Page 65 of Up In Flames
“Your head must be feeling better,” I deadpan.
“You know what?” he asks seriously. “It actually is.” Then, a delicious smirk pulls one corner of his mouth up. “The one that sits on my shoulders at least…but now, the other one is starting to ache something fierce.”
Taylor reaches for the shampoo, and I’m fucking awestruck at the way his muscles dance and move as he lathers his hair. He lets out a groan of pleasure as he trails his soapy hands over his body.
His wonderfully hard, smooth body.
Wow, I’m really stepping into this gay thing. Or maybe I’d bebisince I was married to a woman?
“Hey, Tay?” I ask, the nickname rolling off my tongue easily.
“Mmhm?” he hums, rinsing his hands of shampoo before lathering up with the bar of soap.
“Am I gay or bi? And what are the other words? Twinky is one of them, right?”
The look he flashes me tells me I got something wrong, but before I can be too self-conscious about it, he bursts into laughter.
“The term istwink, but why are you so eager to put everyone in a box?” He rinses his body before stepping out of the shower and into the towel I’m holding up for him.
“I’m not, I’m just trying to understand who I am,” I argue, rubbing another towel over his wet hair as he turns to face me and puts his hands on my chest.
“Who you are is Knox Bennett. Contractor extraordinaire. You’re a forty-five-year-old divorcé who lives in suburbia for some ungodly reason. You have a pack of meddling friends, an affinity for bourbon, and you’re repairing a broken heart with a person you find attractive and utterly irresistible.” He flashes me another wink. “That’s who you are. The fact that I’m a guy doesn’t change any of that.”
His words make me want to pull him close, so I do.
He mumbles his next question into my chest. “You’ve gotta tell me what you want this to look like, though. I tend to fall hard and fast, and I’m more than happy to see where this goes, but I need to know the expectations here. My heart won’t survive another break like the last one.”
I squeeze him tighter. “I hate that guy for hurting you, but I’m also thankful for any role he played in driving you to me.”
It’s too early for confessions like that, but fuck it. If I’m in, I’m in. And being in Taylor’s presence makes breathing easier. He’s a light shining into all my dark corners.
Let me be what you need in this moment.
I think I’m ready to find out exactly what that is.
“Are you hungry?” I ask him.
“Still not too much, but the pounding in my head is only a dull ache when I stand now.”
“Do you want to get into bed or?—”
“Bed,” he says, interrupting me. “Definitely bed.”
My lips split into a smile, the movement using muscles that are sorely out of shape.
“Fine, but we aren’t doing anything more than talking and cuddling. I want to know all about you. What are you most excited about in life? What’s your happiest memory? Tell me what it’s like to be a twin, and, uh,” I pause at the awkwardness of the next question. Even though Taylor’s an adult, he’s obviously close with his family, and his parents trusted me to do a job at their home. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be happy to know I’ve been doing things to their son as well. “Do you think Livvy’s told your parents that you’re here?”
“No,” is all he says.
Taylor lets the towel around his body fall to the floor, and I get the feeling it’s to distract me from talking about his parents, but I allow it to work anyway. Especially when he snakes an arm around my neck and stands on his tiptoes so his mouth is only an inch from mine.
“Why do you have so many clothes on?” he asks.
“Because you’ll get too worked up if I take them off,” I reply, dropping the towel from his head and linking my fingers behind his naked back, pulling him flush against me.
Staring down into his eyes, the rest of the world disappears. Anything that was previously on my mind fades into thebackground and completely ceases to exist. His eyes aren’t a brilliant green like Phoenix’s or icy blue like Dylan’s. But they hold all of Taylor’s emotions, his intelligence, his fire, and his confidence.
My gaze lowers to his lips.
