Page 80 of Strut

I’d forgotten it was mid-morning on a Monday in New Zealand and Kip and Rhys would both be working in Flare. My mind waged war with itself and the urge to run raised its ugly head again. Half of me wanted to pretend nothing had ever fucking happened so nobody else had to know. The other half was just relieved that it would be out in the open. God, this was so fucked up. And I still hadn’t told my parents.

I dropped my head back and sighed heavily. “It’s fine. Kip can join us.”

Hunter leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips. “We can stop this any time you want to. Just say the word.”

I stared at him, wishing his brown eyes would swallow me up. “I know.”

“I’ll still love you.” He eyeballed me. “That’s not gonna change.”

My eyes popped wide and I stole a glance at Tim who was watching with a somewhat shocked, somewhat wistful expression.

“What?” Hunter caught my obvious surprise. “You thought I was gonna hide this?” He grinned and tipped my chin up to close my mouth. “There you go. First, fat chance of getting you and me past my best friend, let alone Kip. Second, if Kip knows, I may as well put an announcement on Reddit. Plus, he’s gonna make my life hell.”

I groaned. “Oh god, that is so true.”

Hunter smirked. “The man’s a force of nature. So, are we doing this?”

I blew out a breath and nodded. “We’re doing this.” I’d hoped for a lot more surety in my voice than how it came out, and Hunter’s eyebrows drew together.

“Atta boy.” Tim stretched across to pat my leg.

I shot him a weak smile, which died the second I saw his neck. “What the fuck, Tim?” I yanked down the rolled collar of his jersey to expose a nest of small round bruises on his throat.

“They’re nothing.” He jerked free and tugged his collar back up.

Hunter and I exchanged worried looks and I reached for Tim’s hand. “Hey. I didn’t mean to snap, but there aren’t too many ways to get those marks other than a hand at your throat.”

Red flushed up Tim’s neck but he said nothing.

“Putting aside the fact that you might be into that sort of thing, and in which case, forgive me, but if you’re not, then what the hell’s going on?”

Tim’s cheeks blazed and he looked away.

“Was this fucking Miles?” I demanded, and Tim slumped in his seat.

Hunter put a hand on my shoulder. “Take a breath.”

I took two. “What happened?”

Tim tipped his head to Hunter. “He knows?”

I shrugged. “He was with me when Miles’ article came out. He’s worried about you too.”

Resignation filled Tim’s eyes and his beautiful, big eyes danced nervously over my face. “I get so fucking lonely sometimes.”

Oh, Jesus.

He ran a hand over his face. “I know you didn’t want me to go back, but you had this thing going with—” His gaze shot to Hunter and then away. “Anyway, I went out with him a couple more times, but then I caught him texting some other guy and I blew up at him. It got... physical.Hegot physical. I said we were done and left. I’m not going back, so it’s all good. Now, can we drop the subject?”

I stared at him for a minute, registering just how damn young he really was. “I’m gonna fucking kill him for putting his hands on you like that,” I fumed. “In fact, where’s my fucking phone?” I pushed up from my chair, but Hunter put a restraining hand on my arm.

“No! Don’t do anything, please?” Tim pleaded. “It’s fine. Honestly. I guess I thought Miles could maybe help me turn things around, you know? With the modelling. And it felt good to have... someone.” He glanced again at Hunter, then sighed and stared down at his lap, and my heart fucking broke. “I don’t know if I can do this much longer, Alec. I thought Miles might be my last shot at getting my name out there.”

I slowly sat down, Hunter’s hot hand still on my arm.

“You’re a great guy, Tim.” I took his hand between both of mine.

“But.” Tim wouldn’t meet my eyes and it wasn’t a question. “I know you’ve been telling me for a while to think about my options, but I don’t have anything else, not really. I knew what I was doing with him, kind of. But when I looked in the mirror and saw this—” He touched his neck and flinched. “I’m not gonna be my mum, Alec.” He choked. “I’m fucking not.”

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