Page 51 of Too Hostile

That I’d make my own way and not worry about anyone else.

But here I am, walking hand-and-hand with Fletcher after getting back from a restaurant in town where we ate dinner. It’s been all sex and fun since we got here, but it’s been more than that too.

We’ve talked about so much. I’ve really, truly let him in. I’m losing this battle, and it terrifies me because I don’t think I can give up my career. My security.

What would that sad, lonely little boy think as he sat there waiting for his mother, begging her to love him enough to come back. What would he think of the older version of himself, giving it all up for... for what? I don’t know.

It can’t last.

I can’t betray my younger self.

“You okay?” Fletcher asks me, and I realize I haven’t said anything for a bit.

“Yeah.”

He stops walking and faces me, still holding my hand. “You sure? Because I can’t wait to get my hands on you as soon as we get inside.”

I grin. “You’re insatiable.”

He kisses the tip of my nose and is smiling his actual real smile. “You make me that way. I blame your dick.”

I chuckle at his ridiculousness. “Well let’s go inside, and you can decide how to punish me for it.”

“Oh, hell yes,” he says far too excitedly, tugging on my hand until we get up to the door. He unlocks it, and we go inside, barely closing the door before our mouths are fused together. My back hits the wall, and I grunt into his mouth, but I flip it so he’s the one pressed against the wall until I hear a quiet grunt and a clearing of a throat.

Fletcher pulls away from me, and we both look over to see a large, tattooed man without a shirt on, but he’s wearing jeans. He’s staring at us with cold eyes, and my first instinct is to protect Fletcher, my body going in front of his, my arm blocking him.

“Rhys,” Fletcher says, the shock evident, but he seems to know this massive, stoic man.

“I thought about coming out completely naked, but this teddy is just too pretty not to show...”

“Mom,” Fletcher says, and my eyes widen as a beautiful blonde walks into the living room, wearing nothing but a slinky white teddy. The man—Rhys—who I’m putting together is Fletcher’s adoptive father, jumps up from the couch now and grabs what I’m assuming is his t-shirt, sliding it on over his wife’s head.

When I drop my arm and look at Fletcher, he looks absolutely mortified, shielding his eyes with his hand. “Fletcher. What are you doing here?” his mother asks.

“Are you still naked?” He doesn’t drop his hand from his eyes.

“I wasn’t naked. Jesus,” his mother says, her small body now swamped by her husband’s t-shirt as she approaches me. “But I’m covered. What are you doing here?” She looks at me with a kind, amused smile. “And who’s your friend?”

“Think they’re more than friends,” Rhys says.

The woman—Blair, that’s her name—her eyes just absolutely light up now. “Oh my God. You have a boyfriend, Fletcher? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Fletcher finally looks at his mother but seems awfully wary. “That I’m with a man? Or that I have a boyfriend?” I try like hell not to react to him calling me his boyfriend. I don’t say it’s just for summer.

I want to blame the shock of walking in on his parents obviously about to get down and dirty, but I don’t think that’s it. I like the sound of the title. Fuck. Me.

“Well, all of it. But do you really think I care that it’s a man and not a woman you’ve snuck off with?”

Fletcher watches her closely, and I’m guessing he’s not out to her yet. Or he wasn’t. But I also get the impression it doesn’t matter to this woman. “No. But I’m... I mean I was always with girls.”

I frown at that because . . . stupid Josh.

He must pick up on it because his eyes widen. “Oh I guess there was one other guy too.”

Blair just laughs lightly and waves him off. “Well, I don’t really need a rundown of all of your hookups sweetie, but this seems pretty serious.” She looks between the two of us. “I mean, you brought him to the lake house.”

He looks slightly pale now, like he doesn’t know what to say. And I know it’s because he doesn’t want to scare me. “I’m a professor,” I blurt out, and it gets everyone in the room’s attention.

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