Henry smiled, afternoon light stretching alongside them and turning the edges of his curls copper. “What are we wearing, let’s see—”
Cameron grabbed a handful of Henry’s hoody and pulled him down. Their laughs mingled, noses touching. “I wanted to wear it one last time before I returned it.”
“It looks good on you.”
“It reminds me of the day we met.”
Henry fingered the collar. “You forgot something.”
“I remember everything.” Cameron hitched a leg over Henry’s hip and flipped them. “You took one look around my office and saw right through me.”
Henry stared up, framed beautifully on his blue sheets.
“Not right through. But enough to know I wanted to see more.”
Warmth spread through Cameron’s limbs and he breathed Henry in, their lips almost touching. “You’re wearing that appraising look.”
“Am I?”
“You wonder if I feel this raw, powerful tug between us too. What I’ll do about it.”
“Does it make you nervous?”
“Yes, but the good kind.” Cameron whispered, “I feel it, Henry. Like a current growing stronger and wilder.”
Lips skated to Cameron’s ear. “What will you do about it?”
The hands at his waist were a steady, comforting weight.
Cameron’s heart battered between them as he ran a thumb up Henry’s throat and wriggled his fingers behind his neck. He met Henry’s mouth and tasted the pull.
“I want to jump off the ledge with you.”
Their kiss was deep, and not only in the sliding of lips and tongues. Every second pressed together bloomed in his gut. He was all trembling wriggling energy, and Henry held him close, encouraging every squirm with peppered groans at his lips, his temple, the shell of his ear.
A million books filled his nose at every inhale, his mouth at every kiss.
Henry’s hands were on his ass. The delicious pressure exploded his skin in goosebumps. These hands wrote to him, flirted with him, shared his thoughts and revealed his insecurities.
A great sigh pumped him with elation. He reached back and pressed his hand atop Henry’s, as if he could guide it to write the next moment.
Henry squeezed him harder, rocking up against Cameron’s aching length. He pushed them into a sitting position and picked at Cameron’s coat buttons.
Cameron helped, kissing, kissing, kissing, until his chest was bare.
He slid a hand up under Henry’s hoodie, feeling his stomach undulate as Henry pulled it off.
Cameron fingered Henry’s soft chest curls.
A ticklish, heart-stuttering thrill filled him. The real world and all its messiness waited outside, but this room held this beautiful moment they’d been building to since they’d met.
Their kiss was slow, solid, simmering. Cameron reached for Henry’s jeans and popped the top button.
His fingers stilled on the fly, on Henry’s rigid length under it.
Their gazes met. “I get it.”
“Get what?”
“Why you were glad I went into his study.”
“Is your heart pounding in your throat again?”
Cameron nodded. “It won’t stop.”
Henry’s hand poised over Cameron’s. “It could.”
“It could.” Cameron slowly peeled open Henry’s zipper. “I don’t want it to. I don’t want to run away from this.”
“What do you want?”
“To indulge in curiosity. It’s the baby step of courage, isn’t it?”
Those intelligent eyes met his. “I like to think so.”
“I’ve had it all along.”
“Yes.
“I’m walking just fine now.”
“Yes.”
Cameron hooked his fingers around the waist of Henry’s jeans and the elastic of his boxers underneath. “I want to run.” Cameron stood and freed Henry’s legs, leaving him sprawled on the bed, all lean muscle, lazily fisting a proud cock. “I want to fly.”
Cameron took a small tube and a condom from his drawers, dropped his breeches, and stepped out of them. “I want to have sex with you.”
“Come here, then.”
Henry embraced him tenderly, full of affection and understanding, patience and pride. Their bodies meshed, hot skin to hot skin. Henry pulled the pillow out from under him and it fell close to Cameron’s side as he ground against Henry. Their kisses were heavy, then light and playful, and heavy again.
Henry pinched the side of his glasses. “You’re incredible, and very sexy. Can I?”
Cameron murmured, and Henry followed his directions, carefully setting them on the bedside table.
Arms locked back around him. Cameron’s vision blurred but didn’t obscure the reality. This was happening.
He swallowed. “Am I still allowed to be a little scared?”
“Am I allowed to join you?”
The whispered words calmed him. Henry, confident and experienced. Yet he never pretended fear didn’t exist. He bowed, acknowledged it, and continued on.
Cameron slanted his lips over Henry’s and dipped his fingers between them. Henry made encouraging sounds, and Cameron squeezed. He shifted, bracing himself, and enjoyed the sight of their plum-like heads pressed close, their silky skin gliding up and down.
His senses overloaded. Their lips clashed fiercely. The need for more consumed him. Cameron tasted Henry’s rough jaw, Adam’s apple, chest hair, warm nipples. He nipped at his treasure trail, slipped a tongue into his bellybutton.
Henry touched Cameron’s hair, and garbled mutterings escaped his lips as Cameron explored the saltier parts of him.