#Junkie (GearShark #1)(64)

Something that made my heart swell.

I hadn’t been sure how I felt until this moment. Until I pulled him into my arms and the rightness clicked into place.

I loved him.

I loved him in a way I’d never loved anyone before.

“You’re not going to lose me, frat boy,” I vowed softly. “I’m not going anywhere.”





Trent

He laid his head in my lap.

I sat reclined against the back of the couch with my feet up on the table and he was horizontal with his legs propped up on the arm.

Neither one of us bothered with shirts, and we’d both changed into basketball shorts with loose material instead of putting on jeans again.

I was wearing a pair of Drew’s. They were black and had a white string on the inside of the waistband. He’d given me a T-shirt, too, and though I was sorely tempted to wear it just because it was his, I opted to stay bare chested.

Since my shirt was, ah, dirty, we threw our clothes in the wash, then came back downstairs where we settled in to watch the third Terminator movie. When he flopped down and put his head in my lap, a lump formed in my throat.

This guy was turning me into a marshmallow.

Moments like these with him had been so badly wanted that getting even just one now was sort of like some impossible wish being granted.

I wasn’t an emotional type of guy, but this meant something to me.

We talked about the movie as we watched and about the stunts on screen. But never far from the back of my thoughts was him and how good it felt to have him right here.

Partway through he rolled onto his side so his cheek pillowed against my thigh. He tucked his arms around him and pulled his knees in a little.

“You cold?”

“Yeah,”

“I’ll turn on the fire place.” I offered and pushed off the back of the sofa.

“No,” he protested and pushed me down. “Don’t get up.”

When I settled back down he sighed and pushed a little further into my lap. The blanket was within reach so I pulled it down over him making sure his chest and arms were covered. Without a word he lifted the top up and invited me in.

I draped my arm over his side, across his chest and he let go of the blanket so it could fall back in to place. His hand reached for mine and we loosely linked them together.

“You gonna stop avoiding me?” he asked.

I guess I deserved that. The excuses I kept sending via text were pretty weak. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I just… It’s been a long week.”

“Ain’t that the truth?”

“Everything going okay with Joey?” I asked, wondering how much I missed.

“You should give her a chance. She’s a really good driver. She’s actually taught me some stuff.”

“Well, now that I know you’re not sleeping with her, I like her a little more.”

He laughed, then said, “Gamble’s her father.”

“No shit?” I swore.

He nodded against my leg. “Yeah, it kind of works against her, though. That and being a girl and all.”

“It must be hard being a woman in the world of racing,” I murmured, feeling like a dick for not giving her more of a chance. Truth was the second she stepped out of the Fastback, I was jealous of her.

Drew made a sound of agreement. “Having a father who could practically buy anything doesn’t help either.”

“How much longer is she hanging out?” I asked, mentally promising to spend some time with her, actually give her a chance.

“Not sure,” he replied. “She doesn’t seem in too big a hurry to leave. ‘Course that was before I took her to a street race that ended in a car chase.”

“Fucking Lorhaven,” I spat.

Drew jostled the cushions when he rolled onto his back to look up and me. Our hands stayed linked, and he rested them on his stomach. “I beat him again.” The rueful smile on his face made me grin.

“Hells yeah.” I released his hand to smack him in the chest. “That’s my guy.”

We were both caught off guard by what I said. I called him mine. But we’d never actually discussed that. I had no idea what we were.

Reluctantly, my eyes turned down to his face. The smile he was wearing was deep and proud. I was tired of resisting the dimple, so I ran my finger over it, caressing it softly.

“I like this dimple,” I explained, my voice low and deep.

“I like how your left front tooth is slightly crooked.”

I returned his smile and chuckled a little. “That drives my mother crazy. All that money on braces and my tooth still won’t do what it’s told.”

Drew covered my hand with his beneath the blanket and glanced away. I shouldn’t have brought up my mother. It intruded upon us. Somehow, we’d slipped into some private world tonight, where it felt safer to be how we really wanted to be together. The outside world, anything beyond what Drew and I shared, didn’t seem welcome.

I worried for quiet moments I’d burst our bubble and it was going to end prematurely.

“So guess what?” he said, looking up at me once more.

All my worries instantly melted away. “What?”

“I have a photo shoot and interview with GearShark on Monday.”

“No shit!” I exclaimed for the second time tonight.