A kiss that morphs straight back to the untamed heat that has me pressed against a wall, until Galen pulls away again.“That’show. I didn’t come over to maul you. And now I can’t stop. So I should probably go. Save this for a night you don’t have little lady upstairs.”
“Those nights are rare.”
I speak without thinking. But I don’t regret the reminder of how terminally unavailable I am. For myself and for him.
Galen, though. He smiles a little more and rubs his cheek against mine. “The best things always are. And for what it’s worth, I love kids. My best friend moved away with his and I really miss them.”
I don’t know what to say to that. I’ve seen Galen in pain tonight, the discomfort knitting his brow as we worked his shoulder the only reason my dick didn’t burst out of my sweats. But the fleeting sadness colouring his gaze now, it hits harder, and I want to hug him as much as I want to kiss him again.
So I do, and he hums in surprise, a solid wall of man as he sinks into my embrace, letting me hold him for a drawn-out moment that seems to reset the balance between us. A reminder that it doesn’t matter he’s been around more than me, he’s still just a bloke with a heart.
A heart that can hurt, same as mine, and I see it for real when we break apart and something deeper sparkles in his emeraldeyes, his voice pitched low. “Thanks, Sab. Didn’t know I needed that.”
Galen
I leave Sab’s house with his embrace branded on my soul. I’ve always been a hugger, but round here, with Logan gone, there haven’t been many contenders for much more than a bro-themed back slap, and I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed me some good old bald affection.
Not that Sab’s bald.
Or that it would matter if he was.
Stop the lights, I’m a mess.
I make it back to my own house and let myself in, tread heavy on the unfinished floors. I’m in my own kitchen by the time I realise my hands are trembling, standing at the window as if I’ve forgotten the point of moving. Like I might cry or something ridiculous.
And for what?
I had a great time. My shoulder still hurts, but I know it won’t in the morning. And my lips…they tingle as if they’re plugged into the same power source as the strewn fairy lights in Sab’s garden—the ones I forgot to tell him looked cracking andsafe—and I like that feeling. I like it a lot.
So why do I feel like I’ve been floating outside myself for a thousand years and Sab hauled me back without even trying? As if he’s refitted my skin over my body?
It was a fecking hug.
Except…it wasn’t. And now I’m on my own again, loose and unravelled, I don’t know what to do with it. Whether to knot myself back up or cut the damn thread, when the truth is, I don’t want either of those things.
Go to bed.
You’re tired.
But for unmeasured time, I don’t move. I stare into my garden, to the gap in the trees, and watch the lights go out in Sab’s house. Watch his shadow in his bedroom before I get a hold of myself and stop being a creep.
My phone’s stuffed in my pocket. I fish it out as I back away from the window and zero in on the FlingIt notification like Father Christmas with a plate of mince pies.
It won’t be him. You literally just left.
Truth. And I’m not in the mood to deal with anyone else. But the slim possibility it might be Sab has me flustered. Has me making myselfwaituntil I’ve showered the sweat from my skin. Until I’m in bed on my mattress on the floor, stink-eyeing the unwashed clothes I need to deal with tomorrow.
I swipe the app. Click on the message icon with that weird tremble in my hands. The one that’s nothing like the disquiet I had to deal with the first time I faced a raging flashover after the one that nearly killed me. The one that makes it hard to think about anything that isn’t the man behind the ambiguous profile pic on my screen, or the bashful words that grow with their impact until he has me three messages deep and choked and horny all over again.
LeLionDuBois96:Hope your shoulder feels better
LeLionDuBois96:Come by any time you need…for stretches or whatever
LeLionDuBois96:Also, you smell good xxx
Stone me. That last line’s such a soft blow it knocks me sideways. Has me grinning through the alien burn in my eyes.
And the two before it?
