Page 28 of Touch In Excess

Eight

He couldn’t breathe.Fuck, he was good at running, so why couldn’t hebreathe. Panic was on his heels as he chased Rami out the door, but he’d given him precious seconds to disappear. Luckily, the grounds were walled in, and it usually took people a good long while to find the back gate to escape.

Rami could have gone for the main building, but Skye had a feeling he would avoid that place unless it was his only option. But he pictured Rami outside crying and frantically searching for a way out, and that was worse than anything else. He didn’t want him to be afraid. Not of him. Not ever.

He’d fucked up so badly. He should have kept his goddamn mouth shut and waited for Rami to tell him.

Heading out of his gate, he came to an immediate halt when he found Rami sitting a few yards away with his back to a tree. He was curled into himself, arms wrapped around his knees, but he looked okay. Mostly. His head popped up when Skye started toward him, and his face was full of distress, but he wasn’t crying.

And he wasn’t scrambling to get away from Skye, so that was something.

All the same, Skye kept his hands up in surrender as he approached. “I’m so sorry. Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. I didn’t?—”

“I didn’t mean to run. I panicked,” Rami blurted when Skye was close enough to hear him.

Dropping to his knees, Skye fought the urge to reach out for him. “I was a jackass. I knew you had stuff you were keeping to yourself. I was just…I was surprised it was you.”

Rami swallowed heavily. “No one was supposed to know.”

“I get that. I know that’s why you don’t show your face.”

“I didn’t think about my tattoo. N-no one knows. No one knows I have it,” Rami said. He began to wring his hands in front of them. They were shaking hard. “I d-didn’t…hmmmm.” He let out a high hum.

Skye gently tapped him. ‘Sign?’

Rami shook his hands out, then signed, ‘I never told anyone about it.’

‘And you didn’t expect to show me,’ Skye offered back.

Rami nodded miserably. ‘I forgot.’

Skye shuffled even closer and let his legs touch Rami’s once it was clear Rami wasn’t pulling away from him. “It’s okay,” he said aloud. “I won’t say a word. You know I can keep this secret.”

Rami swallowed thickly. ‘I wanted that to be separate. It’s just work. Different work,’ he signed. Skye frowned, not sure he was reading the context of the signs right. Different work? ‘I can’t pay my bills on art. No money my house future gone.’ The last bit, Skye understood the signs and the order they were in, but he didn’t understand what Rami was saying.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m not following. My ASL isn’t as good as yours.” He felt a pang in his chest like he’d failed.

Rami didn’t seem to mind. He lifted his gaze a little and said aloud, “I’m going to lose my house if I can’t pay what my grandfather owed after he died. But I can’t let anyone take it. It’s my home.”

Skye’s heart cracked in his chest. “I’m so sorry.”

Rami shook his head. “No. N-no. No. No, no.” He took a deep breath, clearly stuck on the word, and then he tried again. “I like my channel. People tell me what to do, and I can say no if I want. But they pay me a lot of money because I’m different.”

“Because of…” He gestured toward Rami’s crotch. He hadn’t quite let himself think about the two cocks thing. He’d deal with that later.

Rami’s cheeks darkened, and he nodded. “Mm. Funny how kids who used to beat me up in middle school because of my body are now giving me thousands of dollars to watch me touch myself.”

Skye’s cheeks heated up. It had been interesting when Avan showed him on the video, but now that he knew the cocks were Rami’s, a flame of desire began to burn in his stomach. And a strange feeling of possession. He felt the irrational urge to ask Rami to keep himself untouched by anyone else except him.

He had no right to do that, of course. That would make him the world’s biggest hypocrite, so he kept his mouth shut on that. “You know I’m not judging the way you make money.”

“I know.” Rami whispered the words, and Skye didn’t hear them, but he read them off his lips.

“So why are you afraid of me?”

Rami’s eyes shot up to meet his. “I’m not afraid of you. I’m sad, and I panicked because I wanted to tell you myself. This is”—he gestured down at himself—“hard to explain. It’s just how I was born, but people get so weird about it.”

“Yeah, I could see that,” Skye said.

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