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24

Author: Dark Pen
last update Last Updated: 2025-11-23 22:17:42
DEVIN’S POV.

My chest was already tight, like I'd been clenching my teeth in my sleep; my shoulders were stiff, my brain still replaying last night over and over, a bad recording that I couldn't seem to shut off. I expected Stella to be pissed, clingy, pushy, something-but she was weirdly calm. Too calm. She didn't try to climb into my lap, didn't hover around me, didn't demand a morning kiss. She just brushed her hair and put cream on and hummed and acted like we were two normal people starting a normal morning in a normal marriage, except every second felt like it was building toward something I didn't want to deal with.

When we came downstairs, breakfast was already on the table. Aiden and Marcus were both there. Immediately, Stella brightened up — at least, greeted both of them like everything was fine, like she didn't notice how stiff Aiden sat, or that Marcus barely looked at him. She plopped herself down beside Marcus, launching into easy, light chatter, laughing at inside jokes
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  • Appealing To His Gaze    57

    TIMONE'S POV.My throat was dry as fuck. Not like oh I need water dry—nah, this was full-on choking-on-sawdust, lungs-can’t-work kind of dry. Like my chest forgot how to breathe, like the air around me went too heavy too fast. Because he was here. Standing right there. Fucking Festus, the one I'd loved since I was young, and he instead had once had eyes for Devn, but eh was he here, looking so relaxed like he knew Aiden?.Not a dream. Not a hallucination. Not one of those fever memories I jerked off to when I was drunk and stupid and lonely at 3AM. Here. Flesh and blood and soaked in rain. Cold as fuck. Not meeting my goddamn eyes. Not even giving me a glance.I hated that.I fucking hated that.And then he just—he didn’t even speak to me. Didn’t even look my way. He was focused on Aiden, like always. Like everything started and ended with that stupid fucker.“We’re going home,” Festus said flat like death. And I swear to god, my stomach curled . Like something inside me actually retche

  • Appealing To His Gaze    56

    DEVINS POV.I woke up too warm. I didn’t move. Just blinked slowly into the soft, golden haze leaking through the blinds. Everything smelled like sex and skin and Aiden—his cologne rubbed raw against my neck, his breath soft on my shoulder. I felt his arm draped over my waist like a fuckin' vice. Possessive. Heavy. Comforting. Like he was still afraid I’d vanish if he let go.And maybe he was right.I stared up at the ceiling, trying to think, trying not to think. But I could still feel it. Byron. The way his hands felt on my hips. The way his mouth moved when he said my name. The sharp flicker of pride in his eyes when he told me he’d spoken to the investors. Said I had something real. That rawness. That drive."I've seen kids burn out," he'd said. "But you... you've got hunger. I can work with that."I’d been high off it. High off him. The way he pulled me in like I was more than just another boy with fast skates and daddy issues. The way he told me I was good. And when he kissed m

  • Appealing To His Gaze    55

    AidenS POV.My jaw ticked. I’d been tapping my phone screen for the past ten minutes like it owed me money, rhythm pounding from my fingertips straight into my skull. The second that door creaked open, I already knew it was him. Devin slumped in without a word, fell straight into bed next to me like gravity yanked him home, and buried his face into my neck.He smelled like liquor. Like sugar and lust and new cologne that didn’t belong to me.He cradled me in his arms, like I was the fucking prize. Pressed a wet, lazy kiss to my lips—one of those kisses that told on you, told where your tongue’s been, told who made you laugh a little too hard. And I kissed him back because I’m stupid like that, even when everything in me was already boiling.“You have fun?” I asked. My voice came out a little too smooth, too level. It was a test. I wanted to see if he could lie with his teeth still red. He nodded, smiling like a damn fool. “Yeah... yeah, I did.” His voice had that soft, sticky drag to

  • Appealing To His Gaze    54

    DEVIN'S POV I kept scrolling. thumb twitching. couldn’t even focus on the screen, wasn’t reading shit, just moving like the motion alone would keep my head from splitting in half. Nothing helped. Everything buzzed. Not just my phone, not just the hallway lights above me flickering like they were laughing at me, but inside. like a swarm. a fucking swarm in my chest.I stood there like an idiot, arms crossed, back against the office door, pretending I wasn't checking the time every five seconds. pretending I didn't care that he was late.Byron was never late. but then again, i wasn’t the kind of guy people were early for, was i?not the type of guy anyone waits on, not the one you rearrange plans for. i was the fuck-up. the background noise. the one who was too quiet, too angry, too much . Always. I knew that. I'd lived that. I wore it at every second guess, every clench of my jaw, every time I picked at my skin until I bled just to feel something. the door clicked. opened. and then

  • Appealing To His Gaze    53

    AidenS POV.the call came through just as i was starting to drift, Devin's sheets still warm from him, his scent stitched into the pillow my face was buried in, the room half-dark and too damn quiet except for the buzz-buzz of his phone near the edge of the bed, and it took me a minute to reach for it, my arm heavy like it didn’t wanna move, my brain not even clocking who’d call this early till i flipped the screen over and saw the name flash like a slap to the face—Festusof course it was fucking Festusi hesitated maybe a second too long before answering, thumb sliding over the green icon like i hated it but couldn’t stop myself anyway“Are you alive?” his voice cracked through, low, a little rough, sounded like he hadn’t slept more than an hour or two“barely,” i muttered, voice flat, sat up slow like the whole bed was trying to hold me down, “i’m breathing. what do you want”“wanted to know if you’re alright. you didn’t call”I snorted, rubbed a hand down my face, stared at Devin'

  • Appealing To His Gaze    52

    DEVIN’S POV.He was already out by the time i closed the door, not a care in the fucking world, like he didn’t just rip my goddamn heart out six months ago and mail it back to me in pieces.Aiden was in my bed. tucked in like he never left. like he hadn’t ghosted me. like he hadn’t vanished and made me think he was dead. and now he was telling me to calm down?fuck that.I stood outside my bedroom door too long. just… breathing. trying to remember how to fucking move, how to exist now that he was here again. The scent of him still clinging to my hoodie like it had claws. My hands smelled like him too. my lips. Every part of me was buzzing with some leftover static from that kiss, from the weight of his body slamming into mine like he’d been starving, like it was the only meal he wanted.God.but I had to leave.i had to move .so I shoved myself forward, one foot after the other, dragging my ass down the hallway. thinking maybe i’d hit the kitchen, grab coffee, scream into a mug or somet

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