“Not from school, no.” Harrison paused to take a sip of water and choose another answer. “It was more of an extra-curricular thing.”
There was more to the story, a whole lot more, but the topic obviously made Harrison uncomfortable. His discomfort made Jeremy uncomfortable. One part of him wanted to back off in the same way he used to back off when he touched upon a topic which upset Aaron. Another part of him wanted to pry, find out more, in case he needed to protect himself. He took a deep breath and reminded himself Harrison was not Aaron, and they weren’t even in a real relationship. They were just getting to know each other. There was no commitment here. He was not responsible for Harrison’s happiness, only his own.
In the end, he figured the only question he should ask was the one that mattered most. “Did it work?”
Harrison’s gaze rose to meet his. “What do you mean?”
“Did you learn to relax?”
He exhaled, and Jeremy saw his throat move as he swallowed. “It helped.”
“That’s good,” Jeremy said, before he sat up straighter. “Well, I’m glad your teacher, whoever she was, introduced you to your art. Because you write beautifully.”
“And you have a fascination with beautiful writing,” Harrison said, repeating Jeremy’s earlier words.
“Exactly.” Jeremy got up and began to gather their empty food containers.
Harrison followed suit. “The starving artist has been fed,” he said when they were done. “Time to get back to work, but first…”
Jeremy looked up as Harrison stepped around the counter to wrap one arm around his waist. His body moulded to Harrison’s without thought and he couldn’t help the intake of breath that drew the other man’s enticing scent deep into his lungs.
“Thank you.” The words whispered across Jeremy’s cheek before Harrison pressed a kiss there.
“For dinner?” Jeremy said in an overly bright tone. “It’s the least I can do.”
Harrison was not talking about dinner. Jeremy was aware of that, but he couldn’t acknowledge it, not when this connection between them seemed to be deepening with every conversation, every shared emotion. It was more than Jeremy knew how to handle right now, especially when he’d begun to suspect there was trouble in Harrison’s past—the kind that made grown men choose their words carefully.
Jeremy had lived with the consequences of that kind of trouble before, and he wanted nothing to do with it.
