I rubbed his back. “Baby, they like you more than they like me.”
He stopped walking. “No, they don’t. Is that why we left? Did I . . . I don’t know, did I do something wrong?”
I laughed and kissed his knuckles. “Michael, tonight was perfect. It couldn’t have gone better. You fit in like you’ve known them for years.”
He sighed with visible relief. “Good, because I really like them. I half expected Terrence to give me another roasting but he wasn’t too bad.”
“Too bad? Did he say something?”
“Mm.” He made a funny face. “He might have said something . . .”
“Was he out of line? Because that’s not really like him—” I mean, Terrence was protective and he fired straight from the hip. But he would never be mean.
“No, no, not at all,” he replied quickly. “Well, you might not think so.”
Oh, great. So what he said was about me . . . “What did he say?”
“Nothing really,” he replied, and I could see his blush even by the streetlight. “Just that he, and the others, think it’s great that you finally found someone and how I must be special because they’ve never met any of your boyfriends before.”
“Well, just so you know, they’re all no longer my friends and I’m taking them off my Christmas card list,” I said, and he laughed. “But I’ve never had a boyfriend before. Not really. So that would explain that. But you are someone special. They’re not wrong about that.”
He put my hand to his cheek and gave me a shy smile. “You’re someone special to me too.”
Christ, my heart felt like it was about to burst out my chest. Was I going to tell him? Was I just going to say it here in the street? Surrounded by darkness and streetlight and neon signs and passers-by?
He studied my eyes and cocked his head. “What is it?”
I laughed, embarrassed at my inability to speak. I put his hand to my chest instead, certain he could feel the storm behind my ribs. My heart, my pulse, my blood was thunder and lightning. I’d never said this to anyone, but he was worth it.
“Michael,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “I’m falling in love with you.”
He blinked, pale skin in the darkness, his eyes wide and shining like a galaxy. “Bry . . .”
“You don’t have to say anything,” I blurted out. “I just wanted you to know. My friends could tell. I’m different with you. I’m better. I was at the bar, watching you laugh with them, and I just needed to tell you how I feel. So there it is. I’m in love with you, but I don’t expect anything in return. That’s not why—”
“I’m falling in love with you too,” he said, and my entire body thrilled at his words. “I think I loved you from the first night I met you.”
I took his face in my hands and kissed him, right there in the street. I didn’t care who saw. Nothing in the world mattered but him. “We need to go back to your place,” I murmured against his lips. “Unless we want to be arrested for a whole lot of indecent behaviours.”
He laughed, carefree and sultry at the same time. He took my hand and we all but ran to his apartment complex. It wasn’t far, but we were out of breath by the time we got there and it somehow added to the urgency, to the foreplay.
We fell into his apartment, kissing, laughing, trying to undress. I kicked one boot off in the living room, and almost tripped over trying to take off the other in the hall near his bedroom. His shirt ended up somewhere. Mine went with it.
I managed to get his jeans off and push him on the bed. He scooted up to put his head on the pillows while I peeled my own jeans off and crawled up the length of his body. “You’re so beautiful,” I murmured, planting kisses as I went. He stroked himself as he watched me, his legs spreading to accommodate me. I kissed his hip, his belly, up his chest, along his collarbone, up his neck before claiming his mouth.
He broke the kiss to slay me with just a look. “Bry,” he murmured. “Need you. Inside me.”
I shivered all over and he smirked. So I gripped his chin. “Something funny?”
His pupils dilated; his breath hitched. He rolled his hips and gripped my arse, grinding our cocks together. He arched his back.
Fucking hell.
I reached over and found the condoms and lube. While I rolled on the condom, he slicked his own arse, slipping a finger in. He was clearly in no mood to wait.
He writhed under his own touch, urgent and desperate, his knees raised and spread. He squeezed the base of his cock with his free hand and slipped a second finger in, groaning and desperate.
Watching him do that was mesmerising.
Beautiful.
“Bryce,” he growled.
I shook my head, lost in his every movement. The fire in his eyes told me he was out of patience, so I lubed myself and lifted his legs up toward his chest. I aligned my cockhead at his hole and pressed in slowly. “Is this what you want?” I breathed against his lips.
He sucked back a breath. His fingernails dug into my back. But I didn’t stop. I slid slowly into his body, deep and all at once. Until I couldn’t go any further. He took all of me, and I waited for him to catch his breath before I pulled back just enough to push back in.
His eyes rolled back in his head, his neck corded, his face a mask of ecstasy. So I wrapped him up in my arms and I did it again and again. Slower and deeper, but this wasn’t just sex. This was so much more.
Being with him like this was like nothing I’d ever felt before. This emotional depth, the connection.
The love.
Because that’s what this was.
Michael brought his hands around to cup my face, his gaze intense and full of all the emotions I felt. Every breath, every touch, every thrust.
We made love. We held each other, grasping hands, desperate mouths. We moved as one. We became one. It was so intense, so visceral, so honest.
A tear escaped Michael’s eye as he gave himself over to me. I thumbed it away and buried my face in his neck as I came. He held me as tight as I held him, whispering the sweetest words in my ear, trailing patterns on my back as I feathered back down to earth.
I rolled us onto our sides, still holding him close, not wanting to miss a second of this heavenly floating feeling. I closed my eyes.
“I love you,” he whispered.
I squeezed him. “I love you too.”
We fell asleep like that and woke up like it too. All giddy smiles and tender touches.
What a remarkable and stupid thing love was.
What a fucking drug. So God help me, I never wanted to come down.
I had a busy week. I started at six in the morning every day to get the final stages of the shop ready—fit-out, equipment, staff, orders, stock—but it was exciting. I couldn’t wait to start each day. The hours flew past. I didn’t get to sleep until midnight most nights but woke up buzzing to get back to it the next morning.
I spoke to Michael every day. We chatted, texted, but I had to bail on our usual Wednesday night meet up. I missed him, which was crazy. But I did. I missed the physicality: his touch, his warmth, his smell, the sound of his laughter low in my ear, his smile against my neck.
He said he understood that I was busy, and I believed him. He explained it was probably a good thing, given he and Natalie were still on eggshells around each other so it allowed him to prove to her that he was still committed to giving one hundred percent.