Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 84544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Did they even have anything in common?
Other than the fact that they both had an incredible need to protect. Isidore was driven to protect any poor soul in front of him, though, and Kairo just wanted to protect Isidore. Sometimes even from himself.
“Wow. I think we broke him,” Will teased.
Kairo glared at the man across the table from him. “I used to like you better than Charlie. Now I’m rethinking that.”
“Talk, K,” Charlie said firmly, putting their teasing and joking aside. “You look constipated and in pain.”
He glared at his so-called friend for a second and then turned his attention to his half-empty beer. “I kissed him. Or rather he kissed me, and I kissed him back. I think it might have been a mistake. I shouldn’t have kissed a client or let him kiss me or…whatever. The key thing is that I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Kissing isn’t a big deal,” Charlie declared only to have Will reach out and smack him on the head.
“Kissing is a very big deal,” his boyfriend corrected. “I know your mentality with sex being emotionless fun, but kissing is not the same.” Charlie opened his mouth to argue, but Will continued over anything he was going to say. “Kissing like Kairo means. Kissing like how you kiss me, you fucking man whore.”
Charlie had the good sense to at least blush. “I’ve given up my man-whore ways. You’re the only one I kiss.”
Will grabbed Charlie’s shirt and pulled him in for a sweet, lingering kiss. “I know, baby,” he whispered when they broke apart.
Kairo rolled his eyes. Had he thought it was a good thing that Will was back? He retracted that thought. They were disgusting with their near-constant lovey-dovey sweetness. Or maybe he was just painfully jealous. He hadn’t been when they were in Argentina or Uruguay, but he definitely was now, sitting in the little kitchen in Greece. Wonder why that is?
“Put aside the client part for a second,” Will began, turning his attention to Kairo again. “Do you really regret kissing Izzie, or are you just scared? Because since you arrived, you’ve been incredibly close with the man. I’ve never seen you so protective of someone, but then I don’t know you as well as Charlie.”
“Nope, this is new,” Charlie confirmed.
“And every time you look at him you smile and your entire body relaxes, like he’s a hit of morphine for all your senses.”
“So, you’re saying that I’m a drug addict,” Kairo snapped.
“No, I’m saying you’re in love. Chemically, there’s a lot of overlap between drug addiction and the feeling of being in love.”
“Wonderful, Doc Will. That’s just wonderful.” Kairo sank even lower in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. He should have turned around when he reached the bottom of the stairs and gone straight to his room to hide. This talking thing that he forced everyone else to do was horrible when it was his turn. He wasn’t feeling better about any of this.
“It is wonderful since it looks like Izzie feels the same for you. I just don’t understand what the problem is,” Will continued.
“The problem is that he’s this stupidly rich guy that’s the head of a massive conglomerate with thousands of people depending on him every day. He’s a billionaire who probably does all these billionaire things that I will never understand. And I’m what? An ex-CIA, rogue hacker mercenary who doesn’t stay in one place. The distance between our two lives is bigger than the Pacific Ocean. What’s the point of falling in love if we can’t be together?”
He was surprised that it was actually Charlie who spoke up first. His old friend smiled softly at Kairo while at the same time, he threaded his fingers with the hand Will had resting on the tabletop. “Love has a way of changing you. Priorities shift. The things that you thought were the most important to you suddenly become insignificant. I love the team and what we do, but if Will wanted to settle down somewhere, build a practice and a home, I would have done it without a moment’s hesitation.”
“Of course, we don’t want to lose you,” Will said as he squeezed Charlie’s hand. “But you’ve got to do what makes you happy. If Izzie is the person who makes you happy, you have to at least try.”
Kairo sighed loudly and scrubbed both of his hands across his face. “This is ridiculous. I’ve known him for all of four days.” He dropped his hands from his face but held up one with four fingers raised, shaking them in front of Charlie and Will. “Four. We should not be using the ‘L’ word after four fucking days. That’s just ridiculous.”
Charlie snorted, and Will’s smirk wasn’t reassuring in the least.
“Four days in which you probably spent every second together,” Charlie muttered.