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Commando? The man was going to be sharing the same bed going commando? This was not information that he needed to know.
When Hale turned and caught him looking, heat flared in Harrison’s cheeks. He rushed into the bathroom. The whole time he stood under the hot water, he berated himself. What the hell? Why was he so drawn to a man? Had he always had these feelings and just never paid attention?
He scoured his memory over his thirty years of life, and no, he’d not once had such a reaction toward another man. This was all new.
And strangely intense.
He couldn’t get the image of that water running down Hale’s chest out of his head. And that perfectly round ass. A man’s ass.
He frowned at his hard dick. He almost took it in hand but couldn’t handle the thought of jerking off with Hale so close by.
Growling at himself, he turned the water to cold and quickly scrubbed off the day’s dirt and sweat. This was nothing. It was exhaustion. Stress. His mind was overwhelmed by everything that was happening and it was making his body confused. That was all.
Once he was in full control again, he walked out into the hotel room. Hale was already in the bed, sitting up against the headboard, his chest bare. Harrison hurried to the light and shut it off before making his way to the other side of the bed. He got in and stretched out, his heart beating a mile a minute as he pulled the covers up to his chest.
“Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” Hale’s voice was low in the darkness. “I’ve never had a problem with nudity. You ran into that bathroom like your ass was on fire.”
He nervously cleared his throat. “I was just anxious to get a shower. I was sure you’d used all the hot water.”
Hale chuckled. “My brothers always accused me of hogging the hot water. I do like long showers.”
Harrison relaxed by slow inches, his mind finally turning away from the fact that they were lying so close together in the darkness. Two men their size should not be sharing a queen-sized bed, but he shoved away from that thought and latched on to what Hale had said about his family. “How many brothers do you have?”
“Four. All older and annoying as hell. When I first came out as bisexual, they got overprotective and started hassling anyone I had an interest in. My first boyfriend nearly ran.”
“I take it he stuck around since he was a boyfriend?”
The sheets rustled as Hale shifted. “We dated two years, but things fizzled out when I went to college. I might have had a few wild oats to sow.”
Harrison was not going to follow up on that line of questioning. He did not want to hear about Hale’s wild nights while they were so close in the dark. School seemed safer. “What was your field of study?”
“Astronomy and astrophysics.”
Harrison turned toward him. “Seriously? You’re a scientist?”
“You thought I was some kind of surfer, didn’t you?” Hale laughed, the sound feeling somehow bigger in the darkness. “It’s the hair.”
“You just don’t have the sort of uptight personality I associate with scientists. Do you have your PhD?”
“Nah, not yet. I took some time off to travel before going back for that. I was restless. Turns out, I was drawn to Georgia for a reason.”
This felt intimate. Of course, this was already the longest conversation he’d had with Hale since meeting the man. Harrison could feel the warmth from Hale’s body even though they weren’t touching. Part of him was so damn tempted to reach out and run his hand over his arm, to feel the warm softness of his skin, the firm muscle definition below.
Was Hale still wearing those shorts? Or had he taken them off?
Sweat broke out across his skin and he quickly tried to redirect his thoughts to something safer. When he spoke, his voice was raspy. “What’s it like being the Air Weaver?”
The bed shifted like Hale had shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t been that for very long. So far, it all feels like a crazy dream.”
“The weight of it has to be incredible,” he murmured, half talking to himself. “The fate of the world rests on your shoulders.”
An amused huff escaped Hale. “You must know a little something about that, being the Keeper as well as part of a secret society.”
Harrison snorted. “All I do is protect a necklace. It’s not overly hard when no one knows it exists besides the Guardians and the goddesses. It’s not as if I have powers.”
“Yeah, but you’ve known about the pestilents and the Weavers your whole life. It’s got to be wild finally being here after training so long for this.” Hale shifted again, making the bed bounce, and his freshly showered scent hit Harrison’s nose.
