Page 43 of Something Unavoidable

Izzy’s nostrils flared, but he stopped trying to get away. “I’m listening.”

Keegan loosened his grip, stroking his fingers through Izzy’s hair in a way that made him want to melt. “You’ve had a rough day,” Keegan said again, then paused and seemed to rethink what he was trying to say. “I’m going to say something you might not like, but I want you to think about your answer before you get pissed at me.” He cupped the back of Izzy’s neck and gave a brief squeeze.

Izzy rolled his eyes. “I suppose I can do that.”

Keegan’s expression warmed with amusement. “Thank you.”

Izzy took a steadying breath and waited for whatever Keegan had to say that was so terrible.

“Do you really want sex right now? Or do you just want closeness?”

Izzy frowned. That was Keegan’s big, scary question? He didn’t get it. “Sex,” he answered easily.

Keegan nodded slowly. “All right. Can you tell me why?”

What the hell was Keegan going on about? “Look,” Izzy huffed. “If you aren’t interested, I can take care of myself. I packed toys.”

“You packed—” Keegan looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or give Izzy a shake. It was an expression he was used to. “We’ll come back to that. I’m not asking because of anything I want or don’t want. I’m asking because you had a panic attack this morning that scared the shit out of me, and then you spent half the day dissociating. I’m having a hard time believing you’re anything other than exhausted.”

An electric shock of adrenaline shot through Izzy, and the only reason he didn’t do everything in his power to escape the conversation was Keegan’s steady, questioning gaze and the strong hand on the back of his neck. He blinked and swallowed, searching for words but coming up empty.

“Can we try something?” Keegan asked, stroking Izzy’s arm with his free hand.

“I…guess,” Izzy said, still reeling and unsure.

Keegan nudged Izzy from his lap. “Stay right here.”

Izzy did as he was told. Riley was curled up on the rug again, her nose tucked under her fluffy tail. She was too cute, and it was a struggle not to crawl off the couch and bury his face in her fur.

Keegan returned a minute later and dropped a pillow on the couch. After some rearranging, Izzy found himself playing littlespoon under a thick, fluffy duvet, with his head on the pillow. Keegan wrapped his arms around him and squeezed.

“So we’re just…gonna cuddle?” Izzy asked, more confused than anything. Cuddling without sex seemed weirdly foreign, though he knew it shouldn’t. Plenty of people just cuddled with their partner. Not that that was what he and Keegan were, even if Keegan was acting like one at the moment. It was probably just cause of what he’d said—that Izzy’s panic attack had freaked him out. Maybe Izzy just needed to convince him that he was fine and it wouldn’t happen again.

The problem with that plan being, it was going to happen again. Oh well. He’d deal with that shaky bridge when they were forced across it. For now, he was cuddling with Keegan Reid. What even was his life?

Izzy’s tension started dropping in increments. Keegan was solid and strong behind him, his breath warm on the back of Izzy’s neck, his arms tight around Izzy’s torso and applying the perfect amount of pressure.

God, it feltgood. It was enough to put him to sleep if he wasn’t careful. He trailed his hand along Keegan’s forearm, enjoying the coarseness of arm hair against his palm.

Maybe Keegan was onto something with this cuddling stuff. The itchy need under Izzy’s skin, something he’d always assumed could only be fixed by getting fucked nice and hard, was melting away. Izzy wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Well, he felt good, obviously, but he also didn’t want to think too hard about what it meant.

He was distracted from his thoughts by a soft kiss to the back of his neck. “It’s okay. Don’t overthink it,” Keegan murmured, slipping one of his hands under Izzy’s shirt and stroking his chest, skin on skin. He placed another kiss on the soft spot behind Izzy’s ear.

Izzy shivered, and his eyes welled up. He tried to blink the tears away, but they just kept coming, sliding silently down to drip onto the pillow.

“It’s okay,” Keegan said again. “I’ve got you.”

Izzy shut his eyes and let go.

It had been awild, risky guess, but Keegan had been proven right. Izzy, his brat, who searched out sex like it was his calling and never lacked for a willing partner, was touch-starved.

It made a lot of sense once Keegan thought about it. Izzy was an affectionate guy. When Keegan saw him out, he always had his arms around one of his friends, either on the dance floor or while they were chatting at the bar. Even at Sunday dinner, he was often in Micah’s space. He’d even seen Izzy pull Finn into his lap, making the shy young man blush and shoot Xavier “save me” looks until his Daddy came to extract him.

Keegan wouldn’t go so far as to say Izzy was trading sex for touch, but he did wonder if it was the reason for some of his desperation when it came to hooking up.

The tears hadn’t been a surprise either. In fact, Keegan would have been more shocked if Izzyhadn’tfallen apart at some point. Whatwassurprising was that he didn’t try to hide them. When they eventually slowed and Keegan offered to get him water, Izzy just shook his head and gripped Keegan’s arms tighter around him. Keegan didn’t deny him.

Riley, who Keegan thought was sound asleep on the floor, stretched, then pushed herself up to sitting and laid her head on the couch, her blue-eyed gaze focused on Izzy, her nostrils flaring as she scented the air.

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