Page 59 of Something Unavoidable

“You could go back to sleep?” Keegan suggested, but Izzy shook his head.

“Not unless I want to be up all night.”

Fair enough. Keegan pulled out his phone. “Do you want something to eat? I can order in.”

Izzy shook his head again, taking Keegan’s phone and setting it aside, then tugging on his now-empty hand. “Come and hold me?”

Anything, Keegan thought, but then he paused. “I don’t know if there’s room for all three of us under there.” He reached beneath the blanket and rubbed Riley’s ears.

Izzy smiled slightly and ducked down to nuzzle her. “She’s a good cuddle buddy,” he said, his eyes averted. “Not quite the same as you, though.”

Keegan kissed Izzy’s forehead, then moved out of the way while he nudged Riley to get up.

That got him a doggie sigh, but she wiggled out from under the blankets and hopped down. Then she gave Keegan a look that seemed to say “Your turn” before trotting off to the kitchen in search of her water bowl.

Once there was space, Keegan peeled back the blankets, climbed over Izzy, and stretched out along his back, dragging him into the little spoon position. Izzy was warm from his blanket cocoon, and Keegan couldn’t help nuzzling his hair and breathing him in.

Izzy hugged Keegan’s arms to him and heaved a sigh that sounded a lot like Riley’s.

Keegan rubbed soothing circles on Izzy’s chest, wishing he were better at this. Wishing he had the right words to help Izzywith whatever was going on in his head. In the end, he gave him the only words he had. “I love you, Isaac.”

For a minute, he wondered if he had waited too long and Izzy had fallen asleep after all, but then Izzy squirmed onto his back, his blue-gray eyes on the ceiling but his gaze far away.

Keegan traced his profile with a finger, along the straight plane of his nose and over his enticing lips.

“It’s been a long time since I trusted myself,” Izzy said finally. “Josh took that from me.” He swallowed, his throat bobbing. “He didn’t hurt me like the others, but he made me question myself—my judgment. If I could fall for someone like that, someone like him, how could I trust myself not to do it again?”

“Izzy,” Keegan said, his heart breaking for the boy Izzy had been, as well as the man he was now. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Izzy shook his head. “You don’t understand. I believed him. I defended him. I was in love with him.”

Keegan traced along the arch of Izzy’s cheekbone. How could he convince Izzy that he was just as much a victim of that predator as any of the others? Josh had had Izzy under his spell since he was teenager—that boy never stood a chance. There was one thing he could clarify, though. “You weren’t in love with him.”

Izzy’s brows drew together and he met Keegan’s eyes, a denial on his lips, but Keegan didn’t let him voice it.

“You weren’t in love. You were manipulated into caring for someone who never existed. You were gaslit to believe the things he said, and he capitalized on your infatuation. He took advantage of you. You may have loved what he was pretending to be, but Isaac, you didn’t fall in love with a monster.”

Izzy pressed his trembling lips together, nostrils flaring as his eyes filled with moisture.

“You didn’t fall in love with a monster,” Keegan repeated, voice firm and final.

Izzy shut his eyes, covered his face with his hands, and wept.

Hours later, after theywere both in bed and—Keegan had assumed—both asleep, the mattress shifted. Cold air hit Keegan’s bare skin as the sheets slid away. For a minute, Keegan thought one of the dogs was messing around, but he was proven wrong when he opened his eyes, ready to fight for his blankets back.

Izzy was kneeling next to him, his bare skin lit only by the glow from the cracked bathroom door.

Keegan reached out and caressed him from his shoulder down to his wrist. “Baby? What are you doing?” he asked, his voice rough with sleep.

Wordlessly, Izzy crawled on top of him and settled, straddling Keegan’s hips.

Keegan’s cock slotted into the hot crease of Izzy’s ass, waking up more quickly than his brain was. His hands went to Izzy’s hips, stroking smooth skin. “What do you need, Izzy?” Keegan tried again, blinking the sleep from his eyes, but Izzy still didn’t answer him. Instead, he bent at the waist and brought their mouths together for a slow, thorough kiss that sent Keegan’s head spinning.

Keegan let his hands wander, mapping Izzy’s skin, dragging over the firm planes and curves of muscle, and dipping between his cheeks to discover his hole already slippery and loose. “Am I dreaming?” he asked, not sure if he was more confused or turned on, but leaning toward the second.

Izzy sat up and repositioned himself with his openingalmostwhere Keegan wanted it. He braced his hands on Keegan’s chestand rocked his hips, Keegan’s cockhead bumping against his wet hole over and over.

“Can you do something for me, Henry?” Izzy asked, his body sure but his tone hesitant.

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