Chapter 8 #3
“Holy shit. The lust between you two is so strong I’m getting a contact high. Don’t be a coward, Knox.” Myles shoved the spot on my chest he’d been patting. “Go give that boy the ride of his life, or someone else will.”
I hesitated… and Curtis sidled up to Gage and dropped an arm over his shoulder.
Fuck.
I strode across the living room in two seconds, ignoring Myles’s laughter behind me.
The familiar faces around me all seemed so jaded. So bored.
Gage deserved better than anyone he could find at this party. He deserved someone who’d appreciate him… and maybe… maybe I could be that someone for as long as he stayed at the orchard.
My heart pounded as I let myself imagine holding him, kissing him, having him.
I gritted my teeth and struggled to figure out what the hell was wrong with me.
For weeks, I’d told myself he wasn’t for me. That I could walk away, force myself to stop wanting him, and we’d both move on. But it hadn’t worked like that.
And I was forced to acknowledge, right there in the middle of Myles’s trendy living room, that Gage wasn’t the one who was unsure about who he was or what he wanted.
He never had been. I was the one who’d been holding back, thinking it would help me stop missing him when our time at the orchard was up…
But instead, I was missing him already, when we could have been spending that time together.
In my head, I heard Dr. Travers saying, “Befriend the things that scare you, Knox, and you’ll stop fearing them.” I had no fucking clue what that was supposed to mean. But nothing scared me like Goodman did… and fucking sounded close to friendship, right?
“Goodman.” I nudged Gage’s arm with mine, interrupting Curt. “I need you.”
“Sure. Jason and I are done talking business. Are you okay?” He looked at me in concern.
“Yep. Fine. But it turns out you were right about… things. And I wanted to… talk to you. About those… things.”
Great. This was going… great.
“I was right about… what?” Gage frowned.
Jesus Christ, did he want me to say it in front of a crowd?
“About sandwiches, Goodman. I’ve decided to embrace the happy triangles.”
“E-embrace them?” His eyes widened as understanding dawned. “Wait, embrace them?”
“Mmmhmm. Grab them tight,” I expounded. “Put my hands all over them. Lick them. Bite them. Make them mine.”
Gage’s mouth formed a silent O of surprise like he couldn’t think of a damn thing to say.
My friends didn’t have that problem.
“Uh. Okay, weirdo.” Curt snorted.
“Shut up and have some sympathy, bitch.” Rod slapped Curt’s arm lightly. “Knox is clearly doing low carb. Been there, done that. Don’t worry, Knox. The bread cravings go away, and you’ll be shredded as fuck in no time.”
“Tried that. These cravings aren’t going away,” I said, staring hard into Gage’s eyes. “In fact, the longer I go without them, the worse they get.”
“Oh.” Gage blushed. “That’s… Are you…?”
“Ready to leave?” I supplied. “Yes.”
I nodded a goodbye to Jason, who inclined his head and smiled.
“But Gage, you and I were just getting to— Hey!” Curt protested as I pulled Gage away.
Gage chuckled nervously, darting a look at me as we wound our way through the living room. “Okay, your friends are…”
“Assholes?” I suggested.
“No! I’m sure they’re lovely when you get to know them.
I was gonna say intense. Like, they were arguing about restaurants.
Legit arguing about them. And dog spas. Rodney says if you can’t afford to have a dog sitter watch your dog in your home every day, you shouldn’t be allowed to have a dog.
But Dustin said that’s only true if you want your dog to be an elitist asshat.
And things got tense. Also, they’re very passionate about Mykonos.
” He wrinkled his nose. “That’s in Greece, right? ”
I gave him a clipped nod and led him inside to the empty front hall, where I set my drink on a flimsy table and turned to face him. “They love to one-up each other. Ignore them.”
“No, it’s cool. I’m sure they’re really nice. But they’re not like you.” He winced. “Sorry. Not that you’re not nice, just that you’re so… yourself. Unapologetic and snarky and… honest. And… I’m babbling. So weird. I haven’t even had a drink yet.”
I wanted to tell him that I’d missed his chatter. That his babbling felt soothing, like water on parched earth. But that seemed a little excessive. He hadn’t agreed to anything yet except leaving with me.
I took a step toward him. “I can be competitive in my own way,” I said softly. “I like achieving things. Being the best at what I do, because that means I get to be in charge.”
Gage took a step back and tried to smile.
“Ah. Y-you’re the alpha of the pack,” he teased.
“You don’t need to brag, because everyone already knows you’re the best. And you don’t need to be an asshole because you always…
” I crowded his back against the wall, and his voice was a thready whisper as he finished. “…get what you want.”
“I don’t always get what I want, Goodman.
” I braced my hands against the wall on either side of him and leaned into his space, taking in a deep lungful of his saltwater scent.
Gage’s breath rushed out in a startled whoosh.
I stared into those brown eyes that danced and sparkled and held a million secrets I’d pay money to know.
“But maybe sometimes. Maybe tonight, if you’ll let me. ”
His jaw went slack, and he stared up at me cautiously. His tongue darted out to lick his lower lip, and his pulse pounded beneath my fingers. “You… We… What’s happening?”
I lifted a hand to trace the softness of his mouth with my index finger. The indent of his upper lip, the pout of the lower. His breath shuddered out of him.
“Are you sure you’re done talking to Jason?” I asked, my blood singing with the need to put my mouth on his.
Gage nodded like a bobblehead. “He said he’d call me about an interview. He’s… he’ll—”
I moved just slightly so my thigh slotted between his, pushing up against his half-hard dick. Why had I denied myself this? Denied both of us this? At that moment, I couldn’t remember.
“Oh, fuck.”
“I’d like to go back to the hotel now,” I said conversationally.
“Unless you wanted to stay? I know you haven’t even had a drink yet or that food I promised you.
And it’s a shame to waste this outfit.” I trailed a finger down the row of buttons from his chest to his flat belly. “It’s your call, Goodman.”
“I… I thought you were gonna pick someone appropriate and bring them back to the hotel. I thought you were going to get laid.” His voice was hopeful, but he seemed to need me to spell it out for him, and I understood why. It was my own fault for being so indecisive for so long.
I leaned in close enough to soak up the ocean scent of him, then scraped my teeth along the edge of his jaw so I could whisper in his ear.
“I am.”