Scout couldn’t help grinning. Lucky had been trying so hard not to laugh. “See, now, a year ago I would have thought that’s not a possibility. But that’s because I didn’t know what happened last Samhain, uhm, Halloween.”
Lucky blinked. “What happened?”
“Well, we all knew that Alistair was pissed at Macklin. I guess he’d had MacklinandMacklin’s boyfriend in our house against their wills. They kept escaping—it pissed him off. So he was going to visit them at midnight, California time, All Hallows Eve, when his power was crackling around their heads and he could scare the shit out of them. Now, we don’t know exactly how this happened, but apparently they’d been under siege by all these animals—birds, squirrels, snakes—and he’d been fucking around with them when they’d been doing some serious spellcasting. So they’d done it. They’d broken the spell at midnight, and all the animals were there, wandering around, getting pissed and frightened, and Alistair showed up, trying to bring the wrath of the Goddess to them, and….” He started to giggle, because this part always made him giggle. “We were wrapping his wounds for days. There wasn’t enough gauze in the house. Apparently turkeys and owls and squirrels can be mean fuckers if they’ve been messed with. Anyway—” He sobered. “—a year ago, I wouldn’t have been so cocky. But he’s human. He’s a fucked up, mean-tempered, tyrannical nightmare of a human, but he’s a person.”
It hit him then why Lucky would be so in awe, and it apparently wasn’t the magic. “Once you realize your enemies are people,” he finished, “I think they’re not so scary.”
Lucky grunted. “People don’t scare me.Gunsscare me, Scout. But peoplewithguns are twice as scary!”
Scout didn’t laugh. He felt Lucky’s fear to his very bones.
“We’ll work at keeping you safe,” he said simply. “Gunsarescary. People with guns are scary. Butyoudon’t have to be scared—not all the time.”
Lucky looked away, and Scout shivered and stepped into his jeans, only to hear a little whimper emerge from Lucky’s throat.
“What?” he asked.
Lucky shrugged. “Just… you know. Appreciating the view.”
Heat swept up Scout’s body. He’d been enjoying the covert glances Lucky had given him, but to hear it actually saidout loud—ooh, that was something.
“Thank you,” he mumbled, knowing his neck and throat were probably blotching and absolutely helpless to stop it. “I, uhm….” Without looking in Lucky’s direction, he stripped off his white T-shirt and reached for the blue one he’d thrown on his bed.
It wasn’t there. With a frown he glanced around the room and saw that Lucky had picked it up and was dangling it from one finger, teasingly.
“Can I, uhm, have that?” he asked, burning with embarrassment—and want.
“Sure,” Lucky murmured, moving in closer but pulling the shirt to his own chest. “Just reach out and get it.”
Scout did, and Lucky used the opportunity to pull Scout closer.
Scout swallowed and looked away, very conscious of their bodies, aligned nicely. Lucky was shorter, but his shoulders were broader, and his tight, flat stomach was about even with Scout’s groin.
Scout was very, very aware of this.
“You, uhm, don’t even like me,” he said apologetically, in case Lucky had forgotten.
Lucky grimaced. “I didn’t want to get attached to you,” he clarified. “That doesn’t mean I haven’twatchedyou. Uhm….” And Scout was charmed by the two crescents of color that stained Lucky’s broad cheeks and sharp cheekbones. “I like the way you move.”
Scout bit his lip. “I couldn’t even get you to look at me when I got coffee.” He’d tried too, chatting blithely to Helen, talking about all the different coffee flavors Kayleigh wanted to try and getting input. Lucky had steadfastly ignored him, answering in monosyllables and setting his purchases down on the counter so there wasn’t even a chance of their fingertips brushing.
Lucky met his eyes, a rather devilish smile twisting at his lean mouth. “I looked at your ass when you walked away,” he admitted. “Does that count?”
Scout laughed softly. “No,” he chided, but he didn’t back away. “I’ve never kissed anyone before, you know. I pretty much told you Kayleigh and I got raised in a monastery. What makes you think kissing me’s such a good idea?”
Lucky swallowed and skated his fingertips along Scout’s cheekbones. “’Cause I ain’t never kissed anyone before either. I got raised in a place where if you got caught kissing another guy you’d get your face beat in. But you’re not gonna beat my face in.”
Scout cupped Lucky’s chin with his fingers. “I like your face,” he said sincerely. This was the absolute truth and part of why Lucky’s coldness had hurt so much. Scoutdidlike his face, and he’d liked the respectful way Lucky had spoken to Helen and the vitality in his sturdy body. It had seemed absolutely unfair that this person who had so many qualities Scoutlikedhad been determined to have absolutely nothing to do with him. “But I don’t want to be kissed just because we’re the only two gay men on the island.”
Lucky made a rude noise. “Have youseenthe resort crowd? No. No, you haven’t. Because if youhad, you would have seen all the tourists hitting on you, and yes, a lot of them are male.” He twitched his shoulders then, an almost unconscious gesture of arrogance, at the same time he bit his lip in uncertainty, and Scout’s stomach dropped off a ten-meter board, backflipped, jackknifed, and did the twist. “I think we should kiss for the same reason anybody kisses. ’Cause we been eyeing each other for the last six weeks and now we got no secrets to keep.”
Scout gave a lazy smile, his blood thrumming in his ears with anticipation. “Oh, I might have some secrets lef—”
Lucky kissed him.
Scout caught his breath, and that let Lucky’s tongue in his mouth, andwow,that was agoodthing. Areallygood thing. He returned the tongue stroke with one of his own, and Lucky made a helpless sound, so at odds with his sturdy Philly “I got this” that Scout deepened the kiss.
Oh wow. This was… this wasgood.This was what the romance books said it should be. They weren’t, either of them, experts, but it didn’t seem to matter. They tasted, they learned about lips and teeth, they explored with tongues, and it just kept getting deeper and deeper.
