Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 66222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Adam chuckled, brushing his fingers over Harry’s cheek. “Babe, it’s just a movie. Don’t take it so seriously. Aliens aren’t real, remember? Well, maybe they are, but we haven’t met them yet.”
Harry looked at him with wide eyes before laughing awkwardly. “I’m an alien, remember?”
Adam rolled his eyes with a fond smile and they returned to watching the movie.
But soon, Adam noticed that Harry had grown very quiet.
Adam squeezed Harry’s shoulder. “Hey, you okay?”
Harry was chewing on his lip, his gaze far away and thoughtful. Adam had rarely seen him so somber.
“Do you think lying is ever okay?”
Adam frowned, puzzled by the random question. “I think it depends on circumstances,” he said, eyeing Harry. “Sometimes lying is the best option.”
Harry nodded. He still wouldn’t look at Adam.
“What’s wrong, love?” Adam said.
Harry swallowed and forced out a faint smile. “Never mind me. I’ve been in a weird mood lately. I guess I’m just homesick. I’ve never been away from home for so long.” He smiled crookedly. “I guess I’m really a baby.” He glanced around the tiny room. “I love it here, but it gets lonely, you know? It’s a little scary to be on my own. Until I got here, I barely made any decisions in my life and now I’m making them every day. But you know the weirdest thing? I like it. I think I’m going to miss the freedom of making my own decisions. It won’t be possible at home.”
Adam stared at his bowed head. The more he learned about Harry’s home, the less he liked it. “Haz,” he said. “Is…your home situation okay?”
Harry blinked before laughing. “It’s not that bad. My life back home is very... comfortable and peaceful. I don’t have to work a day of my life if I don’t want to. I mean, certain things are expected from me, but I’m not obliged to do most of them. My family adores me, and I adore them, too.” Harry sighed. “I miss them very much.” Harry tapped on his new phone idly. “I like it here, but until I met you, I felt kind of lonely. I miss having... connections to people. Now I kind of get why my parents chose this as a punishment.” He chuckled wetly. “You shouldn’t have given me this phone. It’s your own fault if I bother you every time I feel lonely in my head.”
“You can bother me whenever you want, Haz,” Adam said, studying him. He’d never seen him so down. “Hey. Do you want a hug?”
Harry blinked at him. “A hug?”
Smiling, Adam opened his arms. “Come here.”
Harry bit his lip before moving and curling in Adam’s lap.
Adam went still. This definitely wasn’t what he’d had in mind.
After a moment, he wrapped his arms around Harry’s back and squeezed, hoping he radiated only comfort and friendly reassurance and didn’t seem like a possessive creep who wanted to take this boy inside his skin and hide him from the world. Mine.
“Mmm,” Harry murmured, burying his face in the crook of Adam’s neck. “This feels good. No one has hugged me since I was a small child.”
Adam’s forehead creased. “What?” Honestly, the more he learned about Harry’s home, the more concerned he got. “What about your parents?”
Harry didn’t say anything for a while. “Things are different back home,” he said. “We prefer... spiritual closeness back home rather than physical.”
Adam snorted. “You sound like a bunch of hippies.”
“Hey!” Harry said. “What’s wrong with being a hippie?”
“Nothing,” Adam said, stroking Harry’s back and allowing himself to bury his nose in Harry’s hair. It smelled of something sweet. Mineminemine.
Adam managed to shove the creepy possessive thoughts out of his mind, but his arms still tightened around Harry until there was no space left between them. Harry made a pleased noise, pressing deeper into him and generally acting like a clingy monkey. He seemed touch-starved. It was no wonder if he hadn’t been hugged in years.
Adam dropped a kiss on top of Harry’s head, affection washing over him, overwhelming in its intensity.
And then came fear.
Because the young man curled in his arms wasn’t his, no matter how badly he wanted it. There was something about Harry that seemed unreal, as if one day Harry would disappear from his life as suddenly as he had entered it.
CHAPTER 3
Harry had told Adam the truth: it had been years since anyone had hugged him. He remembered being hugged as a kid, but as he grew up, his family had started giving him space, as it was custom. Back home, hugging was considered an invasion of one’s privacy, since physical touch increased the chance of telepathic transference.
Harry must have forgotten how good it felt, because it quickly became Harry’s favorite thing in the world. He was a little embarrassed by how much he wanted it, but Adam didn’t seem to mind that Harry was constantly all over his personal space, wanting to be hugged and cuddled. At first, hugging had been just a substitute for the glaring absence of his telepathic links to his family and bondmate, but by this point, Harry was afraid he was more than a little addicted to it.