AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oliver let out a slow breath, his free hand toying with a couple of loose strands on his comforter. “That’s a lot to put on me.”
Victor brushed back a few locks of platinum hair off his forehead. “That’s not on you. That’s just me being honest. If we don’t work out, I don’t expect you to stay just to make me happy. But I don’t want to lie to you, angel. I was already absolutely done with other people when I met you. You’re the anomaly.”
“That’s a compliment, right?” Oliver asked with a tiny grin.
Victor scoffed. “No. I mean it as a horrific insult, which makes sense after telling you that you are, without a doubt, the love of my life.”
Oliver went bright red, and he scrambled back onto Victor’s lap and held him by the cheeks. “Jesus. You’ve upped your comeback game since I last saw you.”
“I’ve been motivated to tell people in my life what I really think of them,” Victor admitted. His fingertips dug into Oliver’s waist, and he grazed them downward over the silky shorts, then up the hem until he was touching the elastic on his panties.
Oliver let out a soft, needy groan. “So…we like Emil, then?”
Victor shook his head as he leaned in, mouthing at Oliver’s collarbone. “He’s someone I can call an actual friend. He made amends for being a total shit about the Charlie situation.”
Laughing softly, Oliver curled a hand around the back of Victor’s neck and held him in place. “Okay. And he wants you to come live with him. Sounds like he might be a little bit in love with you. Not that I’d blame him. It’s still wild to me that everyone isn’t in love with you.”
Victor grazed teeth over the top of Oliver’s shoulder before moving to suckle at his pulse point. “I don’t care about everyone. I care about you. And Emil isn’t in love with me. He’s more like family. He knew I needed to get out, so he offered me a place to stay in Providence.”
Oliver’s eyes closed in a slow blink, his breath trembling in his chest. “That’s where I’m going.”
Victor cupped Oliver’s cheek and ran his thumb over his lower lip. “Then it’s kismet.”
“You’re telling me. Did you say yes?”
“I told him that I was coming to see you and my answer entirely depended on whether or not you were willing to give me a chance.”
Their gazes stayed connected for so long Victor found himself getting lost in the honey-brown specks that decorated the irises right around Oliver’s pupils. Then Oliver blinked, and Victor snapped out of it.
“I might be absolutely nuts,” Oliver said, “but I want you to come with me. I want…” He trailed off and shook his head, so Victor squeezed his hip, urging him to go on. Oliver’s gaze rolled toward the ceiling, and he took a fortifying breath. “Okay, yeah, this is nuts, but I don’t just want you to come with me. I want to get a place together. I want to have gas station burrito date night every Thursday. I want you to show up at my work when I forget my lunch. I want people to be nosy and ask who you are so I can brag about my hot boyfriend who spoils the shit out of me.” Oliver finally met his gaze and held it. “I want this to work, Victor. Not everyone else’s way, but our way.”
Victor’s heartbeat felt too fast, and his chest was too warm, but he pulled Oliver close. “Yes, angel.”
Oliver pressed both hands back to Victor’s cheeks. They smelled like cheap tomato sauce and spices. “Then let’s do it. Let’s be out of our goddamn minds and move across the country together. Seven months apart and I swear to God I’m even wilder about you than I was when we were screwing in the back of that car under a goddamn meteor shower.”
Victor started laughing, not really meaning to but completely unable to help it. He held Oliver tighter, closer, kissing him with every ounce of love he felt racing through his body.
He swore in that moment he could float. But that would be spitting in the face of reality, so instead of wishing for what couldn’t be, he simply basked in what was.
“I love you,” he murmured.
Oliver grinned, nuzzling their noses together, and kissed him again. “Goddamn. I love you too.”
Epilogue
Oliver knewsomething was up the second he approached his office. He’d gotten a couple of weird looks from some of the other professors whose names he didn’t know yet, and he had a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Also, it didn’t help that Victor had been acting cagey as fuck that morning. He’d been a little short with Oliver, which either meant a fight was brewing, or Victor was struggling to keep his plans secret. Things had been going so well lately he was really hoping for option B.
A small part of him didn’t want to leave the hallway, but after a beat, he reached for the door handle and pushed inside. It took him a second to realize something was amiss, but that was just his anxiety making it difficult for him to process what was going on. But it didn’t take long for him to find Victor seated in his desk chair.
Oliver let the door close behind him, unable to take his eyes off his lover, who was smirking at him from his seat. “Um. Good morning?”
Victor leaned forward, and Oliver realized he was reaching under the desk. Oliver’s breath caught in his throat. He knew it wasn’t something like a proposal. Victor had already asked him to marry him a hundred times, and they weren’t really in a rush to sign a piece of paper. Not when every inch of their souls was already tied around each other in knots.
But this was obviously something.
“It’s been a long week for you,” Victor said. “You’re not sleeping well, and I heard you crying in the bathroom last night.”
