Extrait

As they rounded a corner, Tate pulled him into a small alcove and pushed him roughly up against the wall. Logan didn’t know what to expect as he found his back against the solid surface and Tate’s face inches from his.

“Our problem isn’t getting laid. I could undo your pants right now and prove it, but you already know that.”

Logan swallowed but couldn’t argue with it, so he went a different route. “I didn’t realize we had a problem.”

“It’s not a problem. It’s more like a barrier. Your barrier.”

Tate was right. He did have a barrier. He didn’t trust relationships.

Not with family, and certainly not with lovers. It was better to just keep it easy, simple, and uncomplicated.

Everything that Tate wasn’t.

“Are you listening to yourself?” he asked as Tate stared him down, his breathing heavy. “Yeah, I have a fucking wall. It’s twenty feet tall, especially with you. You’re different. And the fact that you’ve never been with a man other than me is fucking terrifying.”

Instantly, Tate sobered and stepped away. It was as if he’d punched the guy. Logan reached out and hooked his fingers into the front pockets of Tate’s jeans and pulled him back in against himself.

“I wasn’t lying last night. You scare me. I don’t do this. I don’t stay in relationships, and I certainly don’t let my fucking heart rule my head.”

“I know,” Tate nodded. “It’s just…How do I know what you want from—”

“He hurt me,” Logan cut in, not wanting Tate to voice his doubts about him. He brought his hand up to Tate’s face and cradled his cheek. “He kissed me and touched me like no one else ever had. And when he told me I was special, I believed him.”

Logan stopped talking when Tate took a step forward and slid a hand into his hair.

“You are special. So fucking special.”

The raw emotion in Tate’s words made it difficult for Logan to exhale, and when Tate connected their bodies right there in the museum and kissed his mouth, he allowed himself to believe for a moment that Tate was really his.

“Do you think I’d be here if it was just sex? That I’d be thinking about—”

Logan interrupted him by tasting Tate’s mouth again, slowly and gently. Tate seemed to have lost his train of thought, so Logan reminded him.

“That you’d be thinking about what?”

“Oh.” Tate blinked at him. “That I’d be thinking about the future.”

“A future with me?” Logan asked, his mouth curving against Tate’s until he started to chuckle.

“You just want to hear it out loud, right?”

Logan lowered his hands to Tate’s hips. “Damn fucking right.”

“Then yes. I’m thinking about my future and what part you’ll play in it. If you want to, that is.” Tate stepped away from him and held out his hand. “Come on. I have to go home and get ready for work.”

Logan took his hand, and as they walked out of the museum and down to the parking garage, he wondered for the first time what their future as a couple held.