Page 110 of Say It Again
“He’s the only client you’re seeing right now. You call them clients. I’ve never heard you call them anything else.”
Aaron swallowed. “Correct. Client. He’s the only one I’m seeing.”
A heaviness troubled his chest. Some emotion he couldn’t quite name. Almost like he’d never felt it before. It wasn’t anxiety. It was bulkier than anxiety. Duller. Achier. Like a slow and patient hum.
“Whoa.” Aaron held Daniel’s hand up in the light. “You took your ring off?”
“Hmm?” Daniel dragged a hand down his face. “Oh, yeah. I was trying to—”
“Do I need to read into that?”
It was probably best not to think about that question too deeply, so he shook his head as he searched the sheets until he found it under his pillow.
Aaron took it from him and gently pushed it back onto his finger. He spent a while twisting it around, warming the metal. When he spoke again, his voice was deep and despondent. “I’ll tell you what, kid. If you need an out, take it off.”
Daniel tried to peer back over his shoulder. “Take what off?”
“The ring.”
Daniel’s brow crinkled as he searched his words for clarification. “What?”
“I don’t know, baby,” Aaron sighed, airing warmth onto his neck. “I don’t want you to have second thoughts, so I want to give you an out—I mean, don’t fucking take it—but an option if worse comes to worst.”
With that, the foundation of the entire proposal got a bit shaky. One didn’t typically say yes with a built-in stopgap for when “worse came to worst.” But their relationship had never been typical. Daniel’s tongue wandered over his teeth. “Like a gesture?”
“Like a gesture. If you need it to be over between us, you take the ring off, and that’s how I’ll know not to fight it. I’ll let you go with no questions asked.” Aaron kissed his shoulder. “And it won’t be your fault. It’ll be mine.”
Daniel swallowed, the heaviness in his chest humming away in the background.
“But please don’t,” Aaron said. “Talk to me first. I’ll help you breathe. I’ll help you through it. You have to hang in there with me.”
As much as he hated it, there might have been a tiny part of him that softened in relief.
“Daniel.” Aaron shook him. “You want to hang in there with me, right? You want to marry me, don’t you?”
He nodded. “I do.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
ONE WEEK later, Aaron sat on the floor in Marco’s rental, massaging his calves while he typed away on his laptop. He’d settled into his role with Marco, which was unusual at best. In private he was a personal assistant. In public he was a boyfriend. Then there were times like this where Marco was comfortable enough to state his needs explicitly.
“Just touch me,” Marco had said. “I need to be touched. Touch me anywhere, I don’t care.”
It was times like this when he was more of a pet.
“Do you need anything before I go?” he said, working his hands under Marco’s pant legs.
“Yeah.” Marco rolled his head around his neck. “I need you to not go.”
He was a difficult person to read, but it almost seemed like he’d been more affectionate the past few days. Either that, or the gray area between boyfriend, PA, and pet was starting to mess with his mind.
“I wish I could stay,” he said, because that was what he always said, even if it was a bit off-putting to white-lie to Marco. The man had his respect, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t about truth so much as it was about making his clients feel desirable. “There’s nowhere better than right here.”
Marco gave him a sidelong glance, then back to the typing. “Are you pleased with how our arrangement has turned out?”
“Of course.” That part he meant. Their time together had been a lot of work. Literal work—composing emails and reviewing contracts for errors—but it’d been a welcome change of pace. Plus, Marco’s deal had gone through, and Aaron had helped. He was part of something bigger than him. They even had a celebratory whiskey tasting with the clients tomorrow night, which was one way to end on a high note. “You’ve been the best client I’ve ever had by a long shot.”
“Come.” Marco snapped the laptop shut and patted the sofa next to him. “Come sit.”