Page 63 of Say It Again
Daniel whimpered.
“In.” It was so simple, and yet working like the sedative he needed. “Out.”
He hummed, trying to match Aaron’s breathing. His was still a little faster, but it was getting there.
“In, kid. Out.”
“Shit,” Daniel finally said after a minute or two, still hugging him. “Shit, I’m sorry. You probably think I’m nuts—”
“Don’t apologize.” Aaron shook his head. “It’s not your fault, and you’re not nuts. I think you just need food. Let’s go to dinner, mmkay?”
Daniel scraped his teeth over his lower lip as he released the hug to gaze up at blue ice. He parted his lips to speak.
“No,” Aaron said, cutting him off, reading his mind. “No, we’re not overthinking this. We’re going to dinner. Come on. Everything’s fine.”
Everything wasn’t fine. Daniel wasn’t built for someone who slept with other men for a living. That wasn’t him.
“If you give me a chance,” Aaron said, “I’ll be so good to you. I’ll treat you how you deserve to be treated. I’ll help you deal with it. I’ll help you breathe. Weren’t you okay just now?”
“Yeah, but—”
“I made a mistake. You have to let me make one mistake. I shouldn’t have brought you here. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I can do better.”
“You need to be with someone who can handle it.”
“You can handle it. You were doing great. Come on.” Aaron tried to lead him toward the car, like getting him to dinner would change the root issue. “Dinner.”
“Can I ask something without it sounding too presumptuous?” Daniel resisted, standing firm on the dock. “You say you want a relationship. If escor—the thing impacts that, then the obvious solution would be to quit. Is there a reason you don’t quit?”
After a long minute of hesitating, Aaron finally said, “Yeah. I can’t.”
“You can’t? Why do you feel like you can’t?”
“Why do I…?” Aaron trailed off as he pushed a hand through his hair, then let it flop by his side. “I don’t have an education. I don’t have any skills. I don’t know a trade. This is all I’ve done since I was nineteen, and because I’ve never done anything else, I have zero work experience.”
Daniel’s heart squeezed a little. Well, when he said it like that, it did sound a bit thorny. Hell, it was thorny out there for someone who did have all those things.
“And I know from your perspective, it would seem like an easy fix. Just quit. Do something else.” An intensity burned behind Aaron’s words. “But I’ve had to fight for everything I have, and it’s taken years to get where I am. To have a steady stream of clients who value me. A steady income. There’s nothing I could do to make what I make now.”
Well, that couldn’t be true, could it?
Aaron must’ve sensed his resistance, because he said, “I’m telling you, kid. Nothing. Not even close.”
“That much, huh?” Daniel chuckled at his feet. He shut down the part of his brain that wanted to suggest he might be in the wrong business.
“You like me,” Aaron pleaded. “I know you do. You have from the beginning, and not because you thought I was an attorney. You like me. Beyond how I make money.”
He dissolved into Aaron’s gaze. No one had ever pursued him so fervently. It was marvelous. He was marvelous. What a catch he was, and one who deserved the normalcy he seemed to crave. Daniel just wasn’t the free-loving 1960s beatnik cut out for that job. He was more of an egg-protecting, dedicated penguin cut out for monogamy.
“You could see yourself with me.” Aaron’s fingers grazed his hand. “Tell me you can’t. Say that, and I’ll walk away.”
Of course he could. And at the same time, he couldn’t.
“Mister.” He palmed Aaron’s cheek. “I think we tried.”
Chapter Fifteen
DANIEL STEPPED onto his stoop as Aaron trailed slowly behind him. The car ride had been glum as could be, and nothing he said was making it better.