Page 10 of Unwrapped

“Am I dreaming?”

My gaze travelled from his own noticeable bulge back to his face. His fucking beautiful face that held so many questions. “That first time you kissed me?—”

“I feel humiliated thinking of that. You were disgusted.” His gaze dropped to the floor, and his mouth turned downwards. “I saw your face.”

“No.” Gripping his chin in my hand, I yanked his head up so he had no choice but to look at me. “I was shocked. Not disgusted.Neverdisgusted. You never gave me any indication that you were interested in me. I didn’t even know you liked guys…I just thought…I dunno, I didn’t really think. It never crossed my mind that you were into guys, let alone me. We barely even spoke to each other either, so to say I was blindsided was an understatement.”

“Ry…”

“I know I pushed you away, and believe me when I say I’m so fucking sorry for that. It was…an involuntary reaction. I wish I’d never run from you. Truthfully, I panicked. I hadn’t…no one at school knew I was bi, and I knew you were leaving for London the next day, and I was hoping to get into a uni up north, so… Fuck. I wish I’d done things differently then. And before and since. I was young and stupid.” A humourless laugh fell from my throat. “Still am, as it turns out. It’s not like four months makes much difference.”

“That makes two of us. I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you. Definitely not without having a conversation about it first. I-I had no idea you were bi, and I just, I dunno. I panicked, too, and thought it was my only chance.”

Closing my eyes for a moment, I gathered my thoughts. “If I’d taken the risk and told you how I felt, then maybe we…” My words trailed off as my mouth twisted, and I knew the regret I saw in Sam’s eyes was reflected in mine. “Maybe we could’ve done something about it then.”

His eyes widened as he stared at me, taking everything in. Breathing hard, he searched my gaze, and after a long, long silence, he spoke carefully. “Let me see if I’m reading this situation correctly. You liked me then? D-do you like me now?” There was so much tentativeness in his voice, but I could hear the hope threading through his tone.

A weight lifted from my shoulders, and it felt like I could breathe again. I smiled, my thumb brushing over his jaw, feeling the texture of his stubble beneath my touch. “Yes, I fucking like you. Then and now. I wasn’t ready to admit it to myself before, but I am now. I notice you every time you come into the gym, and it takes everything in me not to react.”

His Adam’s apple worked as he swallowed hard, leaning into my touch.“Same for me. Every time.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” I flashed him a grin, relief coursing through my body at his words.

“I’m sorry, Ry. More sorry than you could ever know. And I guess that between us we were so fucking…” He flipped his hand in a hopeless gesture. “You know. Dumb kids. What would have happened if we’d actually taken the time to have an honest conversation with each other?”

My hand moved from his jaw to the back of his neck, my fingers scraping across the short hairs there. “I’m sorry, too. We made a lot of mistakes, but things are different now, and I think the past needs to stay in the past. Let’s concentrate on the future, yeah?”

Sam smiled. “That sounds good to me. Why don’t you catch me up on what you’ve been up to? You know, I don’t even know which uni you’re studying at.Areyou studying at uni, or working at the gym full-time? The last I’d heard, you were planning to go to uni up north.”

“I’m part-time at the gym. And yeah, I was planning on Manchester or Sheffield, but there were no spaces left on the courses I wanted, and London Southwark Uni offered me a place on their sports science degree course. You?”

His jaw dropped. “Are you joking? You go to LSU? I go there, too.”

It was my turn for my jaw to drop when, in fact, I should have considered this possibility. I’d been so disconcerted by seeing him again, had placed him in a little box in my head where our lives didn’t cross over, that I guess I must have convinced myself that he attended a different university to me.

“No, I’m not joking. Fuck. We’ve been so close all this time.”

“I guess it was fate,” he said.

I suddenly felt hot all over. My gaze trailed down his body, from head to toe. “If it’s fate, we shouldn’t ignore it.”

Sam’s own gaze heated, and he leaned forwards to nip at my bottom lip, making me shiver. “Yeah. We shouldn’t ignore it, and we have so much time to make up for.” He was back to the more confident, relaxed guy again, with no sign of the nerves he’d shown me earlier. It was such a fucking turn-on. “Why don’t we get reacquainted somewhere a bit less public?”

My cock jerked as he gave me a blatant, suggestive look. A smirk tugged at my lips, my mind racing with the possibilities. “A bit less public? Let’s go.”

8

December 23rd

8:40 p.m.

My head was spinning. Ryan wanted me.

Ryan wanted me.

His fingers threaded through mine, gripping onto my hand tightly as we re-entered the pub and headed back through it to the main entrance and exit. It felt so easy, so natural, and my stomach was flipping all over the place.

Out on the street, I stopped, facing him. “I live with housemates, but I’m supposed to be staying with my sister and her boyfriend tonight since we’re driving back to our parents’ house tomorrow.”

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