Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Dev woke feeling gloriously optimistic. A warm pool of contentment filled him, and he smiled into his pillow as he remembered why. After all the confusion and uncertainty of the evening before, Ewan had come back with him and stayed. They hadn’t managed to do any talking, but Dev was sure they’d moved past this only being a case of Ewan helping him explore his sexuality.
Last night they’d had sex because they both wanted to, not for any other reason, and it had been amazing. Afterwards, Dev had been afraid Ewan was going to go, but when Dev asked him to stay, he had. Surely that meant something had changed between them.
He stretched, sleepy and comfortable, and then rolled over, wanting to wake Ewan with a kiss… and maybe a blow job.
The disappointment of finding the empty space beside him made Dev’s stomach lurch. Hoping Ewan was just in the bathroom, Dev patted the sheets.
They were cold.
He sat up, looking frantically around the room, but Ewan’s clothes were no longer scattered carelessly around the floor where he’d abandoned them last night. Ewan was long gone.
The clock told Dev it was almost nine, so not exactly early for a Sunday morning. Maybe there was somewhere Ewan had to be?
Even as he tried to think of all the possible explanations for Ewan abandoning him without saying goodbye, part of Dev’s brain was sounding alarm bells and waving warning flags.
Dev might not know much about relationships, but he knew someone running out on you after sex was never a good sign.
But why? Why would Ewan do that?
Nausea swirled in his gut. The only reason Dev could think of was that Ewan regretted it.
They’d broken all their rules last night; having unplanned, non-negotiated sex wasn’t part of their deal. Ewan had been drinking last night; he might not have been thinking clearly. God, had Dev taken advantage of him?
He closed his eyes, horror coursing through him.
But no. Ewan might have been a little under the influence, but he had known exactly what he was doing. Ewan had been the one to initiate it with that brain-melting kiss in the street. Ewan had asked Dev to fuck him. Dev would never have expected that, never assumed it was what Ewan wanted. It had all been Ewan’s idea. Dev had gone along with it, a more-than-willing participant, but Ewan was the instigator.
So why would he have done such a U-turn this morning? What went wrong?
Guessing was getting him nowhere, so Dev took the direct approach. He got his phone from the pocket of his jeans and texted Ewan, pressing Send before he had time to change his mind.
Where are you? Why did you leave?
It was a few minutes before Ewan replied.
I couldn’t sleep. Didn’t you find my note?
Hope flickered through Dev. He jumped up, looking around his room until he saw Ewan’s scrawl on the pad on his desk.
When he read the words, hope curled up and died. It wasn’t a love letter. There wasn’t even a kiss or a smiley face. See you soon. What did that even mean? Suddenly it was all too clear that something had gone badly wrong between them, but Dev still didn’t understand what.
He had to reply to Ewan, but he had no idea what to say.
Got it, he typed and pressed Send, then added See you soon, echoing the words in Ewan’s note. He wanted to ask When, when will I see you? But he was afraid what the answer might be. Perhaps the best thing to do was to let Ewan have some space and wait for Ewan to contact him.
Dev set his phone aside, unhappiness and worry a tight knot in his gut.
When he finally ventured downstairs later in the morning, he found Shawn in the kitchen, frying eggs.
Shawn looked up when Dev entered, and he grunted.
“Hi,” Dev said, assuming the grunt was supposed to pass as a greeting. The smell of the hot oil and eggs turned Dev’s stomach. He had no appetite. He poured himself some orange juice, chugged it down in a few gulps, and then escaped to the living room.
“Well, hello.” Dani smirked at him from where she had curled up on one of the sofas with a book. “You’ve finally emerged from your sex pit, then. Where’s lover boy? It sounded like you had quite the session last night.”
Jez and Mac both turned away from the TV to look at Dev, faces alight with amusement.
“Oh God.” Dev cringed, his face heating as he remembered Dani knocking on the wall last night. In all his worry about Ewan’s disappearing act, he’d forgotten that part.
“Nice one, Dev,” Jez said.
“High five.” Mac held out a large hand, which Dev ignored in favour of covering his burning face with his palms as he took a seat beside Dani.