Page 71 of Psync
Haruka defended Eli’s personal space far more vigilantly than Eli did, even to the point of rudeness. Eli was used to allowing small breaches of his defenses as a normal part of daily life. When Haruka was around, it simply didn’t happen.
Like yesterday when one of Eli’s classmates had tried to throw their arms around him from behind, Haruka had straight-up body checked her, knocking the girl to the ground when she bounced off of him.
After dealing with the dirty looks of onlookers and consoling a tearstained girl with scraped palms, Eli wasn’t sure if maybe it would have just been better to have let her glomp him in the first place.
He sighed and scrubbed his arms until they were bright pink.
And then there was the very top of the list of Eli’s Problems. And it seemed to tie in with all of the others in some way or another.
There was a tension between them Eli couldn’t explain. He’d never felt anything like it before. Mornings were . . . intense. Every night, Eli did his best to create a barrier between them before they went to sleep and every single morning, he woke up draped over Haruka like a second skin. And they never talked about it.
Was this normal?
What a ridiculous question. There was no way of knowing what normal was in their situation because, as far as Eli knew, no one had ever dealt with something like this before.
All Eli knew was that there was this pull inside him, growing stronger every day, urging him to get him even closer to Haruka than he already was. Sometimes he thought Haruka felt it too.
There were moments where Haruka stared at him, and Eli was reminded of a small fish being circled by a shark. Instead of being scared, it made him think of the time Haruka had squeezed his wrists together in one hand. It made the shivery sensation in his stomach kick into to overdrive.
Eli’s hands ran down his body as he covered himself in soap. His skin tingled in the wake of his fingers.
Alice had teased him at the beginning of school, intimating that Haruka was into Eli. Wouldn’t he have done something by now if he were? Maybe he was waiting for Eli to do something first—which wasnothappening.
What if he shot Eli down with the same brutal efficiency he’d used on all the others? That would make their bond go from the best thing in Eli’s life to the worst in the blink of an eye.
No, Eli would continue to be like a quarter of the people on campus and enjoy the phenomenon of Haruka’s grace and beauty from afar.
But not as far as everyone else.
Eli got an up close and personal look every single morning, and the only reason Haruka didn’t know about Numero Uno on Eli’s list was all thanks to a discovery he’d made on the Saturday after the attack.
Eli and Haruka had been sitting back-to-back while working on homework, and Haruka pulled away.
“You’re giving me a headache.”
“Huh?”
“Whatever you’re doing is making my head hurt.”
“Sorry, I’m memorizing Vietnamese verbs, but it’s a little boring, so I’m comparing them to Thai verbs as I go to make it more interesting.”
Haruka had looked at Eli like he was insane. Maybe he was, but he now had a way to keep Haruka out of his head. Anytime Problem Number One showed up, Eli began translating random phrases from one language to another, and Haruka would give him a dirty look and pull away.
Unfortunately, Problem Number One was popping up more often as the days went by. This morning Haruka’s skin seemed to glow in the early morning light when Eli had opened his eyes. He’d been mesmerized as he traced the hard lines of Haruka’s chest with his eyes. The smooth curve of his bicep had been so tantalizing, Eli hadn’t been able to stop himself from reaching out and running his fingers over it.
Eli’s hands gripped the base of his cock, and he squeezed.
He couldn’t keep doing this.
But he also couldn’t seem to make himself stop.
He stroked himself as he imagined Haruka waking up to catch Eli touching him. Fantasy Haruka flipped him over, reversing their position and pressed Eli’s hands down against the bed.
His hand sped up as he imagined Haruka taking both of his hands in one of his, while thrusting against Eli and . . .
Eli came with a choked gasp. Fuck, it didn’t take much to get him there anymore. All he had to do was think about Haruka and he was done. If Haruka ever actually touched him like that he’d probably ruin his pants in a matter of seconds.
And to think he’d actually believed he had no interest in sex. Well, there was no doubt about his sexuality now. He was Haruka-sexual.
