Fables Retold: An MM Urban Fantasy Anthology by Rhys Lawless & W.M. Fawkes & Sam Burns & Morgan Brice & Meghan Maslow & Richard Amos

Author:Rhys Lawless & W.M. Fawkes & Sam Burns & Morgan Brice & Meghan Maslow & Richard Amos [Lawless, Rhys]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rhys Writes Romance
Published: 2021-04-25T18:30:00+00:00

Four

Joel

He kissed me. Joel managed to keep his mind on the task for the rest of the photo shoot, unwilling to examine what happened and how he felt about it until he had privacy.

I kissed him back—and he obviously hadn’t meant to kiss me first. He was relieved, and then I went and kissed him and did my stupid swooning thing and made everything awkward.

That thought tempered his giddy joy from the kiss. Joel felt utterly mortified and guilty over how worried Adiel had been. Adiel did seem to care, and his fear for Joel’s safety had been real and sweetly frantic.

Joel knew he should concentrate on having been badass, saving Adiel from the ghost. The spirits didn’t bother them for the rest of the shoot, kept at bay by a ring of salt Joel put down once they got down to business to finish taking pictures.

My fault—I should have put the salt down when we first got there. Adiel could have been seriously hurt. He’ll have bruises on his neck for sure, and that’s on me.

Their canoe trip back was quiet, more awkward than before, with both men lost in their thoughts. Finally, as the boat launch came into view, Joel knew he needed to say something to keep this from being a total clusterfuck.

“You did great back there, helping with the lighting,” he said, knowing he was a coward for not discussing the kiss and what it meant.

I know what I’d like it to mean. But we just met. And we need to work together. If we start something between us and it goes wrong, it’ll be a mess. We could lose our grants, our projects, and any hope of good recommendations. I have a hunch he’d be good in the sack. But it’s not worth the risk for a few months of fun.

His goat spoke up. Maybe it doesn’t have to stop at a few months. I keep telling you—he’s the one. Ours. Mate. Our forever goat.

Dream on.

Oh, I do. Such naughty dreams too. His goat bleated in laughter and trotted off, leaving Joel to stew in his worries.

He and Adiel managed to chit-chat in the SUV on the way back to Fox Hollow, as if to prove nothing had changed. But the budding camaraderie and the easiness between them had changed, and Joel blamed himself.

When Joel dropped Adiel off at his apartment, he feared his partner was relieved.

“Dr. Jeffries has some interviews set up for me tomorrow morning, and we’ve got the town meeting in the evening, so no exploring,” Adiel said right before he hopped out.

Joel nodded, trying not to show how much that stung, hoping he didn’t tear up in frustration. “Okay. I understand.”

“But the next day, I’m completely clear after noon,” Adiel continued, with a note of something in his voice Joel couldn’t quite pin down. “So if you wanted to go out to that abandoned amusement park, we could do it then.” Maybe Joel was fooling himself, but he thought he heard a note of hope in Adiel’s voice.

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