Page 17 of Rough Heat

Leo cut him off gently. “I can’t, Lee. You gotta see my side of things, too—I have to keep my independence.”

“I’d give you independence,” Charlie protested.

Leo bit back a sigh. It was gonna be a long fucking night.

***

Leo thought he wouldn’t hear from Josh and Damon until Josh’s next heat, but they contacted him just eight days after their original session, sending a text to his work phone.

J&D

Hey, are you free on Saturday from noon until 5pm?

Leo

Sure. Everything ok?

J&D

It’s Josh can I call?

Leo

Sure

Leo accepted the call as his phone started buzzing. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Josh’s voice said. “Uh, how are you?”

“Good. How’re you feeling? Everything go well after the heat?” Leo asked, concern squeezing his chest.

“Oh, yeah, totally. Went to the doc, he was really impressed. We had to, uh, tell him what we did differently.…It was super awkward.”

Leo snorted, relief flowing through him. “I can imagine. But he said everything was good?”

“More than good—I’ve put weight on for the first time in what feels like forever. Appetite was through the roof the first few days after my heat, and I’ve tried keeping the eating up, so. Yeah. Really good.”

“That’s amazing, Josh. I’m so fucking happy for you. Damon must be ecstatic.”

“He’s been baking non-stop.”

“Of course he bakes.”

“I know, he’s ridiculous. Anyway, uh, so, about Saturday…” Josh trailed off.

“Yeah?” Leo prompted.

“So, we thought maybe we could all do something together? There’s a cool farmers’ market near us on the weekends, we can maybe go and get some stuff, then cook something at home? At our apartment, I mean. Just to, you know—it’s a lot, now that we know that sharing my heats with you is a good long-term plan, we thought it might be better to get to know each other a little more? If that’s okay, obviously. We don’t wanna step across any boundaries.”

Leo blinked, alone in his apartment, dread acidic in his stomach. His body was telling him that this was dangerous—that getting to know Damon and Josh better was precisely what he should be avoiding.

He couldn’t make himself say no, though. “Yeah, ’course. That sounds great.”

“Yeah?” Josh said hopefully.

“Yeah, of course.”

“Okay. Great. So, uhm, we’ll see you on Saturday?”

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