"If that's what you think of me, I wonder that you can bring yourself to touch me at all. I won't hold my breath."

Damen had never been so coldly, consistently rejected. His body ached for the closeness Laurent's body had tempted him with. He thought of how easy it would be to call Erasmus in, how delighted the young man would be to devote all his attention to the one person he'd been raised to serve. it wasn't Erasmus that he truly wanted. It was that kind of attention from Laurent, that same affection and trust in his motives.

"Going to run away again? Why don't you try telling me what I did to make you look at me so?"