BEING HOME AFTERso much had changed between Kieran and I was weird, but not terrible. I’d half expected some secret virginity sensor alarm to start going off when I slipped into the front door, alerting my dad that I’d let my stepbrother nail me in our hotel room (and out of it) all weekend, but it seemed like he was pretty much none the wiser to our antics.
The very next weekend after we came home, my dad informed me that we were having a little family get together, and that my uncle, his wife, and my two cousins would be coming over so we could all see each other before fall semester started.
I guess he expected me to be happy about that, because I’d never clued him in on my true feelings, but I didn’t really like my uncle. I remembered before my mom had passed away, he’d always been really friendly to her, but he’d made it clear more than once that he didn’t really understand why my dad had married someone like Crystal, and he definitely didn’t understand why my dad would take in someone else’s kid. In other words, he was a judgmental prick, and his dismissive attitude toward Kieran always had me seething by the end of his visits.
But I was a good boy, and I could pretend to be nice, like always.
With my pillows propped up behind me on my bed and Orangey and Tuxy cuddled up beside me, I scrolled mindlessly through my social media feeds on my phone, liking and commenting appropriately on acquaintance’s photos and posts.When I heard Kieran’s bedroom door finally open, I sat up a little straighter and tried to look like I hadn’t been waiting on him to wake up.
As he passed by my door, he glanced in and stopped. My heart did a dumb little flutter in my chest at the sight of him, all rumpled and sleepy and sexy. Fuck, I wanted to climb him like a tree and tell him everything. That he was my alpha, my one and only, and all I wanted was to belong to him for the rest of our lives. But the closer we became and the more I understood him, it was glaringly obvious that would have been a bad idea.
He hadn’t exactly given me his consent during that conversation about becoming a couple we’d had on the beach, but he hadn’t turned me down either. I wasn’t a moron. I knew he wanted to be with me, more than anything. I could hear the desperation in his voice anytime we talked about it, see the ache for me in his eyes, and feel how much he craved me when we had sex. I was certain he hadn’t realized we were fated mates yet, probably because his self-loathing wouldn’t even allow himself to consider the option.
“Hey,” I greeted him casually, shifting a little to stretch my legs out so he would look at my body. It worked, like always, his eyes darting down to my thighs and lingering there for a few seconds before returning to my face.
“Hey.” He walked in, making his way toward me. I lifted my face up, poking my lips out a little, waiting for his kiss. “Wait,” he said, stopping and furrowing his brow. “Let me brush my teeth first.” And then he was gone.
I sighed. Like I really cared about that. After waiting what felt like the right amount of time, I hopped off the edge of my bed and waited in the hallway for him to come out. When he did, I gave him a tiny pout.
“Do I get my kiss now?” I wondered, which caused him to glance down the empty staircase fearfully, and then glare at mebefore nudging me back into my bedroom, so we were out of sight for anyone walking by the stairs.
“Jesus, Jordy, be quiet,” he ordered. “How the hell are you going to explain that if someone hears you?”
“You act like our parents spy on us. You know they don’t. We’ve never given them a reason to,” I tacked on, which made him scoff and give me a dry look.
“Yeah. It’s practically a Sunday school service up here.”
“You want me to be your naughty little altar boy?” I asked, biting down into my lower lip and trying to look sexy while I toyed around with the hem of my t-shirt, lifting it just enough to expose a strip of my tummy. He yanked it back down, swatting my hand away.
“I’m going to hurt you.”
“Like in a sexy way?” I pressed. “You’re going to spank me to teach me a lesson?”
“I’m going to throw you out of a window,” he corrected me flatly. “And stop trying to turn me on, I have to go downstairs and eat.”
“I have something you can eat,” I said, then squealed when he grabbed me around the waist and threw me over his shoulder before rushing over to my bedroom window. I wriggled helplessly in the iron grip of his arm while he feigned disengaging the lock. He was so strong, maneuvering my body around like it was nothing. My plan to tease him into a horny mess had backfired and now I was turned on. We hadn’t had sex since we’d gotten home, because Kieran’s schedule hadn’t given us any time alone in the house when one of our parents weren’t there. And he refused to do anything if one of them was home. He wouldn’t even let me blow him, even when I’d offered really, really nicely.
“Okay!” I conceded, going limp on his shoulder to physically demonstrate my surrender. “I’m sorry! I won’t be your naughtylittle altar boy and I don’t want you to spank me to teach me a lesson.”
Snorting out a laugh, he backed away from the window. “Gee, that sounds really sincere.”
“Well, you’re kind of forcing me to lie here,” I complained, but when he carefully set me back down onto my feet, he looked mostly amused. I raised myself up to my toes, curling my fingers into the front of his shirt while we kissed. Purring out my approval against his lips, I didn’t let him go for a long time.
When he finally pulled back from me so we could breathe, he reached up to brush a tendril of my hair off my forehead. “Can I say something?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m really glad things didn’t get weird between us after we… You know.”
“After we hooked up?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed. He looked so shy and hesitant in that moment I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs like a feral creature, foaming at the mouth with love for him. “It’s just that… I like having you as a friend, too.”
Blinking as his words sank in and processed in my brain, I groaned, my heart exploding in my chest like a confetti cannon. I launched myself against him, nuzzling against his chest as I squeezed him around his waist.
“Things aren’t going to be weird between us, no matter what,” I promised.
“Okay,” he said quietly, and I felt his arms come up around me. “You’re just really important.”
