soon.
“I’ve frightened you.” The man seems honestly displeased with the thought, but when he stretches out a hand as if to touch him, Darin takes a step back and out of his reach. The stranger frowns, his dark brows lowering as he drops his hand back down to his side.
“That wasn’t my intention.” His eyes are locked on Darin, and his gaze is unwavering.
Darin’s at a loss for words for a moment because the guy seems sincere and the whole situation is just a bit surreal. He’s in the woods, in his running gear and having an almost conversation with a sexy, shirtless stranger who has just saved him from taking a nasty spill. When he finally manages to gather himself enough to speak he realizes too late that he doesn’t really seem to have complete control over what exactly his mouth chooses to say.
“You’re not going to eat me or anything, are you? ‘Cause I’m gonna have to tell you that I’ll probably taste horrible. Like disappointment and shame or something equally disgusting sounding since that’s how my life works and that means I probably wouldn’t even be appetizing to a creature that killed me. Not that you’re a creature or anything since you don’t look like one. I meant that in a more relative sense, and oh my God, I need to stop talking now.” Darin barely stops himself from whimpering in humiliation, but he does feel the way his already red cheeks flush an even darker shade.
The other guy just stares at him for a moment, head tilted to the side and eyes wide and bright with what looks like awe or amusement. He seems to shake himself out of it after a few seconds, and then the amusement is obvious in the way his grin from earlier comes back full force. He reaches out a hand to Darin again, but he doesn’t try to touch him this time, just lets the hand hang in the air between them.
“I’m Raylan, Raylan Loup. And I swear that I’m not going to actually eat you or anything unpleasant like that.”
Darin debates with himself briefly for a moment, but then he musters up his courage, and his fine motor skills, and wipes a sweaty palm on the front of his hoodie before he wraps his fingers around Raylan’s.
“Darin Brightmore. Nice to meet you and if you could be kind enough to forget basically everything I’ve said up until this point I would greatly appreciate it.” He smiles shakily at Raylan, embarrassment making his voice stutter and his cheeks flush an even darker shade of crimson.
He goes to pull his hand away, but Raylan seems to have other ideas because he only tightens his grip instead of letting go. Raylan takes a step closer to Darin, who’s frozen in place with a growing sense of almost horror mixed, terribly enough, with a faint hint of arousal, and raises Darin’s hand upwards towards his face. Darin can only watch wide-eyed as Raylan turns his arm until his wrist is facing upwards and then Raylan lowers his face until his nose can run lightly across Darin’s skin. He can feel the way Raylan’s taking in his scent, can feel warm puffs of breath against his skin as the other man seems to luxuriate in his smell for a moment before he finally stops.
Raylan lets his wrist go and takes a large step back; Darin can’t help but notice that his eyes are even brighter than before and when he grins his teeth gleam in the low light. Darin shivers at the sight of Raylan even as his hand is still raised in the air in front of him. It’s a moment before he manages to remember that he should probably put it down.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Darin, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other in the future.”
Darin’s speechless, which is something that doesn’t really happen to him a lot in his experience, but Raylan seems to have that effect on him. He watches as the other man turns on his heel and jogs farther up the path in the direction that Darin was going until his almost fall and this strange encounter
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