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Leo smiled, and Nate caught his face and kissed him again.

For a while, he managed perfectly well. Leo’s mouth softened beneath his. Nate kept one hand at his waist and slid the other into his hair while the sponge moved almost lazily between them, down his thigh, then up again and⁠—

He made a sound against Leo’s mouth.

The sponge fell to the bottom of the tub.

Nate glanced down at it, then at Leo. “Dropped something?”

“You distracted me. With that noise.”

“So easily? And here I thought you were getting good at this,” Nate teased.

Leo’s expression changed, and Nate knew now his boyfriend had something to prove. The sponge lifted in the air again, then came to rest against Nate’s upper thigh.

“I can wash you perfectly well,” Leo claimed.

“I never said you couldn’t.”

“You implied it.”

The sponge slid lower, and Nate’s laugh broke off.

Leo looked unbearably pleased with himself.

Nate pulled him closer and kissed him hard enough to do something about that. After that, it didn’t take long for them to stop pretending that this was about getting clean anymore.

Leo kept the sponge moving along Nate’s groin, and Nate tried to make him lose his ghostly grip on the object. Every time Leo scattered Nate’s concentration, Nate retaliated with his mouth or his hands until the sponge wandered off course or fell to the bottom of the tub.

But it always came back quickly.

Leo really was getting good at this. Nate would have been proud of him.

If he hadn’t been in the process of losing their little game.

The problem was that Leo could tell the instant Nate lost focus. His hand would sink through Leo’s waist, or their mouths would slip through each other, and the bastard would smile.

“That’s hardly fair,” Nate muttered.

“What isn’t?”

“You know exactly what.”

The sponge moved between his legs.

Nate’s fingers tightened around Leo’s waist. He could still feel him. He held on, kept kissing him as Leo made another slow pass.

There. He could do this.

Leo must have felt him smile, because the next movement was considerably less innocent, moving all the way up to the tip of him.

Nate’s forehead dropped onto his shoulder.

“Jesus Christ.”

Leo was laughing.

“You did that on purpose.”