“Donot,” I hissed. “Not right now.”
“Hmm, what happened?”
I briefly explained what had happened the night before. “And I just walked in, and he was...was?—”
“What?” Reggie laughed. “Choking the chicken?”
“Uh—”
“Oh shit, he was?”
“Maybe?”
“Hung?”
“Reggie!”
He laughed. “Alright, alright. Jokes aren’t going to work right now, I get that. You walked in on him in a personal moment.”
“You swore up and down the system would prevent us from going in when we shouldn’t,” I accused.
“True,” he said, and there was a frown in his voice. “Which should work, but we don’t have the AI set to know when people are jerking off. So if they don’t use the system, stuff like this is going to happen. It’s no different than people not locking their doors.”
“Reggie,” I breathed, the image still living in my head.
“You know, I’ve never asked whether you’re into men or women, but is this an attraction thing?” he asked curiously.
“No,” I said emphatically. Okay, yes, there was definitely attraction because holy fuck, that was an eyeful. It would be a lot of full things actually, but…no, okay, don’t go there. Don’tgo...just no. “He’s a very private person, Reggie. And I just walked in on?—”
“Him doing something all of us do, and have done since we realized what our dicks were for,” he said bluntly, in a tone that brooked no argument. “Nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing wrong with it. This isn’t some ultra testosterone alpha male camp where you go celibate. He did nothing wrong, and if the system let you in, then you did nothing wrong either. Welcome to Guiding, Luka. Sometimes it can be messy and awkward, and you have to feel things out.”
“Bad phrasing,” I muttered because, oh Lord, in any other context I could definitely picture feeling things out.
He chuckled. “Good, there’s your sense of humor coming back. Give him a minute, or an hour, or whatever. But you need to talk to him. You can’t avoid him just because you saw him jerking it like it was going out of style.”
“I never said…” I stopped when Rowan’s door opened, and he appeared, his expression stiff.
“Come in,” he said, and hesitated. “When you’re done with your conversation.”
“I have to go,” I said faintly to Reggie.
“Alright, but one more thing?”
“What?”
“Sometimes the best thing a Guide can do is be himself. Not what he thinks he should be based on what he assumes a Guide is, but who he actually is. Keep that in mind!”
And with that cryptic response, the line cut off, and I was left to stare at my phone and give Rowan the most awkward smile on the planet. Grimacing, I followed him into the room and closed the door with a sigh.
“Okay,” I began once the door closed. “I want to be open with you so you understand. Everything we have in place to guarantee safety and privacy was telling me it was safe to come in. I’m sorryI saw...what I saw, but it wasn’t intentional. I am not judging you, or...whatever, either.”
“Or whatever,” he said in a flat voice.
“Yeah, or whatever. Or whatever you think because it’s obvious you think the worst,” I said, feeling my temper flare before I could get hold of it. “Because you seem to think I’m incompetent or useless or annoying, or whatever. I don’t care that you were jerking off. I mean, Icarebecause it was a private moment.” Not a hot moment, not hot. I definitely didn’t see him stroking his long, thick, cut cock and think ‘holy fuck I wish that were me’ even for a moment. “And I shouldn’t have witnessed it, not because it was wrong but because it was not meant for me.”
“I see,” he said dryly.
“Oh, you know what? Fuck off,” I said, and for the first time, his eyes snapped to me in surprise. “Yeah, fuck you. I’m sorry I walked in on you jerking off, and I’m sorry I’ve been getting on your nerves since you got here, but you know what? You’ve been getting on my nerves, too. That’s what fucking happens when you’re dealing with people so closely; you get on their nerves, and sometimes you see them jerking off.”
