Page 85 of Lucky Shot
Now he blinks and I wait with a lump in my throat for him to say something else. What if this is definitelynotwhat he wants? He’s never looked at me with any interest at all!
He laughs quietly, rubbing his hands over his face. “My sweet lace baby has been right in front of my eyes for years,” he murmurs.
My body shivers at his words. “You’re not… disappointed?” I ask.
Elixon drops his hands and frowns at the screen. “Why would I be disappointed?”
“I don’t… I just… You’ve never looked at me before. Not like that.”
His smile is slight. Soft. “My Pretty Boy,” he murmurs and tears fill my eyes. I want to wipe them away, but I’m too afraid to miss a second. “You could never disappoint me.”
Yep, I may just cry.
“I’m relieved, shocked, and… feeling a little blindsided because you’ve been right there. For so long,” he says, shaking his head.
“You’re relieved?” I ask.
His smile grows a little. “Wipe your tears, Pretty Boy,” he says softly and I can hear the familiarity of his voice as that which I’ve listened to for so long in our phone calls. And then there’s the familiarity of knowing it’s Elixon’s voice. Somehow I’d missed that. Which isn’t actually all that surprising. We were never that close. We never spent time enough together that I would recognize it without looking to see who’s talking.
Well, there was that time I thought maybe they sounded alike and then dismissed it as being too ridiculous to consider a possibility.
I wipe my cheeks, laughing through the emotion.
“I’m relieved. It’syou.It’s always been you, Noah. I just didn’t know.”
Fuck, he’s going to make me cry again!
“I kind of feel stupid,” I say, laughing. “Your fucking name tells me everything. KIPler. You’re a D-man. And demi doesn’t refer to being a demigod but demisexual!”
Elixon grins. “Yes, I wasn’t very creative with my name.”
“So many other things click into place now too,” I whine through laughter.
“Like when we both freaked out on the ice when ‘pretty boy’ slipped from my mouth?” he asks, amused.
“The funniest thing about that is that we were actually talking to the right person and didn’t know it. And we felt weird about it for the same reasons, right?”
“Because PrettyInLace is my pretty boy, and I thought I called someone else by that name.”
“And at those words, my thoughts went straight to my Demi god.”
He chuckles. “You know, if we’d have given each other even the barest hint of personal information, it would have all been out.”
“I’m glad we didn’t,” I say. “There’s a part of me that thinks if we’d have figured it out sooner, this might not have progressed. I think we might have just laughed it off and stopped talking.” My cheeks heat before I add, “And I really like where we went.”
Elixon nods. A gentle smile on lips that I’ve never looked at so closely in my entire life. My own lips tingle, wanting to feel them.
“I know,” he says. “I kind of feel ridiculous that you have always been right there. Within reach on so many occasions. Fuck, you were like three doors down for three weeks on a yacht!”
“You saved me in a crowd,” I say. “You walked me to my door, and I practically climbed you for a hug!” I cover my face. “I’m both embarrassed and… relieved.” I laugh.
“I’m not mad about this turn of events,” Elixon says.
“You know… We’re scheduled for the same charity event in three days,” I say and then feel my face flush.
He smiles. “We are. Want to be my date?”
I laugh and wipe my face. “That’s not what I… I mean, yes. But I was thinking—if you want to, I mean—that we could maybe—"
