Page 129 of Three Pucks and a Baby

“Because it’s more.”

“But we weren’t even doing anything yet.”

Theo threw his hands up. “Don’t you get it?Kissingyou makes it different.”

And then it hit me. Everything we’d done before tonight had just been sexual. Kissing was intimate. Kissing meant emotions and feelings. “You do know there’s nothing wrong with what we just did, right?”

He jerked a hand through his hair. “I’m not gay.”

“I never said you were.”

With a glare, he countered, “Yeah, well, I’m not bi either.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I countered, “That bulge in your pants tells a different story.”

Fear momentarily flashed in his eyes before he shook his head. “This is bullshit. I’m out of here.”

As I watched his retreating form, anger replaced my hurt. I stalked behind him. When he started to open the door, I slapped my palm against it, slamming it back. “Don’t you dare fucking walk away from me, Theo!”

“Get off the door,” he growled.

I shook my head. “I’m not letting you out of here until we talk about this.”

“I’ve got nothing left to say to you.”

“I’m your best friend. You owe it to me to talk about this.”

“Look, I’m fine with fucking Vivian together. But nothing else can ever happen between us.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s not who I am!”

“But why can’t you be that way with me?”

A maniacal laugh tore from his lips. “You’re joking with me, right?”

“This is too serious to joke about,” I replied.

“You act like you’re my best friend, but you don’t fucking know me.”

“I know you better than you think,” I countered.

“Then can you imagine what my parents would say if they got wind about the four of us?”

“Yeah, I can..”

“Then take that and multiply it by a thousand if they found out I’d been fucking some guy.”

His words wounded me so deeply that I sucked in a harsh breath. “Is that all I am to you? Just some guy?”

“Dammit, Bennett, you know what I mean? I could be fucking the King of England, and it wouldn’t make a difference to them. Being polyamorous would be a defect to them. Being gay or bi?” He shook his head. “That would be worse than a death.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve lived it, remember? I’m the one whose dad tried to beat the queer out of him. I’m the one who was thrown out of his house at seventeen and couch-surfed at friends’ houses until my aunt took me in. I’m the one who has been cut off from their mother and sisters all because I had the strength and courage to be who I was deep down inside.”

“You know how I feel about all that. I hate that you had to go through it. But it has nothing to do with me.”

“It haseverythingto do with you. You might not have fucked any other guys, but you did fuckme.”

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