Page 130 of Cheap Shot

Sebastian raised an eyebrow at the idea. “You want tonapwith me?”

“Sure. Unless you’re planning to kick me out.”

Sebastian smiled. “Planning to kick you out? No. But I should get back to work.” He sat up reluctantly.

“Okay,” Luke said, falling back on the pillow.

“Okay? Just like that?” Sebastian asked, surprised.

Luke tucked his arm behind his head. “You want me to beg?”

“No,” Sebastian said honestly. “I’ve just, uh, been involved with a lot of people who didn’t understand that work comes first for me most of the time.”

“Well, they’re not here now, are they?” Luke said gruffly.

“No, no they’re not,” Sebastian admitted. Besides, Luke was in a similar position, wasn’t he? Of course he understood. Hockey was Luke’s priority and Twig & Bloom Sebastian’s.

Sebastian leaned in and kissed Luke, let himself linger over it for a moment too, before he drew away with a reluctant sigh. “You wanna stay here and nap anyway?”

“You want me to?”

“Maybe I do.” Sebastian trailed a hand down Luke’s chest. “Maybe I want to come back up a little later and find you in my bed.”

“Then I guess I’m taking a nap here,” Luke said, already getting comfortable.

By the time Sebastian got tidied up and re-dressed, Luke was asleep.

Sebastian paused in the doorway of his bedroom and looked at him for a minute, taking in the big body sprawled across his sheets and the snuffling sounds of him snoring.

Sebastian shook his head, smiling for no reason at all, and went back to work.

Although Sebastian’s employees side-eyed him when he came down alone, no one commented. Sebastian resumed work on bouquets for the following day, although Rosaleen had finished a handful of them already.

He praised her work, offered her a few suggestions, then let himself get dragged into the comforting tedium of his workday.

He wasn’t surprised when an hour or so later, he heard the heavy thud of feet coming down the stairs, and the sound of the back door opening and closing.

Rosaleen arched an eyebrow at him but didn’t say anything.

Sebastian felt oddly deflated as he continued his work. Well, it was to be expected. Luke wasn’t just going to hang out hereallevening, no matter what he’d said earlier.

So when the back door opened shortly before closing, Sebastian glanced up, expecting to see Joe checking in after the last of his deliveries for the day, and blinked at the sight of Luke carrying takeout bags up to his apartment.

Later, when he went upstairs at the end of his workday, the food was warming in the oven and Luke was on his phone, naked in Sebastian’s bed.

For a moment, Sebastian just stared at him, surprised and happy and a little confused by today’s turn of events.

But when Luke glanced up and smiled at him, Sebastian felt helpless to do anything but go over to the bed and kiss him.

They were really doing this, huh?

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“I am so sorry,” the woman from the shelter said as she carefully held a squirming rabbit out to Luke a few days later. “I am not quite surewhythey chose to bring Elvis to this. He can be a bit … temperamental at times.”

Luke stared down at the black rabbit and thought,I feel you buddy. I don’t want to be here either.

But the team had planned a stupid photoshoot to try to get animals adopted. Luke didn’tmindgetting animals to deserving homes, but he fucking hated having to do it in front of a camera.