My Vampire Lover by J. P. Bowie

to Jerry. He looked huge sitting on that couch—I swear I've never seen anyone else with shoulders as broad as his. Jerry seemed fascinated by Barney's arms, or was it his chest—or maybe just all of Barney? The kid's eyes were glued to my ex-boyfriend's every movement. I hid a little smile as I went to fetch him a glass of water.
    "Getcha something, Barney?"
"'Nope, I'm good." He studied Jerry's face for a moment then cleared his throat noisily. "So, Ron tells me you're being threatened." "By his father, the Reverend Jerry Delano," I called out from the kitchen. "Show him the bruises, Jerry."
Jerry carefully put Felicia aside and stood up. He pulled his shirt up over his head, and Barney's eyes widened as he gazed at Jerry's slim, hard torso. I wasn't sure if it was the sight of the bruises that caused Barney's mouth to fall slightly open, or the sensual sight of the young man's body.
    "Your father did this?" Barney's voice was strangely thick.
"Him and one of the thugs he employs as a bodyguard,"
Jerry said.
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My Vampire Lover
by J. P. Bowie
    "Why does a man of the cloth need bodyguards?" Barney asked, standing up, and with a gentleness I'd never seen in him before, he put his hands on Jerry's shoulders, turning him around slowly and peering at the marks on his body. "Looks like they used knuckledusters, here, and here," he said, touching Jerry's skin lightly. "Sons-of-bitches..." He straightened up, and Jerry stood as if transfixed, gazing into Barney's eyes with quiet adoration.
    I felt like the biggest third wheel in the world. This was not a situation I had foreseen. These guys were falling in love right before my very eyes! Jean-Claude ... Oh, wow. How was I going to explain this to him—or him to them? Jeez.
"Uh ... Barney?"
He turned and looked at me as though he'd forgotten I was in the room. Then his eyes seemed to come back into focus. "Oh, right. Uh, put your shirt back on, Jerry, and tell me everything that's happened to you. I wanna make some notes."
For a time, Jerry sat quietly answering Barney's questions.
Seems old man Delano had suspected his son was a homo for some time.
"He would rant on about homosexuals being a plague on the earth," Jerry said. "All the time looking right at me. Once, I got up the nerve to argue the point, and he went into a tirade that took him days to get over."
    "When did he start beating you?" Barney asked him.
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My Vampire Lover
by J. P. Bowie
"Well, it started out being just a slap or two, but after my mother left, he kinda took his rage out on me. He blamed me for her leaving." "What a jerk," I muttered.
Barney looked up from his notebook and gazed at Jerry, a gentle sympathy in his eyes. "What was the reason for this latest beating?"
    "He found out I had a date with a guy. He locked me in my room, then took his goons to the place we were to meet. He was going to have them 'beat the crap out of the fag,' he told me, but when he came home, I gathered things didn't go so well. The guy got away, so Dad and Brett, the worst of his goons, beat the crap out of me instead."
"Jeez," Barney murmured. "I want to meet this Brett character."
     
"Barney," I said pointedly. "Jerry's not going to be able to go back home, at least, not until he has an assurance from his father that he's not going to beat the crap out of him again."
     
Jerry grimaced. "He's not going to give me the time of day, never mind assurances. There's no way I'm going back there. Don't worry, I'll find somewhere to stay."
    "You could sleep on the couch here," I mumbled, trying to transmit a mental message to Barney's brain. Ask him, dummy . "No, that's okay," Jerry said.
"My place," Barney blurted suddenly.
"What?"
"You could stay at my place."
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My Vampire Lover
by J. P. Bowie
I noticed with a great deal of amusement that Barney's face had gone a ruddy shade. "Uh ... that way, I could kinda
... uh ... protect you if any of your dad's strong-arm men ...
uh ... tried anything."
"That's a great idea," I said with