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Adriano laughed. ‘Living language, always learning.’ He finally gave into his urge—just a little—and brushed the backs of his knuckles over Noah’s heated cheek. Adriano felt the way Noah’s entire body shuddered, the way he leaned into it like he was starving for touch. ‘Do we need to wait until it’s done? I want to take you to dinner.’
Noah dragged his bottom lip between his teeth and shook his head. ‘No. I just need to wait until my timer goes off. I’ll put it in the fridge after.’
Adriano nodded and wondered if maybe he could convince Noah to kiss him more while they waited. If Noah came again, they weren’t in the ideal place to get spunk everywhere, but at least they were close to home. He stepped a little closer, saw the way Noah responded, saw the way his cock began to bulge.
Adriano’s hand had just started to reach out when Noah jolted, and it took him a second to realize something had made noise. The timer. Noah ducked his head and moved around him to tip the massive bowl onto the table. With a large cutter and quick, proficient movements, Noah separated the dough, then slapped them all onto baking sheets and added them to the rack.
He moved precisely, like it was in his blood, but Adriano could see the discontent in his eyes as he pushed the rack into a massive fridge and slammed the door. He ached to make Noah feel better, to take some of the burden away. He liked watching Noah in this place—in this kitchen—but he hated that it seemed to suck the life out of him.
‘Where are we going?’ Noah asked after he swiped his hands on a towel.
Adriano spelled the name of the restaurant and saw the way Noah’s mouth quirked into a half smile. ‘The server at Talia’s café said it was a good place to take a date who needed a kosher menu.’
‘Is this a date?’ Noah asked. His lips were parted like maybe he was having a hard time breathing, andfuck, Adriano liked that.
‘Yes. If you want.’
Noah looked terrified, but only for a moment. It melted into something more—curiosity and desire and need all at once. ‘Yes.’ His answer was steady.
Adriano offered his arm, and Noah laughed as he took it. He turned the lights off as they headed for the door, and Adriano swore he had never, ever been so charmed.
CHAPTER8
Noah satacross from Adriano in the dimly lit restaurant and tried not to reflect back on the one, single, disaster date he’d been on in college. Three days after midterms his sophomore year, a guy who had been sitting across from him in his Chaucer lecture approached him near the elevators and had nervously asked him out.
“I’ve been staring at you for the last six weeks,” he said, face a little pink. He wasn’t unattractive, but Noah didn’t have the heart to tell him he hadn’t ever taken notice. “Do you want to maybe go get dinner or something?”
Noah’s heart rammed hard against his ribs as he said yes, as he gave the guy his number and his dorm room. He had sweaty palms as they walked together—not close enough to hold hands—to the little Irish pub down the street.
They spent half the night talking about how much they hated Chaucer and how much they hated their professor. They laughed a lot and drank too much. Noah ordered a cheeseburger with bacon and indulged in every single sinful bite.
He thought it wasthemoment. He thought maybe he wasn’t some anxious, lonely nerd. He thought he was worth something. Every single smile he dragged out of the guy fueled his courage, and he’d gone in for a kiss. Their lips never connected. The guy pushed him back, and laughed, then asked Noah if he wanted to suck his dick.
“Uh…”
“Dude, I’m not going to kiss you. Jesus, I just wanted to get off, and you looked like a willing mouth.” He looked Noah in the eye…and then he laughed. He laughed hard enough to double over, and Noah ran. The guy quit showing up to the lecture, and Noah didn’t think he’d ever have the courage to try again.
Never, in a million years, did he think he’d be sitting across from Adriano Moretti at a restaurant. He never thought he’d be sitting across from him after having been kissed so hard and so thoroughly he’d come in his pants the night before. Twice.
Noah’s only saving grace was that Adriano didn’t know. He hadn’t heard the way Noah had groaned as his cock spilled, and he never looked down to see the wet spot spreading across his jeans. He’d just looked Noah in the eye and told him he’d see him later.
And now they were on a date. At a kosher restaurant that Adriano had researched just for him. No one, not even his brother, had ever bothered to check before, and he wasn’t sure how to process that knowledge.
Noah’s head was spinning, and he wanted more, but he knew he couldn’t do that without telling Adriano the truth first. They’d come close to kissing in the kitchen, but the timer had saved his jeans from another embarrassing mess.
Part of him half wished it had just happened. At that point, he’d have been forced to explain, and chances were, Adriano wasn’t going to want to deal with some forty-year-old virgin who couldn’t hold his come. But the selfish part of Noah, the part he was used to ignoring and refused to indulge, wanted this. Even if Adriano walked away at the end of the night and never looked back, at least Noah would have this. That last kiss—which had been his first—and the vision of the man himself smiling sweetly across the table at him.
‘Dessert?’ Adriano asked.
Noah’s lip quirked. ‘My brother would kill me if I took you anywhere else but his truck.’
Adriano chuckled, then signaled for the server before handing off his card. It was an easy exchange, and before long, he was scribbling his name beneath a tip, then holding his hand out for Noah. As he accepted, Noah felt eyes on him. He knew how the people of Savannah looked at him. The weird, anxious, hermit baker who rarely set foot out of his apartment unless it was to shop with his head down and rush out before anyone could make conversation with him.
He was the inevitable shadow of the boy who had slowly whittled down into this mess. The boy who had never been brave enough to stand up for himself or to do anything besides turn the other cheek. And there was so much irony in that it almost made him laugh.
Noah hated being a spectacle, but Adriano seemed to thrive on it. He grinned wider at all the people watching, tugged Noah closer, walked with shoulders straighter. How he envied him. What he wouldn’t give to just have the bravery to not give a single shit what people thought.
The night air was cooler than expected, but he appreciated the chill as they turned the corner and followed the bright streetlamps toward the park. He heard the fountain and low murmur of people milling around. He smelled the sweet scent of kettle corn and heard faint music from some live cover band competing with the street musicians.
