Page 85 of Should Our Stars Collide

“After all this time, I can’t get over how ridiculous you can be sometimes,” he says, sounding too fond for someone who’s taking the piss.

“Excuse you? So you can insult me, but I can’t? How’s that fa?—”

“I love you.”

Kieran stares at him, completely, utterly lost. How did they gethere?

“I love you so fucking much,” Ash says, each word deliberate, grounded, as if he’s been holding them in too long. “I love every single thing about you.”

He leans in, slow, careful, until their foreheads touch. “So please,” he murmurs, a slight waver in his voice. “Stop saying those horriblethings about yourself.”

Kieran tries to swallow, but there’s a fucking tennis ball stuck in his throat. It takes several attempts to even speak.

“D-don’t you think you’re over-reacting? Everyone shits on themselves once in a while, I’m just keeping it realistic.”

“No,” Ash says, in that tone that leaves absolutely no room for argument. “You have no clue how wrong you are. If only you could see yourself the way I see you, you’d understand.”

What for? It’s not like Kieran cares about what Ash thinks, or how he sees him. In fact, he doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Why waste energy on something you can’t control? If someone doesn’t like him, they’re welcome to fuck out of his life. And if they do like him, well…it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna change their minds eventually. He’s always gonna end up alone.

“Why don’t you show me, then?” he hears himself say.

“What?”

“You already said you can manipulate people’s thoughts. This shouldn’t be a problem.”

Ash studies him for a long time, the attention even more unnerving than usual. His throat bobs, and Kieran is strangely transfixed by the movement. So even Ash can act human sometimes.

Then his irises shift in a verynon-humanway, and Kieran braces himself. Gradually, the image of his face forms inside his mind. He’s in Ash’s place, looking down at himself, eyes wide like a startled deer and face flushed. In short, he looks embarrassing, and like an idiot.

“That’s literally just my face,” he points out. It doesn’t escape him that Ash entering his mind doesn’t feel nearly as intrusive as he’d expected.

Ash smiles and threads his fingers through Kieran’s hair. Not pulling, just stroking. “Yes.”

“I don’t get it,” Kieran says, ignoring the fact that he apparently enjoys being petted like a damn dog.

“The way I see you is not something you see with your eyes.”

“What else do you see with? Your ass?”

“You aresucha brat,” Ash says, in that way that activates Kieran’s self-preservation instinct.

Fearing for his life,andhis ass, he stutters through a retort when a pressure against his upper thigh makes him pause.

“Are you—are you fuckinghard?”

Ash huffs, the sound toeing the line between a laugh and a groan. “Always.”

Jesus fucking Christ, Kieran knew it. Ash has denied it before, but Kieran justknewthe pervert is big into degradation. Why else would he get all horny whenever Kieran talks back or throws insults at him? Kieran’s not even surprised anymore, just appropriately appalled.

But for some reason, he doesn’t feel the instant urge to run as far as possible and hide.

Why am I not freaking out?The guy who claims to be into me literally has his dick pressed against me and I’m just lying here like a limp fish.

Maybe this is what resignation feels like. But resigned or not, nothing is happening between them. Kieran doesn’t care if the guy’s balls go so blue they fall off; he’s not just gonna let Ash use him for release. He’s not going to let Ash strip him bare. He’s not going to let Ash touch every inch of his skin or kiss him.

He’s most definitely not going to let Ash enter his body while whispering into his ear all the sappy shit about how beautiful Kieran is and how much he loves him.

Kieran tenses up as the tell-tale feeling of familiar heat starts pooling in his lower belly.