Page 31 of Beautifully Devoted

“Well, my stereo hijacker is a ghost.” Bennet tilts his head into the spray to wet his hair, wiping stray drops of water off his face before pinning me with a knowing look. “It can do shit with its mind, so it doesn’t have to touch anything.”

“That’s the first intelligent thing you’ve said about ghosts.” White suds snake down Jagger’s toned back as he lathers his hair in the stall next to me, and despite having seen the same thing hundreds of times before, it’s strangely captivating today. I have a sinking feeling in my gut as I realize why.

The guy asked to see my dick one time and suddenly the wall I’d build between our friendship and my sexuality is starting to crumble.

This is not good. Knowing Jagger is someone I could fall for, I built a wall specifically to keep that from happening. Our friendship is too important to ruin over unrequited feelings, so I made sure I didn’t have any. It’s worked for years, and now… Now, I can’t pull my eyes from the water cascading over his sculpted muscles, making his skin glisten even in the dim light of the shower.

What would it feel like to trace those drops with my finger? To–

Cruz’s voice is like a bolt of lightning. The deep timbre narrowly snaps me out of my daze right as Jagger looks over his shoulder toward the sound. “Did you just use the words intelligent and ghosts in the same sentence?” Cruz balks at Jagger, shaking his head as he reaches for his towel and flinging water droplets everywhere. “Isn’t that an oxymoron?”

Though Jagger’s green eyes are barely visible through the saturated locks of his hair, I know they’re too busy observing me to answer. I’m not sure what they see but voices from the stalls across from us have us both turning away.

“Are you calling me a dumbass for believing in ghosts?” Bennet shuts off his shower and stares at Cruz with his lips pressed into a firm line as I carry on rinsing off like I wasn’t just lost in a dangerous fantasy.

“Okay, I can see how it might’ve sounded that way.” Cruz holds his hands up as he backs out of the shower towards the lockers.

Bennet twirls his towel between his hands, letting one flick at Cruz like a whip.

“Hey,” Cruz yelps as he hops out of the way. “You almost hit my nuts.”

“Sorry, I guess I’m not intelligent enough to aim.” Bennet flicks the towel at him again.

“I didn’t mean it like that, I’m sorry. Stop aiming for my dick, Liam really likes it.” Cruz’s voice fades as he backs further and further into the locker room, away from Bennet.

Glancing sideways I spot Jagger, who might be wiping away a tear instead of spray from the shower given how hard he’s laughing.

I bite back a smile and shake my head, relieved that our little moment earlier seems to be forgotten, and taunt him. “Liam might come after you if Cruz suffers bodily harm for calling Bennet an idiot.”

“Please.” Jagger shuts off the water and grabs his towel, scrubbing it over his face. “If Bennet actually connects with Cruz’s junk, I’m sure Liam will just kiss it all better, in which case he should thank me for the thorough blow job. Besides, I wasn’t the one to bring up ghosts, or the one to call Bennet stupid for believing in them.”

“You egged them on, though.”

“I’m merely doing the good lord’s work. Someone has to keep the locker room entertaining.” He wraps his towel around his hips, the bulky material only accentuating how flat his stomach is.

It takes me a second for my eyes to meet his. But when they do, he holds my gaze for an exaggerated beat that makes it feel like I’m caught in a tractor beam. Then that gaze lowers a fraction before he slowly, almost suggestively, turns toward the locker room.

As he saunters away, I recount a slew of little details I never would’ve thought twice about before, and only then do I let myself look down to confirm that my cock isn’t as flaccid as it should be.

Fucking hell. I hope he didn’t notice that.

Jagger

The blinking cursor taunts me, like the seconds of a clock counting down.

Identify the most intriguing part of the human anatomy, using specific examples. That I can do—the identification part at least. It’s the examples that are giving me fits, despite there being dozens to choose from that are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to why thumbs are so fucking cool.

Humans’ ability to hold things is a result of having thumbs that work in opposition to the fingers, so everything from picking shit up to feeding ourselves to making clothes and shelter is only possible because of those handy little pollexes. They’re even critical to society as a whole since thumbs make it possible to express our thoughts through music, art and technology, so when you think about it, they’re conceivably the most important body part in existence.

Yet every time I try to write down an example of what humans can do because we have opposable digits, my brain keeps drifting to how they facilitate a bodily function that has zero benefit to our culture or the advancement of our species…jerking off.

I know it’s juvenile, but the fact remains you wouldn’t be able to get a good grip on a cock without being able to make a fist, and thumbs are critical to that.

Once jerking off enters my brain, I start to chub up. I have to force myself to think about something besides my assignment to get it to go back down.

How do dogs function without thumbs?

What do dogs dream about?

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