With or Without Him by Barbara Elsborg Page B

brownies. Not that it mattered. He doubted he could eat or drink a thing.
    “So…” Tyler said. “Are you stalking me?”
    Haris barked out a laugh. “No. Yes. No. Oh Christ.” His breath seared his throat.
    “As long as you’re not the Grim Reaper…” Tyler smiled again, his face suddenly open, and a weight lifted from Haris’s stomach.
    The coffees and brownies arrived and he regained some control. “Could I have some hot milk, please?”
    He turned from the waiter to Tyler and saw he was staring at him. Tyler’s pupils had dilated and his lips were parted. Oh fuck, it isn’t just me. Whatever this is, he feels it too.
    Once he’d added milk to his coffee and taken a sip, Haris felt able to speak again. “The first time I saw you was last night at the concert.” He didn’t think he needed to tell him about listening to him throw up in the bathroom.
    Tyler’s lip quirked. “You think I played La Campanella too fast?”
    “I suspect only Liszt can answer that and he’d probably have told you to play it as fast as you fucking well like. Probably without the word fucking.”
    Tyler smiled.
    Haris took a deep breath. He wasn’t comfortable exposing himself like this. It was so much easier to have sex with some anonymous guy and walk away. But that wasn’t what he wanted. Not this time.
    “So…” Tyler muttered.
    “You have me mesmerized. I feel like I’ve been overwhelmed by something I don’t understand. You, your music… When you left last night, I followed. I thought you’d notice me on the train, but you were in too much of a hurry. I didn’t get into the warehouse straight away. I had to wait and buy a ticket.”
    Tyler stared straight at him. “Was it you who turned off the lights and started the fire alarm?”
    “Yes.”
    “Ha! I knew it.”
    “I couldn’t get anywhere with your rigger. Talking wouldn’t have persuaded him. I needed a diversion.”
    “How did you know I wanted out?”
    “Your eyes.”
    Tyler closed them a moment and then raised his head to look at him again. “I’m not a bottom,” he said quietly. “I don’t have a rigger. I’m not into getting hurt for other people’s entertainment or my own. If that’s what you’re into and you’re looking for a sub, then you might as well get up and walk away because I’m not going to call you sir and ask you to hit me. You should probably walk away anyway.”
    Haris watched him break off chunks of brownie, slip them between his lips and lick his fingers, and knew walking away was not an option. And not just because of the steel pole in his pants.
    “I’m not into that scene either,” Haris said. “I was only there because I’d followed you. Are you involved with anyone?” He clenched his fingers under the table.
    “No.”
    He let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “I’d like you to be involved with me.”
    Tyler didn’t say anything. He pressed brown crumbs together on his plate and then flicked the lump aside. “What changed from last night? I offered. You turned me down. You acted like I repulsed you.”
    “I know, I’m sorry. You didn’t. You have no idea how much I wanted you. But if I’d let it happen, we’d have fucked in my car and that would have been it. I want…I need something more with you. You…fascinate me. It’s a long time since I’ve felt so intrigued by anyone.”
    Tyler stayed silent.
    “But if we’re going to take this further, there have to be conditions,” Haris said. His racing heart scared him. Lust swamped his common sense. He couldn’t let his emotions run unchecked. If he treated this as if it was a business deal, he could stay in control and Tyler would be no threat.
    Tyler shifted on his seat. “What sort of conditions?”
    “You’d be mine exclusively. Which means while you’re with me, you don’t fuck anyone else.”
    He scowled. “I know what exclusively means. That apply to you too?”
    Haris nodded. “Yes, of course.”
    “What