Dane was half-relieved, half-disappointed to be proved right as Aras walked out, a towel wrapped around his waist, his hair sopping wet, and his chest and torso exposed. He had thick, dark hair under his arms, shown off as he raised a smaller towel to try and dry some more water off his hair. Definitely some good definition in his pecs. And the abs Dane had spotted the night before were on full display. Not over-defined, but absolutely present. His eyes met up with the dark trail of hair that started a few inches above his navel. It flared broader as it reached the upper edge of the towel and disappeared.
After a couple moments, Aras apparently noticed him and stopped. He hiked his towel up a little higher, even though it didn’t appear to be at any risk of falling, and lowered the towel from his hair. “I hope you don’t mind. I didn’t want to make you get up for no reason.”
“I’m not mad if you’re not.” Dane smiled and looked him up and down, exaggerating the shifting of his head. “And I’m not mad about any of this, either.”
“Lewd, at this hour of the morning?”
He turned around, but as far as Dane could tell, Aras was fine.
Which left Dane a little room to tease and poke. And he every intention of using that room. Especially as Aras went into the closet and bent over to get some clothes out of his suitcase. Seeing the towel hug slightly to his ass apparently gave him the courage he needed. “If I was being lewd, I’d have tried to join you in the shower. Obviously.”
“Well why didn’t you?”
Dane hadn’t been expecting aresponse, and certainly not that one. Aras had been falling all over himself the night before, all too nervous. Notanythinglike this. So it took Dane a few moments to get his brain back together and working so he could reply. “Are you just horny in the morning, or have you taken some miracle drug?”
“Horny gets handled in the shower.” He turned back around with a full outfit bundle under one arm, and a grin on his face. “And no drugs. But if this is a limited time situation between the two of us, then I’m not going to waste it pussyfooting around.”
“Wow. Another old person word.”
Aras took a couple steps closer, right until he was just on the edge of Dane’s bubble. Close enough that his presence couldn’t be ignored, even if Dane had wanted to, and also close enough to see individual hairs in his treasure trail. When he spoke, his voice was low and hoarse in all the best ways, and it skipped across the air like a record scratch. “Nice deflection, but Ididin fact notice you staring when I got out of the shower. So next time, don’tyoupussyfoot around either.” He reached down and tapped under Dane’s chin, tilting his head up slightly. “I shower every morning. If we’re coupling up, then let’s couple up.”
Then he left and went back into the bathroom, and Dane just had to sit there, hardening up and fumbling for his phone to check the time. He needed to handle his own shower—extra long to account for that encounter—and get into new clothes that he hadn’t slept in recently.
Just as soon as his knees turned back into solids and he had enough blood in his brain to remember how doorknobs worked.
Chapter twenty-four
Aras
HeandDanehadmade it through twelve episodes of Ancient Protectorate—with Dane assuring him they’d see the big cool spider mech in the next episode—before work started to pick up the pace. They didn’t spendeverynight together, so it had been a little over a week to get that far, but Aras hadinsistedthey keep watching that night.
But now that fixtures and appliances and all the other shit had started to pour into the house, Aras had some actual work to do. A lot of it was rote, to be sure. With new construction, everything would have the same wiring. Once he’d done one of them, he could practically do the others blindfolded. But it was an important step. They’d chosen to paint the ceilings with a snow white semi-gloss. That way it could catch the light and wouldn’t close in the space too much. Because it was all one easily available color, that had been handled first, which meant Aras was in the clear to add all of the ceiling fixtures.
After the first one, which blasted to life when he had them turn the breaker back on for a test, he got a round of whoops and applause, which grated on him. It was more than a little patronizing to act like him doing the easiest part of his job was somehow an achievement. Even though he knew it wasn’t meant that way at all, the thoughts rubbed the inside of his skull raw.
After installing all the ceiling fixtures—and only having one five-minute argument with Evander about the rotation of the bedroom fixture—Aras went in to check the progress of the bathroom. While he knew how to do waterproof lighting, it was still best practice to have the plumbing done before starting in on something like that. At least, as much as he possibly could.
He couldn’t get all the way inside, since they were filming Robinson doing something with a proper camera this time. Aras wasn’t sure what it was, something with the toilet. But it looked like it was going to be a while still, so he wandered toward the living room. After pausing a bit longer than necessary in the doorway. Dane was inside, lifting a light up high so his shirt rode up. Once he’d gotten his fill, he stepped away. He could head out to the back yard to see if there was anything out there that could use his help. Or he could go to craft services and breathe for a second. That was always an attractive option.
“Aras?”
He turned to see Caroline walking through the front door. Her hair was tied back in a bun, and she clutched a half-empty iced latte in one hand. He took a couple steps closer. “Everything good? You’re working today, aren’t you?”
“Wrapped up early. Lucky break. I wanted to bring you the bad news personally.” In spite of that, she smiled. “I may have bought several more pieces that I’d really like to display prominently. You know how it is when you get something shiny and new. It turns into your favorite.”
Aras snorted a laugh. “I know. You have them with you?”
She nodded. “Boss is letting me get deliveries at the office until I’m settled into the new place.” She jabbed a thumb behind her toward the door. “They’re in the trunk. I actually haven’t opened up the box yet, but the pictures online were amazing, so I have high hopes.”
She headed out and, since he had nothing else to do in the moment, he followed. Past craft services and all the vans and the hair and makeup trailer, out to a little black Kia. He was so used to the cameras, he almost didn’t notice that one had immediately latched onto them and followed behind, and it onlybarelybothered him.
Caroline popped the trunk to reveal three cardboard boxes, sealed with tape that had “FRAGILE” emblazoned on it all the way around. Judging by the busted up corners of the box, that warning hadn’t been taken all too seriously. But those were the risks of shipping glass. The label said they’d come from Iowa. Not too far—it was way worse shipping carnival glass to Washington, since almost all of it was down south or somewhere in the Midwest—but more than far enough for hundred-year-old glass bowls and shit to get broken.
She reached into a little pocket on the side of her trunk and pulled out a retractable box knife, which made quick work of the tape. Inside was all packing peanuts as far as the eye could see, but she wasnotdelicate about them, scrounging through and letting them spill all over the inside of her trunk until they both saw bubble wrap. “Here we go.” She pulled out one, two, three bundles, checked through the box, then moved on to the second and the third. In all, she had seven new pieces, which they carried inside. The giant cluster of folding tables had been taken down as soon as they got a good look at her collection, but there was still one in the corner, so they set them on there as more cameras swooped in.
Which was enough to push Aras that little step over the edge. “I hope you were expecting to be filmed.” Aras kept his voice low, but his audio would get picked up no matter what. “If not, I can tell the vultures to back off.”
“Hell no. Get my reaction to this stuff on camera as far as I’m concerned. That’s what I signed up for with this show, right?” She still had the box knife, but was much less cavalier as she cut into the first bubble-wrapped bundle. “Based on size, I think this one is…yes.”
