Chapter Fourteen
THE SHRINE TO Benzaiten in the basement of Delta Eta Sigma was, in a word, a travesty.
Xander was at best a passing expert on what Shinto shrines should contain, but he was fairly certain beer bottles didn’t figure into their decoration, nor empty chip bags or other bits of garbage. What had once been carefully hung prayer requests on the peg wall beside the main body of the shrine were in tatters on the floor, and everything from the altar itself lay smashed throughout the room. The red gates—torii, to name them properly—were knocked askew, and Xander suspected he knew who had done this handiwork, because he recognized the lines of the penises scrawled onto the pillars. They were the same as the ones on his mural.
While Xander was disgusted with what he saw, Skylar and Unc appeared about to be sick. At first they simply stood and stared, dumbstruck, and then they gestured with helpless rage as they moved about the carnage.
Unc swept his arm across the room, then pressed his fingers to his lips as he shook his head. “What the fuck. I mean—what the fuck.”
“They were just down here cleaning last month.” Skylar’s voice was carefully controlled, and Xander thought he was getting a glimpse of how the man performed in his leadership role. “I saw them. I watched the cleaning committee come down, do their work, then go back up the stairs. It was the last they’d be down here before the big preparations for the fall pledges, but they were down here. And none of them would have done this.”
Xander wondered if he should point out about the graffiti, but Unc got there before he had to. Unc gestured to the penis art. “It was those fuckers we kicked out. Everybody knows where the key is. They went and got it, had themselves a goodbye party, and now it’s too late to do shit.”
Skylar’s gaze went hard and cold. “You think so? All we’ve done is enter the room. We’ve touched the doorknob. I’ll have Ms. Mary call the police right now, get in here and dust for prints.”
“You do that, and I’ll call the leadership committee. Let’s get this ball rolling and nail the bastards.”
It took an amazingly long time to get the ball rolling, and it involved the three of them giving interviews to earnest police officers who Xander was surprised would come over in the middle of the night to investigate a desecrated fraternity shrine, but then he looked around at the way the walls of the frat breathed money and decided someone had called in a favor. He didn’t think it was Skylar, either, given the way he swayed on his feet, ready to keel over from exhaustion, but nevertheless he didn’t complain, only kept on working, first answering the officers’ questions, then getting on the phone with Unc and fielding an hours-long conference call with first one set of fraternity officers and then another. It seemed this shrine was important to many members of Delta Eta Sigma, and everyone had an opinion on how this matter should be handled.
Xander was impressed with how Skylar dealt with the other people on the phone, all of whom seemed like bags of dicks, but Skylar smoothed them out even though he yawned around his cups of coffee. When he caught Xander drooping on the couch, he excused himself and led him up the stairs.
“You need to lie down,” he insisted. “Let me show you to my room.”
Xander’s heart skipped a beat. “I can wait for you.”
“There’s no need. I have no idea how long this is going to be.” He used a key to open a door at the end of a hall. “Make yourself at home—you can sleep in my bed.”
This time it was more than a beat that Xander’s heart skipped. He felt ridiculous. Skylar had confessed, basically, to being gray in the car, and they hadn’t kissed, only had the hand make-out session, but even so, Xander panicked. He wasn’t ready to lie in a bed beside Skylar, even if that was all they did.
His panic must have shown. Skylar smiled knowingly and caught Xander’s hand for a brief caress that sent shivers up his spine. “Sleep in my bed. When I come up, I’ll make a blanket nest on the floor.”
“That’s not right—”
Skylar silenced him by stroking his face, letting his thumb catch Xander’s lip before he lowered his hand. “I said, sleep in my bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
Arrested, all Xander could do was shiver for several seconds. When he got his voice back, it broke as he spoke. “What—what was that? I thought…” He trailed off and touched his lip. This was all his melted brain could manage.
Skylar looked ridiculously pleased with himself. “You thought when I said I had a narrow interest in sex it meant I was shy? That I didn’t know how to use charm against you when I want to seduce you into doing what I want?” He chuckled and leaned in close enough to fill Xander’s senses with his scent. “Oh, Xander.”
Xander backed into the doorway, telling himself he felt woozy because he was tired, and not because Skylar was melting his mental circuitry. “You’re not fair.”
He braced for more onslaught, but what he got instead was Skylar crowding him with slight hesitation, resting his forehead on the doorway beside Xander’s ear. “I’m sorry about the shrine. I’m sorry you were right about fraternities after all. More sorry than I know how to tell you.”
Xander couldn’t agree with him on that point, not when he was so clearly brought low by all this. “I’m not saying I’m gung-ho about all fraternity members. But it’s clear the assholes who did that don’t represent you or anything you believe in.”
Skylar’s cheek brushed Xander, and he couldn’t stop a shiver, nor could he help leaning into Skylar’s half embrace. “Are you gung-ho about some fraternity members, then?”
Fishing. He was fishing for compliments now, the bastard. And fool Xander, he was going to let him. “I’m all right with a few, I think, yes.”
“Have you decided you don’t mind Unc after all?”
Xander couldn’t tease, not after the pain he’d seen on the man’s face in that shrine. “Unc’s a good guy.”
A touch on his arm, his wrist. “Any other Greeks you find tolerable?”
The man didn’t need a pole. He was reaching into the creek with bare hands. Xander bit his lip to stop a smile. “There’s one other I don’t mind, yeah. But he sure keeps me up late.”
Skylar captured Xander’s hand, stroking it tentatively as he rested the side of his head against Xander’s. “Kiss me good night?”
Xander trembled as Skylar’s fingers made love to his skin, as the heat of Skylar’s body surrounded him, pressing him into the door. Skylar shifted and turned with their touches, and Xander held still, gasping out loud while Skylar kept quiet, focused on undoing Xander. It made him feel vulnerable and exposed, even as he didn’t want Skylar to stop.
That was when it hit him that Skylar was the aggressor this time, holding him close. And if Skylar held him much closer, he was going to discover…
“You don’t need to be nervous,” Skylar whispered into his ear. “But if you want, I’ll stop.”
Xander didn’t know what he wanted. He nuzzled Skylar’s cheek without realizing what he was doing, then stopped, feeling unsure. That was the trouble, he decided. “I don’t…I don’t know what I’m doing. What…what’s okay. What isn’t. With you.”
Skylar kept stroking Xander’s hand, a rhythmic, steady petting that Xander thought might drive him out of his mind. “What is it you want?”
Xander sagged. “That’s just it, I don’t know.” God, he felt dumb.
Skylar didn’t laugh. He only laced his fingers through Xander’s, no longer stroking, only holding him close. “Do you want me to hold you? Because I want to hold you.”
There went his heartbeat again. “Y-yes.”
“Like this? Maybe a little closer?”
Oh God. “Yes.”
But Skylar didn’t move closer. “But you don’t want me to hold you on the bed. That’s too much.”
The very idea made Xander both excited beyond words and too terrified to speak. He shook his head. Then realized that was ambivalent. “It’s too much. Right now.”
“What about here, against the wall?”
Xander thought that sounded perfect. Except… His cheeks were on fire as he spoke. “You’d feel something extra.”
He could feel Skylar’s smile against his cheek. “That’s not a problem for me. Unless it upsets you that for me that happens differently.”
“No, I’d never be upset about that.”
“And I’d never be upset about the opposite being true for you. So I don’t see anything stopping me from crowding you against this wall. Do you?”
Xander let out a shuddering breath. “No.”
Then he shut his eyes as Skylar stepped in close, pressed their bodies together, and…
And.
Xander wanted to bury his face in Skylar’s shoulder, but he also would rather die than do that, because…well, he wasn’t ready to. Funny, he hadn’t realized how much he wasn’t ready to do with Skylar, with anyone, until Skylar made his confession in the car. God, after all these years of hearing Zelda’s lectures, was he—
Skylar shifted against him, and Xander gasped as his body shivered and responded to the friction. His libido helpfully suggested what Skylar would look like naked, what he might taste like in his mouth, on his neck, down the center of his chest.
No, Xander wasn’t asexual, or gray at all. But as those lustful thoughts made him tremble and blush, as even Skylar’s simple strokes down his arm and across his fingers made him quake, he had to admit he was…
“You’re shy,” Skylar whispered, nuzzling his ear. Reading his mind.
Xander swallowed. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.” Skylar laced their fingers together, drew Xander in close enough that there would be no hiding the evidence of Xander’s arousal. And Skylar’s lack thereof. “I find your shyness very attractive.”
“Oh,” Xander said, because he didn’t know what else to say.
“I want to date you, Xander. I want to help you with your project, and sit for your paintings, and write a manga with you, and I want to date you.”
Xander wondered if he had somehow gone to sleep already and was dreaming. “Okay. And do your LSAT studying somewhere in the middle of all that, I assume?”
Skylar sighed. “Yes. And that too.”
Why is it you’re going to be a lawyer again? Because I’ve never once heard you say you want to, or that you love it at all. But Xander didn’t say this. “You should get back to your phone call.”
“I should,” Skylar agreed.
With one last caress of Xander’s hand, one more touch of his cheek, he was gone.
Xander fell into Skylar’s bed and lay there spinning, drowning in sheets that smelled of the man who had sent him reeling so, all the while staring across the room at his own painting in the moonlight, the one he had been trying to throw away when he’d met Skylar in the first place.
Life, he decided, was sometimes incredibly strange.
BY THE TIME Skylar came to bed, it was dawn, and Xander was out cold.
Skylar had been exhausted and ready to roll into the spare comforter he’d grabbed from the hall cupboard, but once he saw the form outlined in his bed, he couldn’t help but linger, letting the image burn into his brain. His mind called up the feeling of pressing Xander into the wall, of the heady way Xander had trembled, going quiet. Skylar knew he would get drunk on that sensation for a long time. That he would be chasing down ways to find new versions of it again.
He couldn’t stand on his feet any longer and did climb into the comforter then, but he lay as close to the bed as he could, wanting to be near Xander, wishing there were another bed in the room so he could look at him as he drifted into sleep. If only he didn’t have a single and could scam on a roommate’s bed. Because it was easier to draw up the memory of Xander’s soft expression when he could see him, even in the shadows.
As much as Xander seemed to react to Skylar’s touches and physical presence, Skylar was moved by Xander’s reactions. By the way Skylar’s touches made him change.
You’re being dangerous. You’re going to upset everything too much.
Skylar stared at Xander’s painting in the dim light of dawn, unable to see it and yet aware of every stroke of the brush, every nuance of the paint. I know. I can feel the world crumbling around me. But I don’t want to stop.
He slept fitfully, uncomfortable on the floor, bothered by the business with the shrine, unnerved by the track his thoughts had taken, and he woke at ten with five hours of sleep in him, knowing he was going to feel like a zombie all day. Xander was still asleep when Skylar got out of bed, but he barely had a cup of coffee poured in the kitchen when his guest came in after him, delightfully rumpled and, bless him, adorably shy and grumpy all at once.
“Hi,” he said, looking like he was trying to find an excuse to bolt for his apartment.
Skylar passed him the mug of coffee he was holding with a smile and deftly cut off his escape. “Good morning. Come have some breakfast. You’ll be sorry if you miss Ms. Mary’s cooking. Then we’ll get showered and go back to your place. If you’re sick of me, I’ll leave you alone, but if you’re up to it, I’d be happy to sit for you.” He knew they were alone and no one else was in earshot, but he stepped in close, mostly so he could feel Xander shiver as he put a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. “You can arrange me however you like.”
“When did you turn into a monster?” Xander murmured. But he leaned into Skylar all the same.
When you heard my confession and insisted it didn’t matter, then taught me to make out with you by holding your hand. Skylar executed that move now, delighting in the fact that Ms. Mary or Unc could walk in and they wouldn’t realize what was happening. Xander would know, though, and he’d be even more flustered, making the encounter that much more delicious.
What a wonderful kink.
“Oh my God, stop,” Xander whispered, breathless. Except he didn’t pull away.
Skylar felt like a god. He did stop, though, but not until he’d placed a kiss on the back of Xander’s hand. “Let me take you to the dining room.”
Ms. Mary and Unc were already seated, talking to one another, but they greeted Skylar and Xander as they entered the room. Ms. Mary gave special attention to Xander, shepherding him through the buffet line of food. She was talking him into letting her prepare him a custom omelet at the omelet bar when Unc pulled Skylar aside.
“Vernon and the rest of the council are making arrangements to get back here and assess the damage themselves, and meet with the lawyer. Two of the national representatives who are former Benten graduates are coming too. This thing is rippling like crazy. I mean, I knew the shrine meant a lot to the brothers, but this is intense.” He frowned. “The problem is, though, that the fall leadership isn’t exactly the best to tackle this. I’m not technically part of the leadership, but I’m roped into this now. I don’t mind, because the shrine is important to me. But I worry how this is going to be handled.”
Skylar stroked his chin, which sported quite a bit of stubble at this hour of the day. “They won’t be able to save it. Not like it was. The sacred mirror is smashed, the magatama too. How can you get a new sacred mirror?”
Unc frowned. “A Shinto priest, I guess?”
“Right—where the hell will we find one of those?”
Unc ran a hand through his hair. “Good thing I didn’t want to study today anyway.”
Skylar didn’t take that guilt temptation, reminding himself if he’d stuck to his original plan, he’d be in Connecticut. He was surprised his mother hadn’t called him. He was sure it was just a matter of time before she—or someone—did.
These thoughts filled him with unease, so he pushed them aside and focused on joining Ms. Mary and Xander in a discussion about art on campus, both the odd-seeming modern pieces Xander insisted were important and visionary, and the more standard, visually easy murals and statues placed here and there.
Afterward they helped her clear the table and the buffet, then retired upstairs to shower. Skylar showed Xander how the bathroom was set up and where he should leave his things—it was adorable how he flushed and got nervous, as if Skylar might jump him in the bathroom. Skylar didn’t, obviously, but he did wait to shower once Xander was finished, despite there being six other showers in the room where he could have taken care of his own business. He lay on his bed instead, hands behind his head, drinking in the faint scent of Xander.
He thought of him as he showered, of how good it felt to be with him, to tease him and try to draw him out. This was the real Pygmalion, except he didn’t want to share this Xander with anyone. He didn’t want to own him, or control him, but the thought that Xander would be soft and tender only for him, compliant only for him, surrender his sullen crankiness only for him…
Skylar gasped, shuddering as the ripple of pleasure rolled through him, then drew breath again as he realized what alterations that gasp of pleasure had done to him.
It wasn’t that Skylar had never been erect before. Of course he got hard. But it had always been as if a switch had been thrown, his body announcing it was time to ejaculate, a chore to be taken care of. Sometimes he indulged it, mostly he waited until the impulse faded away. He found it annoying, troublesome. He had, in the past, been jealous of others who felt attraction to other people, whose desire of mind and body had no trouble uniting, but eventually he’d decided simply masturbating to get the job done was efficient and he shouldn’t bother with what other people were doing with their private time.
It was, without question, thoughts of Xander sending a rush through Skylar now. Not because Skylar thought of his body. But because Skylar couldn’t stop thinking of him, of his reactions. Of the special regard he’d given Skylar. No one had given this to Skylar before. It wasn’t as if his life had been empty without this sensation, but it was not unlike going into a confectionary filled with delicious gourmet chocolate. No one could eat this every day.
But now that he’d tasted it, he didn’t mind indulging a bit more…
Skylar trembled as he took himself in hand beneath the spray, still not entirely sure of his decision, ready to stop at any time. He wouldn’t sully those perfect thoughts of Xander. If this made them feel tainted, dirty, wrong, he would end it. He took it slow, stroking himself languidly, letting his mind’s eye find the counterpart that fit. Imagining himself touching Xander didn’t help him. Laughing with him, talking with him…yes, that was all right. Being drawn by him worked quite well.
What if Xander drew him naked?
The thought sent another thrill through Skylar. It was all too easy to see himself seated in Xander’s apartment, or better yet in the art studio, soft light aimed on him while Xander hovered at the edge of the shadow, bent over his paper and staring hungrily at Skylar as he drew his form. Skylar chased this image. Yes, and Xander wouldn’t make the situation sexual, either—his hunger wouldn’t be for Skylar’s body. It would be for the art, for the form. Part of him would want to admire Skylar as a partner, but he’d make himself see him as a subject to draw, to sketch, and he’d get that cool artist’s eye. He’d roll his eyes all over Skylar, taking him in. Then when he was done, he’d show Skylar, and Skylar would end up seeing a side of himself he didn’t know he had. It would be beautiful and open.
It would be their space. Just theirs. And Skylar would be safe inside it, as would Xander.
He came with a sharp cry against the shower wall—it wasn’t a monumental orgasm in a porn-shoot sense, not that Skylar had much of a frame of reference there, but for Skylar the entire experience was so epic he had to sit on the bench outside the shower for several minutes before he could finish toweling off. He’d never done anything like that, ever. Oh, he’d gotten off in the shower more times than he could guess. But not like that. Not while thinking of someone, of doing things with someone. Not while letting go like that.
Out of habit, he hadn’t brought any clothes with him, and so he had to go back to the room wearing only the white towel cinched at his waist. Maybe that forgetting had been subliminally done, because he couldn’t help tracking Xander’s reaction to his nearly naked presence. He wasn’t disappointed. Skylar knew women and men alike found him attractive, but now the only thing that mattered was that Xander did.
The evidence was in the focusing of his pupils, the working of his Adam’s apple. The way his gaze couldn’t stay on Skylar’s face but kept straying to his chest, lingering on his nipples, dipping down to the slope of the towel, trailing the V line of muscles at his Adonis belt. Skylar wondered if any water still lingered on his body. He wished he had spare time to work out, to give Xander more to stare at.
Skylar hadn’t known he enjoyed being regarded like this. He suspected it was another thing that was only for Xander, for the two of them. Xander needed to drink this in, and if his expression was an indicator, at some point he wanted to touch as well. Skylar wasn’t sure about the latter yet. This, however, he already knew he craved. This look on Xander’s face. This hunger.
God, but he could wrap the two of them in a bubble and chase these feelings for a year. Put them in a cottage on a beach, give Xander all the art supplies he wanted, and the two of them could simply exist, exploring and teasing and…and…
No. He’d been wrong. He did want to touch, a little. Right now.
He sat on the bed beside Xander, moving carefully, but even so, Xander drew back, panicked.
“Skylar—dammit, you’re going too fast.”
Skylar almost apologized, but he stopped as he realized Xander’s expression belied his words. He decided to take a different approach. Come out and play with Pygmalion, Galatea. Or was it the other way around? Skylar was losing track of who was who in their play. “Am I too fast, or are you too nervous?”
There was that blush Sky loved so much. “Both.” Xander waved his hands in irritation at Skylar’s chest, looking both hungry and annoyed. “How am I supposed to know what to do? Is it okay to touch you? Really? Because Jesus, Skylar, I want to touch you.” His whole face went beet red. “I doubt you want what I want. And I don’t know how to draw the line.”
Skylar could appreciate that. But he was nothing if not a problem solver. He took Xander’s hands in his. “Then here are some rules, for now.” He placed Xander’s hands on his shoulders, loving how cool they were, how they trembled. “My shoulders, my arms, my face, my hands, even my back—touch that area as you like. If you want to touch my chest, I’m not against it…but maybe for now, let me drive. I’ll hold your hand, move it to where I’m comfortable.”
Xander’s pupils had gone dark with lust again. It was such a good look on him. “How…how does this work for you? Is this…curiosity? Are you taking one for the team? Or do you actually enjoy it?”
Part of Skylar wanted to keep his discovery to himself, but he realized that wasn’t fair, especially since Xander was going to worry about it so much. He did his best to put the feelings into words, capturing one of Xander’s hands as he spoke. “I enjoy it, but not the way you do, I’m pretty sure.” He slid Xander’s hand to his throat, feeling a soft shiver as he watched Xander experience his own reaction.
Xander’s gaze flicked up to his. “That—you reacted there, though. To my touch?”
Skylar shook his head. “To the way you looked at me while you did it. To the way you felt while you touched me.” Now it was he who blushed. “I don’t know how to describe it properly. It’s not about the physical sensation. It’s all happening in my head.”
Xander studied him a moment, tilted his head, then smiled, a lovely, slightly shy smile. “So you’re saying, you like it when I touch you and react to you, because while I get off on your body, you get off on my reaction to your body?”
Skylar wanted to swim in Xander’s smile. “Yes. I think that’s about right.”
And here came back confident Xander, the one from the car. The one who had pointed out to Skylar he had just made out with someone for the first time, for real, in his own way. Xander slid his hands down Skylar’s arms, then up again, then massaged one shoulder cap while the other played with the slope of his neck, thumb running along his chin. His touches were still somewhat tentative, but he was gathering himself now. Aiming for a goal.
He kept brushing his fingers along Skylar’s jaw. “I love this stubble. I hate knowing you’re about to go shave it off.”
That had been Skylar’s plan, yes, to shave. “It’s so messy.” But Xander liked that?
“It’s sexy. I have…dreams about this stubble.” When Skylar pulled back and arched an inviting eyebrow, Xander shook his head. “I’m not telling you. It’s too embarrassing.”
Oh, now Skylar had to know. “I promise not to shave it if you tell me.”
Xander panicked, attempting again to withdraw. “Oh my God, no.”
So it was something a little bit dirty? With his stubble? Skylar couldn’t begin to guess. He felt cocky and played a wild card. “I promise to do your dream, or something similar, if you tell me.”
Xander simultaneously panicked harder and relaxed. “You wouldn’t do it.” He hesitated, then added, “I don’t think.”
This was, Skylar decided, a most wonderful game. He hoped they got to play it often. “Let’s find out.” He put a hand on Xander’s thigh, just above his knee. “Please.”
Xander flushed, trembling. Aching. Nervous. Desperate. It was like a fine wine. Skylar felt like a vampire.
Xander’s tongue darted out to wet his lip. “This is what you mean, isn’t it? You like this. Pushing me. Making me…like this. Making me tell you.”
Skylar’s whole body was hot. He wasn’t erect, not in his body, but his mind pulsed, a second skin inside him breathing, itching to respond to Xander. “Yes.” He slid his hand higher on Xander’s thigh, the skin inside him tightening as Xander gasped. “Do you like it when I make you tell me?”
“Yes.” A whisper, a beautiful confession—then on the heels, an aching one. “But I worry I’m going to admit I want something you don’t, or can’t, and I’ll feel ridiculous.”
Ah. Skylar’s hand on Xander’s leg squeezed reassuringly, his heart pulsing with tenderness. “Don’t ever feel ridiculous. If you want something I can’t give you, if that happens”—when it happens, let’s be honest, he admitted—“we’ll work it out. Without guilt or recrimination. For either of us. How about that?” When Xander shut his eyes and nodded, Skylar stroked his cheek. “Now—please, tell me, what it is you wanted. We won’t do it now. But I want to know. Because maybe I want it too.”
Xander drew a deep breath, keeping his eyes closed and leaning into Skylar’s hand as he spoke in almost a whisper. “I want…I want you to press me onto the bed, or a couch, or the ground, and rub your stubble against my neck. And cheek. And throat. And shoulder.” He bit his lip, swallowed, and kept going. “And…and push against me. With your whole body.”
Skylar broke out into gooseflesh. That certainly was advanced cuddling. But if he was getting thrills from Xander’s reaction describing it… “Are we wearing clothes in this scenario?”
“Either…either way…it would end…messy, on my part.” Xander ducked his head and covered his eyes. “Jesus, I can’t believe I said that.”
“I’m glad you did.” Skylar laced their fingers together, leaned into Xander’s cheek. “That will take some working up to. But some of it can be arranged in the meantime.”
“You don’t have to.”
“But I want to.”
Xander shivered. He kept going soft, all his usual prickliness gone. “How did we get here? Yesterday morning I was in a car with you, determined not to let you know how attracted to you I was. Now I’m in your bed confessing my sexual fantasies to you while you’re in your towel.”
“Tabitha West. I need to send her flowers.”
Xander’s grip tightened on his. “Don’t you dare.”
Skylar’s heart ached, happiness and yearning mixed with a swirl of…fear? “Don’t leave me,” he whispered.
Surprised, Xander put his free hand on his back. “I won’t.”
“I want to stay with you today. Please.”
“Of course.”
Skylar had thought about teasing Xander with his stubble, of playing the game a little more. Somehow, though, Xander’s possessiveness had stopped it all. He left him with a smile instead, gathering his clothes and taking them back to the bathroom to get dressed.
He’d forgotten his phone in there, and he saw his mother had called him. Normally the sight would fill him with joy, the thrill of being noticed. Today he deleted the message without listening to it, afraid it would burst his bubble of joy.
When he emerged from the bathroom and went downstairs, Unc and Xander were both in the living room.
“What, you’re growing a beard now?” Unc asked, clearly shocked.
“Just a little stubble,” Skylar replied, stroking his chin, keeping his gaze on Unc but watching for Xander’s blush out of the corner of his eye.
He wasn’t disappointed.