Free The Scientist and the Supermodel by Tara Lain

and be a raging success, I had it tattooed on my shoulder to declare my independence.”
    “The bastards?”
    “My father mostly.”
    “Ah, not your favorite.”
    “No.” The flat, hard syllable pretty much summed up his feelings. Jake must have sensed it. He changed the subject.
    “You like poetry? Did you study it in college?”
    Roan gave Jake a level glance and went back to sautéing onions and tomatoes. “I didn’t go to college. In fact, I didn’t finish high school.” He looked up again at Jake, the PhD, to see how that news went over.
    Jake didn’t seem disgusted. “Wow. I never would’ve guessed.”
    “Yeah, well, I spent a lot of time in the library as a kid. It was kind of a safe place where my father never went.”
    “Is he the reason you left high school?”
    “Oh yeah. He’d always hated me because he decided when I was born there was no way I could be his. But then when I was seventeen, he got wind that I was gay.” He transferred the sauce to a plate and put it in the warmer. “I figured I wasn’t going to survive that beating, so I left. Fortunately, I’d met a guy who gave me his card and told me he could make me a model. Since apparently heaven decided to give me a break, he turned out to be on the level. I changed my name from Robert Andrew Murphy, and Roan Black was born.”
    “A wild thing who didn’t feel sorry for himself?”
    Roan felt tears prickle behind his eyes as he saw Jake’s tender gaze. “Yeah.”
    The tall blond walked across the kitchen and took Roan in his arms. “You’re really something, y’know that?”
    The words were out of Roan’s mouth before he could pull them back. “Jake, who’s the woman?”
    He felt the man stiffen, then try to relax. “Who?” But Roan knew that Jake knew exactly what he was talking about.
    “The woman you care about, the one who you say you can’t have.”
    Jake let Roan go and walked a few steps to the kitchen island, staring at a bowl of fruit. Roan suddenly felt cold. The other man was silent so long, Roan sighed. “It’s okay. No reason to tell me.”
    “Yeah, there is.” The blue eyes looked at Roan like lasers. “If I ever want to see you again, right?”
    Roan felt a clutch in his chest. “Do you want to see me again?”
    Jake hesitated, and Roan held his breath. “Yeah.” He picked up an apple and put it back down. “It’s my boss, Emmaline Silvay. I’ve had a hard-on for her practically since the first day I met her. She’s beautiful and smart and has a great temperament, funny, inclusive, expansive, visionary…”
    Roan felt sick to his stomach as Jake’s paean of praise went on.
    “But she’s also thirty-six, brilliant, and a world-renowned geneticist who doesn’t need some callow youth fawning over her when she’s got the world at her feet.”
    “And she’s your boss.”
    “That too, in a very conservative, religious-based university that frowns on such liaisons, even if she was interested in one.” Jake walked to a high stool at the island and sat heavily. “Plus, I’m now considering the idea that I may just be kidding myself about how she’s the one I want so no other girl will do. Shit, Roan, I just spent the last day fucking a guy and enjoying the hell out of it. In fact, I’ve never had better sex in my life. Maybe I’m just full-on gay and never admitted it.”
    Roan laughed, feeling a little lighter after Jake’s reluctant admission. “When was the first time you were attracted to a guy, Jake? When was the first time you felt like you had to get your cock in a guy or you’d die?”
    The blond looked a little sheepish. “Last week.”
    Roan shook his head. “I shouldn’t tell you this. I should say you’re right, you’re a flaming queen and have to spend your life with me. But in fact, baby, the chances are good that you’re barely bisexual. You feel about men the way I do about women. Every now and then there’s some guy that turns you on, but mostly you just like