Finding Forgiveness(63)

Whatever demons Roman had exorcised in his childhood room seemed to have extinguished themselves because he seemed surprisingly relaxed. His relationship with Gray hadn’t suffered in the least and in fact, it seemed stronger than ever because Roman often spoke with his brother and had driven down to see him several times since they’d gotten back. Luke and Gray had driven up to have dinner with them at a local steakhouse just last night and unlike their previous dinner a couple weeks earlier, Roman was an active participant.

Hunter gave up on trying to concentrate and closed his computer. He turned around from the desk he’d commandeered and draped his arms over the back of the chair as he watched Roman work. When Roman didn’t acknowledge him, Hunter got up and crawled onto the bed until he was straddling Roman’s lower legs. Hunter began massaging Roman’s thighs but since the laptop was still on Roman’s lap, he had very little room to work with.

When he made a move to take the computer away, Roman put up a finger to stop him. “One sec,” he murmured. “I just need one more Color Bomb and I’m golden.”

Hunter grabbed Roman’s laptop and stared at the screen in disbelief. “You’re playing Candy Crush?” he asked. “I thought you were working!”

Roman just laughed and took the laptop from him and put it on the nightstand. He dragged Hunter down for a kiss. “I take it the embargo has been lifted?” Roman breathed against his lips.

“Oh yeah,” Hunter said as he leaned back enough to work on Roman’s jeans. It wasn’t often that he’d seen Roman in anything other than dress slacks but the man was positively yummy in the butter-soft denim that clung to his ass and hugged his thighs.

Hunter had barely gotten the button free when Roman’s phone rang. But he didn’t stop wrestling with Roman’s zipper until Roman said, “It’s Gray.” Hunter hesitated but then figured it could be fun to torment Roman while he tried to keep up a normal conversation with his brother. He started pulling Roman’s zipper down but Roman’s big hand settled over his and Hunter stilled when he saw the seriousness in Roman’s gaze.

“Okay, yeah, give it to him.”

Roman hung up the phone and Hunter automatically tensed when his dark eyes held Hunter’s.

“What? Are he and Luke okay?”

“They’re fine,” Roman said. “It’s Finn.”

“Did something happen to him?” Hunter asked in a panic.

“No, no,” Roman quickly reassured him. “They ran into him in town this afternoon and he asked for your number. They didn’t give it to him but Gray told him he would ask me if it would be okay for Finn to text me.”

Hunter felt his stomach drop out and he climbed off of Roman so he could get up and move around. It had been weeks since he’d spoken to Callan and while he still had every intention of following through with his promise to tell people the truth about what had happened between him and Finn, he’d gotten caught up in trying to get his life on track and then Roman had lost his father.

“I shouldn’t have waited…I should have just told the truth that day after I talked to Callan,” he bit out. His hand automatically went to his pocket and he cursed when he realized what he’d done. He hadn’t had the urge to hurt himself once since the night he’d called Roman when he’d still been in London.

Roman climbed off the bed and grabbed him by the arms. “Hey,” he said gently. “You did what you needed to do. He’ll understand that.”

Hunter didn’t get a chance to respond because Roman’s phone dinged and Hunter actually held his breath as Roman read the text.

“He wants to know if you’ll meet with him this afternoon. He can be here by four.”

“Oh God,” Hunter mumbled as he sat down on the bed. Two hours…two hours to figure out how to say the two words that really wouldn’t change anything for Finn.

“Hunter?” Roman asked.

Hunter nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

He left the details of where the meeting would happen to Roman and got up and went to the bathroom. He kept running cold water over his face and arms in the hopes that the itchy feeling would go away but it just kept growing and growing. He looked up and saw Roman watching him with concern in the reflection of the mirror. As Roman handed him a towel, Hunter turned off the water and dried off.

“Did your therapist give you any tips for how to deal with an episode?” Roman asked.

“Some kind of distraction is my best bet. Exercise, a change of scenery – anything to get myself out of that headspace for a few minutes.”