AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His breath hitches. Snow is catching in his eyebrows, melting on his cheekbones. “Then why?”
Need sits thick along my skin like sweat. Something more fundamental than want. “I missed you.”
He huffs a quiet laugh and sets down the beer. “Man, I was only gone for twelve hours.” Propping his hip next to me on the railing, he nuzzles his face into my sleeve like an animal leaving its scent, hesitantly at first, then hard and needy. “I missed you too. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to figure out how to turn on your own stove and you’d starve to death.”
I wrap my arm around his shoulders and pull him into my chest, resting my cheek on the top of his head. “I was worried you’d wander around naming fountains after childhood pets until you froze to death.”
“Don’t be a dick.” He squirms, then melts against me with a small shiver as I stroke the back of his neck. “I’m cold,” he mumbles.
“So am I. And whose fault is that?”
“You're such a fucking smartass, aren't you?” Sliding up on his toes, he presses his nose under the collar of my shirt, his lips moving against my skin. “It would be better for everyone if I just go.”
“I need to hold you one more time.”
He moans softly, his arms tightening around me.
“Come on. We’ve done our duty to your father.” Leaving the beer on the fire escape, I climb back through the window and pull him after me. Instead of stepping down onto the floor, he wraps his thighs around my hips and his arm around my neck, his face buried in my shoulder, and I carry him through the dark house like the world’s heaviest, most muscle-bound koala, until we get to the bottom of the stairs.
I try one step, say “Christ, no”, and drop him. He slides back to the bottom, gasping with laughter.
“You’re so rude.” He rolls over and tries to take out my legs, but I jump past him and run upstairs, leaving him giggling on the floor. I switch on the fireplace and crack the blinds in my room to see the snow piling up on the sill, then strip to my boxer briefs. It’s the first time my house has ever felt cozy.
When I turn around, he’s in the doorway, naked in the glow of my bedside lamps, watching shyly like he expects me to have changed my mind. He’s half hard, and so am I, but we both know that's not why we're here.
“Come on.” I lift the blankets in an invitation and his warm, perfect body crawls in on top of me.
“What do you usually do at night?” he murmurs, his velvety skin all over mine.
“I read.”
Looking around, he spots a book about the political history of East Asia on my nightstand and arches his back to grab it, pushing it into my hands. “This one? Go ahead.”
So I sit up and find my place as he wraps his arm and his stump around my waist and rests his head on my stomach. I read out loud, even though it’s excruciatingly boring. In between turning pages, my free hand strokes his hair, his neck, his back until he’s practically purring. Every once in a while, like he thinks I won’t notice, he presses his lips to my skin–my hip, my belly button.
I can feel him drifting off, his head growing heavy and twitching back awake. Eventually, I toss the book aside, slide my arm under him, and turn him so his back is curled along my front, his soft ass nestled up against my very confused cock. I press my face into his hair, my absolute addiction to the soft bristle of his buzz cut, like stroking a baby animal.
If I could write a perfect moment, piece it together from all the dreams and regrets and unshed tears and quiet breaths of my life, it wouldn’t have come close to this feeling.
I twitch awake in the night, sweaty and panicked. The trial is tomorrow. I can’t possibly be ready and, on top of all the pressure, I have to face Colson, look him in the eye for the first time since I found his clothes gone and his cruel letter propped up against our fruit bowl.
Hot, muscled limbs wrap around me, draw me in until I’m surrounded by Jonah, his fingers stroking along my jaw. “I’m still here,” he breathes.
What a mistake, to have him here when I should be lonely. To take from him when I have nothing to give back.
“You’re so brave, Gray.” He smooths my hair back from my face, his forehead resting against my temple. “I wish you never had to be afraid again.”
