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Nick’s eyes met Adam’s brown ones. He’d never felt this way before, like he’d found something precious and fragile that could be taken away. It left him giddy and anxious. Fiercely protective.
Adam smiled. “That look is worth waking up alone.”
Nick blushed and looked away. “I’m sorry. I was trying to let you sleep.”
“Sleep is overrated.” Now Adam shifted closer, eliminating any space between them. He pressed his lips to Nick’s neck, abandoning his cup of coffee to stroke his free hand up Nick’s chest.
Nick sighed and closed his eyes. He totally should have stayed in bed.
He left his own mug on the concrete to stroke his hand through Adam’s silky dark hair, tracing a finger down the length of his dusky chin.
“Where are you from?” he asked without thinking.
Adam laughed softly and straightened. He reclaimed his coffee, but he remained sitting just as close. “Annapolis.”
Nick winced and shook his head. “No—I meant—”
“I know what you meant.” He hesitated. “My father is from Morocco, and my mother is from Brazil.”
There was a lot of weight in that hesitation, and Nick proceeded carefully. “I’m thinking there’s a story there.”
“Hmm. Not really. He came here because he couldn’t find paying work as a doctor in Morocco. Their economy was crap.
She was a student at Johns Hopkins. They met three weeks be-260
fore her visa expired.” He gave Nick a wry look. “She tells everyone she married him for the green card.”
Nick smiled. “I have a feeling I’d like your mother.”
And as soon as he said the words, he realized he was wondering about meeting Adam’s parents, and the thought struck a bolt of nerves into his chest.
Now he understood how Michael had felt Thursday night.
“She’s very opinionated,” said Adam. “Likes to rant in Portuguese because it makes my father nuts.”
Nick’s eyebrows went up. Just when he thought Adam couldn’t get hotter. “Do you speak Portuguese?”
Adam’s hands came around him from behind, he gasped and almost dropped both mugs.
Adam laughed and slid his hands up Nick’s chest, moving close until they were almost pressed together. He kissed the back of Nick’s neck, breathing along the skin there. “You were making me crazy, standing there like that.”
He was making Nick crazy, standing there like that. When Adam’s hand slid under his shirt, tracing the skin below his rib cage, Nick shivered.
“I wasn’t sure what you wanted,” Nick admitted.
Adam froze. The mood in the air changed.
Then his hand tightened on Nick’s waist roughly, jerking him close. Very close. “Any question now?”
Nick blushed so hard he was glad he was looking away. He shook his head.
Adam let him go abruptly and took the mugs out of his hands, slamming them onto the counter beside the stove. Any playful banter was gone from his voice. “I think that’s part of the problem,” he said, killing the heat on the stove. “You’re so damn worried about what everyone else wants. Well, you know what, Nick? You’re going to disappoint people sometimes. You just are. And you know what else? They’re either going to get over it or they’re not. If they don’t, it sucks. But it’s not going to kill them, and it’s sure not going to kill you.” He poured the hot chocolate into the mugs, then slammed the saucepan back onto a cool burner. “In fact, if you ask me, Gabriel is long overdue for some disappointment.”
Nick flinched.
Adam pulled a can of whipped cream out of the refrigerator and shook it like he meant it harm. “You can’t live your whole life waiting around to make sure people approve of the choices you make. That’s why you’ve got a drawer full of unopened college letters. That’s why you’ve got a house full of brothers who didn’t have a clue about what you wanted. That’s why—”
Nick shoved him up against the refrigerator and kissed him.
