The Teacher and the Soldier Read Free

fireman lover Max with him, and hell, that boy could down Diet Coke like no tomorrow. Nice guy, Max. A man of action who had saved Finn’s life not once but three times, he had earned his right to sit with them on a Friday for beers. Being gay in a small town, it was self-preservation to have some time to meet and shoot the shit. Maybe he should ask Liam to join them? The kiss may not have worked, but Daniel wanted some of what Finn and Max had—affection and laughter… and sex. Well, at the very least the sex part. Maybe he and Liam could just skip all the relationship stuff that made them laugh with the absurdity of it all and move to a friends-with-benefits arrangement. Liam was pretty—very pretty. And his lips would look very nice wrapped around Daniel’s dick.
    Daniel shifted in the lumpy seat a little as his dick began to fill at the thought.
    “Where did you go?” Liam’s voice, filled with laughter, jerked him out of his thoughts. “You’ve got the heel of your hand pressing your dick and your tongue was poking out.”
    “Fuck you,” Daniel replied quickly. Glancing down he realised Liam had been speaking the truth. It was a good thing that it was Liam who had walked in and not Abby the administrator, or one of the nurses. “Get out of my head,” he added.
    Liam snorted a laugh in response and filled a cup with the bitter black brew. He drank it with extra cream and sugar—something Daniel shuddered at. Liam may well want the frou frou, but Daniel liked his coffee black and strong.
    “You’re not due in until next week,” Liam said. He always said things like that. Unspoken was that sometimes Daniel needed to sit somewhere quiet where no one asked stupid questions and that him sitting in here was perfectly fine.
    “Missed your ugly face,” Daniel said. Then he smiled and settled back on the sofa. “Do you have ten?”
    Liam checked his watch. “Ten is all I have. Abby has me on a short leash.” Not an inch over five feet, the tiny woman was hospital administrator and yes, she knew exactly how to work her resources, including Liam.
    “You asked me what I was going into Knoxville for.” Daniel hesitated.
    Liam raised his eyebrows in question. He’d suggested Daniel was disappearing to the city for tail and Daniel had never said anything different.
    “Do I need to sit down?” Liam sat anyway then leant forward expectantly.
    “It’s kind of simple really, but I wasn’t ready to share. See, I have this idea. A place for vets like me to get some down time, space to think, some medical help. Nothing major,” he added quickly. “No trauma surgeon stuff…y’know, just mind fuck shit like me.” He circled a finger at his temple then tapped himself on the forehead.
    “I wish you wouldn’t call it that,” Liam said. He sounded like Doctor-grumpy-Liam and Daniel smiled at his friend’s immediate defence of him.
    “Whatever. Just the place I found in Knoxville was a bust. Too much local protesting against plans and not enough understanding.”
    “You mean the whole ‘I’m not having a vet with a gun in my garden’ stuff?”
    Daniel frowned. How had Liam hit the nail on the head so quickly? It had taken Daniel this long to get his head around the constant battle to get people to see there is such a thing as an acceptable risk.
    “Yeah,” he offered. “That.”
    “I can see where they’re coming from. Wait—” He held up a hand to stop Daniel from talking. “Playing devil’s advocate here, reading some of the stuff people put online about crazy vets wielding guns kinda sits in your head. Not everyone comes back with problems and has the strength of mind to be able to help themselves like you did.”
    “I didn’t have PTSD—”
    “A healthy dose of survivors guilt though, Dan. You have to admit that one. So what do you need to talk to me about?”
    “I just want to know, if I got planning approval for something here, would the hospital support an outreach programme, work with