“Yeah, ’cause the Internet constitutes reality.” Angelo sat up and glared half-heartedly. “No, in general, not just the narcissism I chose to share back then. And what I actually mean is that I don’t want you to worry about things we can’tchange.”
Dylan chewed his lip. “Are we going round in circles withthis?”
“A bit?—?” Angelo broke off with a yawn that made his head spin. “But that’smyfault. I’m getting better at talking, Iswear.”
Dylan smiled and coaxed Angelo to lie down again, stretched out on the magical sofa, his head in Dylan’s lap. “You’re better at italready.”
Angelo chuckled hazily as Dylan moved his fingers over his scalp. “I’ve been practising with my mum. She keeps trying to give me money. Did I tell you she gave me a phone and a debit card in her name to use for awhile?”
“No, but you probably shouldn’t. The less I know about stuff like that, thebetter.”
“Should I make her take itback?”
“That’s not for me to say, but as we’re in my dad’s house and not my office, I’m going with no. You need to live, Angelo, not justsurvive.”
Survival had been all Angelo was capable of for so long that Dylan’s words took a while to sink in, and by then he was half asleep. With his head in Dylan’s lap, he listened to Dylan humming along to Kerrang! and dozed until instinct told him it was time to gohome.
Dylan walked with him, his arm comforting and solid around Angelo’s waist, keeping him upright in more ways than one. They stopped at the end of the driveway and Dylan pushed him gently against the wall. “When can I see youagain?”
Angelo shrugged, breathless from the walk or maybe the fact that Dylan’s lips were mere inches away. “Whenever you’re free. It’s not like I’ve got muchon.”
“I’d argue that you havewaytoo much on.” Dylan’s grin was a beacon in the gloom of their dark corner. “But it is pretty cold so I guess I can’t stripyou.”
“If you wanted to strip me, you should’ve said before we left your dad’splace.”
“I was trying to begood.”
“Stop.”
Dylan laughed. “Maybe next time. I’m working late tomorrow, but I’ll call you. Maybe we can grab a drink orsomething?”
Angelo nodded, but fatigue had caught up with him and his head bobbed alarmingly. “Sounds good. If you’re gonna kiss me tonight, though, you’d better do it now before I’m too tired to rememberit.”
“You want me to kissyou?”
“Is that a realquestion?—?”
Dylan’s lips cut him off, crashing against his with the sweet force that Angelo had been dreaming of. He pushed Angelo ever tighter to the cold brick wall and shoved his hands under Angelo’s jacket and T-shirt, his smooth, warm palms gliding over Angelo’s tingling skin, and Angelo caught fire. He fell slack in Dylan’s arms, all the while kissing Dylan back with a wild, wretched groan. Why had they wasted the night talking when they could’ve been doingthis? Why were they outside in the cold, wrestling with layers of clothes, when they could’ve been rolling around on a bed?—any bed?—Dylan’s, his own, even a plastic-covered mattress at theclub?
Angelo groaned again and fumbled desperately for any part of Dylan that he could reach, pulling him impossibly closer. Reason abandoned him, and he’d have been on his knees in a heartbeat, swallowing Dylan whole if Dylan hadn’t broken their crazedkiss.
“I should go,” Dylan said,panting.
“I don’t want youto.”
“I know.” Dylan flexed his hips pointedly, grinding their crotches together, his cock as hard as Angelo’s. “But I still should. You’re exhausted, and we’ve got all the time in the world to get back tofucking.”
Dylan was wavering, Angelo could tell, teetering on the edge of doing the right thing or giving into the fire that was making him tremble as hard as Angelo. Another grind, another kiss and he’d crumble. Theresa slept like the dead, she’d never hear Angelo leading Dylan upstairs and fucking his brains out on his childhood bed, especially if he pressed his hand over Dylan’s mouth, a club-born fantasy that could easily find a home in the real world.But...
Angelo closed his eyes and banged his head softly on the wall behind him. Dylan was right. If they fell into bed now, they’d crawl out right back where they’d started. They both neededmore.
Besides, as active as his imagination was, the reality was that right now he’d be lucky to climb the stairs on his own, let alone with Dylan wrapped around him, and sleep was the only thing calling his name that would truly get ananswer.
He kissed Dylan one last time, sweeping his tongue over Dylan’s lips, biting down hard enough to make them both groan. And then he pulled away. “You’ll call metomorrow?”
“Yes. As soon as I’mdone.”
Angelo nodded slowly. “Okay. Guess this is goodnightthen.”
