What he'll see was struggle; the warring of James' reason with his instincts, of what he should do with what he wants. And, oh, how he wants. Every inch of him, every fiber of him wants Eli. This young man who took so much onto himself to pursue his dreams, who looked absolutely debauched with his makeup smeared and matted with sweat, this bright, eloquent, kind, beautiful young man...

I just want you echoed in his mind. The unfortunate reaction was that he could already feel the heat pooling low in his belly. Did Eli even know what all this would eventually entail? It's not like they could really sit there and have a talk about sex in Denny's. And, honestly, James didn't want to. Not right now. Sex is just about the last thing he needed to be thinking about... and yet...

"We'll have to be exceedingly careful." Not 'we would.' no more hypothetical. We will.