“I have no idea, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. What’d you do to him last night, Asher? I’ve never seen him so…. What’d you do?”
God, he didn’t think he could hate himself more, but hearing Oliver confirm what he already knew—that he’d caused Daniel pain—made him feel physically ill. “I need to talk to him, Ollie. I messed up, but I promise you that I’ll make it up to him and—”
“You promise? Really? Just like how you swore to me that you wouldn’t hurt my brother? Because we both know how that promise turned out.” Oliver glared at Asher. “Your word doesn’t hold any currency with me.”
“Damn it, Ollie, what do you want me to say? I just want—”
“What you want is to be worshiped. You want someone who’ll follow you around and bow at your feet.”
Asher opened his mouth to deny that statement, but found that he couldn’t. It was true, wasn’t it? That was exactly what he’d wanted. And it was exactly what Daniel had given him.
“Why is that so wrong, Ollie?” he said instead. “It works both ways. You’ve got to know that I lo… I adore your brother.”
“How does it work both ways? He moved to your city, lived in your apartment, went wherever you wanted, and I don’t even want to know how much of your kinky sex stuff you made him do. You held all the power in your relationship, and what did Danny get in return? Tell me, Asher. Tell me how it worked both ways.”
Asher leaned back against the wall and slid down until he was sitting on the floor, looking up at Oliver. “He is my entire world, Ollie.”
Asher had no idea how that had happened, but he knew it was true. What had started out as an out-of-character infatuation had bloomed into so much more, until now Asher found himself thinking about Daniel almost constantly. He’d go to a restaurant and scan the menu for items Daniel would like, even if the man wasn’t with him. He’d catch himself glancing at the clock every ten minutes at the end of the day because he wanted nothing more than to go home and be with Daniel. He’d walk down the street and see some ridiculously loud accessory or he’d smell a scented candle, and he’d be reminded of Daniel. The man filled his mind, his heart. And now he was gone.
“Do you know what that’s like?” Asher choked out, forcing himself to keep his feelings in check. “To be with someone who shines so brightly he’s all you can see? That’s how I feel when I’m with your brother. To me he’s… everything.” Asher swallowed down emotion threatening to rage out of control. “If that’s not power, I don’t know what is.”
Oliver didn’t speak for several minutes. He just stood and stared at Asher. Eventually, he walked over to the couch and sat down. “Get over here. We’re too old to be sitting on the floor. My ass will go numb and my back will hurt all day.”
Asher stood up and winced at the pinch in his lower back. Oliver smirked at him.
He flopped on the sofa next to Oliver and leaned back, closing his eyes and trying to clear his mind.
“What happened last night?” Oliver finally asked.
“Daniel didn’t tell you?” Asher asked in surprise.
Oliver scoffed. “Are you kidding? He called me specifically to tell me not to be mad at you. He wasn’t about to fill me in on whatever you did, but that’s not what I’m asking, anyway. What I want to know is, why were you acting like such a—”
“Did you see the way he was dressed last night?” Asher interrupted. “Made me fucking crazy.”
“The way he was dressed? Asher, he was wearing black jeans and a black button-down shirt. He wasn’t parading around in a loincloth.”
It was true. Now that Asher thought about Daniel’s clothes without the red veil of fury that had fallen over him in reaction to watching every man and woman in their time zone flirting with his boy, he realized that the clothes weren’t over the top. But somehow the simple pants and shirt didn’t look so simple on Daniel’s stunning body.
“He’s so good-looking it hurts.”
“And that’s a problem?” Oliver asked, making Asher realize he’d spoken the thought out loud. Oliver shook his head and pursed his lips in disapproval. “A fixation on a person’s appearance is the hobgoblin of shallow minds.”
Was that English?
“Huh?” Asher said.
Oliver rolled his eyes. “I’m saying that if I understood you correctly, you treated my brother, who you claim to care for deeply, like crap because he’s good-looking. Does it sound as ridiculous to you when you hear me say it as it did to me when I heard you say it?”
Phrased that way, yeah, it made no sense. But it wasn’t just that Daniel was movie-star gorgeous. It was also that he was so skilled at seemingly anything he tried. How many people had successful careers as dancers and musicians and martial arts trainers and jewelry makers and masseurs and… anyway, the list went on and on?