Page 137 of The Long Game

Step one was practice. “I love you, Jack. More than I ever knew possible. And I’m sorry I didn’t find a way to tell you for the first time in private. I’m sorry it wasn’t romantic. But I mean it. With all my heart, I love you.”

Jack’s cheeks went even deeper pink, and his eyes glistened in the light.

He hadn’t meant to make Jack cry. His heart clutched at the sight.

“I love you, too,” Jack whispered. “I think I have for a long time. I just didn’t figure it out until recently.”

“Yeah?” Grady asked, happiness and desire heating his blood.

He was trying not to be pervy about it, but he could see Jack wasn’t unaffected either.

“Yeah. I can actually…I think I can prove it,” Jack said with a shy smile.

Grady cocked his head. “You can?”

“Yes. And, uh…if you want, you can take your clothes off, too.”

Never let it be said Grady wasn’t open to suggestion. In the time it took Jack to yank off his shirt and skim his delightful little briefs down his legs, Grady had shucked his shirt, shorts, shoes, socks, and boxers.

Jack smirked at him and Grady grinned back.

“Okay, so stay there and I’ll show you,” Jack said.

Grady nodded, watching avidly as Jack turned around and reached for something. And while Grady didn’t know what he wassupposedto be looking at, he always saw god while gazing at Jack’s ass.

He blinked when the light in the room shifted and the white comforter folded over the footboard suddenly seemed a little brighter. Then Jack turned off the lamp, and Grady could only stare in awe.

Jackglowed.

The blue tentacles that wrapped around Jack’s body were no longer blue, but dark, colorless streaks edged in bright white. The softest suggestions of the shape of the octopus and the suction cups beneath flowed over his ribs and ass and wrapped around his legs.

But it was more than that.

Grady took a step closer and pressed his hand to a bare spot in the middle of Jack’s spine and bent closer.

“What am I looking at?” he murmured as he noted letters, a few words, and even some symbols sketching out the shapes where the darker blue rings would be.

“It’s UV ink,” Jack explained. “It’s only visible in black light.”

Grady nodded, because he’d figured as much, but it was still more than that. “And what do they mean?”

“Oh, ummm…” Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I told you that I did it to remind me of the past, and while there’s some bad, there are a lot of good things in my life I don’t want to lose sight of.”

“I remember,” Grady said in a hushed voice as he trailed his fingers over a series of numbers.

Jack shivered beneath his touch. “So, the whole work helps me be mindful, but when I need to remember the details, the private things, what’sunderneatheverything, I can look at it like this.”

Grady rubbed his palms over Jack’s ribs and wrapped him in his arms. “That’s amazing, Jack. Beautiful.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s actually overthinking things,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh.

“Does it help?”

Jack paused, then said, “Yeah, it does.”

“Seems like you thought about it just the right amount, then.”

Jack leaned back into Grady’s embrace, turning his head so their cheeks rubbed together. “Thank you.”

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