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I smirk knowingly at him. “Sounds like you’re just meandering your way through an excuse to move closer to me.”
“I think I’m just ready to live one life instead of the two.” He kisses me.
His kisses are so fucking sweet, I might never get up from this chair—or out of his lap. “I think I’m sick of living two lives myself,” I admit after a kiss. “The life on the stage … and the rest of me. I never saw the separation so deeply until I met you. Until I realized what I really wanted. How did you know?” I ask him suddenly. “How did you see what was missing inside me?”
“It isn’t missing, Isaac. You’re doing what you need to do to pursue your dreams. Wait a second.” He narrows his eyes, amused. “Are you saying you are finally going to accept my offer to help you?”
“Help me? What do you mean?”
“You don’t want to live two lives either. You’re tired of the stage. You dance to pay for your online classes … and yet it keeps you from pursuing your passion of going to veterinarian school full-time, pursuing your doctorate.” A satisfied smile curls his lips. “I’m getting the sense that you’re starting to see the benefit of having me in your life.”
I frown at him. “I told you, you’re not going to buy me, Richie.”
“Nope. I’m not buying you at all. Do you see me pulling out my checkbook to pretty you up with a Porsche? To gift you a pair of five-hundred-dollar shoes? Buy you a ten-thousand-dollar watch for your upcoming birthday? No.” He shakes his head. “You’re above material things. I know what you truly want, and I know you deserve it more than anyone I’ve ever known. And so do the animals whose lives you’re going to save. Isaac, I want you to live your best life. I can do that for you.”
“Richie …”
He kisses me right then, shutting me up. I fight him for all of two seconds before realizing how fucking hungry I am for his touch, his lips, and his warmth as our bodies press together.
This poor chair is getting a serious workout.
“Just let me love on you,” he murmurs against my lips. “Let me in. I let you in long ago. You see me for what I am. You see every part of me, down to my weathered soul.”
I peer into his eyes—warm, deep, and full of that longing I can’t get enough of. What is it about him that makes me feel so needed?
Until he came into my life, my heart felt like it belonged to everyone who tossed a buck on the stage, to everyone who clicked a mouse button and sent me tips online, to everyone who jerked off as they sat in my chat room, desperate for me to take off another piece of clothing.
My heart has finally found a home.
“It’s a long and twisty track,” I mutter, feeling philosophical, “wherever this train of destiny leads us. I think there’s a reason I got this stylish slice on my arm last night, like it was part of this track …”
Richie scoffs. “I would hardly call it stylish, and I should have been there with you. Maybe then, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“Or maybe something much worse would have happened.” I run my fingers through his hair. He shuts his eyes, enjoying the touch of my fingertips. “Who knows what fate has in store for any of us?”
“A cruel irony,” he mumbles, lost in a dream of my touch as my fingers draw down to the back of his neck, massaging gently.
“Maybe this cut saved my life,” I murmur. My hands glide around his head and rest on his cheeks, where I pull his face in for another kiss before I say, “Maybe you saved my life.”
His eyes open.
I peer deeply into them. “Why don’t we listen to the signs, Richie? We need to be together.”
“Is that what this is?” He tilts his head in that way he does, appearing smart and handsome. “A sign we should be together?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
We kiss again.
And again.
Then soon the chair loses its joint occupants as we fumble away from it, down the hall, and into my bedroom. The door is kicked shut, my bed creaks under the weight of two men falling upon it, and the pair of us find out just how rewarding it feels to alleviate our loneliness once again.
[ THE END ]
A month has passed. It is the end of the summer.
The boys of Piazza Place we’ve come to know—Dante, Brett, Zak, and Connor—each prepare for a change in their lives.
DANTE
I hang up the phone.
My mouth hasn’t closed.
Neither have my eyes.
Did I really just hear what I just heard? Did I really just speak to who I just spoke to?
