Page 42 of Too Hostile

“Come away with me,” I blurt out, and he is, of course, a little taken aback because who the hell wouldn’t be when someone blurts a command like that out of nowhere? Jesus, Fletcher.

“Where?” He’s super careful when he asks me this.

“My brother’s boyfriend, Grayson, has this pretty nice house by the lake. He said we could use it for the weekend.” Well okay, he’ll say it’s fine, I’m sure. He’s made us all a key and said we can use it when we want to. I’ll send him a text later to make sure it’s cool, but I know for a fact they’re going to be at their place in the city this weekend and not at the lake. So it’s fine.

He cocks an eyebrow at me, still watching me carefully. “Where is this coming from?”

Fear. Wanting. The nearly crippling need to have as much time with him as possible before the summer ends.

I don’t answer him that way though—you know, with the truth. “I thought it would be nice to get away.” And it would be. God, I want this more and more as I stare at him, knowing I can’t touch him right now the way I want to. That someone could see. We always have to be on alert.

I want a weekend where that’s not the case.

“Think about it. You have one class tomorrow, and it’s at the butt-crack of dawn. The house is a four-hour drive. We could be there around one in the afternoon. You don’t have a Monday class. We can get back that evening.” He doesn’t seem to be against it yet, so I keep talking. “It would be kind of nice to go somewhere no one knows us. We could just do whatever we want. Hell, we could hold hands out in public.”

A small smile falls over his lips, and I blush a little. “You want to hold my hand?”

“Shut up,” I say with absolutely no bite in it. “The way Rhett and Grayson talk about this place...” I bite my bottom lip and worry I’m giving away too much of myself but barrel on because that’s what I do. “It was good for them at their beginning.” Ronan’s eyes widen, and I know why. I hold a hand up. “Not that this is a beginning of something, I just mean...” Shit, Fletcher. Shut. Up.

He stands and walks closer to me, his face deadly serious, and I’m almost certain I’ve botched the hell out of this. That he’s going to just end it now because I’m clearly a super clingy mess, but instead he brushes a hand over my cheek and smiles. “It sounds amazing.”

“Really?” I barely squeak.

“Yeah. I think...” He sighs, his hands twitching a little at his sides, and I wonder if it’s because he wants to touch me again. God, I hope that’s the reason. Because I’m fully gone for this man.

It would help me feel like less of an idiot if he had even a little of that going on.

“I think it would be really great, Fletcher. Are you sure it’s okay with your brother and his boyfriend?”

“Yes,” I say instantly. “Let’s go pack so we can leave right from here tomorrow,” I say far too excitedly, but he’s saying yes. I’m too excited to contain myself.

He chuckles. “Okay. Let’s go.”

I can’t believe he said yes, but I’m not going to waste any damn time worrying about that.

He said yes, and we’re going to the lake house tomorrow.

For whatever reason, this feels huge. And I’m here for it.

RONAN

This feels like a really bad decision, but when Fletcher came into my office yesterday, all hopped-up on obvious nerves, and asked me to go with him, I couldn’t say no. Though I know I should.

But I can’t remember the last time I did something for me. Just for my own pleasure. Not because I had to do it to survive, but simply because I wanted to, and damn it, I wanted to.

So badly.

So I said yes, and now I’m in the passenger seat of his Jeep while he munches on beef jerky as he drives, occasionally singing along with the radio, and it may be the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen.

What the hell is happening to me?

When we reach the Ozarks, it is in fact around one in the afternoon, and Fletcher parks his Jeep in front of a really nice, fairly good-sized house by the lake and turns the vehicle off. “We’re here.”

I look up at the house. “It’s nice.”

He grins. “Not impressed yet?”

“I didn’t say that.” I turn to look at him, wanting to say so many things. Like I wouldn’t care if it was a dilapidated shack he brought me to as long as he was here with me, but I don’t let that come out of my mouth.