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“I don’t remember her, but I used to dream about this woman when I was little It was always the sa red hair and she earing some kind of unifor around this srace That’s it…that’s all I ever see” Tate glanced down at his hands again “That was how I picked Tate”

“What do you mean?” I asked

“When I left home, I knew I needed a new name She used to always call me Tate in the dream”

I wanted to ask him what his real name was, but I held back because I could see by the way he’d started twisting his hands again, that he was already tense He cast a look over his shoulder at Matty as still asleep Then I felt his eyes on

“What?” I asked, keeping entle

“I wish I’d been stronger back then,” he said quietly “Maybe she’d still be alive if I’d said so”

I tensed at that because I kneho the she he was referring to was, but when I shot Tate a glance, he was once again looking out theI fought the urge to reachtheether But my body refused to listen toover his warhtest intake of breath Electricity fired through ain felt his eyes on me

I’d intended to tell hiot lost in the sensation that was coursing through my body and what it meant My brain could deny it all it wanted, but the fact thatwith need was proof that it wasn’t some fluke

I wanted Tate

Badly

And I had no idea what that meant

Chapter Six

Tate

I wasn’t able to take a deep breath until Hawke removed his hand from mine The contact had been brief, seconds only, but my whole body felt like it was on fire Desire wasn’t an entirely new feeling for me, but I’d never felt it to this extreme

Growing up in a small, rural town in Eastern Texas hadn’t exactly provided a lot of options for a teenage kid with a homophobic father and brother to explore his sexuality, but I’d lucked out when I’d discovered that a classie Kiie had been two years older than uys when he’d cornered ym’s locker room at school one day and kissed me

He’d never allowed me to call him my boyfriend, even when it was just us, but I’d let hiinity just the same The sex hadn’t been at all what I’d expected, but I’d never protested when he’d asked if he could fuck h I’d never found pleasure in the act, I’d lived for what ca on top of ainstmine like a blanket In those moments I became someone else – we both did And I was safe…and free There was no doublewide trailer to go home to, no bruises to try and hide, no fear that one day the heavy fists wouldn’t stop But it would only last as long as it took for Reggie to recover, pull free of me and slap me on my ass and tell me I was the best fuck he’d ever had