Project Apollo: Book Two ✔️

Chapter Eight

Jason Archer

My brain completely errored out.

Nothing left up there.

As Emery puts it: My fucking brain fell offline and I can't get it to reconnect.

After spending three hours being mentally tortured by three men who thought you were an abomination—you tended to throw away those kinds of empty compliments. The ones where someone tells you that you have a wicked, beautiful smile. I dropped the part where he said he didn't trust it. Me. Didn't trust me.

That was to be expected. It wasn't like I trusted him very well. At all. I didn't trust him much at all. Yet, his eyes sparkled with truth. Closely related to how Axton's shined when he spoke his truth. Weird. But I'd allow it. I'd allow it because Apollo said it. An equally gay man—not a straight one who acted...slightly suspicious.

An attractive, gay man.

One I hit on and completely missed the mark when he snarled at me like a hound dog finding prey. Not the good kind of prey either.

Though, I started to wonder if he was forced to come out here and apologize. Axton told me he only mentioned he should. Apollo didn't come out here right away. Hell, I didn't expect him to come out here at all. The longer I looked into those chocolate eyes—I saw...guilt. He felt bad. Not my intention. But the words of him calling me weak hit a sensitive part of my fucking soul. I couldn't control it.

The condensation from his heated breath flew through the air as he nervously glanced around. It was then I realized I'd been quiet for far too long. "Oh." Yeah, I nailed that. Great. "Uhm. Thank you?" Nailed it again. Allow me to take a bow. "Or, well, okay. I don't know."

Apollo huffed a small laugh. Weird. This was fucking weird. "Is this your true form?"

I blinked—still feeling the moisture in my eyes. The cold did not help them dry away. "Uhm, yes?" Made me sound like an alien, but alright. We will work with it. "Wait, I can sound more confident in that answer." I cleared my throat. "Yes. Although it sounds untrustworthy, this is...mostly me. Broken...pieces of me, I guess."

"You've been hurt."

Okay, that was a statement and not a question. Wasn't ready for that heavy dose of analysis this evening. I answered anyway. "That obvious? Can I interest you in a fact or twelve to make you forget about it?"

He frowned. "No." Great. Awesome. Loved that for me. "But I'm not going to push you to tell someone who, only thirty minutes ago, tried to call you a weak human being."

I laughed nervously. "Oh? That? Feels...like a century ago." Humor used to be my best friend to help me cope with awkward situations. It seemed to fail me now. "Okay, well, it wasn't like...I didn't deserve it."

"You didn't."

"Arguments don't play in my favor. I was cruel to you because of my own shit."

"And I was cruel right back because of my own shit."

"Great, glad that's cleared up." I stuck my hand out. "I'm Jason. This time, I will not hit on you while I'm introducing myself. Or smile. I promise I can act like a human being. Mostly."

Apollo looked at my hand—like he was debating if I was truly being serious right now. The worst part? I was. But he played my game. He shook my hand. "Apollo. I don't mind your smile."

I swallowed. "Mmm, seemed to imply that you did mind my smile. Something about it being untrusting."

"I don't like people."