“How was the gallery show last night? Did you schmooze with any trust-fund art fucks who want to buy your—oh. You’re not Chase.”
His eyes go wide as he shuts the door behind him, gazing at me.
“Logan,” I tell him. “We met last year. You’re Julian, right?”
He nods. “I remember.”
I say a silent prayer of thanks that Chase at least gave me some pants last night, so I’m not standing here stark naked right now.
A creak comes from down the hall and Chase pads out into the kitchen.
“Hey,” he tells his brother, acting cool as a cucumber.
He walks up and laces his arms around me from behind, leaning to press a kiss to the edge of my shoulder as he looks at his brother like he’s trying to make a point of it.
My skin heats.
It’s the first time Chase has ever touched me like this in front of anyone else, and my instinct is to flee. I’m so used to hiding away and keeping private things completely private, closing myself off to people knowing a single thing about me unless theyhaveto.
But I need Chase to know that I fucking meant what I said.
I want his touch.
I want him to feel like he can have it, anytime he needs it.
“I’m guessing you don’t want an energy drink,” Chase tells me as he slides his palm down my spine and heads to the fridge, retrieving a can that has a green lightning bolt on the front.
“No, thank you.”
“Toss me one,” Julian says. Chase chucks it across the room but Julian’s ready for it, grabbing the can as it flies through the air like it’s nothing. Chase turns on a little speaker on the edge of the kitchen counter a moment later, filling the air with some punk song and singing along.
He starts moving around the kitchen like he movesaround his art studio, heading back and forth between the fridge and the countertop, occasionally stopping to drum his hands on the surface along with the song.
“I’m making you a smoothie,” he tells me, reaching over to squeeze my hip. “Strawberry okay?”
“Sounds wonderful.”
Julian sits down on the couch in the living room, occasionally glancing over to us in the kitchen as Chase works. He gathers frozen strawberries, pineapple, and mango and tosses them into a blender with milk, and he adds way more honey to the smoothie than I ever would, but I love watching him work.
Something seems off about Julian, though.
He almost seems angry at Chase as he watches him, but I get the feeling he’s not going to talk aboutwhywhile I’m in the room. After Chase blitzes the smoothie, they start chatting about the gallery show for a while and Chase tells him all about the people he met at the show.
Eventually Julian heads into his room and I lift my eyebrows at Chase, sipping some of the smoothie.
“So,” I tell him.
“So.”
I nod toward the hall, speaking in a low voice. “He knows?”
Chase gives me a blank look for a moment before realizing what I mean. “My brother? He’s known I wanted to fuck you since, like, a week into knowing you last year. Yes.”
“Jesus, Chase.”
“What? The fact that he’s known since last year and hasn’t told the secret means that he’sfine, Logan. He’s better at keeping a secret than I am.”
I nod. “I’m just surprised.”
