Page 25 of Deviant Need

“You didn’t. You didn’t do anything wrong, okay?” he says and won’t look at me. “I’m being a dick. I’m just stressed or something.”

Wrapping my arms around him, I sigh into his watermelon-scented hair and ignore my ice cream since it’s not what I wanted anyway. I just wanted him to talk to me again, to stop pulling away from me like he has been.

“You know I’m here, right? For whatever you need.”

“Da, I know.” He’s quiet for a second, then asks, “How’s the planning for your club event going?”

“It’s okay. Just a lot of things to work through. Father’s riding all of us so hard right now I’m not surprised we’re all going crazy.” I pause. “You’ve been stressed too. Is it work stuff?”

He huffs. “I guess. And it’ll go great, I know it will.”

That’s not an answer, but I don’t push. My phone rings, and I ignore it since it’s probably someone from the club and I don’t want this to end yet. He starts drinking his milkshake and glances up at me before quickly looking away, his cheeks going redder when I grin at him.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing.”

“You keep looking at me weird.”

“I’m not looking at you weird.”

“You are though.” I lean closer, trying to catch his eyes. “What’s going on in your head, Danya?”

He shakes his head and takes another sip of his milkshake. “Nothing. Just tired and stressed.”

That’s bullshit, and we both know it, but I don’t know how to push without making him shut down completely. This is driving me insane.

“You’d tell me if something was wrong, right?” I ask.

He finally looks at me and something flickers across his face, something I can’t read. “Yeah. Of course.”

Another lie. I can feel it.

My phone rings again, and this time he shifts away from me, gesturing toward it. “You should probably get that.”

“I don’t care about work right now.”

He shakes his head but smiles a little. “You don’t give up, do you?”

“Nope. But you like me anyway.”

The smile fades, and he stares down at his milkshake. “I do,” he says, barely audible.

There’s something heavy in the way he says it, something that makes everything feel wrong. I don’t know what to do with it, so I just pull him closer and rest my chin on top of his head.

“But we’re okay, right?” I ask.

He hesitates for a moment too long. “Yeah. We’re good.”

I cup his chin and trace my thumb along it. His breath hitches, and his hazel eyes stare up into mine. “You’re the only reason I’m still here. You know that? Without you, I would’ve been gone a long time ago.”

His eyes go glassy, and he swallows hard, then suddenly grabs me so tightly the air leaves my lungs. I wrap my arms around him and kiss the top of his head, holding him close. We stay like that for a long time before he leans back and looks up at me.

“You’re my reason too,” he whispers. “Thank you for the ice cream.”

The grin spreads across my face, and I reach up to cup his cheek before sliding my hand to the back of his neck, rubbing there. His eyes flutter closed for a second, and when they open again, he swallows hard.

“We should get one of those ice cream machines. Make our own flavors at home.”