Chapter 10
LUKE
I’m so focused on tossing a tennis ball around the patio for Aggie that I almost don’t hear my phone vibrate.
She’s small and her legs are short, so lucky for me, a few tosses of the ball are enough to wear her out.
Getting a dog might have been impulsive, but I’m grateful that I decided to go for a little one instead of a big one.
I’ve always considered myself fit and fairly outdoorsy, but I can’t imagine I’d have the energy to keep up with something like a husky.
Aggie returns the tennis ball a bit more slowly this time and collapses in a tired heap in the shade under my deck chair. I chuckle at how dramatic she can be, and my phone buzzes and lights up with another notification. This time, I catch Riley’s name on the screen and dive for it.
RILEY:
Are you home, by any chance?
Never mind, I’m sure you’re busy. Sorry. Ignore me.
My stomach drops. That doesn’t sound good. I immediately hit the call button.
He answers on the second ring, and before he can even say hello, I’m jumping in. “Riley? Everything okay?”
“Yes, fine, I’m sorry.” His voice sounds far away, as if he’s got me on speakerphone or something. “I was just in your neighborhood, and was going to see if you were busy.”
Reaching down to pick up an exhausted Aggie, we head into the house.
“Yeah, I’m here,” I confirm, sliding the patio door shut behind me and setting Aggie down to sprawl on the cool kitchen tile.
I pick up her bowl to refill with fresh water and try to keep my tone light.
“I’m not busy. Just playing with Aggs. You want to stop by? ”
“Yes please.” His voice is flooded with relief, and now I’m really worried. I check the clock. He must have just finished his collab with Benji. Alarm bells are going off in my head, but I push that aside for now and give him the code to the entry gate.
I pace nervously as I wait. I can tell I’m making Aggie nervous too; she keeps giving me the side-eye, but she’s too tired to get up and check for any real threats. An excellent guard dog.
Riley wasn’t kidding that he was only a few minutes away, because a moment later, there’s a knock at the door and I’m bolting to answer it.
He says hello quickly, but it’s without his usual smile.
His beautiful features are etched with…confusion?
I want to wrap my arms around him and hold him until that furrowed brow smoothes over, but I don’t feel like we’ve quite reached that place in our friendship yet.
“Riley? Are you sure you’re okay?”
His eyes meet mine, and there’s a question in them, but I can’t make it out. “I promise, I’m fine.” His voice is more confident than I expected from the look on his face. “Nothing bad happened or anything, I swear. Actually…I’m not sure what happened.”
“Do you want to talk about it? We can go sit down, or we can go out and grab something to eat? Whatever you want.”
He ducks his head a little, almost embarrassed, as he says, “Do you mind if we stay here? Maybe order in?”
“Sure, of course,” I agree too quickly, jogging over to where I left my phone on the counter and pulling up my preferred food delivery app. We check through the options nearby and settle on a sandwich place. I put in our orders and pay, waving him off when he offers to pitch in.
We have about a half hour to wait for the delivery, and settle in on the couch to talk. I’m pleased to see that he takes the same spot close to me that he did last time. Something about us each having our own “spot” on my couch makes me ridiculously happy for some reason.
“So what’s going on?” I ask once we’re finally settled.
“Well…” Riley’s eyes flick away, and there’s a seriousness about his whole demeanor that makes my protective instinct kick in. “I just finished up my collab with Benji…”
“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” I ask darkly, my blood boiling hot in seconds. If he did something to make Riley uncomfortable, or hurt him in any way, I’ll—
“No, no, nothing like that,” Riley assures me quickly.
“He was perfectly nice. I was worried about running late, so I was feeling off at the start, but he’s hot, and we were having a good time.
But it was all so rushed, and I didn’t really even have time to get into it.
I just kind of…felt like I was along for the ride, maybe?
He took charge, and that was fine, I guess…
but the way he was talking put me off, too, and I should have been enjoying it… I’m not sure why I didn’t.”
“Hey, that’s okay,” I tell him, reaching over to place a comforting hand on his knee. I’m pleased when he scoots a little closer to me, his shoulder brushing against me. I let my hand slide to the inside of his leg, pulling his thigh flush against mine, and he leans into the added contact.
“I don’t know what went wrong,” he sighs. Aggie has recovered from her exercise and has wandered in, tail wagging as she hops into Riley’s lap and makes herself at home.
“It sounds like nothing went wrong, Ry,” I soothe, caressing his knee with my thumb. “Sometimes you just aren’t as compatible with a scene partner, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t have to work with him again if you don’t want to.”
“I just feel bad because it’s not like he did anything wrong.
I mean, I’ve watched his videos before, and I thought I knew what to expect, but it was just like suddenly the combination of all the things felt more overwhelming than hot.
It wasn’t his fault.” He drops his head onto my shoulder, and my heart soars.
“It wasn’t yours either. This happens sometimes. I promise you’re not the only one.”
Riley twists awkwardly to look up at me, and his eyes are so earnest and trusting. Fuck it. I lift one arm and wrap it around his strong shoulders, and he nuzzles into my neck like he belongs there. “Are you sick of me yet?” he mumbles, his warm breath puffing against my skin.
“Of course not,” I chuckle, rubbing up and down his arm absently. “Why would I be sick of you?”
“I just feel like I’m being so annoying. I text you all the time and now I’m just showing up at your house unannounced…”
“You could never annoy me, sunshine,” I assure him, placing a tender kiss on the top of his head and inhaling the fresh, summery scent of him. “You can ask me anything, any time. It makes me happy that you feel comfortable reaching out to me about this stuff.”
He pulls back to look up at me, his green eyes full of relief. “Really?”
“Really. I look forward to talking to you. And I like spending time with you.”
I get a flash of a happy little grin before he settles his head back onto my shoulder and resumes petting Aggie.
We sit in silence for a bit until I get a text alert that the food is almost here.
Reluctantly, I pull away to answer the door, and Riley keeps hold of Aggie (who is perfectly content in his lap and does not bark, the little traitor).
Riley stands and extends his arms over his head, stretching with a cute little grunt. His T-shirt rides up and exposes a glimpse of his Adonis belt, and my dick takes notice.
I’ve been with all kinds of men, and never really thought I had a particular “type,” but everything about Riley’s muscular form just does it for me.
He’s gorgeous, of course, but there’s something appealing about a man who has the discipline to spend the time building a body like that in the gym.
Maybe I should ask if he wants to work out together sometime.
That’s something friends would do, right?
And then if he needed a spotter, it would give me a reasonable excuse to be close to him, like earlier on the couch.
I bet he smells amazing after a workout.
My imagination supplies me with an image of running my nose along his armpit in the shower after a lifting session, and suddenly my mouth is watering and all my blood is rushing south.
Stop it, Luke. Now’s not the time.
I distract myself from that dangerous fantasy by unwrapping the sandwiches and handing over Riley’s. Aggie is thrilled when a piece of turkey drops to the floor, and she scarfs it down before I can stop her. Leaning over the bar to eat, I force my mind back to Riley’s current problem.
“Do you have the video on your phone?” I ask between bites.
“I can take a look if it would make you feel better.” I don’t know why I offer.
I don’t actually want to see Riley with Benji, but I’m also not sure why.
I’ve seen lots of my scene partners’ collabs with other people, and it’s never been anything but professional, but this feels more personal somehow.
Maybe since it feels like we’re actually becoming friends and not just guys who worked together once.
If watching the video will help him feel better about himself and the experience, though, I want to do it.
Riley wipes his hands and queues up the recording, pressing play and sliding it across the bar to me.
I watch as I eat, thankful that my mouth is full so I don’t have to provide any commentary right away.
Riley looks good. Really good. If I didn’t have our own video to compare, I don’t think I’d even notice anything is off with him.
Benji took charge from the start, and Riley was definitely right in his assessment that he was just along for the ride.
I try not to wince as Benji makes a quick entry.
Riley looks like he took it just fine, but I would have treated him a little more delicately.
That’s not my business, though; this was his collab, not mine.
“The video looks great,” I tell him honestly, handing the phone back. “It’s a good collab, and it’s okay that you didn’t love every minute of it. Sometimes they just feel like work, and you just get through it. It’s totally normal.”
“It didn’t feel like work with you, though,” Riley muses, his tone puzzled.