Page 120 of Twisted Needs

“Promise?” he asks me softly. I can imagine him with the widest shit-eating grin on his face right now. “I’ve been so lonely without my man at home.”

His man. I’m his man. My heart beats a little too fast to process hearing those words. My body’s temperature hikes up a few degrees past the point of being comfortable. I’m dangerously close to needing an ice-cold shower. “My God, I miss you. I keep reaching for you in my sleep.”

“Do you?” Anders asks in a low, shaky voice. “You miss me?”

“So badly,” I whisper, unable to trust myself. “So fucking badly.”

He’s silent for a minute, but I can still hear his soft breaths. When I hear him shuffle around on the bed again, I hold my breath.

“I’m in your bed now,” he murmurs. “In just my briefs. No socks.”

Fuck.

“What color?”

“They’re white. I’m really fucking hard, so they feel extra tight.”

Holy fuck.

“Behave until I get home,” I warn him calmly. “Don’t start something I can’t finish from three states away.”

“Okay, Park,” he whispers sweetly. “I won’t.”

“Fuck,” I mutter. “Now I’m not going to be able to sleep knowing you’re at home in my bed.”

“Come home,” he murmurs with genuine need in his voice. “I can help you sleep.”

“Mhm…you’re making this impossible,” I breathe. I turn my head around and do another scan of the hallway just to be on the safe side. “Christ, I miss you.”

“Well,” he sighs disappointingly. “Have fun holding your breath while you’re watching Shrek. I’ll just be laying in bed…all alone in my tiny briefs. Might even throw a pair of socks on.” He laughs to himself, lowering his voice a moment later. “Come home, Petchka. I’m here waiting for you.”

My chest expands, a small moment of panic lurching through me. “Tomorrow,” I tell him insistently. “I’m coming home as soon as possible, angel. Promise me you’ll stay put.”

“I’m not leaving, Pet’ka,” he tells me in a softer voice. “You’ll just have to come home and see for yourself.”

“Tvoyemu obayaniyu nevozmozhno protivostoyat,” I murmur to him. “Absolutely irresistible.”

CHAPTER 32

LIKE HE’S SOME MONSTER

ANDERS

“Jesus, Anders, you’re taking all of the queso!” Lee snaps, slapping my hand out of the way of the massive bowl of dip in the center of the table. “Save some for the rest of us, fatty.”

My mouth drops open. “You know—there’s a couple of mean words I could call you but I woke up and decided to be nice today.”

“Since when?” Aviva snorts, stealing my frozen strawberry margarita and finishing it off. “I’m genuinely asking, babe. Two days ago you were⁠—”

“Hey that’s my fucking marg, you fucking whore!”

Aviva rolls her eyes. “Relax, there were, like, two sips left.”

“You owe me seventeen cents,” I snark.

“So that matcha I bought you this morning means nothing?” Aviva scoffs, flipping her hair dramatically. It’s gotten so long these past couple of months that it cascades right down her body. Recently she’s been pinning it back to keep it out of her face, and I swear she just gets more gorgeous by the day.

“This is why we can’t hang out without Charlie,” Lee mutters, clicking their tongue and tucking a strand of hair behind their ear. “She’s our buffer.”