They weren’t cruel. Never had been. Not like Avery’s father.
They simply lived their lives without ever considering that I might’ve needed to be part of them, too. Born out of a desire for ‘the next step’ and learning early on that silence was a comfortable companion, a remedy to countless nights alone in my bedroom with no one but me to rely on for comfort.
So I adapted.
I stayed quiet, stayed invisible. It was better that way.
“Silas?” My gaze found green eyes—a duller shade than the pair I’d gotten used to staring into the past two days. “You going to order something or what?”
I tightened my hand around the card, creasing it right down the middle. The filigree lettering, all gold foil and over-the-top flourish, caught the light in a mocking way. Reminding me of an olive-skinned body wrapped in jewelry.
Coming to brunch with Avery and Marlow was supposed to clear my head. To give me some kind of clarity on how to navigate through this fucking mess I’d found myself in.
I’d built my life around the certainty of never needing this. Around the idea that needing someone—letting someone in—was a weakness I’d never allow myself.
But Terran was changing that.
And I hated it.
I hated the way he was making me question everything I thought I knew about myself. Hated the way his voice slipped into my thoughts uninvited, and how strangely my chest panged every time he smiled.
He was a disruption, a crack in the carefully constructed walls I’d spent years building.
And worse, he was making mewantto bring them all down.
Why the hell had I let him stay over again?
What part of me had decided it was a good idea to pull him close, to let his presence seep into my bed, myspace,until it felt as natural as breathing?
Every other person who touched me made my skin crawl, the contact too much, too intrusive.
But him?
I didn’t push him away. I didn’t flinch or bristle or retreat. Instead, I clung to him in the quiet hours of the night, curling around him like he was the only thing keeping me grounded.
And in the mornings, when the sunlight began to filter in through the windows, I didn’t shove him out of my bed like I should have. No, I buried my face harder against his neck, inhaling his scent like it was some kind of drug.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
I wasn’t the kind of man who let his life get turned upside down by something as ridiculous asfeelings. I’d learned better—Iknewbetter. But here I was, spiraling over someone who’d walked into my life and made me feel things I’d spent years burying.
“Silas.”
“What?” I snapped.
“Jesus,” Avery muttered, leaning back into his chair.
Marlow leaned forward in his chair. “You’ve been weird since we got here. What happened? And why do you suddenly need a lawyer on standby?”
“Is this about the jewelry thing?” Avery asked.
Fucking Christ.
Marlow’s gaze flitted between us. “What jewelry thing?”
“No,” I said through gritted teeth.
I’d come to this brunch with two goals: to get away from Terran for an hour or so, to give myself a moment to breathe without feeling like I was suffocating under the weight ofeverything he made me feel, and two, because the phone call with his Captain early this morning had shaken me.
