“What are we waiting for?” Benji whispered. But Noah could see in his face that he suspected. He’d studied this woman’s art, after all. He knew exactly what they were waiting for.
The sun sank lower. The light climbed to the very spot Noah had been told about: the giant piece of glass hanging just to their right. It struck the huge shard, and suddenly the whole room was filled with light, bouncing off every shard until the room glowed with it.
Benji laughed, amazed. “Holy shit! Oh, man. Oh,wow.”
He turned around, raising his hands. Holding his fingers so the light dented around them, casting ecstatic shadows.
“It’s beautiful,” he breathed.
“It is,” Noah replied quietly, watching light dance over Benji’s awestruck face. Benji kept making noises like he wanted to speak, but then would trail off to stare in wordless wonder at the light-filled room around them.
Finally, Benji turned to him, beaming. “I could’ve lived my whole life without seeing this. Iwouldhave, if I never met you.”
Noah wanted to propose so bad he could taste it. He hadn’t even bought a ring—he didn’t trust himself with it. Benji had said to give him time, and he would. All of this was just stepping stones, showing Benji how good their life could be together if Benji said yes. But Noah wanted to have that lifenow. No waiting, no easing Benji into it. He wanted to drop to his knees right here in this glowing, glass-filled room and order Benji to say yes.
Then the moment broke. The sun sank under the horizon. The light died, leaving them standing in a room full of hanging glass.
Benji swallowed, blinking hard. He swayed forward into Noah’s chest, tugging at Noah’s open collar. “So… that wasn’t the only thing you had planned, right? Because that was fucking gorgeous, but I still have this giant plug inside me. It’s pretty distracting.”
I love you, Noah thought helplessly.I want you forever. Marry me, Benji.
He wasn’t going to be able to hold back much longer. He could feel the words bubbling up his throat.
He forced them down and smiled. “What did I say about me setting the pace?”
CHAPTER 10
“Are you ready?”
Benji considered the question. His head was fuzzy, and he had lost track of time when Noah started fucking him with four fingers.
Now he was up to five. Noah’s slick knuckles rested just beyond Benji’s hole, which was stretched further than ever before.
“Just one more stretch,” Noah told him gently. “And it’s inside. Do you want to slow down?”
Benji shook his head. He was sweating onto the pillows, trembling so hard Noah had to prop his knees up underneath him. He felt like taffy, loose and lax. Surely Noah could fit his whole hand inside him. He’d been prepping Benji long enough. Those two huge plugs, plus all this fingering—thishadto be the time where it finally worked. When Benji didn’t chicken out at the last second and safeword out.
“Benjamin?” Noah kissed his spine, licking sweat from his skin. “Words, baby.”
Benji groaned unintelligibly. He knew vaguely that there was a foreign country waiting outside the closed curtains, everythingwaiting for him to explore. But once again, Noah had narrowed the world down to the bed he had Benji splayed out on.
“Do it,” Benji panted.
Noah placed another kiss to his spine and started to press in. Benji’s hole bulged around Noah’s knuckles, and for a straining second, Benji thought he’d fucked up. He couldn’t do it, it was too much, he was going to have to bow out again?—
But then Noah’s knuckles slipped past, and Benji’s hole settled around his wrist.
Benji drooled into the mattress, alight with triumph.
Holy shit,he thought dimly.I did it.
“It’s in,” Noah told him, his voice dark with awe. “God, you look incredible. How does it feel?”
Benji shifted curiously. He could feel Noah’s fingers against his inner walls, could feel Noah making a slow, careful fist. He’d never felt that before. It was the most intimate thing he’d ever experienced.
“It’s so much,” Benji managed, his voice thick. “Noah.”
“You’re taking me so well,” Noah said. “So good for me. Just had to let me in, yeah?”
