Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“I like you too.” I wondered if Sebastian knew how much I liked him. The need to make sure I shared it with him, to show him how much he gave me, suddenly burned through me. “I think I’m gonna go back up and go to bed now,” I said, my whole body feeling antsy.
“Okay.”
I drank the rest of my milk and brought my glass to the sink. “Thank you for what you told me tonight and…well…for everything.”
“What’s family for?” Harold said, smiling. “’Night, son.”
“Good night.”
I went upstairs and gently climbed back into bed with Sebastian. Still, he stirred, his eyes fluttering. “Hey. Is everything okay?” he asked quietly.
I wrapped my arm around him, pulled him close and kissed his neck, then his chest. “I love you,” tumbled from my lips. Panic set loose in my gut, causing chaos there before shooting upward to wrestle with my heart. I’d never said that to anyone other than Parker, Marcus, and Corbin. I was sure when I was younger I’d said it to my parents, but I couldn’t remember doing it. What had been the point?
“Holy shit.”
“Not the response I was expecting.” I tried to sound like I wasn’t stressing out. What if I’d misread things and he didn’t feel the same? What if those words pushed him away and caused me to lose him? But then, what he’d said…that his parents would love me because he did…
“Sorry. I’m freaking out. I didn’t expect you to say it. I love you too. Jesus, Declan, I’ve never loved someone so much in my whole life.”
He rolled on top of me, grabbed my face, and smiled down at me as if I’d handed him all the secrets of the world, as if I’d given him the key to happiness.
He kissed me, sweeping his tongue inside my mouth. We stripped each other out of our clothes, needy for each other, and then Sebastian fucked me. I should have known that was eventually going to happen no matter how hard I tried to fight doing it here.
I was in love.
Someone loved me.
I’d never felt so…not alone.
When I woke up the next morning, Sebastian was busily typing on his cell.
“What are you doing?” I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
“I got an idea for a screenplay. I wanted to write it down before I forgot, and I can’t seem to stop.”
I grinned and lay there, watching him create.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Sebastian
I had a boyfriend, and I was in love.
I had a boyfriend who’d gone home with me and met my family, and they adored him, and I was in love with him.
Also, I had a really good idea for a queer series that would likely go nowhere, and yet I was being incredibly protective of it, but really, I was just so fucking stoked because I had a boyfriend and I was in love.
How many times could I think that?
Apparently, it was endless.
“Do you guys mostly go to Marcus’s when you get together?” I asked Declan on our way there. It was cool that I got invited, that I got to be a part of their circle this way. I didn’t know if he’d told them about how things had changed with us. That didn’t seem like something Declan would do, but he’d told me Marcus was having them all at his house, and Declan had automatically asked me to come, so I considered that a win.
“Not always, but most of the time, yeah,” Dec replied, making a right turn toward Marcus’s place.
We’d only been home a week, but Declan had stayed at my house every night. He went to work and came back there. He met Parker for breakfast, then ended up back at my place again. I felt settled with him in a way I hadn’t known I’d longed for, in a way I never had with Neil, and it wasn’t just the amount of time we were spending together. Simply being with Declan felt so fucking good. I was clearly a little obsessed with the guy.
“I’d love to have them over at the house sometime,” I said.
“You can do that. They’d love it. We can talk to them tonight about it.”
I nodded, already sorting out plans in my head.
Like last time, Parker and Corbin had made it to Marcus’s house before we did. Declan knocked, then just slid the door open for the two of us to go in. Watching him, I realized I wanted him to do that at my house. I wanted him to be comfortable enough to walk in and feel at home.
“Look! It’s Declan and his boyfriend,” Corbin said dramatically.
“Is that the very same boyfriend he went to Idaho with to meet the family?” Parker asked.
I wasn’t surprised they were already busting his balls. That seemed to be their status quo.
“Are you guys planning on being idiots all night? Just trying to mentally prepare myself,” Marcus added, and everyone laughed.