Page 16 of Angel

It gives nothing away. I can’t tell if he’s working up to the porn questions or if he’s bored and messing around on his phone. Hell, maybe he meant to send the message to someone else entirely. We’ve barely been acquaintances since we were kids, so why would he suddenly want to be friendly?

Ugh. I’m way overthinking this. Angel is cute and totally my type, but I need to remember he’s straight. There’s no reason for me to act like a silly teenager with a crush on my older brother’s friend.

I tap on the screen to pull up the keyboard.

Rhys: Great! *winky face emoji* Having brunch with the boys.

I attach a selfie I took earlier for social media. Hayden, Sebastian, and Noel are all in the background with Bellinis in hand.

Rhys:

Rhys

What are you up to today? *grinning emoji*

Three dots appear immediately and I brace myself for an apology message. Oh, sorry, messaged the wrong person. Have a good life. But when it comes through, it is the absolute last thing I would ever expect.

Teddy Bear

Doing yard work.

Followed by a selfie of Angel wearing a thin, white tank top that does nothing to hide his wide, furry chest. He’s got a pair of sunglasses perched on his head, and he’s squinting a bit, like the sun is in his eyes. His cheeks are pink from all that sun exposure and his lips are rosy, like he’s been licking them. The camera’s angled to show him holding the handle of a lawn mower, arms thick and powerful, standing on a patch of lush, green grass.

My jaw drops. My cock plumps. Fuck me. Right now. As hard as he possibly can.

“What is it?” Sebastian tries to peer across the table at my screen.

Beside me, Hayden leans over and gasps. “Holy shit.”

He seizes my phone, tapping on the screen to enlarge the picture.

“What is it?” Sebastian asks again, coming right out of his seat to peek over Hayden’s shoulder. “Oh shit! You weren’t kidding when you said he’s a bear. Look at that beard. All that body hair. I wonder if it’s as soft as it looks.”

My fingers lift to my mouth at the memory of the parting kiss I planted on Angel’s cheek. It was an impulsive thing to do, and I never would’ve done it with anyone else from the old neighborhood.

But he had his hand cradling mine, rough and warm. The browns of his irises held a touch of yearning. He listened to my woe-is-me story about my parents and actually seemed to understand.

I moved before I knew what I was doing, and my lips touched his cheek before I could stop myself. I can still imagine it now. The softness of his skin, his beard. The clean, manly scent of fresh sawdust. I carried that scent with me all the way home that afternoon. My lips tingled well into the next day.

“Rhys!”

I’m jolted back to the present by Hayden’s voice. “What?”

“Daydreaming?” Noel asks with a smug smile.

I open my mouth to deny it, but what’s the point? They’ve seen Angel’s picture. They know my type. They’ll never believe me if I say I’m not attracted to Angel that way.

“Shut up.”

Sebastian drops back into his own chair. “He’s totally going to ask you to talk to me.”

“How do you know?” Hayden asks as he hands my phone back.

Sebastian smiles like he’s got a devious plan in the works. “Because completely straight guys who have no interest in gay porn don’t send selfies like that to guys like Rhys.”

CHAPTER

SIX

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