He moves toward the couch and lowers himself onto it. I’d been thinking about coming home and maybe using the toy on him again. But I don’t know if I can do that now. I don’t know if I deserve to touch him the way I want because this whole clinic thing feels like such a fucking betrayal.
I allow the silent chasm to grow between us, widening into an irreparable rift.
A rift I never wanted.
Fuck.
“I’m gonna go work on the spare room again and then shower and go to sleep…” Cielo’s gaze bores into me, and I shiver slightly. “Unless you want to watch a movie or something?”
His phone rings next to him, and he glances down at it. His lips turn up slightly, and a pang of jealousy moves through me.
“You got it to work?”
He nods. “Broooohdeeee…Tyyyyleerrr.”
“Oh, awesome.” I force the smile to stay on my face when his long finger taps the screen, and I hear a loud whoop from the other end. I guess they helped him work it.
It should have been me.
“Heeeelllooooo.” His grin widens, and I shift on my feet, feeling suddenly out of place in my own home.
“Hey, bro! Wanted to call you on your new phone! How do you like it?”
“Lyyyyk.”
“Fuck yeah. Hey, show us around your place. I wanna see.”
Cielo glances up at me, and I nod, not wanting to stop him from making friends. But I also feel upset that he’s talking to someone other than me. It’s irritation and something I need to nip in the bud. He deserves to be loved by everyone. It’s justhard when I want to wrap around him and hiss at other people, reminding them that he’s mine.
It’s a very inhuman feeling, but it’s not something I want to think too hard about. I’m trying my best with these newfound feelings, and I’m not sure they’ll ever make sense.
“Dante,” Cielo says, and then angles the camera toward me.
I wave when I see Brody on the screen. He’s hot in that gym bro kind of way. Not my type, of course. Apparently, my thing is Vyastil with tails and claws and long tongues. I manage a smile and lean toward the phone.
“Hey, thanks for helping him figure this thing out.”
“Anytime, my man. He’s so cool. And really smart.”
“Of course he is,” I say and meet Cielo’s gaze. He’s flushing a cute purple, and I force myself not to reach out and touch him. “Anyway, I’ll let you two chat. I’m going to go work on that room.”
Cielo makes a trilling sound in the back of his throat, but I turn before he can stop me. Moving into the spare room, I hear him speaking with Brody as much as he can. He sounds happy. He sounds better. And it’s not because of me.
Maybe this is for the best, I think as I close the door, embracing the semi-silence. I need to clear this out so Cielo stops sleeping in my bed, curled around me, purring, making me feel like I belong to him.
Maybe this is the first step in distancing myself from him.
Before one of us gets hurt.
Things I hate: sweating at the gym. If I’m going to sweat, I’d rather it be in bed.
Some of the workouts I do make my heart feel like it’s under attack, which is not my favorite pastime. I know I need to go for the sake of my health, but normally I prefer to deep-clean my house when I need to work out aggression, anxiety, or what is currently the stress I’m having about Cielo and going to the clinic.
And I’m having all the stress about that. So much that I barely sleep. So, an early trip to the gym it is.
I slip out of bed and tiptoe to the bathroom. I ignore the anxiety as best I can while showering and jerking myself off three times so Cielo will have some extra cum while I’m gone. I get dressed in my gym clothes and then pack a bag with loose linen pants and a t-shirt with a wide collar. I don’t bother doing anything with my hair apart from twisting it into a messy bun, and I steal one last glance at a sleeping Cielo.
I want nothing more than to wake him and kiss him goodbye, but that doesn’t seem fair. We’re both powerless to stop this from happening. Everest said he was going to try to help, but I haven’t heard a word from him, which probably means he was unsuccessful. I sigh silently and head for the front door.
