Heat exploded in Vars’s gut, and he approached Jake in quick strides, twisting his hands in the fabric of the boy’s T-shirt and pulling him up by as relief turned into anger. “You think you’re so clever, attacking a man in his sleep? You have another thing coming if you think I’ll stand for this kind of shit. Touch me again, and I will smash you to pieces!”
Jake pushed at Vars’s chest, trying to shove him away, but Vars wasn’t having it. Fucking brat. The blue eyes and pretty lips wouldn’t be saving him now.
“Okay, okay! Let go of me, you psycho!”
“I’m the psycho? You’ve seen nothing yet,” growled Vars, shaking Jake violently until the sound of ripped fabric crawled down his ear.
He let go when he realized his hands were shaking. He couldn’t have Jake see that.
Jake fled to the wall by the door, holding on to his side. “And I don’t wanna.”
Vars rubbed his hands up and down his arms to hide the tremors. His heart rate was still elevated, eyes still seeking a shadow that could turn into a malignant presence, but no—they were alone.
Slowly, he raised his gaze to meet Jake’s wary eyes. The pout on Jake’s lips was like the embodiment of his frustration, but his body language—the cowering and curled shoulders—told Vars the true story. Jake stood close to the door, to flee if needed, yet of course as a prospect of the Kings of Hell MC, he wasn’t allowed to show fear.
“Are we done here? Even?” Jake asked, as if the confrontation had meant nothing.
Vars’s muscles loosened, and he sat down, with little aches stinging all over his body. Seeing the poorly disguised fright in Jake’s eyes, he realized he needed to offer him some kind of explanation. Throughout the past few days they’d established a truce, which was all about not speaking to one another unless absolutely necessary, and losing that precious balance in the place where Vars had come to start a new life was not something he could afford. Then again, Jake had broken the truce first with his stupid prank attempt.
“It’s not the beard, although I’d rather you left that alone too,” Vars eventually said, straining his throat to produce his normal voice instead of a squeak.
Jake shifted his weight from one foot to the other, watching him like a rabbit would a fox, and Vars wasn’t proud that it made him want to pounce the boy again, for a very different reason.
Vars took a deep breath and gestured at Jake, encouraging him to take a seat. “I don’t do well with being surprised like this. Are your ribs okay?”
Jake hesitated, but moved to sit on his own bed. Watching him struggle with walking made Vars ache in sympathy. “I’m fine.”
Vars stayed where he was, leaning his back against the cold wall behind him. The weak, yellow light came from a single light bulb, but it revealed that there were no threats around other than Jake accidentally exposing things Vars wasn’t ready to share. “It’s because of my ex. The bastard didn’t understand the word boundary, you know? You confused me, and I overreacted.”
That seemed to have peaked Jake’s interest. Of course. He cocked his head to the side but then hissed in pain and returned it to its former place. “A guy like you had a pushy ex? What did he do? Check your phone?”
Vars laughed, knocking the back of his head against the wall. If Damon were just a pushy piece of shit, things would have likely turned out differently. “I guess you could say he believed he had the right to control my life.”
Jake was such a pretty specimen of his kind, Vars found it hard to keep his eyes away from him, and living in one room wasn’t helping with that, but now, when Jake’s eyes became softer and his shoulders relaxed, Vars itched for the touch of that soft flesh. It would have been so easy to roll Jake over and pull down the sweatpants he slept in.
“I’d never let anyone do that to me,” Jake said with the naivety that could only come from lack of experience. It wasn’t like Vars had known how things with Damon would go when their relationship started.
Vars offered him a bitter smile. “I sure hope not, but you never know. When you love someone, you sometimes don’t see the warning signs until it’s too late.”
Jake shrugged. “I’ve never had a boyfriend.” He said as if it didn’t matter, but the vulnerability of that sentence made Vars want to cross that stupid line on the floor. “I’m not really into that right now,” he added quickly.
Vars smirked. “Too many patches to fuck? If I were your man, I wouldn’t like you being available to so many guys.”
Vars lived for the way his words caught Jake’s attention and made his eyes widen slightly.