This is Real by Barbara Elsborg

Author:Barbara Elsborg [Elsborg, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: MM romance
Publisher: self-pubbed
Published: 2022-11-03T18:30:00+00:00

11

When Lukas got back to the main room wearing his swimming trunks, he could see Murdo had taken the cover off the tub and was sitting in the bubbling water, clouds of water vapor curling up into the cold night air. Lukas turned the lights on in the tub, then slid open the door. He sucked in a breath at the temperature, slid the door closed and stepped gingerly through the snow using Murdo’s footprints. He put the towels on a table under an overhang, and his phone on the top step. It was still playing Christmas melodies. Then he climbed into the churning water.

“Hot, hot, hot,” he gasped, dropping down until only his head was above the surface.

He felt Murdo’s toes slide over his. “I love this. Look at that view.”

Murdo was staring at the mountains. Lukas was staring at Murdo. He wanted to fuck him and yet wondered if he should, if it wasn’t the better thing to do, to not fuck him.

“Oh!” Murdo suddenly exclaimed. “It’s snowing. Bloody hell. How did you do that?”

It was snowing. Thick flakes were floating down, settling for a moment on Murdo’s hair and eyelashes. He looked…angelic. Lukas took a moment to memorize every detail of Murdo’s face. From the way his spiky eyelashes rested against his cheek bones, to the kink in the shell of his ear as if something had taken a nibble.

“I want to cry, but you’ll think I’m a wuss,” Murdo moaned.

“I already think you’re a wuss.”

That earned him a splash that wet his hair which seconds later crisped in the cold air.

“I’m not a wuss,” Murdo said.

“No, you’re not. Though I’ve never known anyone to buy something from a clearance section because they felt sorry for the item. Is your home full of rejects? Broken vases? Cracked tiles? Teddies with one ear?”

“I don’t have a teddy with one ear, but if I saw one, I’d buy it. I do have standards. Nothing too broken. Too broken is too much work. Too hard to love. But if all it takes is turning the damaged side to the wall so it can’t be seen…? What’s wrong with that? We don’t all show our faults. Not that I have any. Obviously.”

Murdo’s foot was on Lukas’s shin now, his toes rubbing up and down and Lukas could feel his breathing quickening.

“Tell me something about yourself,” Lukas said.

“I’ve told you loads.”

“But about you. What you like. What you don’t like.”

“I’m a neat freak,” Murdo said. “I like order and symmetry and logic. I’ve never taken drugs. I get drunk too easily. I like the journey to get somewhere as much as actually getting there—well, I did until I came through that forest to get here. I might have been okay if I hadn’t finished my bag of M&Ms but I had. I love animals, mostly at a distance. I love hot tubs. I like going to places where there’s no one else around and pretending I’m the only one left in the

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