Page 73 of Catch Me (Becoming Us #4)

I bit my lip, looking at my cock halfway inside of his ass while my fingers dug into his skin.

One of his hands was on my shoulder and the other was in my hair.

In the dim lighting, what stood out were my eyes, which were locked onto his face.

Somehow, despite all the other aspects of the drawing, he’d made them feel like the centerpiece.

“Did you finally get my eyes right?”

He sighed. “No, but I gave them the recognition they deserve.”

Cupping his face, I kissed him softly. “Will you tell me now?”

“I’ll never be able to get it down on paper because, like you said, art can’t fully capture life.”

“You see life in them?” I clarified.

“No. Nobody else can see what I do. It can’t be replicated because it’s not physically there.

It exists deep inside of me, in a place I never understood and wasn’t capable of feeling until I found who I was and where I belonged.

They say home isn’t a place. It’s a feeling or.

..a person. Three weeks, ten months, it doesn’t matter.

It was there then and it’s still there.”

My nostrils flared as he stared at me more intently than he ever had.

“I see home in your eyes, Travis McKinney. I’ve seen it since the moment I met you.”

“Thank you. ”

“For what?”

“Annoying the hell out of me with your text messages.”

He scoffed and shoved my chest. “I annoyed you?”

“Yeah, you’d check me out, then get all doe-eyed before you acted like a dick.”

The look on his face made me laugh. I threaded my fingers through his hair and tipped his head back. With my lips on his neck and his hand on my chest, I closed my eyes.

Home. Maybe he was onto something.

*****

“I haven’t seen much of you in the past few days,” Dad said, holding his hand out to Roman.

“Yeah, I haven’t been all that social,” he replied with a tentative laugh. “Sorry about that, Theo.”

“No, it’s alright. When you are around, I see you drawing. I’m of the mindset that art shouldn’t be interrupted.”

Roman looked at me pointedly. “I agree.”

“Fuck you,” I muttered before I headed over to Sen. Roman could handle being left alone, and I was sure they’d find something interesting to talk about.

I couldn’t stand leaving him at the hotel so soon, so I’d dragged him back to my place.

The excuse was that my dad had made brownies.

He had, and they were delicious, especially paired with ice cream.

We were just hanging out. Simple, really.

Maybe slightly clingy, but he’d said yes immediately, so fuck all that noise.

“Hey, Travis,” Sen said conspiratorially.

“Why are you being weird? You’ve been staring since we got here.”

“I just like your house.”

“Mm. Well, I’m not my house, you nosey bitch.”

“Kai wants to gloat, so you should be thanking me for holding him back.”

“Can we not make it a huge deal?” I asked quietly. “I know he’s out for the most part, but I don’t want him to feel uncomfortable. We’re not even... I don’t know.”

“So, if I tell you that he needs to wear one of your jerseys, that would be weird.”

The idea wasn’t weird at all, but there was still the issue of publicity.

The Braves were his dad’s favorite team, so we had to assume that he was watching the games.

There was no guarantee that someone wouldn’t see us before or after the game, and if he was wearing my number, it was easy to make assumptions.

I looked over at Roman and smiled. He was clearly just fine when it came to my dad, at least. It looked like they were having a good conversation.

“See you in the morning,” I said, flashing Sen a smile.

When I reached Roman, I casually put a hand on his back. He glanced at me as he continued talking. I wasn’t really listening since I was barely staying on my feet. It was approaching nine ’o clock, and our last game was tomorrow, which meant I needed to sleep for as long as I could.

“You look beat,” Dad said. “You should get to bed.”

“Yeah, and I’ll probably need to soak my arm for most of the morning so I don’t blow the whole game.”

He squeezed my shoulder, then diverted to Kai, who was usually down for conversation. I sighed and turned toward Roman. He raised a brow, but I just dropped my face to rest against his neck. The way he stroked his fingers down my back made me shiver.

“You should go to sleep,” he murmured in my ear.

“I know.”

Now that we were here, I wasn’t sure how to act. This was entirely new; we’d never had a chance to establish any sort of dynamic last time, and now it was different. I was caught between following my impulses and slowing myself down.

Lifting my head, I studied his face. “How are you getting back?”

“I can get Sen or Kai to drive me.”

“If that’s what you want.”

The corner of his mouth twitched, then he leaned in close to my ear. “I’m getting déjà vu.”

“Are you?”

“Think: wandering eyes, drawing in a tent, rain, racing, and the first moment that I was close to kissing you.”

I cupped his face and stroked his cheekbone with my thumb. “You were?”

“Mhm.”

“Stay in my room.”

“Okay,” he replied without a moment’s hesitation.

“Just sleeping. I’m exhausted and— ”

He put a finger over my lips. “Just sleeping. I’m actually really terrified right now.”

“Why?”

“Because I never thought I’d be here again, and I’m scared I’ll fuck it up.”

“Well, are you going to run again?”

“Never. I promise.”

Taking his hand, I led him down the hall toward my room. My heart pounded as hard as it had the first time, but we wouldn’t get anywhere if I didn’t try to trust him, so I clung to that promise, repeating it in my head.

We laid down on the bed, facing each other, and just stared. After taking a deep breath, I scooted closer so that I could wrap an arm around him.

“Can I see what you’ve drawn since then?”

He breathed a laugh. “Everything?”

“Everything.”

“Alright, and all the ones I’ll draw in the future.”

“Mm. Promise?”

“I fucking promise.”