Page 19 of Kiss-Fist (Deaf Hearts #1)

CHAPTER TEN

THOM

Damn pipes bursting. The only pipe I wanna be working on right now is Robbie’s, but here I am, helping my brother with this shit.

Not that I mind helping him. Dex is my baby brother.

It’s the least I can do. And being the co-owner of this place, I kind of need to do this when shit like this happens.

But it was hard to say goodbye to Robbie when he looked so damn debauched and delicious.

I was starting to consider inviting myself to stay the night just so I could start with his body again in the morning.

Fucking responsibility cock-block.

“Was I interrupting something?” Dex asks as we mop up the spill in the bathroom. The plumber came earlier and took care of the busted pipe, but we’re stuck cleaning up the excess water that burst through the wall near the sinks.

And I can tell just by the look of things we’re going to have to get someone in here to drywall it too. And paint .

This gym was our dream, but I hadn’t realized that owning a business was going to be this hard. And expensive. Insurance is great, but deductibles are not.

I stare at my brother for a beat. “Uh. Why do you ask?”

He smirks and runs his gaze up and down my torso. “Because you have cum stains pretty much everywhere. It looks like a dick geyser went off all over you, dude.”

I peer over at him, and he waggles his eyebrows. He’s the one family member in my life who’s always been relentlessly supportive where my parents had been low-key but very obviously disappointed. When I came out, Dex just slapped me on the back and said, “Don’t worry, I love ass too.”

It’s why I’m here now, helping him out and not with Robbie and his fine-as-fuck pipes.

And eyes. And legs.

Yeah, okay. Everything about him gets me hard.

Especially those fingers, the way they move when he signs. The way they wrap around my dick and stroke.

He’s fucking good with those.

God, I’m a total goner. Like, goodbye single life. I want a future with this guy.

I clear my throat and try not to look down at where Robbie left his marks on me. “Yeah, I was in the middle of a bit of a sex thing when you called.”

“Shit, is he hot? I had no idea you were even seeing anyone.”

“I, uh…I’m not. I mean, nothing’s official.” Not technically, anyway. I’ve been single for way too long. “And fuck yeah he is. He’s like burn the eyeballs hot.”

I pull a sopping wet towel from the ground and toss it into a bucket and then pull a dry one from a pile, tossing it onto the puddle on the bathroom floor.

“Sweet. What’s his name?”

“Robbie.” When I say it, my cheeks flush, and not from the current exertion. No, it’s because I’m still envisioning him naked and moaning.

“Robbie? That’s cute as fuck. You have a picture?”

I shake my head. “No, I don’t. Should get one though.” I mean, I do have the security footage I stole, but I’m not admitting to that. I don’t want to go to jail, and the last thing I need is for Dex to think I’m a total creep.

“You have a dopey look in your eyes,” he adds and then shucks a wet towel at me. It hits my chest and loudly flops onto the floor. I stare at it and then back at him.

“That’s unprofessional.”

“You’re unprofessional, cum face.”

I gasp and then glower. Asshole. I toss the soaked towel from the floor at him. It hits his head and slides off slowly. Like it’s some kind of comedy. I can’t help myself and burst into laughter.

“Dick brain.”

“Buttface.” I feel like a kid again, and I kind of love it. The feeling in my chest is a little heavy and unfamiliar, and it takes me a second to realize what it is: Happy. It’s happiness. It’s not just screwing around with Dex in the bathroom as we attempt to save money on a cleanup crew.

It’s knowing that walking away from Robbie tonight didn’t mean walking away forever. He wants more. And so do I. The feeling is so intense I’m not quite sure what to do with it .

It takes a few hours to get everything done, and it’s well past one in the morning when we finish. The gym has been closed for two hours, and we’re soaked, our clothes sticking to us like a second skin.

“Come on,” Dex says, throwing a wet arm around me. “Let’s change and get some pizza. Then you can tell me all about this Robbie guy. I have questions.”

“Yeah? I totally have most of the answers,” I murmur, and he ruffles my hair.

“Yeah, wanna hear all about it. And I can tell you about my current fling. A hottie from the grocery store. Helped her with some melons.”

“Is that a euphemism?”

He grins. “No, for real. I helped her pick a honeydew and got her number.”

I laugh at that and then lead him toward the lockers. “Let’s get changed and go. I’m starving.”

We end up at a small pizza place outside of town that’s open until the bars close. It’s the best one, if you ask me. We wolf down several slices while we chat about our current love lives. Not that I love Robbie, but I do love a whole lot about him.

He’s so fucking exciting. He’s like a roller coaster. I want to ride him and have him ride me.

I want to feel that swoop in my stomach as I fall over the edge. I get it even when I’m not coming my brains out. I just like being near him. “Anyway,” I tell Dex, “the day we met, I dropped my water bottle and made it look like I pissed my pants. He didn’t even make fun of me for it.”

That I know of. At the time, I didn’t have any of his language apart from a few gym phrases.

But he didn’t seem like he was making fun of me, which I appreciated.

I took a lot of that growing up and having ADHD.

It’s not just my brain that races. My body sometimes wants to move in ten different ways, and I’m always dropping shit or falling over my feet.

I’m suave in bed, but that’s where it tends to stop, and Robbie, so far, hasn’t made me feel like shit about it. It’s…well, frankly, it’s nice. I ruffle my hair and grin. “He also doesn’t make fun of my crappy spelling.”

Dex softens. He and I were too far apart in age to go to school together much, but he knew how hard that was on me. And he’s seen the way people could be shitty about it. “He seems like a green flag.”

I shrug and take a sip of my drink, my mind drifting. It’s late, and my meds are wearing off. I picture Robbie’s face in my mind—the way he smiles at me. Or the way he looks so damn hungry when he sees my muscles.

Sometimes that bothers me. I want to be liked for who I am, and not just as some himbo at the gym with big biceps, but there’s something about the way Robbie makes me work for it—for him—that transcends hotness.

“Thom,” my brother says softly.

I flush and smile. “Sorry. Million miles away.”

He shakes his head. “I know it’s late. We can head home if you want. ”

“Nah. It feels good to be out, even if the gym pipes were a total cock-block.”

He laughs and rolls his eyes. “So you gonna ask him on a date? Seems you only fuck around at the gym or in his apartment.” It’s saying something that he’s not up my ass about screwing around on the gym property.

I eye Dex carefully. He might have a point. I should do better by Robbie. You know, be more of a gentleman. Not that I’m known for that, but I can give it a try.

“Yeah, I probably should, but I don’t know ASL well enough to have a deep conversation.”

“So? You have your phone, right? And a basic knowledge of it?”

“I mean, yeah. I think I may have enough, but shit. I wanna wait until I know more than the basics, you know?”

“So you just gonna fuck around with him until you can actually chat?”

“Well, yeah. I can learn as I go. Then maybe I’ll ask him out on a real date this summer when the class ends and I can talk about shit like my clothes and where I live.

” God, that sounds pathetic. Like some guy with a freaking doctorate is going to be satisfied talking about how many bedrooms my house is and my favorite color.

This is a damn pipe dream.

“I think you’re gonna move faster than that,” Dex says, slurping on his soda. “You have a thing for languages.”

“Yeah, but you think it’ll be the same with sign?” I’ve been stressing about that nonstop. I like my language superpowers, but I’m not convinced ASL will be the same.

“I remember you were learning…what was it? French and Sp anish a while back? You picked it up real quick. And you’re the only one who can kind of talk to Zev in ASL.

I think you’ve got this. I know you’ve always been hard on yourself about your learning disabilities, but you’re smarter than you think you are, and if this guy’s worth it, he’ll realize that. ”

My chest swells as I stare at my little brother.

I’m not used to him being nice to me like this.

And when did he get so insightful? I don’t know, but I’m fucking proud of him.

And I’m so damn lucky. But I’m also done talking about Robbie.

I’m kind of obsessed with him, but the more I think about our future, the more I start to get indigestion, and I think it’s time for a break.

“Come on, enough about me. Tell me about this lady friend and her melons.”

He grins and then sets his drink down, leaning in and diving into the harrowing tale of the supermarket meet-cute.

By the time he’s done singing her praises, she seems cool, and my brother seems smitten.

But he also tends to do this a lot. He goes all in for someone and ends up with his heart broken.

I don’t want this to happen to him again.

I want him to be happy. And I want him to find someone who wants the same for him.

“So you think you’ll ask her out?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe we should do a double date,” I say, then feel a spark of uncertainty. Should I be suggesting this without asking Robbie first? I mean, he and I aren’t official. We’re not anything, actually, except two guys who touched dicks, ate some ass, and made each other come.

But I don’t take it back either. I want this—I want Robbie to meet the only bit of family I have. I want him to know these parts of me he hasn’t gotten a chance to yet. I want him to see I’m worth being patient for.