Page 32 of The Princess

“Just a little passion project at the moment. I have time before I have to get back to my murder mystery series.”

Murder mysteries definitely weren’t up Taylor’s alley. “Tell me about the passion project.”

“It’s a sci-fi thing. It’s basically like…what if the climate crisis drove humans to the brink of extinction, and our planet was invaded by aliens who said our only hope to survive was going with them?”

“Hell, yes.” Taylor grinned. “That sounds fantastic.”

“You think?” Nash looked surprised at Taylor’s reaction.

“Absolutely. The whole man versus alien conflict and man versus the environment. Then you’d probably have some humans who were okay with the whole thing, and others who wouldn’t be, so then there’s man versus man to deal with. Sign me up. When does it come out?”

“He’s been tinkering with that book for ages.” Damon stretched out on his side, putting his head close to Taylor, who slid over and dragged Damon’s head into his lap.

“It sounds incredible.”

“When it’s done, I’ll let you read it,” Nash promised. He looked at Damon, who had closed his eyes when Taylor started combing his fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp. “He’s like a cat. All he needs to be happy is a warm lap and some affection.”

“Damn straight,” Damon replied, leaning into Taylor’s touch. “I have to admit that the lake was nice, but fucking cold.” Damon yawned. “If you keep that up, I’m going to fall asleep.”

Taylor didn’t let Damon’s words stop him. “I wouldn’t mind.”

“He sleeps like the dead. And he snores.”

“Hey!” Damon protested. “No fair telling all my secrets.” Damon twisted so he could look up at Taylor. “He’s trying to make me look bad. Don’t listen to him. Besides, he’s a bed hog.”

“Now, now, boyfriends, there’s no need to squabble. If you think that snoring or bed hogging will deter me from spending time in bed with either of you, then you are mistaken. And were it not for Nash being absolutely correct about us needing to not go the speed of light, we’d all be very naked and sweaty right now.”

Damon lifted his head and scowled at Nash. “Cock-block.”

Nash reached out, grabbed Damon’s foot, and dragged it into his lap. Strong fingers dug into the arch of his foot and Taylor watched Damon melt into a puddle of goo between them.

“Oh, God, that’s good,” Damon groaned. “One day you’ll have to get Nash to give you a foot rub.”

“All you have to do is ask,” Nash said to Taylor.

Taylor wanted to ask for more than a foot rub. He wanted to ask for everything.

CHAPTER 14

NASH

Nash had grown to love gym days. They’d started out of sheer necessity. After spending hours upon hours at a desk every day, Nash was starting to feel like a potato. Colby practically dragged him to the first few sessions, promising to go easy on him.

It was anything but easy, but Nash liked spending time with Colby at the gym. He was in his element there. Surrounded by people he could help was when Colby was at his best.

Today was no exception. There were a few new faces in his class so he took a lot of time with them during each part of the circuit, making sure they were using proper form so they didn’t hurt themselves and were having fun at the same time.

Colby could make anything fun. And even though he liked to protect everyone and take care of them, since Nash had joined the gym and worked out with him for so long now, he must have deemed Nash capable of looking after himself because he’d cooled it with the protective stuff. He also had Milo to distract him. Milo still came to the gym to work out with Colby, but he also respected that this had been Colby’s time to hang out with Nash, so even when he was there, he went to great lengths not to monopolize Colby’s attention.

Today, Milo was across the room on the treadmill. After Colby’s class ended, he came over to where Nash had sat and dropped down on the bench next to him.

“What’s new?” Colby asked innocently. Answering just as innocently was the tricky part. Nash never thought he was a very good liar, mostly because he wasn’t very skilled at it.

“I’m close to finishing that sci-fi book.”

Colby’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? You’ve been working on that since, like, forever ago. That’s awesome.”

Over the past week, Nash had been inspired. He’d written more on it in a handful of days than he’d been able to do in months. He’d like to think it was all him, but Taylor’s enthusiasm had lit a fire under Nash. Damon and Colby had been just as enthusiastic, but it was like Taylor was already invested and he didn’t even know much about the book. But his comments about conflict had given Nash the inspiration he’d needed to fill in the last of the pesky plot holes, and that was the driving force behind his recent productivity.

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