Page 51

“Me too. Jeez. I love you too,” Niall said when they broke apart. “God, Chuck, more than I can explain. I’m not even gonna try. Let me—I want to show you. I want to try.” He tugged at Chuck’s clothes.

The kiss deepened, grew more urgent, hands roaming with increasing purpose. Chuck couldn’t stop himself pushing Niall back against the couch cushions, his body covering Niall’s, the familiar heat building between them.

“Bedroom,” Niall gasped as Chuck’s lips found the sensitive spot just below his ear. “Winnie might—”

“Right,” Chuck agreed, reluctantly pulling back. “Bedroom. Now.”

They made their way upstairs with as much quiet speed as they could manage, pausing outside Winnie’s door to confirm the sound of her steady breathing before slipping into Niall’s—their—bedroom and closing the door behind them.

Then they were on each other again, clothes yanked off with frantic hands, kisses more desperate as their skin slid together. Sweat sprang up between them, and his mouth got wet with wanting. Chuck backed Niall toward the bed, lowering him onto it with a gentleness that belied the intensity of his desire.

“I want you,” he murmured as he trailed kisses down Niall’s chest and across his stomach. “All of you.”

“You have me,” Niall assured him, his voice breaking as Chuck’s mouth moved lower. “Always.”

They had four months of practice now, and they used all of it. Chuck took his time, worshipping every inch of Niall with hands and lips and tongue, savoring the sounds he drew forth, Niall’s body arching and twisting under his touch.

The hunger rose in him. Tonight he needed Niall inside him, claiming him without patience or pity. He pulled Niall forward onto him between his spread legs and hitched his hips up. “C’mon.”

“Oh really.” Niall gave him a dirty chuckle. “I see how it is.”

“No. I mean it. Look at all of you.” Chuck nodded and kissed him, tasting his flesh and groaning at the sweet friction between them. “I need it. For real. As hard as you can give it to me. Make me feel it. Please. I want to feel it tomorrow.”

“Anything.” So he did just that.

As they finally came together, the clutching heat melded them. As they thrust against each other, Chuck fell into Niall’s hungry eyes, happily lost in the trust and tenderness he saw reflected there, in the certainty that this was home and hope. “Oh, Niall. Oh! Oh, man….”

Afterward, they lay tangled together, sweat cooling on their skin, hearts slowing to a sensible rhythm.

“I think I’m a bad influence.” Chuck squinted down at the tangled sheets and their slick bodies sliding together. “You were supposed to be the polite one.”

Niall nuzzled closer, chin and nose against his ribs, breathing deeply. “I’m always polite. Extra polite.” He kissed Chuck’s skin.

“Ashworth…. What we just did might have been perfect, and intense, and a bunch of other delicious things, but polite? No, sir. No chance. And you know it. But you keep on being as rude as you like. I can take it. I can’t get enough of it.”

Chuck squeezed him closer and sighed. Willing his heart to calm down, he traced lazy patterns on Niall’s chest, marveling at the simple fact of him, of them, of this life they were building together.

“What are you thinking about?” Niall asked, his voice a sated murmur.

“How lucky I am,” Chuck answered honestly. “That you get rude when nude. That I flipped that stupid table in Seattle. That I came back to Candle Bay. That you needed this roof fixed. That Winnie wanted a treehouse.”

“That you were willing to help a struggling bookstore owner with trust issues and a demanding nine-year-old,” Niall added, his hand finding Chuck’s and squeezing. “Pretty lucky from where I’m sitting too.”

“See if you still feel that way when I’ve completely taken over your closet, scattered my tools all over the house, and can’t keep my hand out of your pants for more than an hour.”

“Small price to pay for pancakes with chocolate chips and the best bedtime story voices in Candle Bay. Not to mention those blue jeans.”

“Oh well, yeah. Jeans.” Chuck laughed and pressed a kiss to Niall’s temple. “When you put it like that, I sound like quite the catch.”

“You are,” Niall said, serious again. “The best thing that’s happened to me—to us—in ever.”

Chuck’s throat tightened with emotion. He’d spent most of his life feeling like he wasn’t enough, one mistake away from proving this whole town right about his inevitable failure. Still, Niall looked at him like he was worth keeping around, and somewhere in the last two months Chuck had started to believe.

“Niall?”

“Mmh.” Niall squirmed closer.

“If you’ll let me, I really want to buy in.”