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“Yeah.” Alex hadn’t bothered getting dressed yet, completely naked on top of the sheets as he watched Lee. On his stomach, he’d propped himself up on his elbows in a way that turned his back into a beautifully distracting curve.
Lee forced his attention away. “Why?”
“It smells like you.” Alex said it without fanfare, a casually stated fact that required no further elaboration.
“If you think this counts as an apology, you may want to go back to the drawing board.”
Alex nodded slowly. “That’s fair. And, yeah. I’m sorry. I’m scared, I guess, and I took it out on you.”
Lee felt his irritation slip through his fingers like fine sand, tried to hold on to it and already knew it was a lost cause. “Scared,” he repeated flatly.
With a sigh, Alex sat up, tugging the sheet into his lap. His mouth tilted into an unhappy curve, voice low. “What if everyone hates me now?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake—there went the last, lingering dregs of Lee’s anger. He exhaled and sat down as well, perched on the edge of Alex’s bed, facing him. “Listen, first off, you’re not your father, and most people will understand that. Secondly…” He spread his fingers. “Why do you need everyone to love you?”
Was it ironic—Lee asking that when he kind of maybe did, just the tiniest bit? Love Alex, that was. Although irony wasn’t the correct word anyway, right? Bittersweet, maybe.
“Yeah, well.” Alex’s smile was self-deprecating. “Supposedly, when we learn early on that we are not enough, it can inspire an overstated desire to please people.”
Okay, that wasn’t the answer Lee had expected. “Did you read that somewhere?”
“This guy I know told me a few days ago that I suffer from a high need for affiliation.” The words were warm. “I decided to look it up.”
Lee pinched his bottom lip between thumb and forefinger. “You don’t go out of your way to please me,” he said slowly. “Hell, you just started a fight for no good reason when I just wanted to make sure you’re fine.”
“Maybe it’s because…” Alex trailed off, frowning. “Maybe it’s that I trust you to stay and fight instead of walking out on me.”
Lee took a moment to digest that. “I guess that’s a good thing.”
“It is a good thing.” The words were quiet, soft around the edges.
“Didn’t feel very good where I was standing.”
“I am sorry.” Alex studied Lee for a moment, slender fingers playing with the sheet in his lap. God, he was pretty. Lee should be used to it at this point, should have worked up some kind of immunity, but it still hit him every now and then. “And I’m not fine,” Alex continued in an undertone. “But I need to fake it till I make it.”
“Don’t fake it with me.” Lee considered it, then grinned. “Don’t fake it with Jeff either. He’ll kick your backside, which I happen to rather like.”
A slow answering grin quirked Alex’s mouth. “Perhaps you should come over here and touch it a bit, then.”
Lee shifted, suddenly glad for the towel wrapped around his hips. Christ, it wasn’tfairhow easily Alex could turn him on—a few words and a flirty look, and Lee was halfway there. He strove for a light tone. “From zero to innuendo in two seconds flat? Impressive.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed, his grin persisting. When he tossed the sheet aside and moved from one bed to the other so he could straddle Lee’s lap, it was with a certain languidness that gave Lee a chance to protest. He didn’t—simply tipped his head back and placed his hands on Alex’s waist, waiting.
Alex erased the gap between them, gently coaxing Lee’s mouth open with his own. It felt like falling, like giving up and in, like trusting Alex with a piece of himself that he might not get back.
Somehow, the fear wouldn’t come.
Posted by@AlexanderBeaufort (July 4, 11:43 a.m.):
I have no information beyond what various online news sources claim. Seems like the best I can do is focus on tomorrow’s match against France so we can get England into the semi-final - and beyond.
“Alex,the Duke of Eastwyck is your father. Have the police released him?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been able to speak to him yet.”
“When was the last time that you did speak to your father, Alex?”
“Before our match against Morocco.”
