Page 33 of Sapphire Storm

He was tempted to give the guy a lecture on how not allhuman bodies ran on such a clean connection between cause and effect, exertionequals instant weight loss. Tempted to tell the guy he should enjoy this periodwhile he could because eventually his body would change. Bodies, he hadlearned, both as a sex worker and a man fighting the realities of aging, wereendlessly specific and complicated. Roman Walker had genetic advantages andgifts he’d been maximizing as best he could, and more power to him. But as withmost gifts, they could expire or wear out thanks to forces beyond your control.

And as with most of Ethan’s lectures, this one was an attemptto distract himself from mental discomfort. This time, from the fact that RomanWalker had just expressed a lustful admiration for his lack of a lean,camera-ready torso. The guy who’d rejected Ethan had been a role. This Roman,the one massaging him now, was apparently the real thing.

“A lean guy who likes a lot of man,” Ethan finally said.

“Pretty much.”

When Ethan felt it, his first thought was to wonder if Romanwanted him to feel it. Roman Walker was aroused, too, only without a way tohide it. Maybe Ethan could have dismissed it as a natural, reflexive responseto all the rubbing they’d done in search of pain relief. But this was the sameguy who’d lectured him the night before on how he could never get turned on bysomeone he didn’t like.Total system shutdown,he’d called it.

What Ethan could feel pressing against him now was theopposite of a total system shutdown.

Then he felt something else.

Roman Walker leaned forward and kissed him gently on theback of his neck.

A light peck, that was all.

A light peck that thundered through Ethan’s body from headto toe, rendering him instantly breathless. Making every inch of his skin feeltoo warm and too tight. It was the surprise and ease of it that had left himinstantly feverish, the playful hesitancy. By the time Ethan Blake was out ofhis twenties, there was nothing he hadn’t tried sexually. This accomplishmenthad left him with a long list of things he never wanted to do again, but hisgreatest fear was that it had numbed him, dulled both his nerves and his heart,made him immune to the softer, gentler acts of desire. Now he realized it haddone the opposite instead. At forty-three, he’d been laid bare by a fleetingact of tenderness; a single peck—especially when it came as a surprise—could bemore devastatingly arousing than any crazy sex position, toy, or role-playfantasy.

Roman was sitting up now, bulge pressed against Ethan’s ass.

Gently, the man’s fingers caressed the spot where he’d just kissed.It was covered in gooseflesh. “Not so cool now, are you, Ethan Blake?”

“Roman…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. There were a dozendifferent tones in his utterance of the guy’s name. Fear and self-judgmentalongside hunger and desire. As he let silence fill the room, he realized hewas leaving it to Roman to decide which tone he’d heard. Roman Walker woulddecide if Ethan had just issued a plea or a warning. Because Ethan wasn’t sure.

“Sorry,” he whispered quickly, then swung one leg up and offEthan’s back. “I should probably get dressed. You know, like,reallydressed.”

Roman stood.

Ethan gasped into the rug, wondering if he should reversethis sudden left turn, when the guy’s footsteps paused in the nearby doorway.“Can I borrow some more clothes?”

“Of course,” Ethan answered, relieved by the idea that aclothes exchange might require another in-person meeting sometime soon.

“I’ll be back in a second. No sudden moves.”

Finally, as he listened to the sounds of Roman openingdrawers in his bedroom, Ethan’s ragingly hard cock stopped grinding painfullyagainst the harder floor. When he sat up slowly and reached for the sofa nextto him, his back whined a little, but it didn’t yell at him. Another fewseconds, and he was on his feet, moving into the kitchen, wondering if Romanwas as unnerved as he was. A minute or two later, the guy walked into thekitchen, wearing a plain, light blue American Apparel T-shirt and a pair ofEthan’s old gym shorts that weren’t nearly as tight and revealing as his jeansfrom the night before.

“What happened to no sudden moves, mister?” he asked.

“I was slow. Where do you need to go? I’ll drive you.”

“I’ll get an Uber. You shouldn’t drive until your back’scalmed down.”

True, he thought, but what Ethan said was, “That’s ridiculous.I’ll drive you.”

“I already called one.”

“All right, well get me that paperwork like we said, andwe’ll get together and discuss my lawyer’s response as soon as I have it.”

“Great.” The breathy, wannabe-seductive tone he’d used thenight before was back, and he was gazing at him with puppy-dog eyes.

“And we’ll meet in a restaurant next time, to avoid anyconfusion.”

The long, tense silence was filled by ticking appliances andthe rush of traffic down the busy street below Ethan’s balcony.

“Confusion?” Roman asked, expression going blank.

“It was perfectly understandable, our little moment there.Given our positions. Literally. But in order to keep things appropriate, nexttime we should have lunch or dinner off campus, as it were.”

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