Two soft knocks sounded at the door, startling me out of my musings. I opened it, smiling at Crescent on the other side. “Hey, baby.”
“Hi.” Seeing him like this, standing in front of the door, almost had me swooning. It was just like old times, but also the opposite, and not like them at all. I moved out of the way, letting him come in. “What did your mom need?”
“Uh, well.” He stood still for a second, thinking harder than I thought he should’ve. “She knows we’re together. She said she wasn’t surprised.”
“Oh, really? I thought there might’ve been at least some shock there.”
“Apparently not. I guess it was more obvious when we were kids than we thought.” He bent down to unzip his bag, pulling out a shirt and some pajama pants. “Glad she had an idea even when we didn’t.”
I laughed, falling onto the bed. “Yeah, we were clueless, huh? It makes sense, don’t you think? Always you and me. Always us against everything else in the world.”
I watched as he stripped his shirt off right in front of me. A blush started to creep along my cheeks, burning red hot at the mere sight of him.Fuck me, Crescent is gorgeous.
How had I never noticed before? How had I been so blind to the most kind, caring, beautiful man in the entire fucking universe?
His hair fell around his shoulders, the curls at the ends bouncing. I let my eyes travel from his face, following a path from his collarbones to the hair starting just below his belly button. It trailed, disappearing beneath the hem of his jeans, which he was unbuttoning now. His hands became my focus point, the tendons shifting as he pulled his zipper down. They moved to either side of him, gripping his pants and letting them fall to the floor.
Briefs should never be this damn attractive. They were adark blue, almost the same shade as the blankets on his bed, and they fit just right. My eyes followed the curve of his ass, landing on the backs of his thighs before moving down again.
Down to the tips of his toes, Crescent was the hottest fucking man alive, and I had to have been blind not to have noticed all this time.
“Are you—are you eye-fucking me right now?”
I looked up at his face so quickly, I was terrified I’d fall over. The world was increasingly off-kilter, or maybe it was my body. “No.”
Real convincing, Elio.
“You definitely are.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Your face says otherwise, Sunshine.”
The burn on my cheeks spread down my neck and across my chest, the fire raging hotter than before. “My face is a liar.”
It should’ve been illegal for Cres to smirk like he did. All charismatic and shit with a sparkle in his gorgeous, golden, honey-brown eyes. He slipped his pajama pants on, which was another crime in my opinion, but kept his shirt off. I watched as he walked toward me, looking up at him as he got closer.
My legs spread for him, letting him stand in between them. I closed my eyes as he held my face in his hands. His lips on mine would never get old, causing a warm, comforting swirl deep in my gut that was filled to the brim with everything good I’d always wanted in life.
I sighed against his lips before he could pull away, pressing our foreheads together. The feeling of his breath against my face as he spoke would always be one of my favorite feelings in the world. “I’m so happy to be here with you.”
“I’m so happy too. It feels right to be here. Back in the house we basically grew up in together.”
“So many memories.”
“And so many more to make. Just like you said.”
He hummed, pulling back. “Let me get the light. Go ahead and settle in.”
I refused to admit that I watched his ass the entire time his back was turned to me. Just as the lights switched off, I finally lay on my back, covering myself with the blankets.
The bed didn’t smell like him. It smelled more like sandalwood incense than anything else. The blinds in front of the window right by the bed were open, letting the moon shine through, illuminating a secure path for Crescent to come back to me. He shifted under the blankets, wrapping an arm under me.
I settled close to him, our noses damn near touching, and just stared. Simply stared at the man I’d lived an entire lifetime with. The man who held so many of the same memories I did, just in a different body. When we were close like this, I could feel our hearts beating for each other.
Every beat responded to the other’s, singing a lullaby to soothe our souls. The blood in my veins leaped and jumped, trying to get to him. Our bodies were meant to meld. Our hearts were two halves, always meant to come together and make a whole. Our souls were meant to exist in the same space.
I looked into his eyes, a smile seemingly permanent on my lips. Crescent was beautiful, with the moon as his light. There was a glow around his head, almost as bright and pure as the daisies I’d picked in the park. Maybe I was the yellow middle holding all of his petals in place.
