Crashing the Net by Samantha Wayland Read Free Book Online Page A

up his end of the couch experimentally. Jesus, now he remembered why he’d stuck this fucker in a storage unit.
    “What’s that?” he managed to grunt, eyeing Mike’s empty hands.
    Mike hesitated, then shook his head. “Never mind. It can wait.”
    Alexei would have shrugged if he weren’t being crushed under the weight of his poor furniture choices of days past. “Okay. Let me know.”
    He groaned as Mike lifted the other end of the couch and soon they were busy bitching about getting the thing through the door, the phone call from home, and whatever Mike had wanted to talk about, forgotten.
    They threw themselves into getting Mike settled, jumping on whatever needed to be accomplished next. Once the unloading was done, Alexei unpacked Mike’s kitchen, giving Mike shit about his craptastic grocery store pots and pans. Then it was the bathroom, where he stoutly refused to let his imagination wander when he chucked the large bottle of lube into a drawer. He thought about giving Mike a hard time about it, but the words got stuck in his throat.
    Moving right along.
    He dove into the boxes of books along the wall of built-in bookcases, trying to make sense of the chaos. Beneath stacks of sci-fi and mysteries, Alexei was delighted to find there actually were books on chess, as well as carpentry, plumbing, and tiling. Alexei put them into subject order on the shelves, picturing the ornate tile design Mike had created in the master bath shower.
    He looked down at the next stack of books in his hands. They were all about Russia. And Moscow.
    He shoved them on the shelf, his sorting system forgotten.
    Next!
    But the sight of Red Square haunted Alexei for the next hour. Not because he missed it—which he did, on rare occasions—but because even though the books were relatively new, the spines were cracked as though they’d been read all the way through.
    Did he buy those because of me?
    Alexei vacillated between being annoyed and touched.
    Both of which irritated him.
    He and Mike were friends. Neighbors now, which was the best and worst idea Alexei had ever had. It had seemed simple enough when they’d first discussed it, but now it felt… really goddamn intimate .
    If nothing else, it meant he probably should come out to Mike, a task he had put off for far too long. He didn’t think Mike would freak, but people had surprised him before.
    For now, though, they only had a few hours left to get Mike unpacked. Whatever they didn’t finish today would have to wait weeks, until the playoffs were over. In the meantime, coming out could wait.
    Mike was quiet for the rest of the afternoon, only loosening up once they stopped to have dinner and a beer in Mike’s new kitchen. They had to eat standing up, of course, since Mike didn’t have a table and chairs yet.
    “We might have time to go shopping at the storage unit this weekend,” Alexei offered.
    Mike shook his head. “No way. You’ve already done enough.”
    “Are you really going to argue with me?” Alexei asked, delighted to list all the reasons he was going to win this argument. “You don’t have a table. Or chairs. You won’t have time to shop for weeks. And you always put off spending money until practically forced to at gunpoint. Hell, if I don’t get you that table, you’ll still be standing up to eat years from now.”
    “No, I won’t.”
    “Really?”
    “Of course not. I’ll be over at your place, getting you to cook for me. Your chairs are probably more comfortable anyway.”
    Alexei took a sip of his beer to hide his smile. Damned if Mike wasn’t right. Alexei’s chairs were better. And he would let Mike come eat anything, anytime he wanted.
    On that note, Alexei decided that it was time to go home. It had been a long day, and they had to be at the rink at the crack of dawn.
    Mike said goodnight without an argument.
    Alexei trudged to his apartment and crawled into bed. It was strange knowing Mike was on the other side of the wall, but rather