Love Me Like A Rock Read Online Free

too.
    Huh. Wish I’d known.
    Not that he would have done anything on the bank of the river, with Vinnie and the guys all standing right there, but it would have been cool to know that someone was cheering just for him. Some of his art department friends showed up when they could, and he knew Denny’s cousin Cash and his friends rooted for the whole team, but having someone on the riverbank screaming encouragement just for you felt different than all that.
    Made him kind of wistful to think he’d missed that.
    “So have you made it to any of the fall races yet?” he asked casually, shoving his charcoals back in his art box, not meeting Sean’s eyes.
    “Not yet. Think I should go?”
    “I hear the JV boat is doing pretty fucking fantastic,” Austin said lightly, and smiled when Sean laughed.
    “Is that so?”
    “Yeah, their cox is a real pain in the ass, but it’s worth it.”
    “That what they say?”
    Done playing, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and turned to face Sean, letting his gaze drift down over the gaping wrap and loose belt of his robe. “Nah. They say they’re going to dump me in the river if I don’t lighten up.”
    “But if you’re winning…” Sean drew out the phrase like a question.
    “They’re happy as hell to have me yelling at them.”
    Sean leaned his hips against the table and crossed his bare feet at the ankles. Austin couldn’t help looking down to see the man’s big feet up close.
    “Man, your feet are jacked up,” he said before he could stop the words. Way to insult the guy, asshole. He glanced up worriedly to check if steam was shooting out Sean’s ears yet. “Sorry.”
    “Nah, they’re totally jacked. I’m a grad student in geology. Spent the summer measuring glacier movements in Greenland and the hike between our sets was brutal. My toenails are still recovering.”
    “Wow. Sounds cool.”
    Way more exciting than the three months Austin had spent plugged into his computer working on his insane project that would never see the light of day. He shook his head to banish the thought. What was one wasted summer anyway? Just because his professors anticipated an entire show’s worth of new work in a couple of months was no reason to panic.
    No reason.
    “Sure I can’t see?” Sean reached out with one bare foot and poked Austin’s jeans until he found leg.
    “They’re just sketches.”
    “I could buy you a drink. See if I can change your mind.” And it wasn’t his imagination this time either as Sean took a step forward, crowding into Austin’s personal space, a move that normally bothered him because most guys were tall enough to tower over him and pushing up on him always felt like a power move.
    But Sean’s face was only a couple inches above his and he was leaning back as he moved in—leading with his dick, as it were—which made the whole thing feel more like an invitation than a demand.
    Sean smelled warm and fresh and smoky, like a campfire in the woods, and Vinnie’s never-ending distancing was a cold room to live in.
    Parking himself at the foot of a roaring fire, because he was pretty sure Sean could make him go up like a torch in a heartbeat, sounded like the best idea ever all of a sudden.
    “One drink.”
    Sean’s eyes lit up. “I’ll put my pants on first.”
    “If you insist.”
    And yeah, now he was flirting. More than flirting, if he had to admit it. More like issuing an open-to-fuck invitation with his eyes, because screw it. This guy was hot and wanted him. Had wanted him for most of a year, which was the kind of flattering that ignited a warm glow in a guy’s chest. And maybe it was time to admit that Vinnie and he were never going to be a thing. Had never really been a thing.
    Admitting it didn’t mean getting over it like flipping a light switch off. Austin didn’t have any illusions about his ability to stop being hung up on Vinnie just because he’d finally realized they were never going to be a real couple.
    He’d