Bad Influence by K. A. Mitchell Page B

Jordan. Like a light to draw me in.”
    The last little piece of bullshit from Zeb’s sanctimonious mouth finally shook something loose. Silver snorted in disgust. “Drawn to wanting to fuck me, maybe.”
    “That’s not true.” Zeb’s protest was instantaneous, but Silver caught the quick glance aimed at his crotch.
    Sitting down or not, Silver knew how to show off. He shifted his weight and crossed one leg so the ankle rested at his knee, lowering his lashes and giving Zeb a shy smile.
    Zeb blinked.
    “Or”—Silver hardened his voice—“wanting to fuck me over.”
    Zeb squared his shoulders, and his cheek lost its dimple as his jaw tightened, though his voice was soft. “I’m so sorry, Jordan. For everything that happened.”
    It wasn’t really an apology. He said it the way people said I’m sorry when you had a bad day. Or at funerals. Not the way you should say it when you were the one who tripped the guy into the grave.
    But maybe Zeb would be sorry. If there was something he wanted, counted on like Silver had needed Zeb back then, maybe he’d feel what it was like when he couldn’t have it.
    Zeb still had an itch he figured Silver could scratch, the look had been plain enough. Wouldn’t take much until the guy was gagging for it. And then Silver could dish out a little payback. Nothing like what he’d been through, standing outside Zeb’s apartment, needing to check with a hand on his stomach to be sure his guts hadn’t actually been ripped out.
    “Yeah. Thanks.” Silver gave Zeb a smile like that half-assed nothing of an apology made the sun shine bright. “So, you want to stay for dinner?”

    Over Eli’s dinner of enchiladas, rice and salad, Silver tried to study Zeb as if he were a guy Silver planned to pick up. After all, he used to do it to stay fed, so it shouldn’t be too hard.
    When was the last time he’d fucked anyone just for fun? Jason? No, Jason had been fun, and things had been good, but their relationship had been as much about getting to stay in Jason’s gorgeous apartment as Jason himself. The boyfriend before him. Austin. Neither of them had had much of anything, and it had been all about having a good time. Silver had sometimes found himself wondering when the drama would kick in, but it didn’t, even when Austin said he’d gotten the job offer of his dreams and moved to Charlotte—never suggesting Silver come with him. Following the announcement, it was two weeks of almost constant fucking and then a Been fun. Have a nice life. Silver had texted after he got the positive test, but the Not Austin’s number anymore was a dead end.
    In the middle of his musings, he realized things had gone quiet, except every time Eli put a dish down, there was a loud thunk.
    Silver glanced over at Zeb, but all the lines he might have used tasted blander than water. Zeb wasn’t a trick. He wasn’t Jason or Austin or anyone else. There was too much history, and it was hard to keep the image of Zeb cutting into his enchilada at Quinn’s dining room table from mixing with the funny, sexy, shy man Silver had fallen for four years ago. No matter how much concentration he poured into hating this Zeb, someone whose rejection had hurt him more than any of the shit that happened afterward, having Zeb here made it impossible to forget that this was also someone who’d once loved him.
    After another noisy meeting between Eli’s water glass and the table, Silver went with a question he actually wanted the answer to. He glanced at Zeb. “How did you meet Quinn?”
    “Last summer we were both working at a camp in Pennsylvania for children with cancer.”
    Sounded like Zeb all right. Good deeds. The Zen bubble he always seemed to float around in was a little more drawn in, like he’d toned down some of the eagerness and along with it the way he’d taken everything as a new way to experience the world.
    Quinn paused with a fork to his lips. “When I heard a teacher in the district was retiring