Twilight: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 3

pressing his fingertips gently into the muscle on either side. When he reached the old bite mark, Bo hissed, his thigh twitching away from Dean’s touch. Dean stopped and raised his eyebrows at Bo.
“It didn’t hurt exactly,” Bo said. “It felt almost like a mild electrical shock. As if you’d touched a live wire to my leg.”
Dean frowned. “Okay, that’s just weird. Even if your pain was from some sort of nerve compression, what I just did shouldn’t have set it off.” Taking the flashlight from Sam, Dean held the beam directly over the healed wound and peered at it from inches away. “I don’t see any signs of infection or impaired blood flow. I guess the scar tissue could’ve maybe entrapped a nerve, but it seemed like that would’ve manifested before now.”
“So what do you think?” Sam leaned back on his hands, watching Dean’s face instead of Bo’s. “Is it anything to worry about?”
“I’m sure it isn’t,” Bo said, his voice slow and clipped like it always was when he was angry and trying not to show it. “It’s probably just strained from the hike. That’s the most strenuous exercise that muscle’s had in a long time.”
Sitting back on his heels, Dean turned the flashlight off and set it on the floor. “It isn’t acting like a normal muscle strain, but honestly, I can’t think of what else it could be. I can’t see anything else obviously wrong. My advice would be to go as easy on that leg as you can, and just watch it. If it keeps improving, we can probably blame it on the climb. If not, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it I guess.”
“Okay.” Bo gave Dean an obviously forced smile. “Thanks for taking a look. I appreciate it.”
“No problem.” Dean put his flashlight back in the bag and pushed to his feet. “Okay, I’m off to mingle with the staff for a while. I’ll stop back by in time for us to all walk up to Sunset Rock.”
“Be careful what you say to them,” Sam told him. “About me and Bo, I mean. I think Anne and Darren suspect.”
“Oh, yes. Definitely.” Crossing his arms over his stomach, Bo pinned Sam with a pointed stare. “Wonder why?”
Sam started to retort and was cut off by Dean. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Do not start fighting about who might or might not have guessed y’all are doing it. Or at least wait till I’m gone.”
Resisting the urge to hit something, Sam clasped his hands on his lap and managed to speak calmly. “We’re not going to fight about that, Dean. I’m just saying, be careful. I don’t think Darren will cause any trouble, but I didn’t like the way Anne was looking at us on the path. She’s an unknown at this point, and so are the employees we haven’t met yet. We don’t want to lose this job—or worse, have one of us attacked— because of mine and Bo’s relationship. So just watch what you say, okay?”
“Okay. Sure.” With a last thoughtful glance at Bo and Sam, Dean opened the cabin door and stepped outside. Sunlight poured in, along with a cold breeze. “See y’all later. And whether you fuck or fight after I leave, keep it down if you want to keep your business to yourselves.”
The door swung shut with a squeal of hinges, and Sam and Bo were alone in the little room. Sam glanced up at Bo. Sunlight seeped in through the woven fabric of the curtains and around their edges, washing Bo in a cool blue light. The man’s eyes, however, were anything but cool. They blazed with anger, frustration and the fear Sam knew Bo hadn’t entirely conquered.
“I’m sorry, Bo,” Sam said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “I really didn’t mean to grab you like that. You know I like to keep a low profile myself until I know someone. You never can tell how people are going to react.”
“Anne knew my leg was bothering me. You were right there beside me when I tripped. It was perfectly natural for you to grab me to keep me from falling.”
“So you don’t think that’s what gave us away?”
“No.”
“What then?”
The corner of Bo’s mouth twitched. “The way you looked at me. The way you held me. Your feelings were written all over your face.”
A sudden surge of fury rushed through Sam’s blood. He clenched his hands in the thick blankets. “And why shouldn’t they be? Why should we always have to be so fucking careful to keep our feelings from showing, just to make other people comfortable? I love you, Bo. I don’t want to shove it in everyone’s faces, but I don’t want to have to