Free Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 02 - Out of the Darkness by Kate Sherwood Page A

won’t have told me until I know every damn detail, until I can smell the coconut oil and feel the heat of your sunburned skin….”
“Fine, don’t make me refuse to tell you about it.”
    There’s a pause. “Dude, my lips are sealed. Now shimmy your pretty little ass into some tight pants and come down and flirt with me in front of Blaine. It’ll be fun for everyone but him.”
“Yeah, all right. I’m gonna get something to eat, and then I’ll come down. It’s probably about an hour drive?”
     
“Little less, maybe. So we’ll see you in… well, given the crap you eat, probably an hour and five minutes?”
    “You’ll see me when you see me, big boy. Talk to you later.” Dan hangs up the phone and looks at himself in the mirror. His pants fit right, maybe even a little loose, so Evan can just perv on someone else’s ass. He heads to the kitchen and grabs a slice of cold pizza, then another for the road.
He’s not really sure what he’s getting into at the gallery, but he’s as ready as he’ll ever be.

Chapter 5
    D
AN takes a minute to collect himself before he crosses the street to get to the gallery. He doesn’t know San Francisco very well at all, had to follow MapQuest directions just to find the place, but he can tell he’s in pretty trendy part of town. Lots of galleries and boutiques, and little design-oriented specialty shops. There are cafes, too, although they’re closed now, and bars that are just starting to come to life, filling up with bored-looking yuppies sipping drinks that Dan can just about guarantee are overpriced. It’s a nice place to visit, but he wouldn’t want to live there.
    The gallery is in a two-story building, a sort of split level, with a wide central staircase going up half a flight to the top floor, flanked by two narrower stairways going down to the lower floor. The show is obviously upstairs, with two large doors propped open to welcome people, and Dan sees a couple walking up the stairs. They’re dressed a lot better than he is, the man in a suit, the woman in some sort of flowing pants with a sleeveless top. Dan hangs back, suddenly reluctant. He feels under-dressed, under-prepared. He takes a minute to brace himself, and then hears a voice from behind him.
“Dan? It’s Dan, right?”
    He turns, and sees two of the people he’d met at Evan’s barbeque the week before. He hunts wildly for the names. “Jason? And, uh… Liam, right?”
    Dan remembers that he’d liked Jason, while Liam had been a bit distant, but on this night Dan’s ready to hug the guy because he’s wearing ripped jeans and a stretched-out T-shirt. Granted, Dan’s pretty sure that these are artfully distressed items of clothing, with a sort of rent-boy-chic look, but he doesn’t care too much. The guy’s still wearing jeans, so Dan wins.
Jason gives him the same warm smile that Dan remembers from the barbeque. “That’s right! Are you heading in?” He nods at the stairs. “Oh, yeah, I was just… yeah.” He smiles and starts up with them.
    The gallery is an almost industrial space, with dark wood plank floors and stark white walls, and peaked skylights that must let in a lot of light in the daytime. Right now, the lighting is fairly subdued, with spotlights from the ceiling highlighting the paintings on the walls. Dan is barely inside the door before a girl in a dark skirt and white blouse holds out a tray to offer him a glass of wine, and he takes one, more from wanting something to do with his hands than from actually wanting a drink. He looks around, wondering what comes next, and then Jeff is there, draping a warm arm around his shoulders.
    “Hey, Dan, glad you made it,” he says softly, and then he keeps his arm where it rests as he reaches his other hand out to Jason and Liam. “Guys, thanks for coming.” He chats with them a bit, giving Dan a chance to look around. He’s not sure what’s going on with the public display of affection; he assumes it must be for