“Shame. I’d put on a show for you in the future.”
“You’re not going to take them down?”
“Why would I do that? If you want to watch me, I’m flattered.”
We shower together, a mix of washing up ourselves and each other. And as I stand there and watch Jaxon rinse the shampoo from his hair, tears fill my eyes are I realize this is the first show I’ve taken in a long time where I felt safe.
When we’re done, we go back to bed and get in, naked and cuddled together.
And then we keep talking, because it’s what we need to do. If we want this to work, we need to communicate. We need to be honest.
I tell him how I found out about him. Everything I’ve been up to all these months without him. He does the same. Explainshow he got the apartment above Sam’s. How he started talking to me, and how he swears he was going to come clean about it last night. We share everything without judgment.
“I think if we’re both willing to put all this behind us, and start fresh, we can do it,” I say.
“Is that what you want?” he asks.
“Is that whatyouwant?” I add.
“Fuck yes,” he growls, pulling me tighter.
“I don’t want anything to change. I want us to stay the same. I still want…”
After all this time, it’s still hard to say.
“What?” he urges.
“You know… what we’ve been doing.”
“You mean you still want me to chase you down? Break into your house? Fuck you even when you don’t want me to?”
“I always want you to.”
“Okay, when youpretendyou don’t want me to.”
I chuckle, unable to help it.
“Yes. That’s what I want, Jaxon.”
“Good. Because I want the same—and more.”
“More?” I ask.
“I want us to try more. I want to explore everything with you.”
“Like what?” I ask curiously. I’m not sure things can become more than they are now.
“Well, I’d love to see you dressed in sexy lingerie for me, tied to a Saint Andrew’s Cross.”
“What is that?”
He barks out a laugh, then reaches for his phone to find a picture.
“Wow, well…”
“If it’s too much—”
“I was going to say I think it would fit in the spare room.”
