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“Besides,” I say.
“Besides what?” he asks.
I slide the pad of my thumb over his bottom lip and smile when he licks over it.
“You’d be stupid to let people know we’re together,” I say.
He snaps his head back and blinks at me.
“Because?” he asks slowly.
“Because do you really want to turn this”—I gesture between the two of us—“into some stupid scandal? We’re brothers, Ryk.”
He stares at me for the longest time before he scoffs. “We’re hardly?—”
“It doesn’t matter that we’re hardly,” I interrupt. “People are assholes. And believe me, you coming out as bi will be mild news compared to the fact that the person you’re sleeping with is your brother.”
“Stepbrother,” he says, and I laugh. A tad bitterly.
“It’ll matter fuck all what prefix is attached. It’ll be brother once it hits the news. An NHL player is sleeping with his brother will get some nice clicks for whoever publishes that shit first.”
His shoulders slump, and he swallows hard.
“So… What?” he asks. “What now? What do we do, then?” His eyes suddenly widen, and his hold tightens. “Oh, fuck me. You’re not going to do something stupid and martyrish where you dump me for the good of my career! Fuck that. No. Veto.”
Despite everything, I laugh.
And I laugh even more at how affronted he looks about the fact that I laugh.
“No,” I say and shake my head. “No. I’m not doing that.”
He closes his eyes and lets out a long breath.
“Good. Glad we cleared that up. You’re not leaving me. I’ll just hunt you down if you do.”
“Noted,” I say and lean my forehead against his. “It’s going to have to be a secret. Us. At least for now. You do realize that, right?”
He looks at me for the longest time, frown deepening.
“Why would you ever agree to this?” he asks softly. Sadly. On the verge of capitulating.
I catch his face in my hands and force him to look at me.
“You are my everything.” I skate my thumbs over his cheekbones and hold his gaze. “Everything. Tell me you get it.”
“It’s not fair for me to ask you to turn yourself into a secret.”
“Yeah, well, fair or not, this is where we are right now.” I sigh when he’s still frowning at me. “How about this: we’ll sort everything out as it comes. Okay? Right now, let’s just… live our lives. We’ll concentrate on school and you getting better and… having lunch with your mother, God help me. And hanging out with our friends. Mine already know about us. Hayes knows. We’ll come out to your mom at one point. It won’t be that bad. People who matter will know about us. I don’t really care about strangers. There’s no point in overthinking this because we just don’t really know what’s going to happen, so let’s just take it day by day.”
He lets out a long, deep breath.
“Yeah?”
His fingertips dig into my skin.
The smile comes so easily.
My head bobs up and down in an enthusiastic nod.
