Page 150 of Nothing Special X: The Last Stand

He stopped a few feet in front of Syn. Close enough to smell him.

Syn’s gaze moved over him, intense, hungry, and wounded all at once.

Furi felt it everywhere. He slipped the backpack from his shoulder and let it drop to the porch. Neither of them spoke, and Syn took a step closer. Furi swallowed and took one too. Their foreheads met.

That was all.

No hands at first. Just the barest contact of skin to skin. His body shook, and he hated it, but he couldn’t stop it either.

Syn clutched the lapels of his bike jacket, fisting the light fabric in both hands, his brows drawn tight, face twisted as if something inside him hurt too much to hold on to by himself and this was the only place his hands knew to put it.

Furi’s own hands trembled as he lifted them to Syn’s bare chest. His placed his palms against the warm skin and solid muscle, sliding them upwards slowly, to his collarbones, then his neck. Syn smelled like soap and fresh air. Like sundried sheets and wind.

Furi kept his mouth close to Syn’s, close enough to feel every breath, wanting so badly to take, but he didn’t.

He rubbed his thumbs along Syn’s throat, feeling the pulse there, pounding fast and strong. He turned his face and nuzzled into Syn’s jaw, dragging his nose along the rough line of stubble.

“Love,” he whispered.

Syn sucked in a breath and released it with a low groan. The sound was muted and broken around the edges.

Furi closed his eyes tighter. He moved to Syn’s ear, lips barely grazing it. “I miss you so much.”

Syn’s fists loosened in his jacket and for half a second, he thought he was going to step back.

Instead, Syn wrapped both arms around his waist and dragged him in so hard Furi grunted into his shoulder, the force of it nearly lifting him onto his toes. He locked his arms around Syn’s neck and held on.

Fuck.

Syn’s arms were crushing and unforgiving around him, but he’d let him break every bone in his body if that was what it took.

He buried his face in Syn’s throat, sliding one hand into the short hair at the back of his head, the other pressed flat between his shoulder blades.

Syn held him as though he was angry at the space that’d existed between them for weeks, and Furi held him as if his actions could apologize better than his words.

Syn wove his hand into his hair, making him shudder at the familiar grasp. It wasn’t demanding or punishing, just claiming a place that had always belonged to him.

Syn began to pull back, causing a needy, desperate moan to leave escape before Furi could check it. He opened his eyes to find Syn staring at his mouth.

The air shifted between them and Furi felt the urge of the kiss like hunger moving under his skin. But he waited, needing Syn to choose. Syn tightened the hold on his hair. “Furious.”

Furi’s eyes burned, but he kept his voice steady. “Yes.”

Syn looked at him for another long second before he closed the last few inches between them, his mouth coming down on Furi’s in a way that said he still had a lot of hurt and anger inside.

Furi took it with a rough inhale, clamping onto Syn’s shoulders as the kiss rocked through him.

Their mouths moved possessively, then slower, then hard again when Furi made a sound that made Syn drag him closer. The kiss deepened by degrees of brokenness, reunion, relief, and surrender.

Syn pulled back enough for them to breathe, and Furi chased him half an inch before he stopped himself.

Syn’s jaw worked as the kiss deepened, slower now, aching with everything neither of them had strength to say.

It felt so damn good that Furi melted into him, his body answering before pride or fear could intervene.

When Syn finally broke away to inhale, they stayed locked together, both panting, hips pressed close, the heat between them impossible to ignore.

Syn rested his brow against Furi’s and slid his hand through his hair with such careful tenderness it nearly ruined him.