What Chris Wants by Lori Foster Read Free Book Online

look at the others. This time they looked back, as if they’d expected his reaction.
    Dare stood there, hands on his hips. Trace had his arms crossed over his chest. Spencer saluted him with a beer.
    Well. He didn’t know what to say or think.
    Still clasping his shoulder, Matt pulled him back around. Chris saw him swallow hard.
    “I know,” Matt continued, “that they count on you too much for you to ever leave here.”
    Feeling combative without really knowing why, Chris clenched his hands. “I’m here because I want to be.”
    “I understand that, too. It’s a wonderful place. Peaceful and beautiful.” He searched Chris’s face. “I love it here.”
    For so long, Chris had wanted to tell Matt what he contributed. Not to brag, but to…hell, he didn’t know. Maybe to validate his worth. Never before had it mattered enough for him to care what anyone thought.
    But with Matt, he cared. A lot. Even though he’d fought it, from the very beginning Matt had been different. He glanced back again, and now the women stood with the men, leaning on them, held close.
    And damn it, he could almost feel their collective affection.
    “This is ridiculous,” he grumbled as he mimicked Dare’s stance, fists on his hips, feet braced apart.
    “They value you and love you.” Matt drew in a deep breath, looked at Chris’s mouth, then back to his eyes. “Not as much as I do, but—”
    Taking that like a sucker punch, Chris pulled back. “What?”
    They stood at a similar height, eye to eye, and Matt moved closer still. He obviously didn’t care that everyone watched.
    Hell, he still looked happy.
    “I have something for you.” Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out…dog tags. “They’re personalized.”
    Cautiously, Chris accepted the chain from Matt. Running his thumb over each tag, he read the inscribed names: Chris on one, Matt on the other.
    “They’re perfect for you, right? I’d thought about getting them before, but I wasn’t sure…”
    “Yes,” Chris agreed, admiring the satin stainless steel, the engravings. “They’re perfect.”
    “I picked them up on my way over.” Taking the chain from him, again smiling, Matt hung it around Chris’s neck. “I love you.”
    Chris eyed him, but something tight unfurled inside him, relaxing, going easy and warm. “Since when?”
    “Since…always.”
    He had to point out the obvious. “You thought I was an errand boy.”
    “And I loved you even then.” Before Chris could reply, Matt added, “But … it didn’t make sense to me. I knew you were more important than that. Smarter than that, more capable. I knew you could do or be anything you wanted.”
    Heat crawled up Chris’s neck. What the hell? He hadn’t blushed since he was in middle school. “You’re so full of it,” he blustered, but he liked hearing it all the same.
    Matt beamed at him. “Your friends have accepted me.”
    “Why wouldn’t they?” Chris rubbed the back of his neck, glanced back again, and this time he saw everyone with sappy smiles on their mugs. He had to laugh. “Stop staring already! I feel like a spectacle.”
    Arizona swaggered forward. “Are we keeping him, Chris? ’Cause I really want to keep him.”
    Matt laughed, too, but there was uncertainty in the way he said, “See? They want me.”
    Chris looked at his small house, a house he loved, a place that truly felt like home…and yet sometimes felt incomplete. He looked back at Matt, and yeah, he knew what was missing in his life, had known for a while. “I want you, too.”
    Matt’s eyes flared. “I knew it.”
    Laughing again, Chris peeled off his shirt. “You did, huh?”
    “Yes, because I know you. I sensed that I wasn’t in this alone.”
    “You aren’t.” After dropping his shirt, Chris lifted one foot to remove a sneaker, then the other. “You’ll live here with me?”
    Matt inhaled so sharply he damn near choked himself. Looking up at the others, he nodded fast and held up two thumbs. Chris