Page 40 of Loving You

He did. He was meeting with a finance manager, and then he had to tour the building before signing the leasing papers. He was no longer shitting himself about making a mistake. The marketing manager he’d been working with had sent him an email that they already had clients ready to make appointments.

And two other vets had expressed interest in joining his practice.

This could work. He could plant roots here. Make a life here. Not erase what had been, but he could start fresh with something that didn’t make him feel as though he was wasting his life.

“Bronx?”

He realized he’d been quiet too long. He sat up and swung his legs over the bed, profoundly aware he was naked, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He liked the way Monty stared. He liked the way it made him feel. He wasn’t objectified. He was appreciated, which was so different because Jules had been looking at him for years like he was an overripe banana that needed to be thrown in the freezer.

“Banana?”

Fuck, had he said that aloud? His cheeks heated. “Ignore me. I’m useless before coffee and a shower.”

Monty chuckled softly. “I have both. And I can make you something to eat if you like?”

“I don’t do much in the mornings. Fruit. Maybe toast.”

Monty offered him two hands and helped him to his feet before letting go. It was obvious now that he didn’t know how to behave when they weren’t hooking up, and to be frank, neither did he. He had no idea how to navigate something like this. He’d never really done casual before, and when he had, it hadn’t been sleeping over at a lover’s house.

Fuck it. He wanted to touch Monty. He pulled him close and kissed him again. “Let me shower. I’ll feel more human that way. And I promise I’ll clean up when I’m done.”

Monty snorted and gave him a shove toward thebathroom. “I’ll be here. There’s soap and plenty of towels. Use whatever you need.”

Bronx wanted to kiss him again.

Instead, he walked through the bathroom door and flicked on the light before turning on the water. He emptied his bladder while he waited for it to warm up, and then he hopped under the spray. He had globs of come stuck in his pubic hair, and it took several passes with lathered fingers to get himself clean.

A small part of him mourned the loss of washing away Monty’s scent, but the bigger part of him knew that was weird and gross. God, he hoped this possessive feeling in his chest would pass once he got over the novelty of sleeping with someone as gorgeous, sweet, and kind as Monty was.

Stepping out of the shower, he toweled off, then wrapped it around his waist and borrowed Monty’s brush to tame his wild mop. He needed a trim and a shave, but he’d worry about that later. Rummaging around, he found some mouthwash and took a sip, letting the cool mint ease away some of the sour taste in the back of his throat.

As he swished, he snooped a little and saw several bottles of pills lined up behind the mirror. His stomach sank a bit. It was easy to forget that Monty had medical complications. That his life wasn’t as breezy as Bronx’s. He was suffering not necessarily from his disability but from the way people were treating him because of it.

It made him want to break all his promises to himself and wrap his arms around the younger man and just keep him protected.

Forever.

But he’d done a version of that to his son, and Lucas was not thanking him for being an overprotective dickhead.Which brought him back to the night before when he’d stepped in and called himself Monty’s boyfriend. It had been a fuck-you to the man insulting them both, but it had also been because of the shattered look on Monty’s face when he was taking his dad’s verbal abuse.

Was Bronx doing it now? Stepping in where he wasn’t invited and fixing a problem that wasn’t his business to fix?

Monty didn’t seem upset about it, but Bronx knew he needed to clear the air.

His stomach was somewhere around his feet as he shuffled into the bedroom and smiled to find the place tidy. The bed was made, the condom was gone, and it smelled lightly like the rain-scented cleaning spray Lucas loved.

His clothes were also neatly folded on the bed, and his heart twisted in his chest. No one had ever done anything like that for him before. It was such a simple, thoughtless gesture, but it was one that threatened to bring him to his knees.

If he wasn’t careful, he was going to be in big, big trouble.

Chapter Eleven

BRONX

Monty wasat the counter stirring coffee when Bronx found him, and he smiled softly, pushing an empty mug toward the edge of the counter. Bronx softened all over and leaned in for a kiss.

“Mm. Minty. Did you use my toothbrush?”

Bronx grimaced. “No. I wouldn’t use another man’s toothbrush.”

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