Page 44 of Sapphire Storm

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” But he couldn’t finish thesentence.

“I’m not offended,” Ethan said. “I’m worried. I’m worriedthat you don’t see what I’m actually trying to do here, which is be somethingthat you might lose once you do what you need to do on Tuesday.”

“A job?”

“A friend.”

He saw Ethan’s meaning instantly. He was trying to step intothe place Rachel might leave once Roman told her the truth about her fiancé.Even if she did believe him, their friendship might never recover. And only nowcould he appreciate how big that loss would be. After getting swept up in thewhirlwind of the Peyton family, he’d fallen out of touch with most of his LAfriends, couldn’t think of anyone he’d be able to text at all hours abouteverything ranging from nonsense to grief.

And Ethan Blake, even after everything Roman had tried thenight before, even given their painful history, was offering to be that person.And now Roman felt ashamed.

“Thank you” was all he could manage, and it sounded inadequate,so he picked his new pet hawk up off the bench and hugged her to his chest. “Ilove her. She will be my protector always. Thanks to you.”

It looked for a second like something inside of Ethan hadmelted, but he smiled and nodded and crisply said, “I’ll see you Tuesday. Textsooner if you need to talk.”

Roman nodded, and then he was alone.

An hour later, he was naked.

Naked and posing for a selfie on his bed he was pretty surewould reduce Ethan to a puddle on his kitchen floor.

But when he went to send it, he felt so creepy his fingerfroze up, and he realized he couldn’t.

That was a shame. He wouldn’t be able to use it for much else.It was way too hot for Instagram. He prided himself on never running afoul oftheir censors, which meant he rarely posted ass pics, and certainly not onesthat showed this much crack and the outline of his balls pressed to themattress beneath him. It was one of those classic—if by classic, you meantborderline trashy—over-the-shoulder shots, revealing the naked, muscularexpanse of his back right down to the spot where he’d positioned the bedsheetsto reveal the twin swells of his ass. He’d used the timer, setting the phoneatop the headboard so he could get his face into the frame, then he’d restedhis chin on the pillow, gently bit down on his lower lip, and widened his eyesin a manner designed to look eager and innocent.

The end result looked casual, because you couldn’t see thering light he’d hauled out from his closet and positioned off to one side ofthe bed, or the twenty test shots he’d taken to get everything just right.

And the prep had gotten him so hot he’d come close tojerking off before he snapped a single good shot.

The truth was, casual sex wasn’t his thing, but sexting was.Roman had traded naughty shots with scores of guys on social media apps he’dnever met, infinitely more than he’d ever hooked up with IRL. Never toonaughty. If anything, a leaked nude would help his career, especially if itdidn’t seem to come from him. But a video of him performing a sex act, even onhimself, was a different story. What he loved was the tangle of fantasy andwords sexting offered. Most specifically, the words of adoration that oftenflowed his way.

But everything about this little photo shoot had feltdifferent from the many others.

He’d come to know this picture’s intended audience fairlywell in a very short amount of time. As he’d prepared, he’d imagined the intentexpression on Ethan’s face as he studied the shot, the glaze in his brown eyes,the way the tip of his tongue might appear in the corner of his mouth,something he’d done a bunch as he’d cooked for Roman the night before. Thethought that Ethan might break down and start pleasuring himself to it—alone,frustrated, and captivated—had made the blood thunder to Roman’s cock andballs.

Still, sending it would feel like a violation of what they’djust agreed to.

And the truth was, it hadn’t been an agreement.

It had been a condition set down by Ethan whether Romanliked it or not.

Violate it and Ethan Blake might leave his life in the blinkof an eye.

He figured it was one of the things Rachel called aboundary,usually while complaining that she didn’t have any when it came to her mother.And at the very least, it would mean crashing on Andy’s sofa come Tuesday.

He rolled over onto his back, horny at a level that seemedto demand a different, more elegant word. A word Ethan Blake might use.

Smitten…

Intoxicated…

Enamored…

There was plenty of saved porn on his phone that would bringhim some quick relief.

But if his fingers so much as grazed his phone while he wasin this wildly aroused state, he might break down and send the photo after all.That would be bad. The kind of bad he’d only want more of.

Instead, he closed his eyes, and when his hand found hiscock, he realized he didn’t need porn at all. All he needed to do was imaginehe was back in Ethan Blake’s arms.

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