Page 62 of Touch In Excess

“Sorry,” he murmured.

Stone touched his arm and shook his head. “I’m just trying to say that I understand when you have something here”—he tapped his temple—“telling you that you don’t deserve good things.”

Skye nodded. “When I’m with him, I can’t hear that voice at all. But when we’re apart, I’m…I’m afraid. He’s really close with his family, and he hates lying to them. I don’t know how I can fit into his life without having to lie to them constantly. Or how I can ask him to do that.”

Stone let out a long, slow breath that Skye couldn’t hear, but he could see the way his chest expanded, then deflated. “I don’t have advice for that. I’m sorry.”

Skye waved him off. “It’s fine. Obviously, I should let Rami take the lead on this one…”

“Rami? That’s his name?”

Skye flushed. “Yeah, sorry. Rami…” Oh God, he didn’t know his last name, did he? Or if Rami was his full name or a nickname. Fuck, what were they even doing? “Jesus, I barely know him. How can I be falling this hard this fast?”

“Because when it’s right, it’s right,” Stone told him once Skye looked up again. “The rest are details you can figure out along the way.”

Skye wanted to believe him. He was desperate to believe him. But things had a habit of falling apart when he let himself get too comfortable. And maybe it was self-sabotage because where he would have rolled over and called it quits in his past relationships, right now, the only sensation in his chest was the desire to fight.

To keep this.

To wrap his body around Rami’s and hold on tight with all four limbs.

“Yeah, I know that look,” Stone said, grinning.

Skye rolled his eyes, but the reason he’d come to Stone in the first place was because he knew his friend got it where some of the others maybe didn’t. Jet and Taylor had become instant friends, and while they’d had their ups and downs in the beginning, their lives seemed to just fit perfectly without strain or adjustment.

King and Hen had been best friends and circling each other for years. Theirs wasn’t a question of if but when.

Flint and his two men had been a difficult road, only because Flint was still fistfighting his childhood trauma and strugglingto let people close, but Tomás wasn’t a man who gave up on anything, and Luke was a ballast who was willing to be their port in the storm.

Everyone had their struggles, but only Stone knew what it was like to never feel worthy of love from a man like Rami.

“Just breathe,” Stone told him. “Take it one day at a time. Communicate. I wish someone had told me that when I first met August. Just breathe, then talk. And don’t underestimate what he’s capable of or willing to handle.”

Skye couldn’t help his laugh. “I could never underestimate him. He’s…shit, he’s never, ever been afraid to tell me what he thinks. And, I don’t know.” He paused to rub the back of his neck. “There are things that seem too good to be true.”

Stone quirked a brow and gestured for him to go on.

“He doesn’t want sex all the time. We’re both in sex work, but he’s happier just cuddling. Which…I suppose makes sense when you think about it.”

“Like two chefs living together who only eat takeout?” Stone suggested.

Skye wrinkled his nose, but yeah, that was pretty much it. “He knows ASL. He’s fluent?—”

“Wait, really?”

Skye bit down on his lower lip for a second. “His brother’s Deaf. Like fully involved in the community, you know? With the capitalD?”

Stone’s eyes went wide. “Damn.”

Skye couldn’t help a small laugh. “Yeah. The rest of it…it’s all little things. He lets me be possessive without expecting the same from me. He can see me in a very black-and-white way—like how my job is my job and it doesn’t affect where we stand with each other.”

“Keep him,” Stone said.

Skye’s laugh was a little tense. “I’m trying. It’s hard to remember that I deserve good things sometimes. I love this job, but sometimes it really does feel like we’re fallen angels. That at some point, karma is going to bite me in the ass for defying a god I don’t even believe in.”

“I get it. I’d say it gets easier with time, but it doesn’t. We just learn to handle those moments better—and rely on the people who love us to remind us that we’re good people and worthy of happiness.”

“Can you text me that once a week?”

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