Page 10 of Under The Twilight Rainfall
“Notthis. The rest of it. You bringing me here. You knowing I’m going to be here at all. What do you want from me, Valen?”
Valen sighs and mirrors my pose. I’m always taller than him, but me on the couch and him on the floor only enhances it, and he looks so much smaller than the man I’ve come to know.
“I want you to breathe,” he says. “I want you to take a break. Let yourself be happy.”
“I am happy.”
Valen moves to his knees and plants his hands beside me on the couch. “Why do you look so sad?”
Oh, fuck him. Fuck him so hard for trying to dig in and pry me open. No way in hell am I giving that to him.
“I’m not sad. I have a good life. I can go anywhere I want, whenever I want.”
His eyes shine, dark and piercing, as he regards me. “And if you want to stay?”
I don’t. I’m happy as I am being a vagabond in the wind and only stopping in when I need a recharge.
He doesn’t let me answer, just smiles tight and turns back to his mat. I want to yank him back, to shout in his face how there’s nothing else in the world I could want, and even if there was, it’s not something he could give me.
So, that bleeding heart expression when he’s staring at me and we’re alone? It’s gotta stop.
“Go to bed,” I grumble, snatching the blanket and pillow he left in a neat stack on the arm of the couch, hitting the lamp at the same time to cloak us both in darkness. If I don’t have to see him, I can pretend he isn’t there.
But of course, even with me facing away from him, I’m too in tune with the rustling of the blanket, with shuffling fabric and then thethwapof something hitting the floor, and sure it’s my own fault—but the sounds have me keyed up.
When I hear the scrape of a zipper, that’s what does it. It sends my heartbeat rocketing out of my chest and my nerves reacting like I’ve stepped on a bed of nails.
I turn, fully intent on telling him to fucking breathe a little more quietly, but as soon as I do, I freeze. His eyes are on me again, curious and searching, and he’s got the blanket pulled up over his stomach but leaving his chest exposed.
His bare chest takes on an almost dark, golden hue in the drifting moonlight. He has lighter skin than most of his family but as an adventurer at heart, all that time spent in the sun was bound to even it out.
Which I shouldn’t be thinking about, but it’s been months since I’ve gotten laid, and both my dick and eyes can appreciate an attractive man when I see one.
Why it has to be Valen motherfucking Olaño, I don’t have the slightest clue.
His lips twitch into a smile, and then he turns on his side, towards me but away from the spot of light, and my eyes aren’t adjusted enough to see him clearly in the dark.
“It gets hot at night,” is all he says, voice low and unthreatening, like I’m some damn animal he’s afraid of spooking.
“Doesn’t mean you have to get naked!” I hiss through clenched teeth, then bury my head in the pillow to avoid screaming into the quiet night.
Valen’s chuckle shoots straight to my dick—because it’s got a slight gravel quality, not because there’s an actual attraction there. I’m just keyed up and horny and the bastard is right fucking there.
“I’m not naked, Dex. I’ve got underwear on. Wanna see?”
Fuck the tease in his voice because my manwhore of a self sure as hell wants to see and touch andbe touched—but I won’t go there with him. Not with Valen. As much as my body yearns for it, that’s one boundary I won’t cross.
“Just go the fuck to bed and quit being a perv.”
I stay on my stomach but turn my face away from him. Lying like this will help me resist the urge to sneak my hand into my pants, and hopefully keeping my eyes closed and away from temptation, the issue will go away on its own.
“Don’t blame me when you wake up sweating buckets.”
Goddamn him for needing to have the last word.
God-motherfucking-damnhimforbeingright.
I don’t know what time it is, but it’s still dark as hell outside, and no one is moving around in the house. My sleep pants are sticking to my thighs in the most irritating way, and it feels like my t-shirt is choking me by how the sweat makes it cling to my neck.
