Page 25 of What You Own
I rinsed my sponge in the sink, then tossed it into a bucket underneath. “Probably so.”
“Never mind what he did to you in high school. He’s got the purse strings for this fundraiser. What if his father finds out you two are fooling around again and Langley-Quartermaine pulls out?”
“They can’t. We have a contract.”
“Adam will break your heart, Ryan.”
Her lack of support rankled. “You don’t know that.”
“He did it once.”
“Yeah, and we talked about it. We talked about a lot of things tonight.”
“How about coming out? Did you two talk about him being honest about his feelings for you?”
“Not exactly.” I hadn’t expected an evening that began with a trip down Ugly Memory Lane to end up with our mouths on each other’s dicks. Things had moved so fast. We’d both acted on emotion instead of with our brains.
“So what now? You’ll be his dirty little secret?”
I grunted. “We’re both getting our feet underneath us again. I won’t pressure him right now.”
She glared, clearly unhappy with my decision-making skills tonight. “You still love him, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do. Never stopped.”
“Fine.” She hauled ass to her feet, then pointed a finger at me. “If he breaks your heart, I’ll break his face. You can quote me to him, if you want.”
I smiled. “Thanks, El.”
She rolled her eyes as she strode to her bedroom. This time, though, she didn’t slam the door.
Before I went to bed, I retrieved my phone so I could charge it overnight. The screen flashed with a text message.
Adam:Tire is good as new. Goodnight, R. <3
Falling asleep is hard when you’re grinning like a fool.
Chapter 8
Adam
ONSATURDAYmorning, I took the finalized fundraiser contracts over to the center, telling myself I wanted to make sure things were in order as soon as possible. The line was partly true too, but the whole truth was that Ryan would be there teaching a theater class. I knew because I’d called the center and asked. Ellie had a group of younger kids in a room, while Ryan handled the middle and high school students.
Maybe ambushing Ryan at the center wasn’t the best approach, but I wanted to see him in person. We’d texted a few times since Thursday night, but his work schedule and my interning hours kept us from actually seeing each other, and I missed him. I didn’t mind admitting to myself that I missed him, either. Hiding it from Joe and my father yesterday had been a chore, but Jesse was the only person who’d seemed to notice I was distracted.
“You look like you got shot in the ass by Cupid, man,” Jesse had said when I saw him at lunch.
I’d denied it and tried to focus, to not let anyone else see that something I’d longed for was finally back within my grasp. As long as I didn’t fuck it up.
You will. As soon as your father finds out, and he will, you’ll fuck up with Ryan and then it’ll be over.
My chest ached with the idea of losing him again. I didn’t regret a thing we’d done, and a little part of me was furious at Ellie for interrupting our time together. Another part was glad. There was such a thing as too much, too soon, and we were skating the line. We’d been apart for so long, and making up for lost time in the sex department wouldn’t repair all the damage we’d done to each other emotionally. Only time could heal those kinds of wounds.
That didn’t stop me from wanting to spend an entire day seeing how many times I could make Ryan come. He was beautiful, period, but something in him changed when he was caught in the throes of an orgasm. He lit up from the inside, becoming almost radiant. I loved seeing him like that. Loved knowing I did that to him.
Lou was excited to get the contracts. I think, in some ways, it made the entire fundraiser seem more real to him. “This is fantastic, thank you, son,” he said.
“You’re welcome,” I replied with a genuine smile.
