CATCHING ORION
SLOANE KENNEDY
CONTENTS
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Author Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
About the Author
Also by Sloane Kennedy
Catching Orion is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Sloane Kennedy
Published in the United States by Sloane Kennedy
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Image: © Wander Aguiar
Cover Design: © Cate Ashwood Designs
Copyediting by Courtney Bassett
ISBN: 9781090698223
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A big thank you to Claudia, Kylee and Lucy for doing such amazing beta reads for me again!
AUTHOR NOTE
Please note that this story was previously published as part of a charity anthology so it was intended to be a certain length. Although it is a complete story with an HEA, if you don’t care for short stories, Knox and Ryan’s tale may not be for you.
CHAPTER 1
Ryan
“YES? WHO IS IT?” I asked, barely keeping my voice from going high after getting a good look at the mammoth of a man through the peephole.
It wasn’t like I lived in the worst part of Atlanta, but even if I lived in the biggest mansion in Buckhead, I still wouldn’t have just opened the door. My cat, Fiona, wound herself between my legs as I double-checked the deadbolt on the door.
“It’s Knox.”
That was it. I waited a beat, but when he didn’t say anything else, I said as politely as I could, “Sir, I think you have the wrong door.”
“Oh, uh…”
Silence.
I peeked out the peephole again and saw the man looking at his phone. The lens offered only a distorted view of him, but there was no mistaking his big body or the tattoos on his forearms as well as the back of his hands, one of which held what looked like a small bouquet of flowers. Despite the unseasonably cool September air, from what I could tell, he was wearing a T-shirt. Part of me wanted to open the door just to see if he was really as broad-chested as the snug black shirt implied.
“I’m, um… I’m looking for Ryan Abernathy… do you know if he lives on this floor?”
My heart seized when he said my name. My instinct was to blurt out that I didn’t know, but I resisted the urge. I’d spent most of my life avoiding guys like him and I wasn’t going to do it ever again. My days were often spent telling traumatized kids that they had the same right as everyone else to live their lives as themselves, so I wasn’t about to let old habits continue to dictate my every move.
“What do you want from him?” I blurted, then cursed myself because I’d somehow managed to make my voice go all gangster-like.
There was silence on the other side of the door and I quickly checked the peephole to see if the guy was about to kick it in or something. He was still on his phone.
“It’s okay, I’ll send him a message. Sorry to have bothered you.”
Before I could say anything, I saw the guy step back a little and it looked like he was typing into his phone. My peephole had a view of the staircase, so I could see the guy leaning against the railing as he presumably waited for… me? to answer. I actually pulled out my own phone in anticipation before I realized what I was doing.
I hadn’t been messaging with this man.
Or any man, for that matter.
Ever.
OK, well, not ever… but certainly not any time in the last few months.
Fine, years.
I grimaced as I mentally calculated the amount of time it’d been since I’d last been out with a guy.
Damn, that meant it’d been even longer since I’d actually had sex.
How the hell had that happened?
My chest felt tight as I considered how much of a hermit I’d really become. I would have liked to say it was just because I’d been too busy with my education and career, but I wasn’t in the habit of lying to myself. So instead, I pressed my body flush against the door as I watched the man to see what he’d do. I couldn’t really make out his expression and as he leaned negligently against the railing and folded what looked like really beefy arms, my gut broke the news to my brain that he probably wasn’t going anywhere soon.
I told myself to just ignore him and get back to my studies, but Fiona chose that moment to remind me I was late with her dinner and stretched her roly-poly body enough that she could dig her claws into my leg.
“Ow, fuck, Fiona,” I bellowed as I jerked my leg away. My cat looked at me indignantly and then turned her butt on me and flicked her tail once before dropping to the floor and licking said butt. A soft rumble of laughter sounded from the other side of the door.
Damn.
Busted.
“It’s not polite to eavesdrop,” I said automatically before I could catch myself. I looked down to check my leg. “Besides, I could be in here bleeding to death for all you know,” I added grouchily.
I leaned down to run my fingers over the red marks and nearly fell on my ass when the voice on the other side of the door sounded like it was practically on top of me.
“Do you need someone to kiss it to make it better?”
The words were said with a certain lightness to them, but dear god, his voice was so deep and growly that my dick actually stood up and took notice. Thank goodness there was a thick layer of wood between us or he surely would have seen my wood through the raggedy plaid boxer shorts that doubled as my PJs.
“No, I’m fine, thank you,” I groused as I sat down on the floor to get a better look at the puncture marks on the calf of my leg. Fiona crawled into my lap before I even had a chance to examine the paltry wound.
There was silence on the other side of the door. I was tempted to get up and look through the peephole again, but Fiona had already curled herself into a ball in my arms and as always, her soft, rumbling purr brought me a level of comfort I was reluctant to give up, even long enough to climb to my feet. I leaned back against the door with a tiny thud as I tried some of the mental relaxation techniques I was always teaching my kids to help them find safer places in their minds.
“That was the first movie my dad took me to after my mom…”
I jumped at the sound of the man’s voice. My heart leapt into my throat as the door groaned just a tiny bit at my back but when he spoke next, I could tell he was at my level.
Which meant he was probably sitting with his back against the door just like me.
The man –Knox– seemed to clear his throat. “I asked him to take me to see it every day for a good two weeks after that and he did… that’s how I really knew.”
“Knew what?” I asked.
“That she wasn’t coming back.” He paused and added, “He’d explained to me a few times that she’d gone to be with the angels, but I hadn’t really gotten it. Took two weeks of watching Shrek, Donkey, and Princess Fiona for it to sink in. On the fourteenth day, we got up to the part where Shrek was saving Princess Fiona from the dragon’s castle and it all just hit me, and I started wailing right there in the movie theater.”
“How old were you?” I asked softly.
“Ten.”
My throat closed
off as I pictured a little boy in a crowded, darkened movie theater with a bucket of popcorn on his lap and his dad at his side. I could actually feel that moment where the screen and the noise and everything else disappeared and a child grieved the loss of his mother.
“What did your dad do?”
A beat of silence, then, “Just held me on his lap while I cried and begged him to make God give her back. I managed to empty out the entire theater. I guess some of the people were upset about me interrupting the movie, but my dad didn’t give a shit.” Knox paused and added, “I tried to watch the movie a few times after that, but to this day I can’t get past that one part, you know?”
“Yeah,” I murmured as I looked down at the cat in my arms. I had moments like that too–the kinds where all it would take was a sound or smell or word to put me back in the past. Even at twenty-five years old, it was hell trying to crawl out of those dark holes.
“Ryan?”
“Yeah?” I responded, only dimly registering that I’d just confirmed my identity to him.
“Your cat didn’t actually hurt you, did she? I’ve got some first aid training…”
“No,” I said with a shake of my head as I glanced at my leg. There wasn’t even a speck of blood. “She surprised me more than anything. I’m late giving her dinner—” I stopped suddenly when I realized what he’d asked me. “Wait, how did you know Fiona is a cat?” I tensed up when he remained silent for a moment. I was about to demand a response when he quietly gave it to me, his voice thick with confusion.
“Because you told me she was.”
CHAPTER 2
Knox
I ALMOST LAUGHED out loud when I saw the shocked expression on the cat’s face as the man holding her under one arm practically yanked the door open. Fortunately, the guy had a lot of locks because him turning them and ripping the security chain off the door had given me enough time to stand up and step back from it. I automatically tried to make myself somehow look smaller and less intimidating, but at six five and two hundred and seventy-five pounds, it was pretty much an impossible feat. But I tried anyway because I didn’t really want to lose my chance with Ryan Abernathy just because he’d gotten a look at me before he’d opened the door. I’d kind of hoped the little bit of chatting we’d done online had shown him how harmless I was, but clearly it hadn’t worked, based on the way he was looking at me.
“What?” he croaked.
I was so caught up in taking in the sight of him that I didn’t notice the shock in his voice at first.
He wasn’t at all like I’d pictured him in my head.
He was a thousand times better.
Messy black hair that was just a little long in the front had me wanting to sweep the soft-looking locks away from his flawless, creamy skin. His lips were plump and wide, perfect for kissing. But it was his black square-framed glasses that were really doing a number on me. I could see his mossy-green eyes behind the thin lenses, and I was torn between wanting to get a closer look at them and just staring at how adorable the glasses made him look. I’d always had a thing for smart guys in school, but I’d been too intimidated to make a move on any of them because I wasn’t exactly well-endowed when it came to smarts.
I let my gaze drift downward to check out the rest of him. While he wasn’t exactly skinny, he was on the leaner side but with some light muscle definition. The worn T-shirt he was wearing had a picture of Donkey from Shrek saying, In the morning, I’m making waffles. My eyes began to travel down his narrow waist when I heard him let out what sounded like some kind of little whimper.
I looked up just in time to see Ryan cuddle Fiona against his chest. His eyes were wide and fearful, and I realized it was probably because I’d been staring at him like a hungry wolf.
“Sorry,” I murmured as I took a step back so he wouldn’t feel too boxed in… and so I wouldn’t reach out to touch him.
“What did you mean by me telling you I had a cat?” Ryan asked after sucking in a few deep breaths. His voice sounded shaky and I instantly felt bad for having frightened him. So much for telling him about my own experience with Shrek when I’d been a kid.
“I’m not sure which message it was in exactly—”
“What messages?” he blurted. “I don’t know you!”
For the first time since knocking at his door, I felt a thread of irritation go through me. “Look, Ryan, I get it. This” –I motioned to my big body– “may not be what you signed on for, but do me a favor and just fucking say so.”
Despite my words, I didn’t actually want to hear him say them to me, so I turned to leave.
And just like that, he darted around me and stepped in my path, the cat still in his hands.
“This,” he said as he used Fiona to motion to me, “is definitely not a problem,” he blurted. He blushed when he heard his own words. “I mean, it is, but it isn’t. Not like you think. Because you’re…”
He made the cutest little humming sound that had my cock pressing against the zipper of my jeans.
“And I’m…” Another humming sound followed as Ryan tucked Fiona up under his arm and motioned to his own body.
Delicious?
Gorgeous?
Hot as fuck?
I could have gone on and on with my mental description of what he was, but the one that I kept coming back to was the one I inadvertently said out loud. “Perfect.”
Ryan’s mouth snapped shut and we ended up staring at each other for so long that Fiona let out a bored-sounding meow and then squirmed from her owner’s arms. He released her and she strutted back into the apartment, looking very offended. If she could have slammed the door behind her, she probably would have.
Crossing his arms across his chest, Ryan shifted nervously back and forth on his feet. My eyes lingered on his shapely calves. I could practically feel the hairs against my palm as I explored the delicate muscles with my hands…
“Um, Knox?”
My name on his lips was heaven. I forced myself to look up at him, expecting to see that same fear I’d seen before, but instead, he looked… not scared.
“That’s your name, right?”
I nodded dumbly. When he didn’t continue, it finally registered.
He really didn’t have any idea who I was.
What the ever-loving fuck?
“Fuck,” I muttered. Just my luck that I’d finally gotten up the nerve to start dating again and my first time out was a royal clusterfuck… and the date hadn’t even started yet.
“Did you even enter the raffle?”
“What raffle?”
Double fuck.
I sighed and pulled out my phone. I found the app I was looking for and handed the phone to him. “I’m sorry, Ryan. It looks like someone has been playing a joke at our expense.” Disappointment went through me as I watched him read through the messages on my phone.
“I didn’t write these,” Ryan said as he shook his head. He looked up, his eyes wide. “What is this?”
“Do you even use Heart2Heart?”
“I don’t know what that is.” He looked so confused and upset that I wanted to strangle whoever had done this to him… us.
I was about to respond when it suddenly occurred to me that there was a possibility that Ryan wasn’t even gay, and I was about to make this whole thing ten times worse by telling a straight man that someone had set him up in a whole new way.
“It’s a dating app. It’s geared primarily to members of the LGBTQ community.”
I waited for his reaction but he barely blinked.
Phew, ok, so maybe not so straight after all.
I hated the little surge of hope that went through me at the thought. “Heart2Heart recently had this charity raffle where local businesses and individuals in different cities around the world donated dates.”
“Dates?” Ryan gulped.
“Yeah. Some were really traditional… you know, dinner and a movie. Others were really extravagant like a hot air balloon ride over the French countrys
ide… that sort of thing. Some were a mystery… the people entering didn’t even know what they’d win.”
“So you entered one of the raffles and won?” Ryan asked. He’d crossed his arms in front of him again. When he began rubbing his fingers along the skin of his slim biceps, I felt my gut tighten… along with other parts of me that I tried to ignore.
“Knox?”
“Huh?”
He had to say my name a second time to pull me from my daze. Holy hell, how long had I been staring at him? He was actually smiling by the time he repeated his question.
“Um, no, I didn’t enter. Uncle Frank entered me.”
“Your uncle?” he asked, his smile growing tentatively bigger.
Shit, it was probably good this whole thing had turned out to be one big mix-up because I could get really used to that smile.
Across the kitchen table every morning and evening.
Waking up and falling asleep to it.
In bed.
In the shower.
Against the wall…
“Knox.”
The laughter in Ryan’s voice had me heating with embarrassment. “Jesus Christ,” I muttered. “I think it’s the glasses.”
“What’s wrong with my glasses?”
I ended up taking a step closer to him before I could stop myself. “Abso-fucking-lutely nothing,” I whispered. I hadn’t meant my voice to get all growly like that, but thankfully, it didn’t seem to scare Ryan off. In fact, was he… leaning in closer?
“I, um, could um…” Ryan began. This time I had to prod him into continuing by breathing his name. When the hell had I had this kind of instant chemistry with someone?
“I could turn around,” Ryan finally managed to get out.
He actually started to do just that. I shot out my hand to stop him because I knew if I saw his pert ass in the cute little shorts, I’d be pressing him up against the wall, mix-up be damned. Ryan flinched and pulled away at my sudden movement. He managed to mask the fear in his eyes, but not quickly enough. I felt my stomach drop out. I knew that reaction. I’d seen it before. A boy I’d dated senior year in high school had been knocked around by his closeted ex. He’d pulled away like that any time I’d moved too quickly. We’d only dated for a couple of months before he’d called the whole thing off and gone back to his piece of shit ex.
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