Page 100 of Off Limits

“I took them out of my wallet before I went over,” I finished.

“Why?”

“Because I thought it would help me keep my head out of dirty town and not jump you the second I could.” I chuckled athis bewildered expression. “What? You look like I just told you I can talk to chickens.”

“I mean, that would be a pretty cool superpower.” He grinned. “Birds are basically dinosaurs, and chickens are modern T. rexes. Imagine what they could tell us if we could understand them.”

“I’m sorry, but what? Birds are dinosaurs and chickens are T. rexes?”

“Pretty much. Them and ostriches. Have you ever seen or heard a shoebill? They’re more dinosaur than bird.” He shook his head. “But we can talk about avian evolution later. You took them out of your wallet because you were trying to not jump me?”

I nodded, still not completely over the whole birds are dinosaurs thing. “Yeah. Didn’t work, obviously. But I figured it was best to take that temptation away.”

“You’ve thought about it? Hooking up off cam?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“All the time.” I searched his expression, trying to see beneath his shock. “Did you think about it?”

“More than I’ll ever admit.” He paused and scrunched up his face in a way that was too adorable. “Although saying that is kind of an admission of just how much.” He shook his head like he was trying to shake himself back into the conversation. “I thought I was the only one who thought about it.”

“Not the only one.”

“And I didn’t bring any supplies that night because I never carry them.” He shot me a smile-smirk. “Although I probably would have if I’d known you were going to come over. I don’t have nearly as much self-control as you do.”

“Now I wish I had told you and didn’t just show up,” I joked.

“Why did you come over that night? Was it just to hang out with the kids?”

“Yes, but that’s not why. I wanted to spend time with you. Seeing the kids was just an excuse to make that happen.”

“I had no idea.” He spun his ring with his thumb. “I thought it was just the moment that made that happen. That was the first time we talked about real stuff, and I figured that was why things went there.”

“That wasn’t the reason.”

“You didn’t want to do it again?” he asked, and the vulnerability in them was staggering.

“All the time,” I said truthfully. “I just didn’t want to fuck things up by making a move. Did you want to do it again?”

“Yeah. But same thing. I didn’t want to fuck things up.” He shot me a helpless look. “I don’t know what to do about any of this.”

I sighed and leaned back against the couch. “Yeah. Same.”

The silence between us stretched.

“I have a confession.”

“What is it?” I asked when he didn’t elaborate.

“I haven’t really been looking all that hard for a place to live,” he mumbled, his eyes on his ring.

“That’s good because I low-key don’t want you to move out.”

He snapped his eyes up, his expression a mix of hopeful and confused.

“I like having you here,” I confessed. “I don’t like that you have to live in a den and not your own room, but I’m not all that keen for you to move out.”

He smiled. “I like being here. And the den isn’t a big deal. It would be nice to have a door, but this is a penthouse compared to most of the places I’ve lived.”

“Things would be so much easier if our parents weren’t together.” I let out a sigh.

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