Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
“After everything, your father came to visit you in the hospital?”
“Not exactly. The nurses called him automatically while I was in surgery.” He’d had to have his arm set with pins. The bastard he’d gone home with had been one of the bad ones. When he’d realized Ansel had a dick he’d gotten violent, and even though Ansel had fought back he’d still ended up with a broken arm.
“What happened?”
“He wasn’t happy, especially since one of the nurses told him why I was in there.”
Fitch seemed to be waiting, but when Ansel didn’t continue he finally asked, “Which was?”
Ansel took a deep, cleansing breath and hit the back of his head against the wall, just once, not too hard, but it still throbbed. “Because I’m an idiot who keeps doing the same stupid shit.”
“I highly doubt that.” Fitch’s reply was sweet, if naive, but Ansel appreciated it anyway. “What did your dad do?”
“Nothing really. Mostly he was pissed that he’d been called at all. He told me to stop using the family name because he didn’t want my mother to find out about everything I’d been doing to sully it.” He’d been lying in the hospital bed, bruised and bloody with his arm frozen in a cast, and all his father could do was lecture him.
“What an asshole.” It was almost a growl and reminded Ansel how angry Fitch had become when he’d told him about Ray. How protected he’d felt. And just like that night, the confusion and fear started to cloud around him like thick black smoke. But this time he fought back.
“That’s my family.”
“It still sucks.”
“It’s all right.” Ansel smiled into the dark. “I told him to go fuck himself. If he didn’t want people to know we were related he could change his own fucking name.”
Fitch laughed and the sound was like a beacon of light chasing all his monsters away. “Good for you.”
The approval warmed him, and his stupid fluttery heart danced as he basked in the feeling for a second. It was a new experience. Yes, the boys and Ange were always on his side, and Ray had been steady as a rock while he was alive, but they were different. They’d gone through similar things in their own lives, which made it easier for them to accept him. Having the acceptance of his brother was great. But having someone like Fitch understand him, root for him? That was some kind of addicting shit.
“How did your family take Meg coming out?” he asked, wanting to change the subject.
“My dad didn’t get it at first. Ma was sad because she wants grandbabies, but they were great after it sunk in. They never made Meg feel like she wasn’t loved. I think that’s most important.”
Ansel tried to imagine a family like that but couldn’t paint the picture in his mind. Everything he’d experienced in his childhood was the exact opposite. “Yeah, it is. I’m curious, what was it you said to Meg when she told you? The way she used it against you the night we met, it must be something—”
“It wasn’t anything insightful or brilliant, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Fitch cut him off. “I told her I didn’t give two shits.”
He laughed. “Really?”
“Well, I didn’t. I don’t. Why should I care who she sleeps with? Who she loves? As long as she’s happy, that’s all I care about. I’m not going to love her any differently just because she’s attracted to girls. Hell, I’m attracted to girls. How could I not understand the allure?”
At the reminder of Fitch’s usual preference, Ansel quieted.
“You still there?” Fitch asked after a moment of silence.
“Still here,” he answered.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No.”
“Was it the being-attracted-to-girls thing?”
“It’s not anything I didn’t already know.” He covered his face with his free hand, mentally kicking himself for being affected by such an offhand statement. Especially when it was something he was aware of, one hundred percent.
“It’s also not the whole truth. Point of fact, I’m so fucking hard for you right now I had to take my briefs off just to get some relief.”
Ansel sucked in a breath, his cock instantly filling and stretching.
“And another thing, there has never been a woman that turns me on as quickly and thoroughly as you do.”
“Fuck,” Ansel whispered as a shiver shook him.
“Do I have your attention?”
Closing his eyes, he imagined Fitch spread out naked on his bed the way he’d been last week. “Hell yes.”
“Good because, if I recall correctly, we talked about my jerking off to the memory of your ass. I’ve been thinking about both ever since.”
Kaboom! There went one of his cannonballs. He lunged over the side of the bed and found the bottle of lube, still on the floor where he’d kicked it after Fitch left. He squirted two pumps into his palm, reclined, and began stroking.