Dirty Dining (31 page)

Two more guards shot out of the dining room headed directly for Brice. He ducked under one guy’s arm and managed to slip past all of them and into the dining room.

J
EREMY
HAD
made one full circuit of the room, knowing Sky Blue’s gaze followed his every move. He tried to smile, then worried it made him look too eager.

A commotion in the hallway caught everyone’s attention, and the boys stopped in their tracks. The two guards raced for the door.

No sooner had they left than the door burst open again and Brice rushed in. The guards were right behind him as he approached Jeremy.

“Don’t do this, Jeremy. I don’t want you to do this.”

A guard reached for Brice, but Thomas waved the man away.

Jeremy stood there, unable to move.

Then Brice leaned down and threw him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

The other boys cheered. A couple smacked Jeremy’s bare bottom.

“Wait!” It was Law. “His bag!”

“Thanks,” Brice said. He tightened his arms around Jeremy’s legs and started for the door.

“I was wrong!” Kit shouted. “You’re not Julia Roberts. You’re Debra Winger!”

Jeremy waved to the others as Brice carried him from the room. Everyone was smiling—even Thomas. Everyone except for Mr. Sky Blue.

Jeremy couldn’t contain his own surprise and pleasure at Brice’s chivalrous rescue. He was carried out the front door and put into the backseat of a waiting car.

In the front seat, a gob-smacked man around Brice’s age stared. “Brice? What the hell?”

“Ron, meet Jeremy, my boyfriend.”

Jeremy smoothed the filmy skirt down over his lap as well as possible given its size and transparency. Ron gaped.

“Oh, Brice, as soon as I got here, I realized I didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to be with anyone else.”

Brice pulled Jeremy close for a tender kiss.

“Brice, I’ll just drive you home, and you can explain—or not—later.”

“Thanks, Ron.” Brice closed the back door and turned back to Jeremy. “I’ve got news for you.”

As far as Jeremy was concerned, nothing could top the evening so far. He’d never been swept off his feet like that, literally or figuratively. His heart was still pounding as Ron pulled away from the curb.

“Ron and I have been working all week to get a new deal for PharmaTek. My firm has decided to continue funding them, at an increased rate, which means your research will be fully funded again. Retroactive to the beginning of the month.”

“How’d you manage that?”

“You don’t want to hear all the details.”

“Yes, I do. Later. Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow sounds good.”

“So I don’t have to worry about money once this goes through?”

“You’ll never have to worry about money again. No more Dinner Club. No tutoring. Nothing.” Brice was grinning.

Jeremy cocked his head. “Ever? Because you’ll help me? I should have just accepted your offer.”

Brice shook his head. “I had no idea how many patents your research had already produced.”

“I think maybe eight or ten. I don’t know the specifics. Someone at Cal does all the paperwork.”

“Fifteen, plus another dozen they intend to file based on the latest research.” He smiled. “I’m really impressed with your work. That was a personal comment.”

“Thanks. But what’s the patent stuff got to do with anything?” Jeremy was lightheaded again. He could barely take in what had happened in the club, much less everything else Brice was telling him.

“While the university and PharmaTek own the patents, you’re a named inventor, which means if PharmTek uses your techniques, they’ll pay you a hefty licensing fee, as a percentage of their revenues. And the work you’ve done most recently has applications far beyond what PharmaTek intends to use, so there are even more licensing opportunities. You get a portion of proceeds from all the future projects that use your new techniques.”

“I can’t keep track of everything you’ve told me, but that’s a lot?” Jeremy’s head was spinning.

“That’s a lot. I’ll review the highlights tomorrow.”

The car stopped outside of Brice’s apartment building. Brice opened the door and slid out, then helped Jeremy out. Jeremy stood on the sidewalk and bent down at the front passenger window while Brice got their bags.

“Sorry for the crazy introduction—” Jeremy began.

Ron waved his hand, as if it might make Jeremy disappear.

Brice leaned down next to Jeremy and peered in. “Ron, thanks. I’ll make sure you and Jeremy have a proper introduction next time.”

“Hope to be seeing a little
less
of him next time.” Ron gave a little salute and sped away as soon as Brice shut the door.

“He’s right.” Brice pulled his jacket off and helped Jeremy into it. He’d gotten used to this. “Let’s get inside before the rest of the neighborhood knows how lucky I am.” He put an arm around Jeremy, and they headed upstairs.

Inside Brice’s apartment, Jeremy peeled off the jacket and draped it over a chair. He turned slowly, giving Brice a good view, front and back.

“You remember this outfit?”

“I have very fond memories of it,” Brice said. “Most of it, anyway.” He took hold of the sky blue armband and pulled it until it ripped, then tossed it over his shoulder. “Now you’re just perfect.”

Jeremy opened a drawer in the hallway table and pulled out a green armband—one he’d worn at the club one night before they came back to Brice’s. He slid it up his arm.

“
Now
I’m perfect.”

Brice shook his head. “You don’t belong to me, Jeremy. You don’t belong to anyone.” He pulled the green band off.

Jeremy took the band from Brice. “But I’ve already given you my heart.”

“Now
that
I’d like to keep, for a very long time.”

He looked up into Brice’s beautiful chestnut-brown eyes. “How does forever sound?”

Brice pulled Jeremy in close for a kiss he hoped meant yes.

O
NE
OF
my protagonists, Jeremy Linden, is a PhD student working on research to develop a vaccine against HIV. He’s so dedicated to the project, he’s willing to jeopardize his degree in order to continue his research. Jeremy’s research explores virus-like particles, or VLPs. It’s one of the newer approaches to the field of immunology and especially promising for HIV vaccines. One of the biggest challenges for researchers is that HIV virus is very difficult to work with in a lab setting, due to its ability to constantly mutate. That property is why the body is so ineffective at fighting off the virus in the first place.

This area of research is fascinating and exciting. VLPs work to disable the replication of the virus by the use of multiple antigens and are safer than vaccines using live virus, which may actually infect patients who are already immunocompromised. That’s my layman’s description of how they work and why they are likely to be the key.

I’m not a biologist. As an engineering student, I took plenty of chemistry and physics, but never any biology. The closest I have gotten to the field was a molecular bio class designed for nonmajors I took as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley. For that reason, I have chosen not to get into too much detail about Jeremy’s research or about the larger issue of finding a vaccine against HIV.

Most, if not all, of my readers are aware of how devastating HIV/AIDS has been and continues to be on every continent, affecting populations outside of gay communities. You don’t need me to explain or debate the issues, which is another reason I have not given more information or detail in this book. At its heart, this book is intended to be a sexy, entertaining love story, not a public service announcement.

That isn’t to minimize the issue or my own interest in the field, which began many years ago when I participated in an international HIV conference in Tokyo. Put on by the WHO and CDC, and sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Health, the goal was to assist public health officials from Southeast Asian nations in understanding and fighting the spread of the disease in their own countries.

Each year scientists get closer to more effective treatments and the possibility of an efficacious vaccine that can help populations around the world. The good news is that researchers in the real world rarely have to rely on private-sector funding subject to the whims of venture-capital investors. The bad news is that governments around the world have cut funding for research as they try to reduce spending and close budget deficits, and private-sector investment may be required to make up the shortfall.

If you are interested in the latest developments, you can find more information at the websites listed below.

Understanding VLP Vaccines
(for nonscientists)

http://www.vaxreport.org/Back-Issues/Pages/Understanding-VLP-Vaccines.aspx

National Institute of Health:
HIV Vaccine Research

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/hivaids/research/vaccines/Pages/default.aspx

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative

http://www.iavi.org

Vax Report: Bulletin on AIDS Vaccine Research
(for nonscientists, free online)

http://www.vaxreport.org/

EM L
YNLEY
has worked finance, the wine industry, and high-tech, though she’d rather be writing hot man-on-man romance. She spent 10 years as an economist and financial analyst, including a year as a White House Staff Economist, but only because all the intern positions were filled. Tired of boring herself and others with dry business reports and articles, her creative muse is back and naughtier than ever. She has lived and worked in London, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C., but the San Francisco Bay Area is home for now.

Visit her web site at http://www.emlynley.com,

her blog at http://emlynley.livejournal.com,

her Twitter page at http://twitter.com/emlynley,

and her Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/emlynley.

Bound for Trouble

By EM Lynley

Daniel “Deke” Kane is a broken man, facing the end of his career in the FBI. He’s on desk duty after a botched drug raid left the suspects and two children dead. He’s got one chance to prove himself, or the only thing he’ll be investigating is the Help Wanted ads.

Ryan Griffiths has been on the run for ten years. Forced onto the streets when his father kicked him out, Ryan earns his living in other men’s beds. Finding his john dead in a hotel room drives him under the radar until a favorite client gives him a chance at a safe, clean life. But Ryan’s relatively stable new world shatters when Deke Kane catches up with him.

When Deke’s tasked to take down a drug dealer with terrorist ties and a taste for the dark side of BDSM, his only chance to get close is the suspect’s interest in Ryan, and he convinces Ryan to become a confidential informant. In return, Deke offers Ryan immunity from his past. As Ryan falls under the drug lord’s domination, Deke finds himself falling for Ryan.

Now Deke has to choose between Ryan’s safety and his own future.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Hostile Takeover

By EM Lynley

Years ago, Chase Richards and Mathias Tobler fell in love while training for the US Olympic fencing team. Afterward, they even attended the same business school so they could be together. Then Chase left Mathias alone and heartbroken in Italy. But all of that is ancient history by the time Chase thunders back into Mathias’s safe, settled life with a business deal.

There’s no way Mathias is going to do business with Chase. He spent nine years picking up the pieces and has moved on in life—and love. But Chase won’t give up without a fight: he concocts a scheme to manipulate the market and take over the Tobler family business. If Mathias wants to save it, he’ll have to face off against Chase over crossed sabers.