“It’s okay now, I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall.”
We were standing pressed together. My arms were around his waist and holding his arm, so close that we were almost embracing. If I adjusted my position just a little, I’d be holding him. Our faces would be close together, our lips nearly brushing together…
Declan cleared his throat.
“Maybe this was a bad idea.”
“Oh?”
I realised I’d been pressing closer than was necessary and moved my head back to give him a bit of room.
“I clearly can’t do this, not alone.”
“You won’t be alone, though, will you? You’ll be with Sonny.”
“That’s not—”
I waited, but he didn’t elaborate, and I had to say, “You cut yourself off from speaking a lot. Do you know you do that?”
“No, I—”
He cut himself off and we looked at each other for a long moment. The air around us became warm, charged with some energy that flowed through me like a warm stream. Declan licked his lips, which were red from the cold, making them shine.
Then he said, “I didn’t realise I did that.”
“You do. But you don’t have to do it with me.”
He stared into my eyes for a long time. I felt him in my arms, longed to pull him closer to me, wrap myself around him more securely, slide my tentacles and my hands inside his thick coat and touch his skin, taste those lips that were so close andtempting. But I didn’t. I was his friend and he needed me as a friend right then. He needed to tell me what he was afraid of.
“I’m afraid I’ll fall.”
“And you’re worried that a cute twink like Sonny couldn’t support you.”
“How do you know Sonny is a cute twink?”
“You described him to me.” I smiled, trying not to show how much I longed for him to describe me with the same wonder in his tone that I’d heard there for Sonny. Maybe that was why I made my second mistake of the day, made the second offer I really, really shouldn’t have. “You know, if you want me to, I can be here with you when you bring Sonny to the lake. I don’t have to come round with you, I can just be nearby in case you need me.”
“You’d do that?”
“It would make you feel more secure.”
“If you don’t mind me saying so, you’re as cute a twink as Sonny is.”
The warmth inside burned hotter, so hot that I felt I could melt the snow around me with the sheer joy of Declan’s words.
His eyes went wide with alarm and he stuttered, “I-I-I meant that you’re about the same size as he is. Actually, you’re smaller. So I don’t know how you’d be able to lift me up if I fell if someone Sonny’s size couldn’t. Not that I don’t think you can because you’re pretty strong and I’ve felt your muscles. Not like that! I meant—”
With a soft laugh, I interrupted his increasingly desperate explanation.
“I know what you meant.”
Actually, though, if I were being honest? I wasn’t sure I did know. Because it seemed to me that Declan thought I was cute.
Annoyingly, that warm fire inside me stayed burning, refusing to be put out. There was a very small chance that Declanmight want me as more than a friend, and that was going to make it hard to let him go when Sonny turned up and swept him off his feet.
My arm stayed around his waist and I had to fight back the instinct to slide my tentacles around him. Once my animal wrapped him in our arms, we’d never let him go.
Chapter 5
