Rent Mate by Ash Penn

Author:Ash Penn [Penn, Ash]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Erotic Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group Ltd
Published: 2017-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

“Do you, then? Want to, I mean?” Was this a bad idea? What would happen if they did tumble into bed together, and all this intensity between them dissolved? Sex would become what it always did. A basic function he, for the most part, found tedious and vaguely degrading. “Liam?” Martin wriggled his hips in an effort to rouse Liam from the awkward stupor he’d fallen into. “Say something.”

Liam blinked. His pupils contracted. “What? You changed your mind?”

“About this? No way.” When Liam’s gaze continued to scour his body, he had to fight the urge to curl up in a corner. “What are you doing?”

Liam’s lashes lifted. “You don’t like to be looked at?”

Martin swallowed the comment Button would have made about loving the attention. Button wasn’t here. This was just him. And he wouldn’t lie. Not to Liam. “Not the way you are, no.”

“Why not?”

He wasn’t sure. He’d never much liked being the center of attention, which made things difficult when his job depended on getting himself noticed.

“Because it gives me delusions,” he said, because Liam was still waiting for an answer. “Makes me think you got the better deal when I know it’s the other way around.”

“I just want to spend time with at the real you. Not the brash, hard-faced shit you are most of time.”

“Hey, what the—?”

Liam’s finger brushed under his chin, killing his objection stone dead. Their eyes met. “I get now it’s a barrier you put up to stop anyone getting to see the real you. The you I’ll keep looking at until you’re ready to take things further.”

No one said nice shit like that to him. Ever. Even though there were only two versions of him. Martin and Button. There was no third, hard-faced shit. That was just him all along. Any more characters in his head and he’d worry he was becoming schizophrenic.

“I am,” he said, trying to keep calm and reasoned and not give way to the turmoil of emotions coursing through him. “I’m ready if you are.”

Liam leaned in, seeking a kiss. The rich tang of whiskey heated his breath and flicked a switch in Martin’s head. An image flared to life. Liam’s dark hair drained to the color of a sandy beach. His body, usually so big and warm, contracted to hard, angular bones. All the while his breath kept getting hotter and more toxic until Martin’s lungs locked in protest.

“Stop.” His chest heaved. He hadn’t realized he’d thrown out a palm until it slammed into Liam’s chest.

“But I thought you wanted—”

“I do,” he said quickly. “It’s just, you reckon you could clean your teeth first?”

Liam touched his lips as though he’d only discovered they were there. “My breath stink?”

“It’s not you. It’s…” He didn’t get a chance to finish.

Liam took off toward the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

Martin stood there a moment longer, backed right up against the door. He’d ruined things. There were no words to fix what he’d done. To attempt an explanation would lead to more questions he couldn’t answer.

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