Page 59 of Touch In Excess

‘You like it?’

‘Yes,’ Skye signed back.Fist-kiss. The look Rami gave him of surprise and joy made Skye wonder how many people were shitty about what parts of his culture he’d shared. He seemed convinced that at every turn, Skye was going to hate his food, or the words he used, or his music.

He understood. He’d seen it enough times and heard plenty of his clients speaking about it since he was sort of a priest of sin, taking his vow of confidentiality. But it hadn’t hit home like this outside of the Sins, and it felt even more profound with Rami because he knew then he was falling in love with him…if he wasn’t in love already. He wanted to wrap around him and protect him from feeling the pain of the world.

No matter how irrational the thought was.

‘Thank you,’ he signed, pulling the headphones off. It took him a moment to readjust to the quiet kitchen as Rami set them aside. “You can listen. I don’t mind. We can sign.”

‘We can sign,’ Rami repeated. ‘But I was only trying to keep myself distracted so I didn’t wake you.’

Skye grabbed him and pulled him close, kissing his neck. “I wish you would have. How long have you been up?”

Rami’s cheeks darkened as he glanced away. “A little while.”

“What does that mean,” Skye pressed.

Rami let out a sigh, his shoulders rising and falling almost dramatically with the force of it. “I don’t sleep well. I never have. I can only get a few hours at a time, and then my body gets restless. My parents tried everything to get me to sleep—medication, therapy, meditation—but I think we all gave up on a normal schedule by the time I was a senior on high school.”

Skye realized this was a tender point for him too. He cupped Rami’s jaw. “I wasn’t judging. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t me keeping you awake.”

Rami didn’t look entirely convinced, but he nodded with the smallest smile, and Skye couldn’t help but think it was just for him. That it was a smile only a few people had ever seen. “Breakfast is almost ready. Do you get hungry in the mornings?”

“Eh, but I usually eat because I like to go on a run.” Rami pulled a face, and Skye burst into laughter. “Yeah, you’re going to get along with a few of the guys really well. The only one who runs as much as I do is Stone, and even he’s been slowing on that lately.”

Rami scoffed and turned back toward the stove. “I don’t like the way it makes me feel. I only like breathing hard for one reason.”

Skye lit up, and he reached out, curving his palms over Rami’s ass. “Can I take a guess at what that is?”

Rami looked over his shoulder. Skye had been half expecting a serious, unsexy answer, but Rami gave him a coy grin. “I bet you’d get it right.”

Skye’s heart beat a little faster as he dragged his hands up toward Rami’s waist and tugged him backward against his body again. He dipped his head and kissed his neck. “I bet I would.And I’ll skip my run this morning. I didn’t bring my shoes or my jogging clothes.”

“Next time, you can. I don’t mind. I like working in the morning, and as much as I like having you here too, I don’t…I’d…if it’s okay with you?—”

“Hey,” Skye interrupted after Rami began to stammer, “you can do whatever you need to do. I’m happy to hang around.”

“Yeah?”

Skye kissed his cheek before letting him go. “Yes. Now. About that breakfast.”

It ended up being more food Rami had grown up with. Baked eggs in tomatoes with more spices than Skye could name and more chewy flatbread with the yogurt, oil, and spices he’d been served before. There was also some haphazardly chopped fruit that Rami stared at as though it were full of poison and a silver carafe of coffee that his lover set in the middle of the table.

“Do…have…?” Rami asked as he sat.

Skye missed most of the sentence with Rami’s head tilted down and voice too soft, and this time, he couldn’t fill in the blanks with context. He always—always—hated asking people to repeat themselves. Nearly everyone got a look on their faces that made his stomach ache, like he was the worst burden for not being able to catch the words.

But Rami never made him feel that way.

“Sorry, sweetheart. I missed that.”

‘Caffeine,’ Rami spelled slowly on his fingers. ‘Do you have that in the morning? Coffee? Tea?’

The fact that Rami always switched to sign whenever Skye got lost instead of repeating himself ad nauseum did something to Skye’s insides. He felt safe and…and he felt okay.

He hid the smile he wanted to plaster across his face and settled for a smaller grin. ‘Love coffee.’ He went with the fist-kiss sign to emphasize how much he relied on it.

Rami’s eyes glinted as he pushed the carafe closer, and he kept his face up this time when he spoke. “I don’t like it.”

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