Finn wasn’t ready to say it out loud yet, and Silas sensed that. He moved forward and pulled Finn into a bear hug, tree-trunk arms clapping him on the back. “You’ve been distant lately,even more than before. I’ve been worried about you. In there…” Silas pulled away, and looked toward the closed door, his face peaceful. “In there, you were present. You were Finn.”
He yanked Finn back to him, harder this time. “Please be careful. For everyone involved. I don’t want either of you getting hurt.”
Finn didn’t know if Silas meant that Jaime might not be interested in him, or that he would tell Jaime about what they were and then he would reject him, or that something bad would happen to Jaime. There were a lot of ways they could be hurt. “I will be.”
Silas released him, a knowing look in his eye. “Love you, Finny.”
Finn clapped him on the shoulder, and smiled before turning toward the door to start the security sweep. “Yeah, yeah, love you too, Si.”
Chapter 7
Jaime
Jaime’s life was a complete disaster.
The entire world knew his name, and was currently speculating that he could be an accomplice to Vera Novikova-Dugan’s murder. Or maybe her heartbroken ex-lover, or her long-lost son, or whatever other wild theory that had spun out of hand since his identity was leaked to the media four hours ago.
His brother no longer wanted to be in the same room with him, and didn’t trust him to make his own decisions about his personal safety and well-being. To make matters worse, he’d hired a security agency that seemed to only employ Greek gods, one of which was, hands down, the most attractive man Jaime had ever met.
Who also happened to beFinn, the man he’d asked out and then stood up over a year ago because he’d been knocked out and shoved in a closet the night of their date.
Now, Finn was standing in Jaime’s bedroom, pointedlynotlooking at the pair of boxer briefs hanging from the hamper that Jaime had frantically chucked all of his dirty laundry into right before they’d entered the room.
Oh, and Jaime had just overheard him exchangeI love you’swith the other giant, hunky bodyguard standing in his room.
A complete, and total disaster.
Did I really say that his voice was blue? Out loud? God, who says shit like that?
Jaime had made it embarrassingly clear that he remembered Finn, but he hadn’t really acknowledged him back. What if he’d spent the last year full of guilt and shame over the way he’d left things with Finn, longing to see him again, only for the man to not even remember him?
Sedate me, please.
The two men made a quick sweep of the room, briefly peering into his closet and bathroom before going back downstairs. He quickly flicked the boxer briefs fully into the hamper, but blushed when he turned to see Finn standing in the doorway, staring at him.
Again.
The man stared quite a bit, and Jaime couldn’t decide if it was because he didn’t want to say anything, or that he just wasn’t very loquacious. Probably the former. Jaime hadn’t made a very good first impression, or second, if you counted the time he no-showed on their date and then ghosted him.
First, Finn had to rescue him from panicking at the swarm of foam microphones shoved in his face, and then he had to coax Jaime into seemingly caring whether he lived or died at the hands of a hypothetical hitman.
It wasn’t that he didn’t care—he very much did not want to die, and he especially didn’t want to be murdered. But so much of his life had been out of his control this past year. So many of his joys and passions had been taken from him, he just wanted the option of whether or not to let the two hot bodyguards—who are in love with each other—invade his privacy for the next two weeks.
He really shouldn’t be so hung up on that last bit, but Finn was still staring and it was starting to give him a complex.
“Um, sorry about the mess. I really have been mostly alone in this house for…a while, now. I’ll make sure the sheets in your room are clean before you sleep there tonight.”
Finn nodded. “It’s ok, really. I understand. Or, well, I don’t. I honestly can’t imagine what things have been like for you. But I want to. Understand, that is.”
Jaime wanted to reach up and smooth out the little crease that had formed between Finn’s eyebrows.
Yikes.
Finn went on, “I didn’t get the chance to say, before. That I haven’t forgotten about you. I wondered where you’d gone, when you… disappeared. I hoped you were ok. And now that I know a little of what’s happened in your life since then, I wish that it hadn’t. And, if my timing is right, and the night of our—of when we planned to meet was the same night as the murder…” he huffed.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could have done more, then. But Silas and I will do everything we can to make sure no one hurts you, now,” Finn finished with a rush, his brown eyes warm and bright.
Damn him, but Jaime believed his earnestness. Clearly, he’d missed the chance for anything to happen between them—Finn was with Silas now. And why wouldn’t he choose a strong, capable man who could look after himself instead of someone weak and pathetic like Jaime?
