Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Now he couldn’t turn his dick or his damn brain off.
Thoreau was studying him as if he could read his thoughts.
God, I fucking hope not.
“Are you ever going to tell me about this phase thing?”
Thoreau looked down at his boxers and nodded, seeming to make a decision before reaching for his shirt. “You’re right, I need to stop putting this off. And I think visual aids might work better.” He paused and cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t freak out.”
Anytime someone told him not to freak out Wyatt instantly wanted to freak out. Because why would they say that? He felt something like panic mixed with hysterical laughter building up in his chest as Thoreau dropped his shirt and reached for his belt buckle, right there in the living room.
Wyatt took a step back and held up his hand. “Cut that shit out or I will hurt you.”
“No, you won’t.” Thoreau was stepping out of his khakis, his fingers on the waistband of his boxers with a completely relaxed and unaffected smile on his face. “But I have your attention now, don’t I?”
“Yes, okay? I followed you out here didn’t I? Don’t do it, man.”
“I’m proving a point. We’ve lived in this two-bedroom apartment for a month and you’re still uncomfortable around me. I’m not that hard a guy to relax around, and I know for a fact you’ve spent the majority of your life in locker rooms surrounded by naked men. Unless you did it blindfolded, you checked them out. It’s human nature. Five brothers, football team, firefighter…all male dick, all the time. Think about it.”
“I don’t want to think about dick.” He gripped the towel around his neck tightly as Thoreau dropped his boxers to his knees.
He couldn’t help it. He looked.
Damn.
Now he had another reason to hate the bastard.
“Is this phase two? Are we supposed to kiss now or after I call my brother to arrest you for indecent exposure?”
Obviously amused, Thoreau shook his head and tugged his boxers back up as if he hadn’t just revealed his giant secret weapon. “First of all, this is my house so I can be as naked as I like whenever I want to. And we could kiss, but you’ve spoiled the moment so I’m going to pass. You’re safe for now, buddy.”
For now.
Wyatt started to turn away but Thoreau held up his hands, “Wait. Before you storm out or kick me in the balls, this is not a dominance thing or a contest.”
Really? Because it felt like both. “What the hell is it?”
“It’s a wakeup call, because you’re getting better and time is flying by, and we need to have this conversation, Wyatt. For Fiona.”
That stopped Wyatt’s momentum. “Well, consider me thoroughly awake. Care to explain how you dropping trou is for Fiona?”
“I will if you let me.” He crossed his arms over his smooth, very bare chest, obviously in no hurry to get the rest of his clothes back on. “In case you missed it, you’ve got some serious hang-ups. And I get it. I do. I grew up with Hugo and I know about Rory.”
Everybody knew about Rory, thanks to Younger’s press conference. His brothers weren’t shy.
“I was always into girls,” Thoreau continued. “But in college I experimented like everyone else. Discovered other things I liked and a few I wasn’t into.”
Exactly what had he discovered? “I went to community college. I don’t experiment.”
Thoreau raised an eyebrow in disbelief. Wyatt supposed that the fact that half his family were, or had been, regulars at a local kink club made his claim hard to believe.
The truth was Wyatt’s worldview had been pretty damn small before Fiona. His lane was narrow, but he’d always been comfortable staying in it. She was the only person he trusted enough to try new things with. Really new things. Like that time she was giving him a blowjob and she’d stuck her finger up his— Okay, so maybe he had experimented. Just not with another guy.
Thoreau shrugged. “All I’m saying is that I enjoyed myself, got over a few of my own judgments and issues, but that didn’t mean I stopped loving women. People don’t have to fit into neat little boxes anymore, Wyatt. It’s not just gay or straight, black and white, right and wrong. And it’s not always just one man for just one woman.”
He couldn’t look away from Thoreau’s chest. He had more definition than Wyatt expected for a guy who made beer all day.
Stop looking at his chest. He’s waiting for a response.
“You think I don’t know that by now? With my brothers? I’m not that narrow-minded.”
Thoreau nodded, obviously expecting that argument. “I know you accept alternative situations for other people. Even people you’re in a relationship with. The fact that you’re still here, still involved with Fiona, when you know that she and I have—”