Free The Boy Who Came in From the Cold by B. G. Thomas Page B

He felt as if he had stumbled on some animal in the wild, was witness to something one rarely got to see. Like coming across a deer in a clearing or an immense flight of butterflies, or a cougar making a kill.
Todd was sexy and scary and beautiful all at once, and Gabe felt himself grow hard at the sight.
     
Of course, that’s when Todd opened his eyes.
     
“Fuck,” Todd cried, and stopped running, which sent him flying backward and onto the floor.
    “Todd!” Gabe leapt forward, reaching for the young man. “Todd, are you okay?” He fell to one knee where Todd lay in a heap. He placed a hand on Todd’s sweaty shoulder. The smell of the young man nearly boiled off of him, all musk and flesh and pits and balls. It did nothing to reduce Gabe’s erection.
    Todd looked up through wet bangs, rubbing his head, face going red. “Jeez,” he said. He pulled the iPod plug from his ear and Lady Gaga’s voice boomed out in German. “You scared the shit out of me.” He glanced down at himself, then hunched tighter, putting his arms around knees. “Damn. I-I’m so embarrassed.”
“Todd, don’t be. I’m sorry. I brought us some lunch and heard you singing….”
     
“Could you give me a minute?” Todd refused to meet Gabe’s eyes.
    “Sure. Of-of course.” Gabe stood, started to turn. “Do you need a hand?”
“Gabe. Please!”
“Sorry.” Gabe found he was blushing as well. “I’ll be in the living room.” He turned and left Todd alone.
    T
ODDcouldn’t remember the last time he’d been so embarrassed. Not even when he’d been staring at his classmate’s dick in the high school locker room. That time he’d been able to pull off a snarky comment to throw off suspicion. But what must Gabe be thinking, catching him running in his underwear and Gabe’s own T-shirt? What had it looked like? He glanced down and saw the wet cloth that clung to his hard-on. Jeez. He might as well have been naked. How the hell did he go back down that hall and face the man?
You gotta , he realized. There was no way out except through the front door and the kitchen.
    Maybe if I stay here long enough he’ll just leave .
Todd ran fingers through wet hair and sat up straight. ( “I brought us some lunch and heard you singing….” )
Lunch. Gabe had brought home lunch. He wasn’t going anywhere. Shit!
    Todd stood, looked at himself again, and knew he couldn’t pull his jeans on over his soaked underwear. Jeez. Even his socks were sopping. He peeked down the hall, and seeing no sign of his host, quickly scrambled out of his clothes, or lack thereof, and into his jeans and sweater. Then, barefoot, he went to face the music.
    He found Gabe in the kitchen, back to him, sitting at the table. There were two plates set out and a wrapped sandwich at the empty setting. Lunch.
    “There’s some sodas in the fridge. I didn’t know what you liked. A couple Cokes, Diet Cokes, some Mountain Dew. Don’t guys your age like Mountain Dew?”
Todd went to the refrigerator and pulled out a Coke. It gave him another second not to face Gabe.
    He saw me running in my underwear. With a hard-on. Jeez. He heard me singing.
    Todd sat down. “Did I break your eardrums?” he asked, trying to make light.
“Huh?” Gabe asked.
“My singing.”
     
“Actually,” Gabe said, eyes focused on his own sandwich. “Considering you were running at the time, you sounded pretty good.”
    Yeah. Right.
( “Hey, Todd! Don’t give up your day job, okay?” )
“I think my stepdad would disagree.”
“Yeah,” said Gabe, then eyed him over the top of his meal. “Fuck
your stepdad.”
     
Todd gave a mock shudder. “I doubt you’d want to. He’s pretty gross.”
    Gabe laughed. “At least you don’t think I’d screw just anybody.” Todd stared at the wrapped sandwich in front of him. “Go on,” Gabe said through a mouthful. “Eat.”
    Todd nodded and pulled the paper open. What he saw looked good. He didn’t know if he could eat it all. He had made a