Taken

Chapter 14

"A boy in my class is missing," Mick said quietly at the dinner table.

Their mom immediately put down her fork and looked at her husband. He grimaced. "I'll arrange the driving company to hire a few more employees so we'll have someone to take all of you wherever you need to go, whenever you need to go. And I want all of you to download that new locator app."

The fear of disappearances was increasing in the city and Win felt guilty for wanting to go out and live his life as usual while everyone needed to accommodate him to make sure he stayed safe. His work schedule also demanded extra attention from the staff both at his family home and his condo.

After their subdued dinner, he went into his bedroom and immediately called Bright.

"We just saw each other a few minutes ago," Bright's voice, pitched low just for him. "Did you miss me already?"

Win lay on his stomach, his feet swimming lightly through the air as he smiled a little. "Shut up. I just wanted to hear your voice. A kid from my brother's class went missing. Dinner was awful. I could barely get food down thinking about what might happen to him. Then I started worrying about you. Are you okay?"

"Better today," Bright told him. "My mom is latched on the news again. They're thinking about implementing a curfew."

A noise left Win's throat. "This kid was just on his way home from soccer practice as usual and that was the last time anyone saw him. How is no one seeing these people snatching people around the city?! How do they bring the few they bring back without a single memory of where they've been?"

"I wish you were with me right now," Bright murmured.

"So you could comfort me?"

"Yes," Bright readily agreed. "And so you could comfort me too. I keep wondering if that's what happened to me all those months ago. There's a ...a blog... for some of the people who've been returned."

Win sat up. Bright hadn't mentioned this to him before. "A blog?"

He could hear rustling as Bright made himself comfortable wherever he was. Probably home, in bed, same as him. At least Win hoped he was.

"Yeah. It's mostly men, a few women. And apparently it's not just Bangkok. There are entries from people all over the world and some of them describe symptoms like mine. Just like mine. The pain, the sweating, the sensitivity, the hyperactive labido. One entry was from the relative of someone who'd been taken. They died of whatever this is."

Win heard him pull in a shallow breath. He held his phone in two hands like he could pull Bright closer to him that way.

Bright gathered himself again. "But some people say their symptoms vanished after the first week. Very few have had it as long as me. They wonder if someone is infecting people with a biological weapon so they can weaken big cities. But you'd think they'd take government officials or something like that, not random people.. Unless it's a trial period or-"

Win was surprised to hear Bright talk like this. Government conspiracies? Biological weapons? His mind skittered away from the topic in fear. "And Dr. Saetom hasn't found anything?" He interrupted.

Bright paused and then asked a question of his own. "Is this why you've not wanted to kiss me?"

Win jerked back up to a sitting position. "No! And I want to kiss you. I want to kiss you so bad. I already know you're not contagious. We've been in pretty close quarters and shared some spit quite a few times, P'. I'm sorry you've been thinking that." He plucked at his bed covers. "You can kiss me as long as you want the next time we have your condo to ourselves."

"Or your condo."

Win grimaced. "It's being redecorated right now. It'll be a few weeks until it's done." His heart flipped as he asked softly, "Do you think we'll still be together in a few months?"

"Well," Bright responded teasingly. "We're not exactly together right now. You only told me you were considering it."

Win grabbed up the carrot plushie his fans had given him and squeezed it in his arms. "I don't know how to do this."

"We can figure it out together."

He chewed on the plush plumage on the top of the carrot while he listened to Bright let him think. "And you won't miss all your fuck buddies?"

"I only had one!" Bright rushed to assure him. "So..." he continued a little more slowly. "You were thinking about being exclusive?"

Win blushed. Was Bright not thinking about that? "Or just dating...?" He pressed his face into his plushie, wishing he could take the conversation back a few minutes.

Bright let out a brief chuckle. "No. I like the idea of being exclusive with you. Of dating only you and seeing where this goes. I love the way you take care of me and worry about me. I like the way your mind works, and you're gorgeous. There's no way we're going to go into this casually. I'd be an idiot to let someone like you slip through my fingers."

He tried not to kick his feet in happiness as he flopped onto his back and finally let his plushie breathe, but it was a close thing. "You think I'm gorgeous?"

"You know I do."

Win smiled. "When did you start thinking that?"

"Shut up. I'm never giving you another complement. So we're doing this? You're my...boyfriend?" The word came out quietly.

"I feel like we're in middle school if you say it like that," Win murmured, but couldn't help the wide smile stealing over his face.

"Let me hear how you say it then," Bright challenged.

Win hid his face in his hand but obeyed. "I'm your boyfriend."

"Hmm."

"And you're mine."

"Yeah," Bright agreed. "I'm yours."

~

He'd seen Win practically every day for a year, so Bright couldn't understand why his palms were suddenly sweating at the thought of being with him all day for their new promotional shoot. He kept fiddling with his phone so he wouldn't seem like he was waiting, but he knew the minute Win entered the room.

He bit his lower lip and watched Win come toward him.

Win was one of the most beautiful men he'd ever seen, and it was even more attractive how he stood nearly a head taller than everyone around them. He'd been gaining muscle again recently and it really suited him. Bright loved the way shirts sat on his well-formed frame.

Once Win reached him, he dropped into the chair at his side, looking just as nervous as Bright felt.

"Hey, boyfriend," he said quietly, his cheeks a delicate pink.

Bright's heart went into overdrive. "Hey, boyfriend."

Win glanced around. "This is too embarrassing."

"I'll just call you Metawin, then."

Win let out what could only be called a giggle and Bright wanted to take him somewhere they could be alone right then and there. He wanted to run his nose along his neck and see if he were sensitive there. How could a man's neck be so smooth? And right now it was flushed with his flirtation.

"I thought about you last night after we hung up," he confessed, talking so softly Win had to tilt his head to hear him. "I got in my shower and thought about you. Then I got back in bed and thought about you some more."

Win huffed and shifted away from him.

He'd managed to make Win's entire pale complexion go bright red and he was chewing on those plump lips like he had something to say but didn't have the privacy to say it.

He brushed his dark hair off his forehead and glared at Bright.

"You're going to take me on a few dates before you do any of those things you were thinking about to me," Win told Bright archly.

Bright bounced his brows at him, making him laugh. "We'll see."