When I looked up, Cross stood over me, but he wasn’t watching me. He was looking at the reason I’d come out here.
He sighed, sitting next to me. “How’d I know you’d be here tonight?”
“You tracked my phone?” I sat up and grinned at him.
He chuckled, reaching for the whiskey in my hand. The cap was already off, and he took a drink, hissing through his teeth. “Fuck.” He handed it back. “Why do you drink that shit?”
I smirked, taking a drink. Unlike him, I enjoyed the burn. “Why do you?”
“Because you do.”
He said that like it made the most sense in the world.
He stood there, watching me for a moment.
I thought he’d say something, but he didn’t. He just stared at me, and a different feeling took root. An awareness. It was low in my belly, beginning to trickle up, almost tickling my insides.
All the while, he never looked away until slowly, he reached up and pulled his shirt off. His muscles rippled from the movement. For a second I saw every single one of his muscles outlined, all the way to the V dipping under his jeans. His eyes stayed on me as his hands dropped to his pants. He unbuckled them, letting them drop, and he kicked them to the side.
He’d taken his socks and shoes off in the bathroom, and now he stood in his boxer briefs. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before, but there was a different feel to the room that night.
The tickle was still there, but it had softened. It almost felt like a tingle now.
I couldn’t endure it anymore, whatever it was, and I closed my eyes.
He was more family to me than my own blood.
