Free Solace by Sierra Riley Page A

room, or do you wanna just share a bed?”
    Aaron’s eyes widened, and for a moment he looked incredulous, as if he couldn’t believe Shane had actually said that. If Shane didn’t know himself so well, he might not have believed it either.
    But this was what he’d done. This was how he’d survived. Distraction. Redirection. Techniques he’d honed to a fine point.
    Better still that they usually ended up with Shane balls deep inside of a willing soldier, taking out all his frustrations in each hard thrust.
    He allowed that thought to show through his eyes, smiling at Aaron in a way that he hoped was as predatory as he wanted to feel.
    It seemed to make its point, because Aaron flushed again. Not just the lightest dusting of pink across his cheeks, but full, hot red coloring his entire face and down into his neck. Even his ears seemed a little pinker than they were before.
    Shane took a step forward. Maybe he’d get his chance sooner than he thought.
    But Aaron didn’t stand still, mesmerized by his hard gaze. He backed up and stumbled away, his hand going to the back of his neck. He looked everywhere but at Shane, and Shane held in a sigh.
    Not today, then. And if he was a halfway decent person, he’d be happy with the idea that it wouldn’t ever happen. Their relationship should stay professional.
    But Shane didn’t consider himself a halfway decent person.
    “Do you play?” Aaron suddenly asked, the question bearing down on the invasive silence that had spread between them. A silence even Buttercup had seemed to feel, as she’d tensed at his side.
    Shane followed Aaron’s gaze back into the house and found the object of his interest. A smirk touched his lips. He folded up that strike of lust and tucked it neatly away, striding over to the desk where his laptop sat, open.
    “What, this? I just thought the art looked cool.”
    “Oh,” Aaron said, his disappointment obvious.
    Shane’s lips twitched, and this time Aaron seemed to catch on.
    “So you do play.”
    “Hell yeah I play. I saved for months to buy a laptop that could handle it.”
    He gripped the mouse that rested beside the laptop, and pulled up an application. The login screen for Shield and Sanctuary came up.
    “I got into it right after I enlisted,” he said.
    Back before he’d been deployed. Back when the military was just the easiest option to figure out what the fuck he wanted to do with his life.
    “Do you play?”
    “Since launch,” Aaron admitted in a quiet tone that gave Shane the impression that he was probably ribbed about it often.
    Strike one thing off the list of things he would tease Aaron about.
    He took a seat, and his fingers lit across the keyboard as he entered his login information. A Connecting to Server… message appeared, and Shane leaned back in the chair, draping his arm over it. He looked up at Aaron.
    “Shit, you must have a pretty solid account.”
    “Server full of max level characters.”
    Shane whistled appreciatively. Some of his buddies had given him shit over how obsessed he’d become with S&S, but Shane hadn’t given much of a shit. He’d had every reason to log in and escape. Especially overseas.
    “Which server?”
    “Feral Woods,” Aaron said.
    “No shit? That’s where some of mine are.”
    They talked about the game for what must have been a good twenty minutes. Shane sat in his chair, working the mouse, and Aaron leaned close to see what he was doing. Maybe it was silly, but he felt a certain amount of pride in showing off the characters he’d leveled and the shit he’d done, and he probably could have listened to Aaron talk about his own time with the game for the rest of the night.
    But at some point during Aaron’s description, the conversation took a turn.
    “I started playing MMOs when I was in junior high. I always found it a lot easier to talk to people in game than…” He paused, seeming to realize he’d said more than he wanted to say. But quietly, he finished the thought.