Page 62 of Enchanted

“Hi,” he said, his eyes darted to my boxers; the only item of clothing I was wearing. They returned to my face so fast that I almost thought I’d imagined it. “Want to join me? The stars are beautiful.”

I hesitated. Should I? I wanted to, but was it weird? Was it wrong?

“There’s plenty of room,” Rami said, like he could sense my indecision. “And I’m decent. Well, I have my underwear on.”

Underwear that would undoubtedly hold up about as well as mine in the hot water.

He took another sip of wine, never breaking his gaze from mine.

“I’ll just get myself a glass.” I thumbed over my shoulder.

“Let me,” Rami said, putting his glass down.

“Oh, you don’t have to—” My protests died as Rami braced his powerful arms on the edge of the hot tub. In one graceful move, inch after inch of beautiful dark skin was revealed as he levered himself out.

“Fuck,” I whispered to myself as I hungrily tracked the droplets chasing one another down his pecs. Over the contours of his abdominals. Right into his happy trail.

I caught myself before looking any lower, forcing my gaze up to the stars. “You’re right. They’re very beautiful.”

I waited for Rami to say something. He must’ve seen me looking at him. Thankfully, he just laughed softly before disappearing indoors.

Pull yourself together, Ethan. Yes, he’s a model, but that doesn’t give you the right to ogle him.

I took the opportunity to slide into the hot tub. Carefully. Slipping and whacking my head on the tiles would be a shitty way to end the day. Kind of fitting though, considering everything else that had happened.

Not everything was shitty, I reminded myself as I let the hot water soothe my tense muscles. The photo shoot went well. And there are worse places you could be right now.

Like alone on your sofa, wondering when Dave will finally get home.

I closed my eyes when I heard footsteps approaching. I’d already proven I couldn’t be trusted where Rami was concerned. That in itself was weird. I’d never felt such a deep attraction to someone before. No other models had inspired this kind of response in me. But given everything else weird that had happened recently, this was right at the bottom of the list.

“I’ve put your wine on the side,” Rami said. There was a ripple in the water as he joined me. “Let me know if you can’t reach it.”

“Thank you,” I murmured before reluctantly opening my eyes. Rami was sat opposite me, his face placid. “Not just for the wine. For all of this.”

“This is what friends do. They have your back when everything goes to shit.”

A friend. It was funny how much I missed having those. Without my diagnosis hanging over me, there was nothing to stop me having one. Having Rami as my friend.

“Thank you, Rami.”

He grinned, then took another sip of wine. “My pleasure.”

I sighed, swirling my hand through the water. “I’m guessing you’d like to know what went down.”

“Only if you want to talk about it.”

Did I? “I think I need to.”

Rami put down his glass, giving me his full attention. I tried not to notice the way he spread his arms out along the sides of the hot tub. Nor how the size of him meant he took up more than half of the tiny pool. “Then I’m listening.”

I tilted my head back to rest on the edge. Staring at the stars, I thought about where to begin. “I met Dave when I was twenty. I was a student at the University of Southampton.”

“How’d you meet him?”

“In a club,” I said, chuckling to myself. “Back in the days when I actually went to them.”

“Not a fan now?”