“I get that. I should’ve thought before I spoke.”
Seth laughed at that. “You normally do, so I’ll take it as a compliment that I managed to make you forget yourself.”
“A compliment?” Oz raised an eyebrow.
“Most people don’t care enough about me to want to protect me. Maybe compliment isn’t the right word…”
Oz’s heart sank. “I care about you. If nothing else, you’re my friend.”
He hadn’t really stopped to think of Seth as his friend before, but they were friends. And even if Seth went back home and got married to someone he didn’t like, Oz would still be his friend. Nothing was going to change that.
He wouldn’tloseSeth to any of this, and he didn’t have any right to his romantic attention, either.
It seemed obvious to Oz that choosing his own path was better than giving in to what his father wanted for Seth, but then, maybe it wasn’t. Seth was a smart guy. He liked to pretend to be airheaded and only interested in fun, but that wasn’t what he was really like. His ability to see through bullshit would have made him a halfway decent lawyer before he even started.
“I don’t think I have any other friends,” Seth said. “Probably because I push people away out of fear that they’ll be taken away from me sooner or later.”
“Nobody’s taking me away,” Oz responded softly. “The only person who gets to remove me from your life is you, okay?”
Seth smiled a tiny smile that almost reached his eyes. That seemed like a good sign. “Whether or not I believe that, I appreciate it,” he said.
“Believe it.” Oz sipped his beer. “I’m not easy to get rid of, either. Not unless you want me to go.”
“I don’t want you to go.” Seth sat back again, throwing the remains of his chicken wing onto the plate. “You’re my only sane and reasonable relative, for a start.”
Oz chuckled. “I’d say the same about you, but I think you know.”
“Should it have been weird to fall into bed with my brother-in-law? Because it didn’t feel weird. I haven’t really thought about it until now.”
Draining the last of his beer, Oz shrugged. “I don’t think so. We’re not that kind of family. No more weird than it would be to fall into bed with your husband, who would also be legally related to you.”
Seth hummed, playing with his half-full beer bottle. He was on his second, while Oz had just finished his first, wanting to stay sober for Seth’s sake.
If Seth wanted to try drinking his problems away, Oz wasn’t going to stop him. He understood the value of a bender every now and again. Seth didn’t really seem the type, though. Not with booze, anyway.
“Good, because I’d like to fall into bed with you again. Might be my last chance.”
“We’ve got all of Saturday,” Oz pointed out.
“You’re not leaving the bedroom until I have to go home. I just want this one last, happy memory to go away with.”
Oz opened his mouth to say that Seth didn’t have to go away, that he was always welcome to stay here, that whatever happened to him, Oz would be there to take care of him, but this wasn’t the time or the place. He’d already crossed a line tonight, and while Seth had forgiven him for it, he didn’t want to cross another one.
He could ease Seth into the idea. Letting him go without telling him that he could stay wasn’t an option, but he knew he’d have to step carefully if Seth was going to believe that he meant it.
“Okay then,” he said instead. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
Seth was worth treating gently if it meant not losing him. Seth was worth anything.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Seth had still been tingling from his orgasm when Oz started to kiss his shoulders, and even though that had faded away now, the soft brush of his lips against Seth’s oversensitive skin felt amazing.
“I’m gonna fall asleep if you keep doing that,” Seth murmured, but didn’t make any move to stop Oz.
The sex had been different this time. Slower, more deliberate. Seth wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about it, about the way Oz had touched him like he was committing him to memory, like he knew they were on limited time.
