Free Curtis's Dads 23 by Lynn Hagen

hard.
    “Friend of yours?” he asked Curtis as he turned back around.
    Curtis cast his eyes downward quickly, shaking his head. “Just someone I knew years ago.”
    Chauncey grunted, looking once more over his shoulder. The redhead had moved on, perusing the books, but Chauncey caught the flicker of glances he was tossing their way. His jaw clenched as he glimpsed back at his mate. Curtis was doing the same thing. Okay, he’d had enough. “Is there something you need to tell me?” Cheating was a deal breaker in Chauncey’s book. There was no way he was going to tolerate it. He wanted to go over to the redhead and smash his face into the bookshelf.
    “N–No,” Curtis answered quickly, his eyes widening as he stared at Chauncey. Something was going on. He wasn’t fucking stupid.
    Chauncey had been around the block a few times, never finding the right person to settle down with. Thank goodness he hadn’t. It would have been a mess when he discovered Curtis. But to be openly checking out another man while he sat here witnessing it was more than the bear could handle.
    His mate had been a little off lately. Keeping to himself, distant, removed. He wasn’t like the man Chauncey had first met at the cookout weeks before, or the man who had offered him his virginity.
    Was Curtis already having an affair? The thought almost made Chauncey’s bear shift and show itself right there in the bookstore.
    “We need to talk.”
    “I get off in an hour,” Curtis said with a little bit of fear in his voice. Chauncey wasn’t sure he wanted to talk now that he had heard his mate’s tone. Was he going to confess something to him that would shatter his world?
    “I’ll be back then.”
    “No!” Curtis said a little too loudly, his hands grabbing the side of the counter, his nails digging into the wood. Chauncey tilted his head slightly as he studied his mate. That wasn’t a look of longing he had for the other guy. His face pulled back in anger as he realized his mate’s eyes held pure fear in them.
    “What happened?” he growled softly. He didn’t care that they were in public. He wanted to know why his mate feared the redhead.
    He was ten seconds away from going to find the guy and beating it out of him when Curtis shot from behind the counter and out of the front door.
    “Fuck,” Chauncey cursed as he went after his mate. He caught up with Curtis outside the bookstore. Chauncey grabbed his mate around the waist, stopping him from running any farther. “Talk to me, hon.”
    “No,” Curtis cried as he wrapped his body around Chauncey’s “I–I can’t.” Chauncey held his mate tight as he walked toward his truck.
    There was no way he was taking Curtis to his apartment. He was going to see his pa. He would know what to do.
    Chauncey drove as quickly as he could to the ranch, pulling his mate from the front seat and carrying him into the house. “Pa!” he shouted as he took his mate to his bedroom. His pa came in, looking between the two as Chauncey laid Curtis on his bed. He pulled his pa aside, telling him what had happened and how Curtis had been acting lately.
    “Let me talk to him. Go sit with D in the kitchen. I finally got him to try coffee, and the little vampire won’t stay out of it now.”
    Chauncey didn’t want to leave his mate, but Curtis wasn’t talking to him. What else could he do? He stomped down the wooden steps, heading for the kitchen. He found D fumbling with the coffeemaker.
    “How do you work this thing?”
    “Human blood.”
    D spun around, glaring at Chauncey. “Very funny. Now stop acting like an ass and show me how to make a pot of coffee.”
    “I thought vampires could only drink blood,” Chauncey said as he walked over to D, setting up the coffeemaker.
    “Yeah, me too. But go figure, I can stomach it,” D said as his fingers gripped the counter, his face nearly smashing into the carafe as he watched the pot drip. He started bouncing from foot to foot as the pot filled.