“Please, can I come in?” he asked. “I need to talk to you, and I’d prefer your neighbors don’t hear the whole thing as I talk about last night’s sex, and my personal life.”
He stared at him, and it hurt Alex’s soul looking at him. Corbin and his boy-next-door good looks were enough to make him do stupid shit.
Case in point…
LAST NIGHT.
“Please?” he asked.
Finally, Alex relented, and set the door free. He headed into the sparse apartment, and sat on one side of the couch, making sure he took up as much space as he could to keep Corbin from being near him.
After all, the scent of him hurt the man.
The last thing he wanted was Corbin smelling his cologne, and thinking of his dead husband.
That’s why he’d showered at the hotel before leaving. Well, that and to not have to smell Corbin on his skin. It hurt way too much.
With the man’s body language, Corbin got the hint, and sat at the other end of the couch, and stared at the man.
There was so much exhaustion in his eyes, and he’d been there too.
So, he tried to take what Will had said through the medium, and find a way to fix this.
“I loved him so much,” he began. “He became my whole world, and he was for seven years that we were married.”
Alex physically flinched at the words, like it was a blow to his body, hearing it said out loud. Like it hurt to be reminded he’d never have that in his life.
For that, Corbin was sorry, but if they were going to figure this out, they needed to be completely honest with each other.
“Have you ever loved someone that much?” he asked.
Alex stared defiantly up at him, and met his gaze because that was the problem.
He had.
“Yes.”
Well, that said it all.
Corbin pushed on.
“Finding that kind of attachment again scares me. I’m the reason he died. Will died because of me, and even though everyone says it’s not my fault, I carry that.”
Alex said nothing.
He refused to give an inch.
God knew he’d gave last night, only to have it thrown back at him like he was nothing.
Because he was nothing.
Corbin stared into the man’s eyes, and there was that whisper of butterfly wings in his own belly. Partly because he felt something again for this person, and he feared he’d already broken it beyond repair.
So here went everything.
“I was working on a case, and I was up to my eyeballs with it. We were in the process of adopting a child. Will and I both wanted one in the worst way.”
Alex felt that to his soul.
