Page 12 of Stranded

What did I say wrong?

Ronan pauses, and then he smiles—but this time, it feels like a wall going up.

Huh. Interesting.

Ronan folds his arms on the edge of the cockpit, peering innocently up at me. “Oh, Alph,” he bats his lashes. “Is that your way of askingyour place or mine?”

“I—I’m—whereisyour—” I break off, shaking my head. I barely understand the game we’re in, but I’m about to play right into his hand. “Hold on. I’m not—I’m not trying to pick you up.”

Ronan stifles a giggle as he looks around the ferry. “So far, I’d say you’re doing a bad job, then.”

I snort with amusement, reaching out as if to shove his arm before stopping myself.

The more I touch him, the harder it’ll be to stick to my resolve.

I wave at him instead and fold my arms. “You know what I mean. And you should know that I’ve… well, I’ve always been straight.”

Ronan’s eyebrows creep up. The smirk finally disappears as he sits up to consider me, folding his hands in his lap. He’sstaring into my eyes in a way that makes me kind of squirmy, but not in a bad way.

And besides, I can’t really look away.

Ronan shivers involuntarily, and it finally breaks the spell. “Shit,” I groan. The poor guy must be freezing! “Let me get you a blanket.” I stride to the storage bins under the rear benches.

Crouching there to rummage gives me a chance to calm myself down. My heart is racing at twenty knots a minute. That’s no fit state to steer a ferry, much less explain a sexuality that suddenly feels like it’s too slippery to be contained by a box I’ve never looked twice at.

“Gotcha.”

I grab one of the light summer blankets and straighten up, unfolding him as I approach. I’m all ready to wrap it around his shoulders like I’m an emergency first responder.

Wait. Is that weird for a straight guy?

I stop in my tracks, the blanket draped awkwardly over my forearms as I catch Ronan’s eyes. He tilts his head, but he doesn’t say a word—not even a dirty joke.

Shit. He’s not giving me an escape route.

He knows exactly what’s happening, and he’s waiting to see if I’ll duke this out with myself… or turn tail and run.

To me, it isn’t even a choice. I’m going to nip this shit in the bud.

I’m not the kind of guy who panics about what it means to touch another man. I’veneverworried about what a straight guy should or shouldn’t do… and kissing Ronan isn’t going to change that.

No matter how deliberate any part of itmighthave been.

I clench my jaw stubbornly as I lift the blanket like an offering.

Ronan inclines his head. He finally smiles at me, and I smile back. The tension eases again in my chest as I shake out the blanket, wrap it around him, and smooth it over his shoulders.

I sit right next to him, so close that our knees are touching, ignoring the gentle bump of the ferry’s nose against the dock and the thickening, pleasurable crackle of tension between our bodies.

I’m not the only one trying to hide from something.

I catch Ronan’s gaze, and then I ask the million-dollar question.

“Do youwantto go home?”

Chapter

Four

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