Page 105 of Devil's Kiss

“I thought you were going to be in briefs?”

Dylan laughed. “Yeah, and that’s about it. Hey, I’m not complaining. This is going to be huge for my career. I’ll have men lining up at my door.”

Derek gave him a hug before Dylan headed toward the front door.

“I’m pretty sure you could already have that if you wanted to.”

Dylan didn’t answer as he headed out the front door, but then again, Derek hadn’t expected him to.

All right, it was time for shit to get real. First things first, he needed to clear things up with Finn. He fished his phone out of his back pocket and called. When it connected, before he even got the wordsI’m sorryout of his mouth, Finn was right there saying it for him.

“Derek, I was just about to call you, man. I feel like shit about what happened earlier.”

He sat down on the couch and shook his head. Then he started to laugh at himself, Finn, and the entire situation.Jesus, he felt like a fucking high school girl, and told Finn exactly that.

“Well, you did used to threaten to braid my hair.”

“That’s because you had braid-worthy hair, Danny boy. Not my fault.”

“That’s true. I took great pride in my blond locks.”

“As you should have.” Derek smiled. Then he let it drop, sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “Listen, I have to say something and I’m only gonna say it fucking once. So listen carefully, okay?”

He heard a door open and close, and had a feeling that Finn had just stepped outside to his and Brantley’s balcony.

“I’m sorry.”

“Derek, we shouldn’t have?—”

“Stop it. Let me finish. I’m sorry for tonight. Brantley was right to kick my ass out. But what I’m really sorry about is that I didn’t tell you what was going on with me back in school. I don’t know why I didn’t. Hell, the only thing I can think of is you were like family and I didn’t want to burden your mom after all she’d been through, or worse, bring my father to your doorstep. And you were happy with Hayes and busy with your own life, and…anyway. All the excuses I thought made so much sense now sound so fucking lame. I let my best friend go, and I’m sorry.”

The quiet sound of Finn breathing and the ocean waves crashing in the background was all he could hear as he sat in his living room waiting for whatever Finn was going to tell him in return, and when he finally spoke, he couldn’t have shocked Derek more.

“I was glad.”

Derek ran that over in his head. Several times. “What do you mean you were glad? About what?”

“Not the distancing. But the trust I saw you developing with Jordan. I was glad you had someone who you could turn to. Someone who… I don’t know how to explain it, but someone who distracted you. He challenged you to get free of the life you were living, because I sure as hell wasn’t getting through to you. From day one he pushed your buttons and you pushed his.” Finn laughed at that. “You still do. He’s exactly what you needed, and I knew he wouldn’t come close if I was there, so…I let you go too. Maybe it was just how it was supposed to go, you know?”

Derek nodded, totally speechless as he took in everything Finn had just said, and when his friend said his name, he finally said, “Yeah. I’m still here.”

“What are you going to do now? Call Jordan?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. But I have a feeling it’ll involve shouting, insults, and then wall-banging sex.”

Finn chuckled. “Thank fuck I’m not your neighbor.”

“Hey, no one’s Jordan’s neighbor. Aren’t you the one who Googled him? Didn’t you see his house? It’s a goddamn penthouse, dude.”

“No shit? So Posh really is the perfect name for him.”

Derek laughed at that and thought of his man with a smile. “Oh yeah, it’s perfect. Plus he hates it, which makes it even better.”

Finn laughed along with him at that.

“Well, if we’re good, I better go and work out how to win him back. I’m pretty sure I did the equivalent of kicking a puppy this evening. It’s going to take a lot of persuasion for him to even let me in his elevator.”

“Elevator?”