great Connelly clan to adopt, and I don’t need charity. You and your mother can—” And Eli snapped his mouth closed. No, not Connie. That wasn’t fair.
“Oh no.” Daniel waved his arm expansively. “Please tell me what you think I should do.”
“Leave me alone,” Eli muttered.
Which seemed to make Daniel pause, and he sighed. “You’re my partner.”
“Not through choice.”
Daniel stepped back as if Eli had hit him. “Wow, I didn’t think I’d been such a bastard to you since we met.”
You haven’t. Eli had to clamp his lips to keep the admission slipping out. “I don’t do partners.” Eli looked at his jeans where they were kicked away on the wooden floor, and with a start realized he was naked. He looked up, ready to retreat, only to find Daniel had taken a step closer. Maybe two steps.
“Am I that bad?” Daniel asked gently, then unbelievably he put a finger under Eli’s chin to tilt it up. Eli could have slapped his hand away. He could have jerked backward. Hell, he could have set the idiot on fire, but he seemed completely helpless to do anything other than allow the gentle pressure of Daniel’s finger to tip his face up until their eyes met.
Eli didn’t seem to be able to move; he couldn’t swallow, and he definitely couldn’t tear his eyes away from Daniel. He watched as Daniel’s eyes searched his own and then narrowed down on his mouth, at the same time as his fingers eased their pressure and his palm cupped the side of his face. He felt a puff of warm breath, then another as Daniel very slowly lowered his head, and with the briefest of touches glanced their lips together as Eli’s eyes slid closed. Then Daniel took a step back and dropped his hand. “Go get your shower before I’m tempted to join you.” He was out of the bedroom before Eli even had a chance to respond.
Eli got in the shower still in a complete daze and gazed down at himself. His cock—not quite as disinterested as usual—barely got a notice. Eli was too busy looking at his thin body and wondering how Daniel could possibly be attracted to him. He’d thought he’d seen interest yesterday, but dismissed it. He started showering, his hands barely touching most of his body, used to the impersonal touches he’d trained himself to do.
Go get your shower before I’m tempted to join you.
Any statement like that would normally leave him wanting to hurl, but for a moment Daniel hadn’t been the only person tempted, and that had shocked the fuck out of him. He’d thought Marsden House had cured him of that. The day he’d gotten out of there, he’d promised himself he’d never ever take a shower with so much as another person in the room. Of course, the first time he’d been allowed to do that was three years after he had been transferred to Orlando.
And even then it was because the guards had been too busy with some man that had freaked out. Eli stopped soaping his body and rested his head in the crook of his elbow against the glass. He could see Daniel’s face. The stubble-covered jawline. The slight rasp against his chin as he had touched him. He had smelled of coffee. Must have made it while Connie had been with him, which was something else to think about. Daniel had made no attempt to come in while Connie was there. He’d given Eli time and not tried to ask what had happened.
And then Eli had treated him like shit.
Why had he kissed him? It made zero sense that he’d done that and then left. Eli groaned to himself. Was he so disgusting? But no, he didn’t think so. He was pretty sure it hadn’t been disgust that had deepened the brown in Daniel’s eyes, or gentled the way he had cupped his face.
He’d gone before Eli could object. Was that why? Had he known that Eli would freak out?
“Touch yourself and see what happens.”
But Eli had known what would happen. Mommy had said there was nothing wrong with his penis getting hard, but just to touch his private places when he was on his own. But Caffrey had laughed when Eli had shaken his head and backed up into Cruz.
“Why don’t you show him?” And Cruz had gotten his own out and—
Eli screwed his eyes shut, trying to block out the image. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew he was all