«This boy has been in such trouble, so lonely for you.» She nodded toward Peter. «And now keeping time with young California boys who play cellos! Goodness. Where were you at Christmas? We were expecting you. You need to stay close for awhile, Sebastian.»

«I intend to, Elsie.» He glanced briefly at Peter, his eyes shadowed. «Listen, about those puppies in the kitchen. I'm gonna build them a pen out back later today, I promise.» «Either of them look like leaders?»

«Maybe,» he said. «They're Queenie's pups. But I brought them for Sam and James. It's time for them to get started with dogs.» Elsie's A-1 Cleaning had been one of Sebastian's earliest sponsors.

«It's too much to suppose I'll ever have any privacy, living in this town,» Peter said, climbing the stairs ahead of Sebastian. «I wonder if Elsie knows anyone who might be a rapist.»

«Privacy?» Sebastian said the word as if he was speaking in a foreign tongue. «I don't think you're going to have any privacy from the woman who changes your sheets.» His voice was wooden, and Peter watched him carefully.

He didn't really understand the way Sebastian was acting. It wasn't like him. Normally when they had a fight, Sebastian would take a chain saw and cut down a few trees, chop a couple of cords of firewood, stack it, and by the time he was done, he'd be over it. He seemed to be doing a lot of thinking over the last couple of days. «We need to put Elsie on Susan's fingerprint list of people Jacob met.»

Sebastian snorted. «Elsie didn't kill Jacob. She was at Tiny's, wearing her blue suede shoes, when some bastard killed him.»

«I know she didn't do anything, but that's a good example of how easy it could be to miss someone. And have you asked Susan if you can give the twins puppies? I mean, she has plenty on her plate already, Sebastian.»

«I don't want to talk about this right now, Peter.» Sebastian took him by the wrist, pulled him into the bedroom and closed and locked the door. A gentle shove against his chest, and Peter found himself with the door at his back. Sebastian loomed over him, a hand on either side of his head, pinning him in place. He felt a flutter of nerves, but he melted into a warm puddle when Sebastian smiled into his eyes and said, «Holy heart attack, Batman.»

Sebastian picked up Peter's right hand, pressed a kiss into the palm, and Peter felt the strange tickle of erotic feeling zipping around in his chest, down into his knees, and he had

to reach behind him and put his other hand flat on the wall when Sebastian took his fingers into his mouth, sucked on them one after the other, the tip of his tongue circling. His teeth nipped down on Peter's forefinger, and they stared into each other's eyes. «Your fingers taste like you've been peeling a tangerine.»

Sebastian looked curiously intent, concentrating on Peter's face, and Peter lowered his eyes, feeling heat stain his cheeks. Why did he feel so shy all of the sudden? This was Sebastian, after all. They'd been lovers forever. What…

Sebastian was tracing the lines of his face now, two fingers trailing across Peter's forehead, down his cheek, across his jaw and chin. They dropped to his throat, then Sebastian slid his hand inside the collar of Peter's shirt, moved the back of his fingers along the collarbone. «What are you doing?» Peter whispered.

Sebastian put his free hand back against the door, beside Peter's head. «I'm going to seduce you.»

Peter laughed in surprise and Sebastian leaned in and took his mouth, used his big body to press Peter back against the door. His tongue moved into Peter's mouth with that combination of urgency and arrogant need that had always found its way past any meager resistance Peter might have felt. He had never been able to refuse Sebastian anything. A knee between his legs, and Sebastian's hard thigh pressed into his groin.

But Sebastian didn't reach for his belt buckle, didn't reach for his cock, straining against the velvet-soft corduroy trousers. He just tugged Peter into his arms, held him closer and closer, kissing him like they had days to spend kissing, like warm, wet winds and Hawaiian sunshine were filling their rooms with the smells of tropical flowers, and when Sebastian lifted his head, Peter clung to him, his knees wobbly.

«So what are you doing?» he asked again, resting his forehead against Sebastian's big chest.

Sebastian took him under the chin and lifted his head until they could look at each other. «I want you to fall in love with me again, Peter.» «Sebastian, I've always loved you. Don't be silly.» «Then I don't understand.»

And Peter realized Sebastian was asking him about Jacob. He was asking for the truth about Jacob. «I was lonely,» Peter whispered.

Sebastian nodded. «This is all my fault. I was out chasing my dreams, and I just…took for granted that you would be here. Give me a chance, Peter. Please. A chance for us. I want you to love me again.» And Sebastian reached for his mouth, kissed him as sweetly as if it were their first time.

Sebastian tugged the shirttails out of Peter's trousers, unbuttoned his shirt from the bottom up, stopping to run his hands against Peter's stomach, laughing when Peter tried to suck it in. «Oh, please. I already know what you look like.» He leaned closer and whispered, «And I like it like that.»

When Sebastian had the shirt unbuttoned he pushed it off Peter's shoulders, down his arms, held his wrists captive with the shirt sleeves. Then he lowered his head, traced a circle around Peter's nipple with his tongue. Rough heat, then the velvet of his lips. Sebastian sucked a nipple into his mouth, and the throb between Peter's legs was so intense it was almost painful. Sebastian moved his hands to Peter's bare back and held their bodies together.

Peter tugged the shirt off his wrists, turned it right side out and laid it neatly on the stool at the end of the bed. Sebastian grinned at him, pulled his fleece over his head, tossed it on the stool. Peter resisted the urge to straighten it up. His need to tidy up wasn't quite so strong when his cock was throbbing and chiseled out of granite.

Sebastian tugged him closer by the waistband of his pants, let his fingers slide against Peter's belly. He undid the zip, slid his fingers down under the waistband. Sebastian's butterfly touch against the head of Peter's cock made Peter lurch against his hand, reach for Sebastian, and pull him close. The heat was moving through him now, and he felt a hunger that was fierce, wild, like he'd not felt in… He thought back. A long time. Sebastian's mouth was moving down his neck, a trail of heat. Since a long time ago, and only with Sebastian.

«Okay, I'm in love with you again.» Sebastian laughed, slipped his hands down into Peter's boxers, wrapped his fingers around the cock straining to escape. «One part of you is, anyway. Why don't we just let this…» Bam! Bam! Bam!

Peter nearly leapt out of his skin at the knock on the door. Sebastian didn't move.

«Uh, Peter?» It was Travis. «Peter, I'm sorry to disturb you, but it's just that there's this really pregnant girl here asking about Sebastian, and Susan says can you come downstairs?» * * * * *

Travis had clattered back down the stairs by the time Peter had moaned and cursed and buttoned his shirt, tucked it back in, smoothed his hair down, brushed his teeth, and washed his hands and face, the minimum necessary grooming before greeting guests. Sebastian watched him go through his routine with a little half grin on his face, joined him at the sink to wash his hands, dried them on the heated towels. Oh, God, it was so unfair; he had been about to get fucked, a long hard rocking fuck, like only Sebastian could do it. Peter was ready to howl like a dog in frustration. Sebastian's jaw was like a rock.

Peter watched him in the bathroom mirror. He could tell that Sebastian was enjoying the new heated towel racks. More than once over the years Peter had watched Sebastian heat water in a battered enamel pan on a wood stove, strip off in the cold and scrub down, wash his hair by pouring the water over his head into the sink in the corner of the cabin. It wouldn't hurt for him to have this small luxury. Sebastian would never take it for granted,