Nate just laughed, though. Laughed and his hand found Ramsey’s cock, hardening against his thigh. “Baby, I gave us enough time forthis.”
By the time Ramsey let himself into Wes’ apartment a little over an hour later, he was feeling damn good.
Wes was in the kitchen and heard the door open.
“Hey,” he called out. Insistently.
Ramsey rolled his eyes. He knew what kind of conversation this was going to be, and he didn’t know if he felt better or worse about it happening, considering the last time they’d talked about this, none of it had been true.
But it was true now.
Ramsey gave in to the inevitability. Maybe if he didn’t avoid it, it would suck less.
“Hey,” Ramsey replied, sauntering into the kitchen. He grabbed a mug and poured coffee.
Wes leaned back against the counter, smirking. “Late night? Early morning?”
“We don’t have to do this, you know.” But there was no way Wes wasn’t going to do it. He’d probably been looking forward to it for weeks now, ever since Ramsey had told him he and Nate were casually dating.
“Oh, I think we do.”
“I don’t need a lecture on how to be safe.”
The look Wes shot him was a little galling. “Don’t we?”
“Please. I get tested. You know Nate gets tested. And there’s always condoms.”
Wes pushed off and Ramsey should’ve expected it, but he smacked him upside the head. “You idiot, I’m not talking aboutsex. No, you’re the last person I need to lecture about safe sex. I’m talking about yourheart. Because apparently you have one after all.”
“That’s unfair,” Ramsey said automatically.
Wes’ expression softened. “You’re right. Itwasunfair. You’ve always had a heart. You’re one of my best friends. One of the most loyal. You’d give me the shirt off your back, if it came down to it.”
“I’d even brave the dragon in his cave and suggest you call Marcus,” Ramsey muttered under his breath.
“I heard that,” Wes said, drumming his fingers on the counter.
“I meant you to,” Ramsey retorted.
“Don’t change the subject, okay? Sure, you have a heart. But you show it so rarely, it’s like you wanted to pretend it didn’t exist.”
“It exists,” Ramsey ground out.
“And I’mgladit does. Glad that you’re showing it to someone who isn’t me. Who isn’t Brody. Someone who isn’t your teammates.”
“You meanromantically.” One hundred times out of a hundred, that word would’ve gotten stuck in Ramsey’s throat, but he actually managed to say it now without it feeling like it was choking him.
Nate was different; Nate madeeverythingdifferent.
“I do,” Wes said, nodding. “So that’s why I’m saying, are you being safe with your heart?”
“This sounds like the beginning of a terrible self-help book,” Ramsey said, sipping his coffee.
But Wes was not going to be deterred. “The harder you try tonottalk about this, the more determined I’m going to be to do it.”
Ramsey did notsay anything about Marcus—okay, he did not say anythingelseabout Marcus—and thought that he should win an award for his hard-won discretion.
“That’s obvious,” he said instead.
