In a lot of ways, it feels like I am. Sex is not foreign to me. Not by a long shot. Unlike my acespec brother, I’m as allo as it gets. Although I never get involved. It’sjustsex. But I haven’t met someone who could light me up the way Marcus does with just a glance.
Not since…no. Not tonight. I won’t ruin tonight for Qi by letting that fucker take up space in my head. It’s not even a fair comparison if I’m being honest. Because evenhedidn’t light me up quite as bright as Marcus does, and that is fucking terrifying.
With that, my heart does a random thu-thump movement, like it knows it’s not going to get its way and it’s pouting. But I ignore it and look away. In a world full of possibilities, this one can’t happen.
Pax and Owen head back to a spot on the lawn, both swaying a bit and getting ready for another round.
“No dick-grabs, Pax,” Owen reiterates, and I can’t help but roll my eyes at that.
There’s a flurry of movements that I’m barely paying attention to when Paxton ends up on his back.
“Goddamit, Owen. Goosing doesn’t count! Qi!” he hollers out, the offense almost laughable after what he did to Owen in their previous match.
“Another dirty grab to ease the pent-up sexual tension between them,” I mutter under my breath, earning a couple of side-eyes from Qi and Marcus.
“If you two can’t play fair, then maybe you ought to just sit,” Qi says.
“Still my point,” Owen calls.
“Doesn’t count when you cheat,” Paxton huffs.
Owen shoots Paxton a smug smile. “I didn’t cheat. We said no dick-grabs.”
“It should go without saying–” Paxton argues.
Owen’s smug smile only grows. “Well, obviously it didn’t–”
“It’s enough, guys, park it and do something else if you can’t play nice. You’re killing my buzz,” Qi grumbles a bit.
“Yes, Mom,” the two of them call.
“They take after your side,” Tristan mumbles humorously into Qi’s ear.
Qi resolutely shakes his head. “Nope, absolutely not, I refuse. I’ll take credit for being their bestie, but no way in fuck am I claiming them as sons.”
“I don’t know. Tristan would definitely make a hot daddy.” Owen pipes off, and that’s enough of that for me.
“Nope, sibling-in-law icks. I do not need to picture my future brother-in-law as a daddy in any way, shape, or form. Thank you kindly,” I shake my head, stopping that conversation before it gets any worse.
I can be happy for my brother without knowing all the details. Not that it actually works, since, despite how shy he is, my brother seems to think I’m the one person he can divulge all his curiosities to, which means I know far more than I ever needed to.
“Spoilsport,” Paxton mutters under his breath.
“Watch yourself, handsy, or I’ll kill your ability to use the boners you get from all those dick-grabs,” I retort.
“So not–that’s not–,” Paxton stutters out in horror.
“Calm down, dude. Qiang’s just trying to get a rise out of you. You make it more suspicious by getting your back up,” Owen says, pulling a sullen Paxton down in the grass next to him. Paxton leans heavily into Owen’s side, and it really floors me that they are so completely unaware of themselves.
“So–” Marcus startles the fuck out of me as his breath hits my ear.
I don’t know when he moved that close, and I’m low-key ashamed that I let Owen and Paxton’s ridiculous antics distract me enough to allow Marcus the ability to do so.
“Do you have a studio somewhere for your makeup channel?”
I barely hold in the sigh of relief at the normalcy of the inquiry. “Naw, I don’t make enough to justify the cost of that. Pretty much just paying off what my scholarship doesn’t cover so I can graduate debt-free.”
Marcus nods before shifting to a more comfortable position next to me. “So then, where do you usually record?”
