Page 76 of Counterpoint
This time, the gaze was more thoughtful. “Okay, there is that.”
Silence for another lap.
“Dominic pushes pretty much all of my buttons, and hard. Intellectual. Sexual.” Adrian shrugged. “If you’re asking if this is serious... I think it could be.”
“The man has a name!” They headed down to the weight room. “But ‘could be’? Sounds like it is.”
“For me.” Adrian didn’t want to admit, even to himself, that his heart was sitting on the line now. “But I’m not so sure for him.”
“Why not?”
Because afterward, when he and Dominic had lain on the floor and caught their breath, Adrian had asked, “What brought that on?”
Dominic had huffed a laugh and bent one of his legs, eyes still closed. “Fucking awesome practice. When we play that good—”
And it had been like a switch had been thrown. Dominic opened his eyes wide and sucked in a breath, and then there’d been an awkward silence.
After a moment, Dominic had crawled to his feet and collected his clothing.
Adrian finished three reps of arm curls before answering Jackson. “Because he doesn’t trust me with the thing that’s most important in his life. I’ve...been trying to be patient.”
Jackson had him on swats next. Fucking squats. Fucking Bosu ball.
“Time to press the issue then. I would.” Jackson shook his head. “Then again, what the fuck do I know about love?” He got that odd look again.
“Wait—Jack, are you seeing someone?”
Jackson’s skin darkened, but his lips quirked up. “Maybe.”
“Do tell!”
A shake of his head. “Not yet. If it turns to something more, I’ll unload on you, but for now, it’s time for your least favorite exercise.”
Adrian closed his eyes and tried not to throttle his friend. If he hated the Bosu, he loathed burpees.
The rest of the talk swung toward work, and by the time they made it into the office, Jackson had updated him on his job search—he’d gone for a second interview at the company he’d been vying for. The whole thing, he said, looked promising.
That twisted Adrian’s stomach, which turned even more when they’d compared notes on the glitches in the programming they’d both run into. “William,” Adrian muttered.
Jackson grunted and smacked his badge against the pad to get into the office.
Adrian followed Jackson through the door. “Maybe I should talk to Russ about him.” Their boss.
“Good luck with that,” Jackson said, entering his cube. “You know how that’ll turn out.”
Yeah, he did. But what else could he do? Something had to give—they were losing time and energy to William’s bad programming.
When he got to his own cube, he woke his computer up, logged in, and went to grab a cup of coffee.
When he got back, the screen on his phone had darkened, and he scrambled to check it. A text. From Dominic.
Hey. Wanted to thank you again for last night. I know I was moody, but I really needed you.
Moody was one way of putting it. After sex and letting slip a tidbit about his mysterious band, Dominic had been on edge until Adrian had pulled him into his arms and just held him. It had taken a good ten minutes before either of them had spoken, and it had been Adrian. “Would you like something to eat?”
Dominic had pressed his forehead against Adrian’s chest. “I’m sorry.” It was a whisper, and it made Adrian’s heart ache.
He ran his fingers through Dominic’s hair—it had grown in the time they’d known each other, and there was an untamable aspect to it now. “That’s not really an answer to the question of dinner.”
