Jake take them?” I asked, flipping the conversation quickly, knowing the scent of danger in the air.
“So it seems,” she said, leaning back in her seat and eyeing me. “He also told me to tell you, if I should see you, that it’s time. I don’t know what that means, and if it involved someone else and not you, I’d be afraid to ask.”
“You should still be afraid.”
“Of what? You?”
I wasn’t stupid enough to answer the way I wanted to. “Do you even know fear?”
“We’ve met,” she said with a smirk. “Now, what was he talking about?”
I had a couple of choices. The first was to tell her the truth, which was not something I wanted to get into.
My only other option was to change the subject.
The problem was that she’d see my attempt a mile away, and that would just add to her curiosity.
And if I tried to walk off, she would lie in wait until I came back and ask all over again.
“He…wants to do a basic exam on me,” I admitted with a grumble.
“Huh, I remember the last time we had someone out here to check us over, you bullied that poor man into leaving you alone,” she said, looking even more curious.
“I shook his hand, and it was covered in sweat. He wasn’t touching me with those.”
“He wore gloves.”
“Not the point.”
“No, the real point is you resist anything to do with your health and yet apparently agreed to be examined by Colin?”
I knew she wasn’t insinuating anything…untoward, but I still felt myself bristle at the nonexistent implication all the same. “Don’t make it fucking weird.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t the one making it weird, though now I’m wondering why you think I was. Has being around all these young guys and your divorce made you eye the other side of the fence?”
“Now you’re making it fucking weird.”
“Yeah, but it’s fun to watch you turn colors. Anything you want to tell me?”
There was only one thing that came to mind, and no way in hell was I going to share that memory.
Which was strange, because if I’d been unlucky enough to walk in on anyone else doing what Colin had done, everyone would have known.
I probably would have shouted myself hoarse and then bitched and moaned to Cait about it after the fact.
So, why was I keeping it to myself rather than doing what I expected of myself with anyone else? For the same reason that the memory lingered in my thoughts, ready to leap forward eagerly…I had no fucking clue.
“He told me I needed to have an exam because I didn’t even have a recent physical. Seemed easier to let him do his basic ass exam because he’s allowed to legally than to listen to him bitch and moan,” I said with a shrug. “You know how his type can be.”
“Not in the way you clearly seem to,” she said with a snort, cocking her head. “You’re not going to tell me the whole story, are you?”
“That is the whole story,” I said. “He mentioned it; I agreed; now I’m going to do it. Easy.”
“Good to hear,” she said lightly, but I didn’t buy her easy agreement any more than she bought my story.
There was no way in hell I was going to admit to anyone, not even Cait, that the new guy had been impervious to my normally intimidating attitude and then turned around and bullied me into agreeing to his demands.
My reputation as a hard ass might not be what everyone wanted, but it was the only reputation I had going for me, and there was no way I was going to have it damaged because the new guy had more balls than I gave him credit for.
Then again, anyone willing to jerk off in communal showers on their first goddamn night had to have guts.
I pushed the thought away. “Make sure Jake remembers that the outpost trucks are not for his hot-rodding.”
“I’ll remind him,” she said.
“Good, stop by my place later and have a drink with me?”
“New stuff?”
“New stuff.”
“It’s a date.”
I chuckled, rapping my knuckles on the doorway. “Good, make sure you look your best.”
“Rain boots and a thick, frumpy sweater, just for you,” she said with a wink.
Smirking, I left her to whatever she was doing and made my way back outside.
There was precisely zero between Cait and me that was remotely romantic.
I had worked alongside her for years, and to the men she was a mixture between den mother and whiskey aunt, but to me she was the only friend I had out here and was like a sister.
The dating jokes between us, done out of earshot of any idiot who might take it the wrong way, had started a couple of years back when my soon-to-be-ex-wife had actually expressed jealousy over my friendship with Cait.
It had been Cait who had made the first joke, and though it had startled me, it had pulled a surprised laugh from me, and I’d agreed that, yes, it was a date.
I had been so sour over the accusation that I was cheating on my wife, and with someone who was like a sister to me, that the jokes were a good way to laugh it off when so few things in my life were humorous.
I heard the approaching roar of an ATV and sighed, realizing it was apparently time for me to make my way to the medical building.
I took my time, but there was only so slowly I could make my feet move.
By the time I rounded the science building, I could see Colin approaching the medical building.
He unlocked it, looked around, and spotted me, grinning and waving.
Ducking my head with a scowl, I made my way over.
Of course the asshole was so pleased; he had got what he wanted after all.
It required some dubious blackmail, which I hated.
It also involved him meeting me square in the face when I was trying to be an intimidating dickhead, standing his ground, and doing it with a smile on his face.
So yeah, maybe he had earned the right to be a little smug and no small amount of respect from me, but that in no way required me to be happy about any of it.
I walked in and sighed when I saw mud splatters all over the floor, starting from a pair of muddy boots left to the side.
Colin appeared from the back room, closing it behind him, and I quietly sighed when I saw he wasn’t wearing pants…
again. He was obviously comfortable being in various states of undress around here.
Which wasn’t weird; all the guys were like that, sometimes right off the bat like he was, but—
But what?
“Sorry,” he said, pants and shirt in his hand as he set them on the exam table, taking hold of his shirt and pulling it off.
Great, he was going to stand there in stupidly short, skin-tight underwear that clung to an ass that bounced as he bent down to pull off wet socks.
Not that I had any business noticing how much another man’s ass bounced when it was of no interest to me.
Just like I had no business realizing that despite his smaller frame compared to the rest of us, his body was noticeably toned, muscles shifting gracefully as he started pulling on new clothes.
“Kind of got soaked on the way over here, and I’m just glad I thought to have a few changes of clothes here. ”
“Good for you, you have at least three functioning brain cells,” I muttered as he bent over to shove his leg through the pant leg. I rolled my eyes when he hopped to get into the pants. “Jesus, do you need to do that?”
“What?” he asked, turning to face me as he stuffed his covered crotch into his pants, which I definitely didn’t notice, and zipped and buttoned them.
“All the…bouncing. Christ, it was like two mini waterbeds,” I said, glad I wasn’t the blushing type, or my face would have been red. “It’s almost as bad as when Jake starts his ‘slinging’ bullshit.”
“His…do I want to know?”
“He…makes his junk bounce.”
“Ah, that, uh…hmm, that would be something,” he said with a snort as he pulled on a shirt.
The look on his face was thoughtful, and I frowned. “Why do you sound intrigued?”
He laughed. “I’ve already seen him naked, so I know how entertaining a sight that would be. Or at least, I have a good idea.”
The amusement in his voice wasn’t a surprise and was, in fact, on brand for what I knew about him. It was the odd tone I couldn’t decipher right away that I latched onto as he finished getting dressed. It was only after a moment that it clicked. “Oh. You’re—”
He gave me a questioning look before turning to go back into the storage room and coming out with what appeared to be a tablet. “I’m…what?”
“Uh,” I cleared my throat, not sure if I was worried about being right or wrong. “Like…Mikhail.”
“Like Mika,” he repeated, setting the tablet on the counter and gesturing toward the exam table.
“Yeah,” I said, taking a step forward.
“Ah,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m sorry, does being born in the eighties somehow make the word hard to say?
Try it with me…gay. Homosexual, if you prefer, but ironically, considering the current environment, that’s too clinical for my taste.
We could go for some slurs if you want, but that seems like overkill. ”
“I can say gay.”
“So it seems. And yes, Xander, I am gay. Problem?”