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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Lucas

Idon’t eventry to sleep. It would be impossible. I cook dinner, eat, clean the house, go for a walk, edit photos, take a shower, basically anything I can think of to pass the time.

I have no idea what happened with Hunter and my parents, but judging by the way he was speaking to me, and apologizing to me, something went down.

I make my way to the darkroom. I’ve already started editing the photos I took of Hunter with my digital camera, but I haven’t started with the film. I can’t explain the delay, why I’ve put it off, as though keeping from developing these photos or showing him my darkroom will change anything when it comes to my relationship with Hunter.

One by one, I work on developing them, then hang them up to dry. I don’t realize how much time has passed since we texted and I came in here, until there’s a soft knock on my darkroom door. Eager excitement makes the back of my neck tingle as I slip off the stool to let him in. I pull the door open just enough. The hallway is dark too, and when I see Hunter there, decked out in a dark LA Pulse shirt, pants, and hat, smiling at me like I’m someone special, I can’t help but smile right back.

“Hi,” he says.

“Hey.”

“Do you want to…” He nods toward the hallway, but I shake my head, taking his hand and pulling him inside. Hunter comes easily, closing the door behind him. “Wow. I must be really lucky tonight. You’re showing me you.”

I frown. “What do you mean? I show you who I am all the time, mess and all.” I’m not good at hiding. It’s been so long since I’ve even tried.

“Yeah, but this is… Maybe I sound stupid, but this room feels like a part of you not everyone gets to see. A part of you I wasn’t trusted with until now.”

He’s right. He’s fucking right because showing him this does feel like he’s getting a glimpse into the hidden rooms in me I keep from the world, and maybe that’s why I wasn’t ready to show him before, why I wasn’t ready to develop these photos and bring him in here, because it was a way to protect myself.

But there is no protecting myself from Hunter, and I hope I never have to. “I didn’t know you were so observant…and sweet. Usually that stuff gives me hives.”

He chuckles. “I don’t want to do that.”

“You don’t,” I admit. Not him. “Come on.” I take his hand again and walk him over to my workstation. “This is where I develop, obviously…and then when I finish each one, I hang them here to dry.”

He looks up at the photos and inhales sharply, seeing himself naked and open for me…his smile, his chest, his cock soft and then getting harder, his back, his ass, even his hole. He looks at every one of them, studying them carefully.

My heart beats in my ears, and the silence, the wait are killing me. “If you don’t like them, I can get rid of them…and that also means you have extremely bad taste because you’re hot and I’m very fucking good.”

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Hunter turns tome. “I can’t believe I posed for these.”

Shit. He’s disappointed. Did I force him? He knew what I was doing. He could have stopped me at any moment. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“No.” Hunter stops me when I try to move away from him. “It’s just…there has never been anyone in my life who could get me to pose for naked photos. I let you take some of myhole.”

“To be fair, you don’t know any other photographers.”

“That’s not what I’m saying, Lucas, and you know it. Everything feels safe with you. It didn’t even occur to me to say no. I look at this and can’t believe I did it, and that they’re…”

“So fucking beautiful.You’reso fucking beautiful, Hunt.”

He takes my face in his hands, holding me so fucking gently before pressing his mouth to mine. Hunter’s tongue swipes at my lips, asking for entry, and as soon as my lips are parted, slipping inside.

There’s something incredibly fucking hot about kissing Hunter. It’s like he kisses with his whole body, like his tongue and mouth are telling a story that doesn’t need words, like he’s putting everything into the kiss and begging you to feel it, to hear him, and I do. I wrap my arms around him, knock his hat away, and thread my fingers through his hair. I want to bend over for him right now, want him inside me, fucking me until there’s no separation between us, until we’re one, fused together by whatever this is between us.

“I want you,” I say, when his mouth slides over my throat, licking and sucking at the skin there.

“What do you want?”

“Fuck me. I want you to fuck me.”

“Anything,” he says so softly, I almost missed it, and I swear, I believe him. In this moment, it feels like there isnothing in this world Hunter King wouldn’t give me, and I’m so fucking lucky to have him.

I pull away, pulling him with me toward the door, then down the hallway to my bedroom, turning on the lamp beside my bed. I’m already shirtless, so I move to take Hunter’s off.