Hobbled by John Inman Read Free Book Online

than he was the night before. While Danny floundered around trying to think of something intelligent to say, Danny checked the guy out, all the while trying not to look like he was checking the guy out.
    The young man’s hair was ginger in the morning light. Redder than how it had looked in the moonlight the night before. It was cut shorter than Danny’s, and it was curlier. Thick, lush, and sexy. Danny hadn’t even known he liked redheads until he saw this one. Boy, he sure liked redheads now.
    The redhead’s face was a collection of clean, crisp lines. Sharp handsome nose, lightly sprinkled with freckles, neat jawline, firm little chin with the hint of a cleft in it, and finely delineated lips that seemed to smile an awful lot. There were two tiny commas at either side of his mouth. Dimples. And between the dimples was a beautiful array of small white teeth. At the moment, since the guy was grinning, those teeth were on brilliant display. Behind the heavy black glasses, which on this guy somehow managed to look chic instead of geeky, his eyes were cornflower blue. They were surrounded by long pale lashes that seemed to catch the light when the sun glinted across them just right. In the middle of the cornflower-blue irises, there were tiny streaks of gold. Like sunbursts.
    The face, over all, was open, friendly, amused, and cuter than hell.
    While the guy was shorter than Danny, he was better muscled. And since he was dressed almost exactly like Danny, in shorts and a muscle shirt, Danny had a bird’s-eye view of nicely constructed arms and legs, all four of the little devils sprinkled with a pelt of reddish-blond hair that almost took Danny’s breath away, he so wanted to run his fingers over it. Or his tongue.
    There was just a hint of blond chest hair peeking out of the top of the guy’s muscle shirt, and Danny could see his nipples poking up against the fabric.
    Casting his eyes a little lower, not that he thought he should, but because he didn’t know how to stop himself, he detected a promising bulge in the front of the guy’s running shorts. That gave Danny food for thought; don’t think it didn’t.
    And looking ever farther south, Danny saw the young man was standing on Danny’s lawn barefoot. Even his feet were cute. Strong, pale, competent looking. They were wet from the dew and speckled green with freshly mown grass clippings.
    With a start, Danny realized that the guy was on the same side of the hedge as Danny was. Danny had been hoping that on their first meeting, the hedge would hide some of the hardware strapped around his legs, at least long enough to let Danny explain it all first. He guessed that wasn’t going to happen now. Although, if the guy had spotted Danny’s cast and ankle monitor, it didn’t seem to bother him much.
    Besides Danny’s clippers, the young man was also holding a plastic bag full of dog poop, which explained everything. In one motion, he handed Danny the clippers back and flung the bag of dog poop over the hedge and into the yard next door. His yard.
    “So,” the redhead said, sticking out his hand, “I’m Luke Jamison.”
    “Nice to meet you,” Danny stammered, taking the hand and holding onto it for way too long because he really, really liked the way it felt. Then he came to his senses and realized how long he was holding onto Luke’s hand, which made him drop it like a live grenade. And that made him blush. He could feel the blood infusing his head all the way up to his cowlick. Christ, he hated that feeling.
    Luke seemed to enjoy it. He blinked back a laugh. “Nervous?”
    No, just head over heels in lust, Danny wanted to say, but of course he didn’t. Instead, he started jabbering. And once he started, he couldn’t seem to stop. He became more horrified as the seconds passed and he just kept blathering on and on and on, but still he couldn’t seem to make himself shut up.
    “You’re probably wondering about my ankle monitor and the cast and everything.