“His hands probably get used to it.” Tarius rose on his elbows, but he didn’t turn onto his side, because the lack of hands on him clued him into a problem he hadn’t noticed until now: he was hard.
Over Branson giving him a massage.
“Did, um, you enjoy it?” Tarius asked for no good reason. Goddess, he was an idiot.
Branson grinned at him, his head lolled to one side. “Yeah, I did. I’m glad I could help you feel better. You did so much for me after Caden’s overdose last winter. I want to be here for you while your family is going through this. I care about you.”
Something new and unfamiliar squeezed Tarius’s heart—and he liked it. It was warm and comforting and joyful. “I care about you, too.”Maybe more than I should care about a friend. My best friend.
Tarius had developed feelings for exactly two guys in his adult life, and he’d never understood why he’d rather cuddle and watch a movie than go into the bedroom. Why he preferred a nice dinner and a walk around the Sansbury Botanical Gardens over erotic dancing in a club. He knew now he’d developed emotional and aesthetic attractions to both men, but Tarius couldn’t give them what they’d wanted in bed. At least, not without a lot more time, dating, and emotional development. It had taken Tarius years to understand his sexuality, and why he’d felt so strongly for those two men, wanted to bewiththem, without wanting tohave sexwith them.
He was certainly developing those same attractions for Branson Cross, and now that Branson had a name for his ownsexuality…maybe? Could there be something more here than just a best friendship?
What if pursuing more fucks up what we have?
Something of his thoughts must have reflected on his face and in his eyes, because Branson’s smile softened. His emerald gaze flickered down, to his lips. They were maybe two feet apart, and Tarius’s dick pulsed with something new. Something for the man in bed with him. Gazing at him with curiosity and…arousal?
Tarius swallowed hard, mouth dry. His heart started racing. It wouldn’t take much effort from either of them to lean forward and?—
Electronic music startled Branson into nearly falling off his side of the bed. Tarius might have laughed if his face wasn’t flaming with surprise and embarrassment. “Dammit,” Branson groused as he rolled toward the noise, which was coming from the opposite side table. He snatched his mobile up and glared at the screen. “It’s Emory.”
“Answer it.” Tarius twisted to the opposite side of the bed to hide his deflating erection. “I, um, need to take a whizz.” He grabbed the mug of coffee on his way out of the bedroom and fled across the short hallway to the bathroom. Locked the door and sat on the closed toilet lid.
Good goddess, but he’d almost kissed Branson. He’dwantedto kiss Branson. Badly. He had no idea if he was glad for Emory’s call or not. So, he sat there and sipped the cooling, too strong coffee until Branson knocked.
Tarius didn’t insult either of them by fake-flushing the toilet. He opened the door and tried to paste on a friendly smile.
“Hey,” Branson said, “so Emory wants to go to the hospital later to support Brogan while Miko is indisposed, and he needs me to help with the triplets for a few hours.”
“Okay.” Miko and Emory were best friends, so of course Emory would want to support Miko’s family. This entiresituation with the car accident was horrific and traumatic for everyone involved, and he couldn’t be selfish with Branson’s time today. Tarius had his own family at the hospital, and he needed to go support them.
Branson hesitated before nodding. “Okay, well, I can drop you off at your home on my way over to the house. You probably want to shower and change your clothes.”
“Definitely.” He typically showered in the morning, so he was awake and fresh for the day, and he definitely needed different clothes. In his haste last night, he’d grabbed a dirty t-shirt and his oldest, most threadbare jeans. “Um, let me get my shirt.”
Things weren’t awkward, exactly, but a new kind of tension hung between them on the drive across town to the Higgs house. Branson pulled up to the curb, and they idled in silence for nearly a full minute.
“Thank you for this morning,” Tarius blurted. “All of it.”
“I’m glad I could be here for you, Tar. Honest. We’ll chat later, okay?”
“Definitely.” He held Branson’s gaze for a long, meaningful beat, and then climbed out of the car.
Branson waited at the curb until Tarius was safely inside. Tarius watched from the front door’s small window until the car trundled away, still able to feel Branson’s lingering touch on his skin. He kept the memory of that touch close as he prepared for his next long visit to the hospital.
FIVE
Tarius wokeup when his forehead crashed against the law book he’d been trying to read for the last two hours. Thankfully, as the firm’s senior paralegal, he had a private office, and no one had witnessed him falling asleep at his desk.
And not for the first time that week.
He wasn’t sleeping well. His brain was too damned full of fear and anxiety over Linus, who was still unconscious, despite his doctors ending the sedation for his medically-induced coma. His infection had cleared up. He just needed to wake up, damn it. Linus had been unconscious since the accident last weekend, but he was a fighter, just like his omegin, and he’d pull through this.
Tarius closed the book and rubbed his eyes, stomach churning at the idea of drinking any more coffee. He was going to have an ulcer if he didn’t get some actual sleep soon. Six nights in a row of tossing and turning like a rotisserie chicken was driving him as insane as having no good alone time with Branson since that almost-kiss.
He missed Branson like crazy. They still talked on the phone every day, but they hadn’t seen each other all week. When Tarius wasn’t working—Ronin insisted Tarius could take time off, butTarius needed the distraction—he was at the hospital with Dad and Liam. He didn’t want to kick around the empty house by himself.
Tarius would have gladly accepted an invitation from Branson to crash at his place again, but Branson never extended the offer, and Tarius wasn’t going to ask. He worried that things had gone to an uncomfortable place last weekend, that maybe he had read too deeply into the near-kiss, and this was Branson pumping the brakes. And that was fine. They did share a unique chemistry, but they weren’t dating.
