The Lights on Knockbridge Lane (Garnet Run 3)

“Wes,” Adam whispered. “Can I kiss you?”

There went the neighborhood.

Wes’ hands moved from his hair to his face, gently—so gently—cupping his jaw. He nodded.

Adam stood on his tiptoes and brushed his lips against Wes’ softly. Wes let him, so Adam kissed him again. Wes’ hands remained gentle, but his breath caught.

Suddenly, Adam wanted him with a hunger he hadn’t felt in years. He pressed against Wes, leaning in to deepen the kiss. Wes’ mouth was hot, his kiss clumsy with desire, but so damn sincere. Adam lost himself in it.

The kiss burned hotter and hotter and Adam pressed closer, desperate to feel Wes’ body. Finally, Wes’ arms came around him, clutching him close, tight, exactly as he craved.

Adam felt wild. The desire for Wes coursed through him until he was nearly dizzy with it. It had been so long. So damn long since he’d gotten what he needed.

Even with Mason sex had never been their main compatibility. Mason had been all about experimentation and erotic novelty, where Adam had craved intimacy and intensity. But Adam felt an answering passion in Wes that made him dare to hope that maybe Wes’ desires would match his own.

Flushed and so turned-on he could hardly think, Adam wrapped his arms around Wes’ neck and gave himself over to the kiss. Wes slid his hands to Adam’s ass and gave it a rough squeeze that had Adam’s eyes rolling back in his head.

“Yes, yes, yes,” he murmured into Wes’ mouth.

He pressed Wes against the freshly washed countertop, getting as close as he could. He loved it like this—so entwined that there was no breath that wasn’t shared, no movement of his partner’s body he couldn’t feel.

Wes grabbed him by the ass and picked him up, walking them out the kitchen, through the living room, and up the stairs. Adam pointed to his bedroom at the end of the hall, light-headed with desire.

Wes wasn’t making a show of strength, which made it a thousand times hotter. He just wanted Adam in bed, now. When they got inside Adam’s room, Wes tossed him onto the bed then closed the door.

“Is it okay?” he asked, gesturing down the hallway to where Gus slept.

Adam’s heart melted at his concern and he nodded.

“She sleeps with a noise machine, and these are pretty thick walls.”

He didn’t mention that he’d forced River to test that fact with him when they’d first moved in, making his sibling stand in Gus’ room while he made noise in his own. But he’d needed to know.

Wes’ gaze heated as he approached the bed, towering over Adam.

“Good.”

Adam knew in that moment that Wes was going to be exactly what he wanted. What he craved. The roughness, the intensity, the glorious ability to not have to take care of anything and trust that the other person would take your pleasure in hand.

He also knew in that moment why the neighbors had so many rumors that Wes was a vampire, werewolf, et cetera. Looming over Adam, cheeks flushed with desire, eyes dark with lust, he looked intimidating. Devastating. Potent. And completely focused on Adam in a way that took his breath away.

“Wes, I want you,” Adam whispered, and he turned onto his stomach, looking back at Wes pointedly.

“Yeah?”

Wes sat on the edge of the bed and ran a hand up Adam’s spine. The heat from his palm was searing.

“Yes! I want—”

But even though he was pretty sure his needs were echoed in Wes, it was hard to say them out loud.

Wes leaned close and spoke in his ear. His voice was a velvet growl.

“Tell me exactly what you want.”

Adam whimpered. Shook his head. The words wouldn’t come.

“Adam, tell me.”

“I want you to have me. Completely. Take me apart.”

With the words came the liquid fire of want.

Wes groaned and his hand tightened around the nape of Adam’s neck.

“Yeah? Kinda...take charge?”

“Yes,” Adam moaned.

“In charge, but not...mean?”

Adam was dizzy with the potency of this understanding. That was exactly what he wanted. Exactly what he needed.

“Yes, yes, please, Wes, yes.”

Adam pressed his hips into the bed and shuddered at the contact. He was hard and swollen, exquisitely sensitive.

But Wes caught his hip and flipped him onto his back. He straddled his hips and pressed a hand to his chest, keeping him in place. Adam trembled, loving the warm pressure.

Wes kissed Adam’s jaw, then moved to his neck. At the crook where his shoulder and neck met, he sucked, and Adam felt it in his bones. He shuddered and thrashed under Wes’ touch.

“Are you sure you aren’t secretly a vampire?” he teased, with the last of his wits.

“Maybe I am,” Wes murmured against his skin.

Adam giggled and Wes smiled—an easy, warm smile that said We are in this together. I got you.

Then he pinched Adam’s nipple through his shirt and made him squirm.

“Sensitive,” Wes murmured, ghosting a kiss to his flushed cheekbone.