Delete-delete-delete.

What did Adam even care? He was probably at The Lion right now with Jasper. Or at a club. Or being sexy and too young for me at a cool young-persons-only venue, like, I don’t know. Experimental theatre, or board-game night at the hipster coffee shop or something.

Did I think he cared, one way or another, if I was in town? He probably hadn’t even noticed I was gone.See you tonight, babe, had probably been nothing more than a knee-jerk, filler kind of thing to say.

I clenched my phone and tapped it gently on my forehead.

It rang.

I pulled it away and stared at the caller ID. Adam. Of course it was Adam.

…howwas it Adam?

It was a FaceTime call.

I accepted. “Hello?”

“Switch to camera, Ray.”

I clutched the phone with both hands, drinking in the sight of his face.

The lighting was low and flattering—then again, as had been established, all light was flattering to Adam. His eyes were shadowed and dark. A flush shaded the high sharp edges of his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, and his lips shone red.

He tilted his head. “Ray. Camera.”

I batted at my hair, shuffled up the mattress to prop myself against the headboard, and toggled the camera on.

We stared at each other for a long, silent moment. I opened and shut my mouth helplessly. I couldn’t think of anything to say

“Yeah,” Adam said, his lips—so red—curled with a sharp little smile. “That’s what I thought.”

We stared at each other some more.

“So here I am,” Adam said in a conversational tone, “lying in bed, touching myself.”

What?

He hummed. “I pick up my phone and I’m looking back at our last texts, by which I mean the one text I sent you, and I see typing bubbles. But nothing came.” Adam’s shoulders rolled. “You were thinking about me, weren’t you?”

I nodded.

“Mm. Well, I was thinking about you. I was trying not to. Got into bed, slid my boxers down and stroked my cock, Ray, trying to think aboutanyoneother than you. But I couldn’t. And then I discovered that you, wherever thefuckyou are, are thinking about me.” He bit his lip and his neck arched the tiniest bit. “Take your t-shirt off.”

In my rush to obey, I dropped the phone. It bounced off the mattress and fell onto the carpet with a thud. I whipped my t-shirt off and grabbed the phone off the floor.

“Lie back for me,” Adam said.

I did.

Then he didn’t say anything at all. He stared through the camera. He looked kinda angry. Kind of mean.

I was so hard.

Adam let out a shuddering breath. His face and upper chest filled the screen. His back

and lips parted. One arm was moving, his shoulder rolling fast. If I strained my ears, I could almost...yes. I heard the sound of skin on skin.

It sounded wet.