I decided to throw a dog a bone and help him out, since he was struggling so hard. “That’s fine by me. I ordered dinner. Why don’t we start the movie while we wait?”
His head jerked up and he straightened. “You did?”
I couldn’t help it. He looked so confused that I had to laugh. “Yeah, why?”
“I’ve just never had someone be so, uh, direct. And nice.” He gestured at the clean kitchen.
Grinning, I shrugged. “I don’t screw around.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Except with sex.”
A burst of confidence hit me as his shoulders curled forward, and I got the feeling that he was waiting for me to make the first move. I reached up and slid my hand around the back of his neck, and a sweet heat I hadn’t expected curled in my stomach as the breath left him. He stepped closer, and he was so much taller than me that it meant I had to pull him down farther, but his mouth fell open as if he loved me using some muscle to move him.
“That isn’t screwing around. That’s taking what I want,” I said.
He stared at my mouth, and I couldn’t help but give in. I yanked him in for a sweet kiss that turned into me nipping his bottom lip, then fucking my tongue into his mouth. When I took a step back, he was panting and the bulge in his jeans was big enough that I wanted to lay him flat somewhere and play with it.Fucking beautiful.
I slid my palm down his chest, directly toward his crotch, and he nodded as I closed my hand over his hard-on. His eyes slammed shut and his small groan filled the room. The sexy little sound had all my most dominant instincts roaring to life. I pulled him in for another kiss, and a knock on the door startled us.
“Who is that?” he asked, almost sounding scared.
Shrugging, I glanced toward the front door. “The food I ordered. Why don’t you take care of the lights and go get comfy on the couch? If you don’t mind us eating there, that is.”
He nodded, and I could feel him staring at me as I turned away to answer the door. I didn’t hate having his attention glued to me. In fact, just the opposite. I never wanted him to look anywhere else.
8
MICAH
“See what they did there?”I shouted, pointing at the screen and nearly driving myself to my feet, but then stopped halfway and fell back onto the couch. “They did itagain. The boring rhetoric insinuating that Alexander and Hephaestion were only friends. They do thisallthe time.” I used air quotes for the next sentence, though my hands were swinging around with enough force to seriously hurt Yukio if he got in the way. I almost knocked an empty food container off the end of the coffee table, but he caught it before I could make a new mess. “They werejust roommatesorjust friends. It’s total straight man bullshit. They clearly didn’t consult with any historians, and if they did, they didn’t use their advice.”
“Aren’t there historians who believe they were only friends?” Yukio’s mouth quirked, and I thought he was teasing me, but I was on a rant and nothing could stop me.
“They arenothistorians,” I argued with a glare. “Those people don’t know anything about ancient Greek culture.”
To my surprise, I didn’t cringe away from him as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, dragging me closer. I snuggled against him and sighed through my irritation about the inaccuracy. That was the problem with most historical Hollywood movies—they didn’t respect the truthful events. A few timeline changes for the sake of drama I could deal with, but pretending that Alexander and Hephaestion wereonly friends? No. Absolutely not. It wasn’t history’s fault that some heterosexual people couldn’t handle a gay relationship.
He pressed his nose into my hair and breathed me in. “You smell so good.”
I stiffened, nerves assaulting my stomach like it was being pelted by a BB gun, and then I relaxed again and my eyes slipped closed automatically. Despite what I’d expected him to do—seduce me during the movie as he tried to get me into my bedroom—Yukio had been a gentleman, and he’d done exactly as he’d promised. He’d listened to me rant and scream and express my disgust over the inaccuracies, and he’d smiled while I did it.
“Can I kiss you?”
Wow.I liked that he asked. Everyone else I knew in my life touched me, even when I outright told them it made me uncomfortable at that specific time. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy another man laying a hand on me—or his lips—but there were moments when I was anxious or upset and I didn’twantanyone near me, let alone in my personal space. Not a lot of people understood or accepted my reasoning.
“I have a question for you.” He kissed my forehead and it was so tender I couldn’t help but sigh in pleasure.
“Yes?” I didn’t care that the movie was still playing because it was a stupid adaptation of real-life events anyway. As soon as they’d made Alexander a straight ruler, I’d known the story would be terrible. I’d had such high hopes, too.
“You said before that you don’t want to know if you have autism. Can I ask why?”
The question seemed personal, but I didn’t mind. I preferred people to be blunt because I never understood the need to beat around the bush. If everything was out in the open, then there weren’t any miscommunications.
“Because I don’t trust my community not to treat me differently.” I pursed my lips in thought, gathering words in my head before I spoke again. “The world is quickly going backward, and I’m scared that if I’m diagnosed as autistic, I could have my rights taken away. It’s probably a baseless fear, but look at how some states are treating trans people. They’ve already started on mental illness as well. I’ve heard stories of autistic parents losing their children. While I don’t have to worry about that with Alex, I do have a career I love, and I can’t risk that. All it would take is one person in the department to assume I couldn’t do my job, and they would find a reason to get rid of me. Maybe not tomorrow but eventually.”
He placed his hand on top of mine. “We’re in New York, though. You’re safe here. There are laws to protect people.”
“Am I safe?” I tilted my head and stared at him seriously. “People in other states thought they were safe, too. Trans people thought they were on a course to acceptance in general. So did drag queens. Safety is always in question for the trans community, but until recently this country seemed to be on track to being decent to all our citizens. There was a lot of work to go, but I thought we were moving in the right direction. Now, I’m scared for our future generations. I’m scared for me.”
