Page 67 of Romance Languages

“What’s gotten into you?” he asked.

“You.” I tucked a lock of hair behind his ear. “Hey, you’re sexy just as you are.”

“You’re really leaning into our facade.”

“I’m serious.” I locked eyes with him until he realized I wasn’t fucking around. “You don’t need to change a fucking thing about you.”

He nodded, his gaze never leaving me. I stared into his dark orbs, my mind and heart swirling with all the feelings that had been brewing deep within me and could no longer lie dormant.

Who was faking here?

“Let’s go back to your place after this.”

“Okay,” he said.

19

JULIAN

All I could think about on the car ride home was,I’m about to have sex.

There was no way around it. Not after the dark, lustful stare he’d given me during our slow dance. I had been feeling something growing between us, but that might’ve just been friendship. The negative voice in my head, honed from a lifetime of rejection, insisted that he merely wanted to go back to his regular life and be done with these sessions.

We reached my building. My stomach clenched as we ascended the stairs to the apartment.I’m about to have sex. Why am I feeling scared?

In the apartment, I opened a bottle of wine, a savory French malbec that knew how to relax me.

“We’ll cap it at one glass,” he said. “No drunken sex.”

“Agreed.” I didn’t need Seamus dragging me into my own bed.

I poured two glasses. We clinked and drank.

“What were you and my mom talking about?” I asked. She’d been quiet for the rest of the afternoon and whisked off with Grandma as soon as the audition was over.

“Nothing really. Baseball stuff. Your grandma is wonderful, by the way.”

“She’s the best. I feel closer to her than I do my immediate family. Is that weird?”

“Nope. She’s family. That’s all that matters.”

“You sound like Vin Diesel in theFast and Furiousmovies.”

“You watch those?”

“Everett made us watch the first five during the blizzard we had in January when school was closed.” The Raleigh effect was far-reaching on my friend. “What’s your family like?”

“Loud. I was raised in a big family. Two older brothers who gave me shit, and a younger sister who was treated like an angel. I love my family, though. We give each other a hard time, but it keeps things interesting. They all still live in Staten Island, but I needed to get out. I needed to find my own way, y’know?”

“Yeah. My parents and siblings are so similar. All athletic and very right-brained. When I was young, I used to wonder if aliens dropped me off at this house by accident.” I snorted a laugh. I hadn’t thought of that memory since I was ten, back when I believed storks were aliens.

“To being our own people.” Seamus held up his glass again for a toast.

“Cheers to that.”

He downed most of his glass and closed the gap between us. He rubbed my sides, which was becoming one of his favorite things to do. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” I said while my heart pounded in my chest.

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