Page 23 of Love Bites
"Where did you find this?" I asked.
"Uh, it was on your bedside table?" The way Luke said that made it sound as if he was one second away from asking if I was actually his big brother or an alien wearing his big brother like a skinsuit.
None of this made sense, though. If it had really been on my bedside table in my old room, how could I have forgotten what my parents looked like so quickly? "You sure it was in my room and you didn't take this from Remy or Jared?"
"Of course I didn't. Seriously, Collin, cut the crap. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken it, but you don't have to get all weird about it." He made to grab the picture from me but I held it out of reach.
"I'll keep it." If it had been in my room, it belonged to me and I would figure out what it was eventually. My best guess was that this was a random photograph of some couple I used to know but had forgotten about and that it wasn't supposed to be on my bedside table at all but someone had placed it there in error. Maybe Remy had hired a cleaning lady or whatever.
That theory only held up until I wondered why the cleaning lady hadn't touched anythingelsein my room, but I tried very hard not to think about that. After all, this theory was still better than Luke's theory that these people were my parents.
I didn't even know these people'snames.
Then again, I couldn't think of my parents' names either, and I got the feeling there was something very wrong with that. Worse, I got the feeling there was something very wrong withme.
* * *
"Show me that pretty neck of yours. That's right. Let me bite you. Let me make you feel good," a deep male voice said. The man had me firmly in his grip. One of his fingers ran down the side of my neck, marking the spot where I would be bitten.
I woke up with a raging erection. Groaning, I set up and rubbed my face. That man... why did I keep dreaming about a scarred man? I'd never made up someone fictional to fantasize about before, and I sure as hell had never fantasized about someonebitingme. How was that suddenly a kink I was into?
Couldn't deny that I was, though.
Without thinking too much about it, I reached for myself. The action had become almost automatic over the past few weeks. Almost every night, I woke up like this, and then I had to take care of my 'problem' before I could go back to sleep.
Maybe I just needed to get laid.
But the mystery man of my dreams interfered with my plans there too. Whenever I met someone now, laid my eyes on a buff guy in a bar or had a stranger offer to buy me a drink, it didn't matter how good-looking they were, they could never compare to this weird new ideal in my mind. So instead of taking them up on their offer, I'd go home alone to dream by myself.
Couple that with the fact that most days I didn't feel up to going out in the first place...
Yeah, I definitely wasn't getting enough action.
Wrapping a hand firmly around myself, I closed my eyes and lay back down. Immediately, my thoughts went back to fantasies of the strangely handsome man I'd been dreaming about. I didn't try to fight it. By now, I knew there was no point. The images would come as soon as I got into a rhythm, growing in intensity the closer I got to the edge, and if this was inevitable, why shouldn't I just enjoy myself from the start?
In my mind, I wasn't alone in my room. The stranger with the sharp teeth was with me, guiding my hand as it went up and down my cock. I gave a little moan. My roommate wasn't around, so why restrain myself? Soon, I lost myself in the fantasy. I swore I could almostfeelthe stranger's hands on my body, the scraping of his teeth against the skin of my neck.
God, I wanted that so much.
I came with a small cry.
For a few seconds after, while I lay there breathing, my mind was blank.
Then my confusion and annoyance came rushing back in. I wasso surethat I'd seen that stranger in real life before. But where? And when? And more importantly, why hadn't I fucked him?
And why couldn't I stop thinking about him now?
I saw gorgeous men in passing all the time, but they never did this to me.
Opening my eyes again, I switched on the light and got out of bed. My earlier conversation with Luke was coming back to me and it was harder and harder to deny that there was something weird going on in my life. I could chalk my dreams up to being sex-deprived. I could explain my constant fatigue and irritable stomach with stress. I had trouble explaining the photograph away though, and it made everything else stand out more as well.
It had all started a month ago when I stayed over at my family's house. I'd had this odd feeling that there'd been a man in my room during the night, but by the light of morning, it had all seemed like a bad dream, especially since I couldn't remember any details. But things had started being wonky after that.
The more I focused on that time, the more I noticed gaps in my memory, and it always started at that bar on Second Street. I'd gone to that bar, and then I'd had a panic attack.
Something had happened there. But I couldn't for the life of me remember what. Something that could somehow be related to everything else. Walking over to my desk, I picked up the picture frame Luke had given me and studied the people in the photograph again.
I had no idea at all what was going on, but I was going back to that bar and getting some answers.
