Nico’s brows went up, but then he gave him an impish look. “Sure, as long as you don’t get too attached to it.”
“Okay,” Mal lied easily, stepping in front of Nico to wrap his arms around him, cupping his ass with both hands, letting his eyes fall shut as he squeezed the wonderfully jiggly globes once, then again. Nico’s breath hitched against his ear. His hair smelled like coconuts and his clothing smelled like lavender.
Mal swallowed hard, forcing himself to take a step back, some small part of him feeling vindicated when he saw Nico’s slack mouth and unfocused gaze.
When Nico turned back towards the exit, Mal smacked his ass without thought, earning a surprised yelp and a pissy look from the younger boy.
“We’re just friends,” Nico said again, rubbing his sore ass before threading their fingers together. When Mal looked at their joined hands, Nico shrugged. “What? Friends hold hands.”
They did? “What else do they do?”
“Hmm,” he said, pondering his question. “Watch movies, play video games…cuddle?”
Cuddle. As in hold Nico in his arms? He could do that. “Friends cuddle?”
Nico nodded quickly. “Sure, and nap. And play with each other’s hair.”
Mal’s mood darkened. Did Nico do that with all the guys at the garage? “You do this with all your friends?”
Nico gave him a forlorn look. “Nah. I used to when we were younger. It was the only place I could get any affection. But now, most of my friends have moved past it or are too busy.”
Mal processed that information. “So, you’d only do that stuff with me?”
Nico blinked in surprise, his tone teasing again when he asked, “Are you jealous already?”
“No,” Mal said a little too quickly to be believable, his tone sulky even to his own ears.
Nico sighed, lifting their joined hands and biting Mal’s finger hard enough to draw a surprised hiss from him. “Listen, I like sex. A lot. I’m no virgin.” Mal had no idea where Nico was going with this. “But I don’t do relationships. Falling in love is for suckers. My mom taught me that early on. I plan to marry for money.”
“Oh,” Mal said.
“I’ll make you a deal,” Nico said, leaning against him.
Mal cocked his head. “I’m listening.”
“If you promise not to get clingy and to not cockblock me when I’m trying to get laid, I promise I’ll only cuddle and do all those other things with you. Deal?”
Mal had heard of friends with benefits before, but he’d always imagined the sex was the benefit, not the…boyfriend stuff. Still, he had no right to Nico. At least, not yet. If being the only one he used for comfort meant enduring him fucking other people, it was a sacrifice Mal was willing to make. It wasn’t Nico’s fault he didn’t see that he belonged to him.
Yet.
“Deal.”
ONE YEAR LATER
Nico slammed the apartment door with more force than necessary and locked it behind him like he was being chased. When he slipped his jacket off, he found several sets of eyes peering at him curiously. Shiloh sat curled in Levi’s lap, a bowl of popcorn resting on his legs, Mochi, Nori, and Dumpling on the back of the couch behind them. Mal sat on the opposite end of their broken sagging couch, blinking at him.
They were all—minus the cats, maybe—clearly waiting for an explanation for his dramatic entrance. He didn’t even know where to start. Everything was so hard for him lately. When it came to sex, nothing ever went right. Was Mercury in Gatorade or something? Had he broken a mirror, pissed off a witch?
Every date was a bigger disaster than the last.
No, not date. They weren’t dates.
Fuck.
Levi gave him that infuriating raised brow. “Date didn’t go well?”
Nico huffed out a breath through his nose, irritation rolling through him like he’d taken too much Adderall that morning. His skin was crawling and his heart was beating a little too fast. “It wasn’t a date. It was a hook-up. No, wrong. It wassupposedto be a hook-up, but, just like last time, I was…bamboozled.”
