Page 165 of Affair
Gamble was pale, and he looked…haunted.
“I’m here,” he said. “You were screaming my name,” he stated.
Gamble looked around, grateful that it had only been a dream.
They were right where he’d left them in that cave.
When he focused on the man, his heart didn’t slow down. Instead, it sped up.
“Poe,” he whispered.
“I’m here, Gamble. You were having a dream. We’re safe in here. It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. I promise.”
His heart kept pounding.
He was alive.
He wasn’t too late.
As for him going to be okay…
Gamble was pretty sure he was about to fuck this up so badly that someone was getting hurt. He only hoped it was him, not Poe.
He wouldn’t be able to live with that.
“Poe,” he said, again, finding his mouth, and kissing him with all he had.
It caught him off-guard, but he didn’t fight it.
Why?
Because they didn’t have much time left together. Poe was smart enough to know that.
The minutes were ticking by, and at one point, his ghost would be gone.
Gamble would always be that ghost to him, haunting his life, reminding him of what could have been.
What should have been.
He was also smart enough to know he was done. His days as a doctor were over. He had no desire anymore to do it. When this broken soldier left, he’d take most of his heart with him.
Poe wanted that adventure, and Hemmingway had been right.
Dying young didn’t matter if the years were filled with so much of everything.
As Gamble poured that passion into him, Poe held on, matching the kiss the entire time, letting the man consume him.
Fuck his license.
Fuck being a doctor.
This was something he needed.
This would be his one beautiful affair. It would be the one affair to remember for the rest of his life.
It was with a man he couldn’t be with, and who would likely never remember him when it was over.
But he would never forget it.
