Owen has been struggling with addiction since he was a teenager, but it takes a DUI involving another vehicle for him to finally face his issues. The road to recovery is a rough one, and for Owen it's a journey made harder by bankruptcy, loneliness, and repressed memories.<br><br>His new apartment doesn't help either. It's small, worn, and hot as hell. The only way to reach it is a tedious stretch of stairs that seems like the final insult on top of a whole pile of misery.<br><br>Thankfully, the mess comes with one bright spot: intense, pretty Sebastian, who seems to have a knack for keeping his head up and finding the beauty in everything.

Forty-Two Stairs

Sebastian shifted, tucking his legs underneath him to turn, and look up at Owen. A pleasant view, that one, and Owen smiled at him. “Do you like it?” Sebastian asked. “The colour, I mean? Some people think it’s odd.”


“I love it.” Owen let the strand fall from his fingers and reached up to thread his hand through Sebastian’s crown. “It’s not odd to me in the least. And if it is to other people then so be it. It’s you. Pretty and different.”


With a grin Sebastian slid both palms up Owen’s thighs. “I like that you think that way. And I like that you don’t act like other people. You make me feel important.”


“You are important. And you know what?” Owen’s smile deepened when Sebastian’s right hand slipped to his groin and rested there. “You make me feel pretty important too.”


“I can make you feel all kinds of things,” Sebastian teased, squeezing the bulge in Owen’s shorts as if trying to coax life into sleeping organs. “But I like making you feel horny the most.”


Chapter 38