"Close your eyes and let go of your worries. I’ll guard you as you sleep. Nothing bad will happen while you’re with me. It’s just you and me here. And I’ll be with you in the morning.” He searched for my lips by following my breath. We kissed. “Always,” he promised."

Happy times are coming your way with this installment. Both men are generally happy on the surface. You guys will see plenty of proof of that. But! If you look a little deeper, you can see that something's amiss.

Chris continues to try and ignore his discomfort when it comes to sex. He made a compromise with himself: he's willing to go along with the sexy times, and as long as that makes Mark happy, he's happy too. He basically sacrificed the non-sexual part of him. And he believed that was enough. Mark certainly didn't say anything that would've indicated otherwise.

"He was very respectful of me about ninety-five percent of the time—but that other five percent was a wild Mark. It was a Mark that I didn’t like."

Mark made sacrifices too. He calmed down a lot for Chris. Less partying, and he demanded less sex (until the necklace), but it was still too much for Chris, and not enough for Mark. Sometimes I saw the frustration pouring out of him, but he clamped it down.

They give it their best shot at the time. I do believe they communicated with each other as best they could, as best they knew how.

"I love you... So much more than you will ever know."

I'm looking forward to the next installment. I'm curious to see how they solved their problems.


*this book was provided by the author for beta-reading purposes.*
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