“I’m certainly not. Why don’t you just throw on some clothes and follow mylead?”
Put on clothes? Art definitely had no clue where Wes’s idea would lead them, but that only made it that much more exciting. They dressed together, Art tailing behind Wes as he led him out through Heathrow Estates. When they’d checked the time, it was nearly midnight, well pastcurfew.
As they reached the pool, Wes mounted a decorative boulder by the gate, assuring Art this had been his intended destination. Art glanced around uneasily, waiting for security to come racing out to nab them. “We’re not supposed to be out here. So if security catchesus—”
“What are they gonna do? Suspend us?” Wes teased. “You said this is the lovers’ lane of Heathrow. We’ll be fine.” He gripped the fence and pulled himselfover.
“You can’t do that,” Artinsisted.
“Watch me,” Wes said as he landed on the otherside.
Art snickered and glanced around the way Wes had, as though he had something to hide to keep from being discovered, and then he followed suit, finding it much more difficult to climb the fence than it seemed Wes did. “Good Lord, I don’t use these musclesenough.”
“You’re not as skilled a break-in artist as I am.” Wes helped him onto the deck, and they slipped around the pool, back to the hottubs.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this. It’s the middle of October. We’re going to gethypothermia.”
Wes eyed him, his brows pulling together. “It’s a very warm October, Art. We’ll be fine. Now if you keep talking, we’re more likely to bediscovered.”
Wes inspected around the hot tub as though he was making sure no one could see them, then removed hisshirt.
Every goody-two-shoes voice within Art warned him against what they were doing. There was a long list of reasons why they shouldn’t have, but at the same time, there was something erotic about being so mischievous with Wes. Art had always been so upright and respectable. It would be nice to be bad for achange.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Art said as he started removing his own clothes. By the time he’d removed them, Wes had already slid into thetub.
Art tested the water with his toe. Warm. Really warm. He slid right in, still glancing around, but even under the cover of the bushes around them, he was certain they’d getcaught.
“Come on,” Wes told him. “We’ve gotten into enough trouble in our lives that we can handle a couple of the boreshere.”
Exciting as it was, Art couldn’t push past hisnervousness.
“Come here,” Wes said, approaching him, and Art felt Wes’s hands sliding around his waist, tugging him close against hisbody.
Before he had a chance to feel discomfort, Wes took a kiss, one that helped Art let his paranoid thoughts slip away. Art kissed him until he realized he was crying, and Wes must’ve noticed because he said, “What isit?”
“I’m just so surprised. I still have all the aches and pains I always had in this body, in my heart, but being with you makes it all turn to background noise. I never thought I could be thishappy.”
“We’re just getting started,” Wes said, moving one hand off Art, and a second later Art heard a sound that jolted him and bubbles erupted from the water’ssurface.
Art laughed, too loudly, so that he had to cover his mouth, but he was still chuckling, and Wes laughed with him as he kept Art close, whispering, “Now who’s going to get us into trouble?” with a sneakyexpression.
As Art recovered from his fit of laughter, he found himself mesmerized by Wes’s smile and those dark-brown eyes that sparkled in the moonlight. An impulse possessed Art, and he kissed Wes’s cheek, then slid his lips alongside Wes’s face, trailing to his mouth before they began kissing again. That’s what he needed right then—to kiss until they could escape the world around them, transcend it together in a way he only knew when their bodiestouched.
“Guys?”
They broke apart quickly, Art turning and seeing the security guard, Joe, standing by the pool, glancing between them. His thick, nearly black brows were pulled close together, his face scrunched up. His curly brown hair was outlined by moonlight, as were his soft, lightfeatures.
Art pulled away from Wes, feeling like a kid, same as when they’d gotten into the hot tub, but now more like they were in grade school and he was about to get a slap on thewrist.
“Hey, Joe,” Wes said, his tone laced with the appropriate amount ofguilt.
“You know you aren’t supposed to be out here, right?” Joeasked.
“Yeah, we knew that.” Art didn’t see a point tolying.
Joe searched around, Art wondering what sort of fine they would incur for theirindiscretion.
“It’s not like anyone else is gonna be out here or anything,” Joe said. “Just keep it down, and I won’t get in trouble, okay?” He smiled at them, and Art laughed once again. Joe gave them a thumbs-up before headingoff.
