Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106300 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106300 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Oz pulled Boo onto his lap and leaned into me, all the energy seeming to drain from his body.
He was going dim again, but this time I wasn’t the cause. At least not directly. But I was still one of apparently many assholes who’d hurt him.
I knew it was wrong, but that didn’t stop me from dropping my arm around his shoulders and tugging him closer until he was pressed completely against me. He dropped his cheek against my chest so his head was tucked up under my chin.
“You’re so much more than that, Oz,” I said softly. I let my fingers slide over his soft hair. “You know that, right?”
I felt him shake his head against my chest.
“What if they’re right, Jake? What if they’re all right? What if they never really see me? I should be… I should be happy for what I have, right? It should be enough.”
I brought my free hand over to tip his face up so he was looking at me.
I shook my head. “No,” I whispered. “You don’t ever stop fighting for what you want, do you hear me? This fucker who hurt you–you’re going to work hard and then you’re going to show him that he didn’t break you. You’re going to come back stronger and harder and you’re going to show them all that they misjudged you. Because you’re so much more than a goddamned beautiful face, Oz.”
He held my gaze for the longest time. His lips were calling to me, but right before I was about to drop my mouth to his, he lowered his head. I felt his arm come around me hesitantly before I heard him sniffle a few times, and he rubbed his face against my shirt discreetly. I realized he was trying to keep himself from crying. It was several minutes before the sniffles turned into a steady, light snore. Selfishly, I decided to enjoy the sensation of his body tucked up against mine for a few more minutes, and I leaned back against the armrest, taking Oz’s weight with me so he was almost on my lap.
“Just a few more minutes,” I whispered to myself.
A few more minutes of the contact I’d been starved of for years. Then I’d move him to my bedroom for the night.
And I’d be back where I’d been for three long fucking years.
Alone.
That was my last rational thought, because the next thing I knew, there was a pounding on the door. A sharp yipping sound rang out seemingly inside my eardrum, and I opened my mouth to complain about it, only to discover my mouth was against bare skin.
It was not my skin.
“What the hell?” I grumbled as the front door slammed open and bounced off the wall beside it.
“Are you okay?” Xander was wide-eyed and worried, face red from the cold and eyes wild under his hat. “I went to check on the cabin after getting an alert about the power being out up here and found the place frozen, and you didn’t answer my knock or my phone call…”
His voice dropped off as his eyes finally registered what he was seeing.
“Oh my god,” he hooted. “You and the pretty boy? That’s… unexpected,” he said with a wide grin.
I looked down and saw Oz stripped down to only a thin pair of the sexiest fucking boxer-briefs I’d ever seen. One look at his ass where he lay sprawled on top of me on the sofa and I was hard as a rock.
“Fuck!” I shoved him unceremoniously to the floor. “Why are you naked? You weren’t naked before.” I looked up at Xander in shock. “I swear he wasn’t naked before. Oz, tell him. Tell him you weren’t…”
I lost my train of thought when I saw Oz stand up and stretch, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with a giant erection tenting his underwear and stretching the design on the… were those spools of thread?
Xander made a choking sound, and I quickly stepped between Oz and him. “What the hell are you doing? Look away,” I growled. “You’re practically a married man, for fuck’s sake. And Oz isn’t a piece of meat.”
Xander’s appreciative gaze turned to humor as he broke into laughter. “I’m not dead, Jake. A man can still appreciate a fine male form.”
“Where the hell am I?” Oz mumbled. “And why is it so cold in here? What did you do to my head? And why are my eyes so squinty? Fuck, who the hell put cotton in my mouth?”
Oz must have leaned over to pick up the quilt from the floor because suddenly his glorious ass was bumping into mine, causing him to stumble. I quickly divided thirteen into a thousand sixty-four to keep my dick from causing a scene.
“You need to stop touching me,” I said in a choked voice.