Page 41 of Touch In Excess

Fuck. Fuck—he couldn’t let this happen. He couldn’t let this one good thing slip away because of his moment of weakness.

He was still sticky with his own come and a little wild-looking, but he reached for his phone in a last vain attempt toget Rami to answer him when suddenly, his laptop flashed with an alert. Skye’s eyes widened when he realized the FanCore site was sending him a message request from DuoOphis.

He could feel his heart beating in his ears as he accepted the call. Fuck—no, it was a video request.

His fingers felt weak as he quickly clicked on the button to start up his camera, and a beat later, Rami’s face was there.

“Hey.” The auto-captions began to scroll. “I don’t normally video chat the winning bidder.”

Skye swallowed heavily, then hooked a finger over his ear and shook his head. ‘No hearing aids. I have captions if you want to voice.’

Rami quickly raised his hands in reply. ‘You won.’

Skye bit his lip. ‘Sorry.’

Rami’s gaze was more intense than usual. ‘Are you sorry?’

Unable to help a laugh, Skye shrugged, and he said aloud, “I know I’m supposed to be, but no. I couldn’t help it. I thought about some stranger sending you another toy—one that’s going in your ass—and I snapped. It’s probably not a good idea if I watch your lives.”

Rami was still and silent for a long time. Then he signed, ‘I wanted you to win. But I don’t want you to spend that much money on me.’

Skye leaned toward the screen and gripped it on both sides. His voice felt thick against the back of his tongue. “I’m rich. I’m very rich. And maybe this makes what we have complicated, but the money I spent doesn’t matter to me. You matter to me. Being able to be part of this matters to me.”

Rami’s gaze darted to the side, hovering there for a long, long beat. “Once per live. You can only bid once per live.”

Skye’s eyes drank up the captions like they were a feast and he was a starving man. “Can I bid on anything?”

Rami looked at him sharply, then lifted his fist and signed, ‘Yes.’

Anything. He could bid on anything.

“What will you have on offer?”

Rami’s mouth twitched into a half smile. ‘Wait and see. Don’t be in a hurry next time. And don’t spend so much on a toy.’

Skye felt elation and something else—something a little dark and very powerful—settle in his chest right on top of his sternum. He rubbed it with the heel of his hand as he thought about the way Rami was looking at him right then.

A tease.

A challenge.

Fuck, he was falling in love.

“Were you thinking of me when you came?”

Rami’s smile widened. ‘Yes. The way you touched me. The way you kiss.’

‘I want to see you soon,’ Skye signed back.

‘Friday,’ Rami said. ‘I need to work on my sculptures, and I don’t want to be distracted.’ He signed slowly enough for Skye to follow because it was obviously very important to him.

Skye held up a finger as he grabbed his phone and scrolled through his appointments. He had a late evening on Thursday, but Friday, he was free. Saturday and Sunday, he was booked. “The perfect day,” he said aloud as he looked up. That was just forty-eight hours from now.

He hated it, but he could wait that long to kiss Rami if he had to.

“Thank you for tonight,” Skye said.

Rami looked down, thick eyelashes fanning outward before he glanced up again. ‘Thank you,’ he signed with both hands. ‘I miss you.’

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