The Lights on Knockbridge Lane (Garnet Run 3)

“I agree,” Wes said, and Adam gave him a squeeze.

“Will you stay?” he asked.

He wanted to. He wanted to kiss Adam back to slumber if he couldn’t sleep, and wake up to him, heavy and soft in the morning light.

“Is it okay? With Gus, I mean?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Okay.”

“Yay,” Adam said happily, and cuddled closer.

Wes usually didn’t go to bed for hours yet, so he knew he wouldn’t fall asleep. But it didn’t matter. If he got to hold Adam then he was exactly where he wanted to be.

Chapter Fifteen

Adam

Adam surfaced from sleep slowly, gradually becoming aware that he was held in strong arms and that a warm, muscular form was behind him.

Wes.

Adam felt his entire body flush with heat as memories from the night before came flooding back. It had been the best sex of his life. Wes had felt perfect inside him, gloriously nailing his prostate on every stroke. When he’d added the stimulation of the vibrator Adam had been done for.

And he couldn’t wait to do it all over again.

Wes made a sleepy sound behind him and pressed his face into the crook of Adam’s neck. It made Adam’s stomach go gooey.

“Morning,” Adam said softly.

“Mmng,” was the sleepy response into his hair, and Wes’ arm gathered him closer.

“You can keep sleeping,” Adam said, “but I should—”

But he didn’t get any further than that because that was the moment that Gus opened the door.

Only the door was locked, so she just banged on it.

“Daddy!” she said in a singsong voice far too peppy for early on a Saturday morning. “Daddy, I’m awake now!”

“Yeah, I can hear that, sweetheart. Why don’t you go watch TV for a few minutes and I’ll meet you in the living room.”

“’Kay. Can I get juice?”

“Yeah.”

Wes had buried his head under the pillow when Gus had started yelling, whether out of embarrassment or simply to muffle the skull-rattling noise Adam wasn’t sure.

“Um. You okay under there?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“You sure?”

Adam pushed the pillow aside and Wes’ arms came up and grabbed him, pulling him down on top of Wes.

Adam couldn’t help the small yeep that squeaked out of him. He kissed Wes, and Wes kissed back, squeezing him tight.

It felt like home.

“So, do you want me to climb out the window and down the drainpipe or what?” Wes asked.

Adam’s stomach fell.

“Oh. I...if you want.”

“I don’t think anyone ever really wants to climb down a drainpipe,” Wes said.

But Adam wasn’t in the mood to joke. He wanted to walk out of his bedroom with Wes as if it were normal. To make coffee and eat waffles with Gus, and...

What? Be a family?

The words were said in a nasty voice in his head, and it wasn’t his voice. It was Mason’s.

But Adam had let Mason ruin enough of his days when they were together; he’d be goddamned if he’d let him do it now that they were over.

“Yes, actually,” he told Mason’s sneering voice in his head.

“Oh,” Wes said. “Well, I was kind of kidding, but if you really want me to...”

“Huh?”

“Climb out the window.”

“No, no. Oh. No, I don’t want that.”

Wes lay in his bed, gloriously naked, blankets pooled around his waist. With his shaved hair, he didn’t even look morning mussed. He just looked like Wes all the time.

Adam wanted to see Wes in every conceivable scenario: getting out of the shower, covered in sweat, sleepy, grouchy, stuffing his face with spaghetti. He wanted to know Wes. He wanted to be with Wes.

“Aw, hell,” Adam muttered. He’d been trying to cut the f-word out of his vocabulary so he didn’t say it around Gus and it had resulted in some awkward phrasing.

“Hey,” Wes said. “You wanna fill me in? I really will sneak out if you want. Although...” He eyed the window seriously, and Adam could practically see the calculations he was doing. “I don’t think the drainpipe will actually hold my weight.”

He was making light of things. Giving Adam a chance to collect himself. And it filled Adam with a fizzy sense of possibility.

Slowly, Adam leaned in and kissed Wes. His breath was a little sour and his lips were soft, and Adam kissed him again.

“Do you wanna come have some breakfast?”

“You sure?”

Adam nodded. “If you’re okay with Gus making some assumptions.”

“Would her assumptions be, um, correct?”

Wes’ blue eyes were warm and searching, and Adam saw something vulnerable and nervous in them.

He cupped Wes’ face, thinking about young Wes who’d experienced love as conditional. Whose family hadn’t cared about his desires. Hadn’t accepted him for who he was but only for how they could use him.

“If her assumptions are that we’re dating,” Adam said, “then I’d be okay with that being correct.” He bit his lip. “Would you?”

Wes’ smile was soft and peaceful.

“Yeah, I could deal with that hypothesis panning out.”

“Such a nerd.” Adam kissed him again.

“Such a romantic,” Wes said, returning the kiss.