I didn’t want to spoil this. At all.
But he’d kissed me, and I couldn’t help but kiss him back.
We were on an international adventure to slip out of Russia. Bribes and false paperwork and nighttime train rides to Belarus.
And Maddox had just put our beds together.
He cringed. “Too much?”
How was he sookaywith his sudden interest in men?
“Am I an experiment?”
Oh, Hell, I hadn’t meant to say that.
“What?”
“No straight man is ever this suddenly okay with his newfound interest in homosexuality. I’m not up for games and I’m not up for being an experiment, Doxx. Please…”
Stepping up to me, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in, holding me close. “I’m not sure I’m interested in homosexuality, Ay-ay. I think I’m interested inyou. I’ve never noticed men, until I noticed you. And you’re theonlyone I’ve noticed.” He stepped back. “Too much?”
I shook my head. “No. Not too much.”
It was totally too much. My brain didn’t want to process this. All I kept hearing wasdon’t fall for the straight guy. Over and over on repeat. Then, helpfully,don’t fall for the bossanddon’t fall for the rock star.
But I had. I had fallen, and fallen very hard.
“Come on, hop into bed.” He smiled and his hand reached out to twist the door lock shut.
I closed my eyes. “We’re still in Russia.”
“Behind a locked door, speeding away. It’s okay, Aaron.” He suddenly grew a little shy. “We’re not going to have sex. I just want to share a bed with you. I’m not…”
Giving him a slow, kind smile, I laughed softly. “There’s the panic. You’re not really ready to go that far, right?”
“Not here. Not tonight. But I do want to kiss you again. And I want to lay down next to you.” His skin was so flushed, and his pulse fluttered at his throat. “I swear to God, Aaron, no one has ever affected me the way you do.”
The very idea of just sleeping next to Maddox was amazing. I sat on the bed and crawled up to the pillows at the top by the window. I flicked off the light on my side, and patted the bed. “Come on. You can tell me how I affect you.”
He laughed, and crawled into the bed too, after checking the lock on the door. Climbing under the sheets, he laid down facing me on his own pillow, and there was a smile on his face.
“You’re really cute,” Maddox whispered.
I felt the blush rush to my cheeks. “That’s a hell of a lead in.”
The chuckle he let out was low and husky. “Well, you are. I could see it the first time I met you. I thought you had balls coming to the audition with eyeliner, and I liked that you were so…you.”
“My eyeliner is always on fleek.”
“Oh, God, man, don’t say that.”
A little giggled bubbled out of me. “So, what else led you to the conclusion that you would like to kiss me?”
Chewing his lip, it took a moment for Maddox to answer. “Your singing. I thought it was just a music thing at first, but I realized in Paris it wasn’t. It was ayousinging thing.”
“Why’d you run from the stage, then?”
“Because…” He licked his lips nervously. “I got hard.”
