Page 168 of In at the Deep End

After a few seconds, Matt settled back against the cushions.

Owen hated how quickly he noticed the loss of that warmth.

It was only a few inches. A reasonable amount of space for two people sitting on a sofa.

So why did it feel as though he’d just rejected him?

That wasn’t what he was doing. He was being sensible. He was giving Matt room. Giving himself room. After everything Callum had said, surely that was the right thing to do.

That’s all it is.

He almost believed it.

Then something on the screen made Matt laugh, not the polite chuckle he’d given Owen earlier, but a proper laugh, head tipped back, eyes bright, and his whole face opening with it. Owen turned towards him before he could stop himself.

For a moment, he just watched.

There was something about Matt when he forgot himself that Owen found impossible to resist.

A piece of popcorn had landed on the front of Matt’s shirt, and Owen reached over and brushed it away.

His fingers should have stopped there.

They didn’t. He let them drift upwards, brushing Matt’s shoulder before settling them against the side of his neck.

Warm skin. A pulse beneath his fingertips.

Matt’s laughter faded, and he turned to look at Owen.

Neither of them moved.

Owen could feel the question in Matt’s eyes. Not What are you doing?

Something more vulnerable.

Is this still okay?

Matt leaned into the touch, and the simple trust in that tiny gesture went straight through Owen.

For one suspended moment, Callum’s warning, his own promises of caution, all the sensible reasons he’d spent the past week constructing disappeared beneath something far more powerful.

There was only Matt.

Matt’s eyes. Matt’s warmth. The quiet acceptance in his expression that told Owen he didn’t need to explain why he was touching him.

Owen slid his thumb once across Matt’s cheekbone, the motion almost unconscious.

He wanted to kiss him.

God, he wanted to kiss him.

And that was precisely why he couldn’t.

Reality returned with brutal clarity, and he pulled his hand away.

The change in Matt’s expression was so slight that someone else might have missed it. A flicker of confusion. He bit gently at his lower lip, but the questions Owen anticipated never arrived. Then Matt turned back towards the screen.

“Sorry,” Owen murmured.