Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,51

they were best friends. He motioned toward me, and I quickly spun around and looked out of the grimy window as trucks rumbled past and blew dust onto the struggling plants in flower boxes across the street.

“Chocolate tahini.” Derek slid a scoop in a cup in front of me, and then another, and then another. “Rosewater and orange. And my favorite, Turkish cherry. I recommend you try them in that order, too.”

“This is…actually super cute.” I smiled at the bright colors and then back at him as he took a seat beside me.

He brushed my hand as he reached over to take a spoonful of the chocolate tahini flavor and moaned loudly as he rolled the ice cream around his mouth. So loudly I stopped breathing and my cock sprang to life, until the old man behind the counter coughed and wheezed, and Derek shot us both a happy grin.

“I’ll have what he’s having,” I mumbled, and dove in to take a bite of the stretchy, mastic ice cream. As promised, the taste and texture sensation forced an involuntary moan out of my throat, and Derek burst out laughing.

“Not just for kids, right?”

“Mm-mm. Kids shouldn’t be allowed in here, with how loudly we’re enjoying this.” I took another spoonful and my knees went weak. This stuff was so good.

“I used to come here with Matt and Sean, right after we met.”

I shot him a sideways glance and practically held my breath, waiting for him to tell me more. But just like every time he started to talk about his past and how his brothers came together, Derek shut down and quickly changed the topic.

“Try the rosewater and orange.” He motioned to the bright pink and orange swirls. “It’ll blow your mind.”

I almost asked for more details about his history, but who was I to pry into his past? Even though this sojourn to get ice cream was starting to feel like an actual date, I reminded myself it absolutely, definitely wasn’t. He licked his lips, and I told myself it was just the flavor of the ice cream that was making him grin at me sweetly. He’d made it clear he didn’t want anything to grow between us. I was some kid he was giving a place to crash, and that was it. He was helping me, and what he’d done for me was already way too much. He didn’t owe me shit. And I needed to remember that.

15

Derek

Seb settled into my apartment over the next week, and my routine returned to normal. And having a gorgeous young man around did great things for my mood. I whistled now. I wasn’t really a whistler before, but now, happy tunes blew through my lips when I cooked, when I worked, during the drive home. And I looked forward to seeing his tousled hair in the mornings, his fingers around his favorite mug, and the way his face scrunched up as he grew accustomed to drinking coffee with breakfast. There was nothing particularly hot about those little things, but even his most domestic moments seemed incredibly sexy. It was a struggle to keep from telling him as much, and even more difficult to keep from acting on my urges.

But my nosy brothers did a good job of killing the mood and keeping things PG. Every day, a new brother barged in during dinner or watching a movie—or Seb’s absurd favorites, infomercials. My brothers acted innocent, but it was clear to me they were playing games, and the excuses were always the same—help, or a search for updates on Seb’s situation. By the next Saturday, I was so fed up, I called a roundtable discussion to get everything out in the open.

“So, this is the roundtable, huh?” Seb poked my coffee table with a toe from his place on an ottoman, and Richie laughed beside me and elbowed my side.

“I like this guy!”

Seb struggled to stop at Richie, our resident firefighter, but a glance at Matt quickly made his face fall to mimic the twin’s stoic expression. Eli handed out tiny plates of cheese and cracker snacks then took his place in an oversized armchair and kicked his legs over the arm, while Uno lay down beside him, within Seb’s reach. She pushed her snout into Seb’s hand, and he smoothed her ears back affectionately while I clapped loudly for attention, and the gentle chatter died down.

“Thanks for coming, everyone.”

“Of course,” Braxton said through a mouthful of crackers, dropping crumbs down the front