Free Looking At Forever (The Rock Gods Book 4) by Ann Lister Page A

thoughts.
    Wrap around me.
    The caress I want is from you.
    The pounding of my heart is for you.
    Can you see me?
    See beyond the judgment and the fear?
    To be with me.
    Want me the way I want you?
    Can you see me?
    As the man I am.
    When I’m with you.
    Wheland finished and reread the verses several times, then tossed the pencil at the wall and watched the lead tip break off of it. He leaned back in the swivel chair and held his head. Never had a song hit him that quickly and left him feeling so ripped open and drained. The power behind these lyrics made his palms sweaty and his heart race, not much different than the effect the man who inspired the lyrics had on him. This was too close to home; too close to how he really felt. How can I share this with Rooster?
    He sat there with his eyes closed, feeling the music they’d written the day before combine in his head with the lyrics he’d just written. He heard the bluesy musical phrases wrapping around the emotion of his words and the fine hairs on his arms stood up on end. It seemed without even trying, he and Rooster had created magic. The kind of magic that translated into hit songs.
    Motherfucker!
    Then he remembered the music they’d written was saved on the playback in the digital system. He could lay the lyrics over the music and get a feel for the song as a whole before Rooster ever heard it. If it didn’t feel right, or if it was too personal, he could keep it to himself and Rooster would never have to know about it. Nor would Rooster ever have to know how he felt about him.
    Wheland leaned forward and clicked on the playback; reversing it a bit to hear where the music stopped, then he hit play to move the audio forward. Rooster’s speaking voice... not music, came through the speakers. The words: sexy prick, were loud and clear. Wheland didn’t remember having this conversation with Rooster and never had he heard the man call him a sexy prick, so who the hell was Rooster talking to on the audio track? Wheland reversed the playback a few more seconds and listened again.
    And, there it was. Plain and simple. Rooster going into colorful detail about wanting Wheland to the point of distraction, wanting to be strung up to the rafters in his bedroom, wanting to be fucked in every room in Wheland’s house; wanting him as badly as he wanted Rooster.
    What. The. Fuck.
    Wheland slid out of his leather seat and fell to his knees on the floor of the mixing room. He felt dizzy, as if he might pass out. He tried to absorb the words he’d heard, digest every possible meaning from every conceivable angle, but the end result was always the same.
    Rooster wanted him.
    How could that be possible, and why didn’t he tell me?
    For the same reason Wheland had kept his attraction to Rooster to himself: fear of what that admission might do to both of them.
    Fuck.
    Wheland stood up from the floor and ran his fingers through his hair, and thought about what he should do with this information. If Rooster didn’t have the balls to admit these feelings and get it out in the open once and for all, Wheland would.
    It was that simple and that complicated and fuck if that didn’t scare the shit out of him.

    Wheland managed a few hours of sleep in his bed before the sound of the security system beeping announced Rooster leaving the house for his usual morning run. That gave Wheland enough time to take a shower and be ready for Rooster when he got back to the house. And then, whether Rooster wanted to or not, they were going to have a talk. What he would say, he had no clue, but this conversation was going to happen today.
    Wheland was in the kitchen sipping coffee when Rooster breezed into the house, sweaty from his run. Wheland watched Rooster pull the ear buds out of his ears and toss his iPod onto the counter and then their eyes met.
    “Good morning,” Wheland said. He folded his arms over his chest, holding his mug close to his mouth.
    “Hey,” Rooster said a little