He silently moved to the next painting where I recreated the time Minnie took us to a theme park and we rode the Ferris wheel at night and secretly held hands. I could still smell the popcorn and cotton candy in the air, but I was so lost in Noah’s eyes that I tuned out any sounds from the world around us. Noah reached out and touched that canvas too.
He continued on from painting to painting until he arrived at the only two paintings created from recent memories. The first was the moment my heart started to beat again when I saw Noah and Madge playing in the ocean. I captured the happy smile on their faces as Noah returned to his rightful place in the world – to me. The last painting was of Noah sleeping the morning after we first made love. I hoped I conveyed on the canvas how beautiful he was to me.
He returned to where I stood in the center of the room. Our song had played on a continuous loop while he looked at the paintings just like it had that first summer we kissed. People think music can’t capture a moment and turn it into an everlasting memory, but it can. Noah wrapped his arms around my neck, I wrapped mine around his waist, and we danced.
“They’re so beautiful Maverick.” I saw the truth of his words in the emotion shining in his eyes. The light picked up the unshed tears in his eyes and turned them iridescent. “I love you, Maverick. I loved the boy who became my best friend, the teenager who gave me my first kiss, and I’m crazy in love with the man who is holding me now.”
Those three magic words, ones that are tossed around like they don’t meananything, meanteverythingto me. They were words I had never spoken to anyone, not even Noah during the height of passion our final summer together. I felt it in my heart then, but I never expressed the words. I thought I had time. I wouldn’t make that same mistake again.
“You have always been my light and happiness. I love you, Noah.” I felt lighter than I ever had in my life; I felt like a helium-filled balloon ready to float away. Only Noah’s arms wrapped around me and his gentle kiss kept me grounded.
We danced and kissed while we slowly undressed one another. I had been hopeful of that exact outcome when I set up my surprise, so I was prepared with everything needed to comfortably make love to Noah. I laid down the blankets and pillows I had stashed before I laid him down on top of them. I told him that I loved him with words and I wanted to love him with my body.
Hands roamed over flesh that burned with desire, mouths captured sighs and moans, as we joined our bodies together. His legs wrapped around my waist as tightly as the grip he had on my heart. This was the only man for me; I’d known it from an early age. It was easy to convince myself that what I felt hadn’t been real until he returned to me.
I linked our fingers and pinned his hands above his head as I moved deeper inside him. Noah crossed his ankles over my ass to hold me tighter against him. I made love to his mouth as surely as I made love to his body, not letting up until I felt his body tremble and tighten around mine, signaling that he was close to coming.
“I love you, Noah.” I whispered the words in his ear, tipping him over the edge.
“Love you… so much.” His words were broken as he came around me and on me, but they were no less true because of his physical pleasure. I saw the love in his eyes, so the words were just icing on the cake and sent me falling over the cliff after him.
We stayed wrapped around each other for a long time, smiling and talking about a future together. I rubbed my hand up and down his spine while he ran his fingers through my hair. His gentle touch and the exhaustion from lack of sleep caught up to me and I found myself drifting asleep in his arms on our makeshift bed on the floor. I knew I’d regret it the next morning when I woke to a stiff back and an aching body, but I couldn’t make myself get up off the floor.
Sometime later, Noah woke me up and we headed down to his second floor bedroom. I was asleep again as soon as my head hit the pillow and didn’t wake again until late the next morning when Noah brought me up breakfast in bed. I promptly set the tray on the bedside table because the only breakfast meat I wanted was between his legs.
“I see how you are,” Noah mockingly complained as I slid my lips up and down his cock. “A guy slaves away at the stove… Oh my…” He lost his smartass train of thought when I swallowed around his cock. “Fuck me! Jesus, Mav.”
I didn’t stop until he completely unraveled and came down my throat. I climbed back up his body until I straddled his head on the pillow. “My turn, Doc.” I pressed my weeping cock to his lips and he opened wide to receive me.
I slid my length into his mouth slowly so I wouldn’t choke him, but my worry was for nothing. He dug his fingers in my hips, urging me to fuck his mouth. Noah deep throated my cock like a pro and I quickly found myself thrusting into him, my balls slapping against his scruffy chin. I imagined this same scene but with his hands bound over his head. I would pin them down beneath my hands while I rode his mouth. I roared his name and shot down his throat.
I promptly fell back down on the bed beside him where a deep, dreamless sleep once again claimed me.
