Chapter 241
Chris was too close. Scooter took a step back. His mouth was so dry.
“I understand you’re having a little bit of family difficulty,” Chris said, so smooth that for a moment, Scooter had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. “What if I told you I could make all of that go away?”
“Make what go away?”
“I’m sorry, darling,” Chris said, smoothing one finger down Scooter’s cheek and jaw. “I didn’t know about your sister when I was here last time. Such a burden sometimes, children.”
It was like they were having two entirely different conversations. Chris stepped forward again and sooner than Scooter would have liked, he found himself pressed up against the wall of his office. “Chris, I don’t—”
“You need my help, darling,” Chris said. His hand was in Scooter’s hair now, stroking at the long strands. “You just want all this to go away, right? I can do that for you.”
“It’ll be fine,” Scooter said. “We’re not doing anything wrong—” How did Chris even know about this? A bucket of ice water poured down his spine and Scooter closed his eyes, shuddering. “You. It was youwho sicced CPS on us.”
“I don’t know what you could possibly mean, darling.” Chris was pressing closer now, hand on Scooter’s chest, pushing him back. Chris’s thigh was between Scooter’s legs, hot and muscled. “I’m offering my influence to help you get rid of the problem.”
“Why?” Scooter’s voice came out as a mere whisper. “What did I ever do to you that you hate me so much?”
“Darling, my darling,” Chris said, petting him. Scooter was sick with dread. He didn’t know how to fight this, the fear that rose up inside, threatening to drown him. “Losing you was where everything started to go wrong. I was wrong, I should have seen how good you were. You…you were everything good in my life and I didn’t even realize it.”
Scooter forced himself to look at Chris. “You’re blaming me,” he said. “For Stefanie. For the divorce. For your kids realizing what an asshole you are. You’re blaming me for that?” His heart was hammering so hard he could feel it in his wrists, behind his ears. “What the hell, Chris?”
“It was always you,” Chris said, and Scooter wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but Chris was embracing him, holding him, and his arms went around the man’s shoulders, as if Chris were in need of comfort. “I just want it back, darling, like it was. When it was easy. When you loved me.”
Scooter stared at the man in his arms. Did Chris know nothing? Had he been spinning a completely different story in his head than the history that Scooter remembered? “It was never—”
Chris put a finger over Scooter’s lips. “Don’t. Don’t you deny me, not again,” Chris said, and his eyes twinkled, but it was a hard twinkle, cold. Like winter sun on mica. “You come back to me. And it’ll all go away. But if you don’t. If you deny me again, I will make your life empty and meaningless and devoid of everything. Just like mine. Child Protective Services is just the tip of what I can bring down on your head. You want to lose your husband? Your kid? Your business? Want to go back to jail? You think I can’t bring everything down around your ears like a house of cards, you want to think really hard about that before you say another goddamn word to me that sounds like no.”
Chris’s hand finished traveling down Scooter’s chest, cupped his dick through his jeans. Scooter moaned, scared, angry, not the least bit hard. Chris kissed him like Scooter was succumbing to being seduced. Scooter reached out, groping at his desk until his fingers found cold brass metal. He grabbed the handle of the letter opener.
“That’s it,” Chris whispered, encouraging. His mouth left trails down Scooter’s skin to his throat. “I knew you’d make the right choice. It’s always been you, darling. I—”
His hand moved between Scooter’s legs and Scooter twisted the letter opener in his grasp.
“Get your fucking hands off me!” Scooter snarled. He brought the letter opener down, hard, on Chris’s arm. The tip of the blade skittered down Chris’s skin. Scooter hadn’t realized that tearing skin had a sound, like the faintest whisper of a zipper. Almost lost under Chris’s sudden scream, breathless and pained.Blood welled, dripped down. Everything slowed down, Scooter watched the blood splatter on the floor, two, three large, fat droplets. He stared at the blood and it was Ripton all over again, the fierce, furious joy and the sickening realization that Scooter was a monster
The letter opener spun like a magician’s trick as it fell from his hand. It clattered on the floor.