Count me in.
He walked over to one of the compartments where the driver sat—fuck if I knew what it was called; I didn’t know anything about boats—and he dug out half a dozen bottles of water and two towels.
I got with the program and followed him to the side of the boat where water could drain out.
After stripping off my shorts, I opened the first bottle and?—
“Lemme.” Reid grabbed it from me.
I swallowed and stood stock-still as he moved in close. He poured the water over my head and combed his fingers through my hair, and I didn’t look away from his face unless I had to blink away waterdrops.
In the low light from the lantern, he looked like a man from another world. He was all shadows and contrasts. And he was troubled by something.
I had to be as honest as he’d been, even if he ended up regretting everything.
Nerves tightened in my gut.
He emptied a second bottle over my shoulders, and he traced his hands over my skin.
“I’ve been low-key in love with you for a solid fifteen years,” I heard myself say.
Well, that was a fucking confession.
His gaze snapped to mine, and he stopped what he was doing.
I cleared my throat. “That’s not counting the childhood crush I developed overnight when my brother brought you home for the first time.”
He smiled faintly, and it wasn’t enough. He was struggling with vulnerability tonight too.
“It always seemed too farfetched, though,” I admitted. “I never let myself consider it because of…you know.”
We were such great friends. He was my brother and my lifeline, which I told him. “Losing that would be the end of me, and given how our…preferences…never lined up, it felt like too great of a risk to even hope for something.” Fuck me, I was actually scared.
He nodded with a dip of his chin, and I grabbed the next bottle. It was my turn.
He closed his eyes as I poured it over his head, and I slipped my fingers through the short waves.
Waterdrops clung to his eyelashes, the tip of his nose, and in his scruff.
Too beautiful.
“I reckon I’m the one who’s gotta worry,” he said quietly. “You’ve only dated Littles and subs.”
“And that worked out well for me.”
He exhaled a low chuckle. “Touché. But those labels…? In the heat of the moment, I can call you mine and be done with it, but then you wake up the next day and feel like it’s not enough.”
Maybe it was, though. It sure as fuck felt like my chase was over.
He opened his eyes again when I used another bottle to wash his shoulders and chest. His skin was littered with tiny scratches and blotchy marks.
And I knew exactly what to say, for once. “You know when I never feel the need to hunt down my place in life? When I’m with you. Whether it’s you and me or we have the boys with us.”
He swallowed and nodded once. “Same.”
I closed the distance and kissed him, needing it. Another bottle fell to the floor, and he pressed his body to mine.That’s it. That was it right there. Him pressed up against me.
“I can’t go back to pretending,” he murmured. “I guess I’ve been in a similar spot as you—but I go through some rough patches here and there when all I want is to shake the fuck outta you for not seein’ what I see.”
