Page 54 of The Battle of Maddox
“Hate…why the hell would I hate you?”
“Because I kissed you. I pulled you in and kissed you.”
“Well, yes, but I think I did the same both before and after that.”
“You’re…not freaking out?”
“A little,” I admitted. “But, Aaron. A vast swath of my friends are gay. I’ve never beenscaredof being attracted to men. I’m surrounded by gorgeous gay men… I mean hello? There’s not a straight person in the world who can’t admit that Nelson is one good looking man.”
“But you’re still freaking out?”
“Just a little. That I am attracted to you. To a man. I’ve never been before.” I stepped in close. “Kissing you was so different from anyone I’ve kissed before.”
He slapped a hand over my mouth. “We’re in Russia. No more kissing. You can’t…”
I chuckled, and licked his palm. He pulled his hand away with an ‘ewww’ and wiped it on my shirt. I leaned into him and whispered, “I can, and I will, as long as you let me.”
The breath he sucked in was sharp.
I tipped my head to the door. “I’m going to go use the bathroom. Do yours after.”
Grabbing my stuff, I headed for the tiny shared bathroom down the hall at the end of the car.
I was playing with fire with the wholewe’re still in Russiathing. As it was, Robot Servant would most likely never be welcomed back. That was fine—as long as Ginni and Hazel were out and safe.
Still, we weren’t out yet. We were still speeding to Belarus in an overnight car on the Russian Railways. I’d also looked up the laws while we were on the way to Russia. They were mostly about not exposing children to “the gay lifestyle” and there wasn’t much punishment. But, I was sure that wasn’t the whole story. The idea the government could lose the women in the system was scary enough to make me agree to this hairbrained scheme.
What the law didn’t forbid was the actual “lifestyle.” Like there was some card you had to carry to get into gay clubs or parties. Nowhere did it say that beinggaywas against the law.
Nowhere did it say kissing a man in the locked privacy of a cabin on a railway car was illegal.
I finished up and walked back to the little private cabin and I found Aaron sitting on the end of his bed, his leg bopping up and down at a breakneck speed. “Your turn.” He nodded and grabbed his toiletry case, making a beeline out of the room.
I stared at the two beds. I had seen there was an option to make one large bed, and…that was really tempting. Was it too forward? Now that I had kissed him, I wanted more kissing.
A split second later, I made my decision and moved the beds together, rearranging the bedding to accommodate it. If he thought it was a bad idea, I’d pull them back to where they started.
The door swung open and Aaron walked in, wearing racoon pajamas.
I cracked up laughing. “Where the hell did you find those?”
“Some cheap store on Facebook.” He blushed, deeply scarlet, and ducked his head. “Shut up. Racoons are cool.”
“I just didn’t expect racoonpajamas.”
He stared at the bed. “What did you do?”
Aaron
Oh, God.
My brain would not stop whizzing around and around. Maddox kissed me, I kissed him, and then he kissed me again.
The last kiss wasn’t so much a kiss as a make-out session. One I really hadn’t wanted to end.
He was also correct—I was the one having the gay panic, not him. This was Maddox Jones of Robot Servant with his lips pressed on mine, his tongue in my mouth, his hand on my thigh. For all intents and purposes, myboss.
Everything that had happened in the past few months was what dreams were made of. Accidentally auditioning and getting the opening in one of the biggest rock bands in the world. To finally get my diploma in music and chemistry. To jet off to fucking Europe and play massive arenas with massive crowds. Getting to write and sing and get an album ready.
