What Hides Inside: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 2

came.”
Sam winced. He hadn’t realized he’d spoken out loud. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I would’ve been surprised if you didn’t, to tell you the truth.” Snuggling closer, Dean kissed the back of Sam’s neck.
“I can’t believe how nice you’re being about this,” Sam said.
“Hey, it’s not like I didn’t get anything out of it, you know.”
“What could you have possibly gotten out of this?” Anger welled up in Sam’s gut, anger at himself on Dean’s behalf. “I used you, Dean. It was a terrible thing to do, why aren’t you mad at me?”
“Good grief, how clueless can you get?” Letting out a long-suffering sigh, Dean unwound himself from Sam’s body and crawled around to sit cross-legged on the mattress in front of him. “Sam, let me be far more blunt than should be necessary here. What I got out of this was twofold. One, I got an absolutely incredible fuck. Which is not to be taken lightly, let me tell you. I am a connoisseur of great fucks, so I can appreciate a high-quality ass pounding when I get one, and I just got one. And that’s not even taking into account the extremely skilled and well-delivered rimming. Excellent work.”
The grave seriousness with which this speech was delivered had Sam grinning by the time it was over. Which was probably the idea. “You said what you got out of it was twofold. Did you mean fucking and rimming, or was it something else?”
Dean took Sam’s hands in his. “I got the satisfaction of helping you let off some steam and work out what you felt.”
Shaking his head, Sam laced his fingers through Dean’s. “What are you, Florence Nightingale or something? How do you manage to get any satisfaction out of me using you to work out my screwed up feelings?”
Dean’s eyebrows disappeared under the thatch of damp, mussed hair hanging over his forehead. “Florence Nightingale? Well, yeah, I suppose. Only more manly. And less prone to wearing black dresses.” He shrugged while Sam laughed. “What can I say, it makes me feel good to make other people feel good. Hell, it’s even fun in a kinky sort of way to think of myself being used as a sex doll. Although,” he added thoughtfully, “I really don’t feel like you used me quite that way.”
The smile faded from Sam’s face. “What the fuck am I going to do, Dean? I’m in love with him. I thought sleeping with you would help me get over him, but I don’t think it’s quite that easy.”
The teasing light went out of Dean’s eyes, replaced by a surprising intensity. His fingers tightened around Sam’s. “It doesn’t have to be that way, Sam. You don’t have to give up on being with Bo.”
Sam let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, actually, I do. He’s the one who broke it off. He gave me no choice.”
“There’s always a choice. Don’t you ever let anyone tell you there isn’t.”
Sam blinked, taken aback by the bite in Dean’s voice and the fierce light in his eyes. “I…I don’t—”
“You said you love him,” Dean interrupted. “Do you, really?”
“Yes.” Stung, Sam tried to pull his hands away, frowning when Dean wouldn’t let him. “Let go of me.”
“How does he feel about you?” Dean continued, paying no attention to Sam’s protests. “Does he love you?”
“I, I don’t know, he never…” Sam trailed off, hit by a sudden barrage of images in his mind’s eye. Bo’s fingers caressing his cheek, Bo’s lips soft and trembling against his, the tender shine in Bo’s eyes whenever their gazes locked across the room, before everything went wrong. The answer, Sam realized, was right there. His shoulders slumped. “He never said it. But I think he does.”
“You love him. He loves you.” Dean’s eyes blazed. “So fight for him.”
“It’s not that easy,” Sam stubbornly repeated.
“Why not?”
“Because. It just isn’t.”
It sounded petulant and childish, but Sam couldn’t seem to help it. He felt a desperate need to shield himself from the wild hope Dean’s words stirred inside him.
“Yes, it is.” Leaning forward, Dean pinned Sam with a penetrating stare. “You love each other, Sam. What could be simpler than that?”
The man’s certainty was infectious. Sam licked his lips, feeling his resistance start to crumble. “I’m scared. What if he won’t have me? What if it’s all too much and he won’t try?”
“It’ll hurt like fuck,” Dean stated bluntly. “But you’ll live, and eventually you’ll find somebody else.”
It