“You were having another nightmare.” He pauses, and I lift my arm to look at him. He’s frowning. He also looks like crap, eyes red and skin gray. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I don’t have the heart to tell him it wasn’t a nightmare I was having. I twist sideways under my covers. My dick is still granite-hard. My balls ache. “I’m fine.”
Seth gives me one last long look. Then he grunts, rubs the back of his neck and shuffles out of my room. The door closes behind him.
My eyes close as I grip my cock and tug. Fuck, it’s so hard it hurts. Dream snatches still tease me—her moans, her face, her body, the softness inside of her—and my breathing grows ragged. I clench my fingers, thrusting into the tight tunnel, and it feels so damn good I can’t keep quiet. I muffle a moan into my pillow as I rock into my hand faster and faster.
It’s her I see. She draws me deep inside, calling out my name, her golden eyes half-shut, sweat making her skin gleam.
Oh shit, my balls lift higher and my whole body tenses. “Ev...”
I bite the inside of my cheek as my dick lurches in my hand. A groan escapes me nevertheless. Fuck, fuck. My whole body jerks on the mattress as my spunk spills over my fingers and shoots across my chest in hot streaks.
I’ve never come so fast in my life. I lie there, still holding my softening cock, gasping into the pillow. Holy shit. I can’t make myself move. I feel boneless and wrung out.
And this just after one kiss.
Hell.
Seth pours me a cup of black coffee as I enter the kitchen and slide into a chair at the table. He places it in front of me.
Damn, it’s one of those days. My joints and muscles ache, and generally, I just feel like shit. In fact, I’m still so bleary that it takes me a minute to realize that this—making me coffee, lingering in the kitchen—isn’t normal behavior for Seth. I grab the sugar and pour a generous amount into my steaming coffee, then remember I have to get up to get a spoon to stir it and sigh.
Fuck it. Who cares? I just need to wake up. I down half of it in one gulp, scalding my tongue, and blink at Seth.
“Spill,” I say, putting the mug down. “What’s wrong?”
He pushes a hand through his shaggy hair. “That girl. That’s what’s wrong.”
That girl. “Ev?”
“The girl you had with you at the cafe yesterday.”
I tense. “What about her?”
He sits across from me, folding his big hands on the scratched table top. “Is she the one you’ve been watching across the street?”
“That’s none of your damn business,” I hiss.
“She’s pretty.”
“I said, it’s none of your business.” I stand, shoving the table into him. Ev is my girl. He’d better keep his hands off her.
“Hey, relax.” Seth smirks and leans back, folding his arms across his chest. “Fuck, you have it bad, don’t you?”
I kick at a table leg and place my fists on the top. “You’re not going near her.”
“Why would I? Doesn’t look like she’d want me to. But when she finds out you were on the streets, too? What then, genius?”
Cold trickles down my spine. “I’ll tell her.”
“Micah.” Seth unfolds his arms and scratches his cheek. “This is weird, man.”
“I said I’ll tell her. If she doesn’t like it, then that’s okay.”
Only it isn’t. But what choice is there?
“That’s not what I mean. Sit down, okay?”
I sink back into my chair. “Then what do you mean?”
“Something’s off. She looks spooked.”
I nod. She does. “So what’s your point?”
“My point, man...” His dark brows knit. I don’t remember ever seeing Seth so serious. “This girl shouldn’t be spooked. She shouldn’t be sad.”
I stare at him. The hell?
We don’t talk much with Seth. He’s not brooding and aggressive like his cousin Shane, but he’s not loud and easily excited like Ocean or Jesse, either. He’s a quiet guy. And now he can’t stop talking.
“... so if you know there’s anything she’s afraid of,” Seth is saying, “anything Shane and I can help with... If she needs someone to protect her. We’re here for her. I’ve talked to Shane, and he feels the same way.”
I rub my face. Bleary or not, I’m obviously missing something here. “Why are you so eager to help her?”
“Why not?”
“Dammit, Seth. You think I’m an idiot?” I bang my fist on the table, making the mug jump and coffee slosh. Is he doing it on purpose, trying to make me hit him? “You said she helped you out once,” I bite out the words, “but going out on a fucking limb, I’d say there’s more to it than that, right?”
Seth looks away but not before I see a flash of pain in his expression. I’m good at reading faces. I’m good at connecting images with emotions. I’m a visual artist, after all.
And that flash of pain reins in my anger. I sit, patiently waiting for him to decide if he can trust me with his story or not. Because I’m sure there’s a story there. I can feel it in the shape of this meeting, in his reactions and words.
He finally turns to me but drops his gaze. I swear, if he did anything to hurt Ev in the past, I’m not gonna forgive him, no matter how bad it makes him feel now. I’m gonna punch his face into pulp.
The fact I’ve never been so angry on someone’s behalf before doesn’t escape me, but I can ignore it if I want, dammit. It’s my own fucked-up mind.
“You didn’t know us back then,” Seth says quietly. His body is slightly hunched over, and he spreads his hands on the table. “It was before Zane took us in.”
They’ve only known Zane for a few months, whereas I’ve known him for years. I was his apprentice back when I lived with my last foster family. Those were the good times, before I was sent back to the residential facility and ended up running away as often as I could.
Christ, I don’t want to remember that place.
Seth is silent for a while. Looks like he doesn’t want to remember, either.
“Being on the streets sucks,” he eventually says. “Having no home sucks. Having no options fucking sucks.”
Understatement of the year, if I ever heard one. I nod nevertheless, to encourage him to continue.
“We’d been on the street, on and off, for two years. It’s vicious, man. You can’t get out of that loop easily. Shane wasn’t well.” He taps his temple. “I mean here. He was in a bad place. It’s his character, but he’s also lost more than me, so...” Seth wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “You know how people pass you by and don’t even see you? As if you’re part of the ground you’re sitting on. Trash to be swept out in the morning. Or they get pissed at you for ruining their day by reminding them their stupid little problems aren’t important.”