Page 51 of A Cold Hard Truth

It was a big thing, a huge and scary thing that existed between them now, but none of that mattered, because Sebastian didn’t feel the fear of it, only the exhilaration and the promise of chance.

“Is that what you want to do?” he asked, swallowing thickly. “Or something you think you should do?”

Remington nodded, his lashes closing and fanning out across his cheeks. “I want it. More than I can put words to.”

“Then, yes,” he said, pressing their foreheads together. “I’d like that.”

Chapter Fifteen

Remington Starts to Understand

“I like this new tradition,” Jace said with a smile, raising a champagne flute to his lips and taking a drink of his mimosa.

“Sunday brunch is nice,” Callahan agreed, and Remington nodded, swirling a straw around his water glass absently.

“Sorry I’m late.” A voice he knew, a voice he’d become intimately familiar with over the weekend, rang out and Remington looked up in time to watch Sebastian slide into the seat beside him.

Sebastian’s face betrayed nothing, and Remington knew his must have read like an open book that came complete with a Rosetta Stone for Jace and Callahan to decipher. He shifted his attention to his water and tried his best to ignore the three men seated with him.

He hadn’t seen Sebastian since very early on Saturday morning when he’d pieced his outfit back together one garment at a time and quietly let himself out. Unlike the times before, Remington hadn’t let a silence stretch between them, and they’d exchanged some texts over the weekend, with Remington giving Sebastian a very detailed list of things to take care of before Monday morning and Sebastian answering him with a picture of his erection.

Remington’s cheeks flushed at the memory, heat flaming up his throat. He reached up and hooked a finger under the collar of his shirt, working the material away from his neck so he could catch a breath. Things with Sebastian so far had been easy, and he wanted them to stay easy. Jace calling him out about Sebastian in front of Callahan would not be easy.

“Remington,” Jace coaxed, and Remington flicked his attention across the table. “I tell Callahan everything.”

Figuring out his sexuality and his likes on his own was hard enough. He wasn’t interested in figuring himself out under Callahan and Jace’s watchful eyes. Beside him, Sebastian drummed his fingers on the table and said nothing. The waitress appeared, ready to bring them refills.

“Would you like anything?” she asked Sebastian.

“They have two dollar Bloody Mary’s,” Callahan said, raising his in toast before taking a drink.

Sebastian opened his mouth and a small sound fell out, then he said, “I’m fine with water.”

Tension fled Remington’s shoulders, and he glanced to his right to see Sebastian offering the server a cordial smile. He didn’t look the least bit flustered, not anywhere close to how Remington felt, and Remington wondered how years of proper grooming and upbringing had worked so well for Sebastian, but not himself.

“Really?” Callahan balked.

“Trying to cut back,” Sebastian answered.

“Good influence, is he?” Jace mumbled through a drink of his mimosa.

Remington let out a gruff sound and scrubbed a hand down his face. He wasn’t embarrassed; he just didn’t want to share all of this with other people. At least, not until he felt more confident about it.

“I don’t mind them knowing,” Sebastian said, turning his head to the side. “I’m not ashamed.”

“I’m not ashamed,” he sputtered, turning in his chair to face Sebastian. “Please don’t think I’m ashamed of you.”

“I don’t. I just want you to know that I’m not.”

Remington let out a trembling breath. He knew he was worrying over nothing. He knew there was nothing to hide from. But he’d never been good with people or relationships, Jace being his longest one and that didn’t even count because they were only friends, and yet here was Sebastian. A man who was brand new to the discovery of his sexuality, of his kinks, embracing all of them in the open. And then Remington, who’d had nearly thirty years to grapple with himself, landing not anywhere close to Sebastian.

He didn’t deserve the man sitting beside him, not in the least.

“If anything,” Sebastian continued, “I’m proud.”

“You’re what?”

Sebastian scoffed and gestured at him. “You’re too good for me.”