Page 107 of Beau and the Beast

“Did you just blow me to get out of having a serious conversation about what we’re doing?”

Wolfram frowned.

“Youdid, didn’t you?”

“You’re not the only one who can figure out how to get their way,” Wolfram said, rolling his eyes.

He pulled Beau close to his chest and nuzzled in against the smooth skin of Beau’s neck.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I want to be close to you,” Wolfram said, apparently not understanding the problem. Beau pushed away smiling.

“We still have work to do, Wolf. I have a book to write.”

Beau supposed it was easy for him to say, since he’d been afforded two orgasms since the last time they’d sat down for a session of work together—yet the contact had done more than thrill him.

It had set his brain buzzing with intellectual stimulation. Wolfram was a puzzle and more pieces were falling into place. He had learned about Wolfram’s past and now he was beginning to understand his future, the way he might navigate a new situation. Beau liked what he saw.

* * *

As Wolframand Beau talked back and forth that morning, Wolfram was struck by the way that nothing had changed between them.

In his past life, there had been more than one time when he’d finally gotten into bed with someone only to discover that afterwards, spending time with them was abhorrent.

No, he hadn’t expected things to be that way with Beau—of course not. They shared too much of each other for things to simply dissolve. But the fact thatnothingwas different floored him.

They were the same to each other, he realized, whether they were intimate and up front about their attraction or not. The fact that he’d been swallowing around Beau as he shuddered and came just a few hours ago hadn’t changed anything and the realization made Wolfram deeply satisfied. Beau was his friend, through and through.

It did nothing to diminish their attraction to one another either.

It was thrilling when he caught Beau staring at him, watched the flush spring high into his cheeks, and could sense the way that Beau’s body reacted to him. His senses were unfair in that way. It was almost like being psychic.

He could justsensethe way that Beau reacted to him, his blood re-routing—the way he shifted around, suddenly restless and unable to find a comfortable position. Whether he was aware of it or not, when Beau was thinking about him, fighting arousal, he exposed his neck more to Wolfram, the insides of his wrists.

Wolfram had spent the past several days feeling like a horny teenager—so it was a relief that Beau had apparently been thinking about it just as much as he was.

Had it been there all along and Wolfram just hadn’t noticed? Had he misinterpreted the signals that Beau was giving him, simply because he couldn’t imagine anyone being attracted to him in his current state?

To their credit, they stayed separate all morning, seated professionally on either side of the table.

When Beau came back after their break for lunch, though, Wolfram couldn’t help himself. He caught Beau by the chin, pulling him into a kiss. They broke away laughing, Beau almost tripping from standing on his tiptoes to receive the kiss and Wolfram reaching out to catch him before he fell.

“I can’t remember being this happy,” Wolfram admitted when they settled on cushions next to the corner bookshelves.

Beau shook his head. “Me neither, Wolf.”

“I keep waiting to wake up.”

Beau leaned forward and slid an affectionate hand over his knee. “There’s nothing to wake up from. I think we can have this.”

It took everything in his power not to pull Beau into his lap and end their session for the day right then and there. But he forced himself to practice some restraint.

As their interview that day wound down later, Beau laid across the cushions separating them, letting his head fall lazily in Wolfram’s lap. Wolfram played his fingers through Beau’s hair, sighing at the contact. He’d never been around someone who was so casual with their touching, so confident—and this was even better, the easy intimacy that felt like a natural extension of the friendship they’d had all along.

“Does this mean we’re done for the day?” Wolfram asked, looking down.

“Hm,” Beau said, nodding and smiling. “But I’ve still got to go cook dinner.”

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