Page 40 of Something Unavoidable

Izzy’s mouth was warm, sweet, and oh-so soft. Keegan needed more. He deepened the kiss, sweeping his tongue inside to chase Izzy’s intoxicating flavor.

Izzy melted, clutching the lapels of Keegan’s coat for balance as he opened his mouth to let him in deeper.

Keegan did his best to pour all of his mixed-up emotions into the kiss, needing Izzy to understand all the things Keegan was still trying to figure out how to say.

Izzy let Keegan deepenthe kiss, sinking into it and reveling in Keegan’s warmth and strength. He wondered how much convincing it would take to get him upstairs. Bonus points if fucking Izzy into the mattress made Keegan forget the line of questioning they’d been on. Izzy didn’t want to go there. He was barely holding shit together as it was.

The house of cards that made up Izzy’s life was swaying precariously, and for some reason, the solid foundation his fucked-up brain had decided to latch on to was his worst enemy.

Except, that wasn’t fair. Keegan wasn’t his enemy anymore. Maybe he never had been. Maybe he’d been the scapegoat for all the crap Izzy didn’t want to deal with. Either way, Keegan had seen Izzy at his worst, he knew what Izzy was capable of, and despite Izzy’s best efforts, he was still there.

The past week had felt like a series of back-to-back panic attacks interspersed with Izzy desperately searching for distraction—often finding it in Keegan. It had reached the point that he’d dug up an old bottle of anxiety meds. The doctor at the hospital had prescribed them after his accident to help himsleep. Izzy had tried them once, hated how foggy they made him feel, then shoved them into his medicine cabinet and promptly forgotten about then. They didn’t seem to be doing much this time, but Izzy wasn’t sure if that was because his brain was too screwed up for even medication to fix or because they were really fucking expired.

Keegan worked better than anxiety meds anyway.

Izzy had already begged off the New York trip—there was no way he could fake being fun-Izzy for four days with his anxiety on a hair trigger and a panic attack just a stray thought away. More than that, Ev was apparently the viral celebrity of the moment and had even been seen in the company of Remy Dalton. The last thing Izzy needed was to be linked to someone famous and have some reporter start digging into his past. His only goal was to keep his head down until all of this blew over and people forgot they’d ever heard the name Joshua Martin.

Keegan broke the kiss in increments, coming back for more several times before he chuckled and stepped away. “You’re more addictive than caffeine,” he said.

“And I can get you up faster too,” Izzy shot back with an exaggerated wink.

Keegan laughed through a groan, then dove in for another kiss that made Izzy’s head swim, his toes tingle, and left him panting. “Such a brat,” Keegan said when he stepped back again. “But you’re not wrong.”

Izzy grinned, warmth pooling in his belly. He dropped his gaze to the front of Keegan’s pants. “Want me to do something about that?”

His phone buzzed with an incoming text, and Izzy’s warmth evaporated. Sammy had been keeping him up-to-date on the media firestorm. It had only gotten worse when she’d released her own statement, backing up Emma’s story and telling the world that she had also been victimized by Joshua Martin.

He thought about ignoring the notification until later, but just like every other time, he couldn’t do it. The anticipation was more than he could handle.

It wasn’t from Sammy. It was from his father.

Dad

A reporter called the farm earlier today with questions about you and Josh Martin. A newer member of the office staff gave him the number for the ranch.

Oh god. Izzy fumbled the phone and watched as it fell, landing faceup in the bedding.

Keegan stooped to retrieve it.

Izzy wanted to push him away, yank it from his hands, shout at him to go away and leave Izzy to have his mental breakdown in peace. Except he was frozen. Numb. A dull roar filled his ears, and he blinked spots from his vision. It had finally happened. Someone was putting the pieces together, and now it was just a matter of time before the truth came out. Before the whole world knew the part Izzy had played in what Josh had done.

“Isaac,” Keegan said, his hands cupping Izzy’s cheeks. “Take a deep breath for me, baby.”

“My phone,” Izzy croaked.

“It’s in your hand. I didn’t read it.”

Izzy could have cried with gratitude. Instead, he pushed Keegan away. He needed space. He didn’t want Keegan to see him like this.

The winter air was frigid on his cheeks, the world blindingly bright. Izzy sucked in one icy breath after another, hoping to numb the nausea crawling up his throat. He could see Josh’s smile, hear his laugh, feel his hands. Izzy coughed, folding at the waist, elbows braced on his knees as he spat out the saliva pooling in his mouth.

Izzy’s leg throbbed, pain radiating outward from the break. Emma held his hand and cried. Izzy hated that he couldn’t cry with her. Everything was so fucked up. Josh was laughing at him, mocking him for how naive he was. Izzy wanted to punch him in the face, but he couldn’t. His arms were too heavy.

None of this was real. He was spiraling. Clinging to his moment of clarity, Izzy shoved his hands into the snow. He hissed as the cold bit into him, but he didn’t pull them back. He needed the shock of pain to help him focus.

“Izzy.” Keegan’s warm hands were on his cheeks. Izzy wasn’t sure where he’d come from, but he didn’t fight him, just shut his eyes and focused on his breathing and the icy cold burning his hands.

Izzy didn’t even realize they were on the ground until Keegan eased back and asked him if he thought he could stand. Izzy shrugged, then nodded, so Keegan helped him to his feet. His knees were as wobbly as a newborn foal—and he’d seen enough newborn foals to back that statement up—but he managed to stay vertical.

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