His lips brush mine again, a second time, still gentle, but longer now. No rush, no pressure. Just the steady build of something we've been holding back for too long. I respond without thinking, leaning into him, letting the kiss grow warmer, deeper, morecertain. There’s no awkwardness, no fear, only the quiet truth of finally touching what we’ve both spent weeks pretending not to feel.
Theo’s hand leaves mine. It trails up my arm instead, slow and deliberate, until his fingers ghost along the side of my neck. He lingers there, tracing the curve beneath my jaw, his thumb brushing the skin just under my ear. My breathstumbles in my chest, my lips parting just enough for him to take the cue.
His tongue brushes mine, barely, and it’s all it takes.
The heat spikes.
My hand fists in the fabric of his shirt again, pulling him closer as my body angles toward his. He follows easily, settling beside me, our knees bumping, his palm now splayed against my chest like he’s feeling for my heartbeat. I kiss him harder this time. No hesitation. No apology. Justwant.
His body answers instantly. His lips part on a soft exhale, and when I move to straddle him, he doesn’t stop me. He lets me guide him down against the blanket, my thighs bracketing his hips as I slide over him, our mouths still locked.
The fabric between us starts to feel like a barrier.
His hands come to my hips, not pulling me down, justholdingme there, grounding us both in the ache of this moment.
And gods, he feels good under me.
His hands drift up my sides again, under my shirt this time. The heat of his palms against my bare skin sends a shock through me. Not rushed. Just slow exploration, like he’s trying to memorize what I feel like, what Isoundlike when I gasp quietly into his mouth.
And I do.
I can’t help it.
The field disappears. The school. The rules. The danger. It all blurs around the edges of Theo’s hands sliding higher beneath my shirt and the press of his body beneath mine.
His breath breaks against my mouth. “Liam…” It’s not a warning. It’s aplea. “Don’t stop.”
His breath is ragged under me, soft exhales pressed against my cheek as I kiss him again, deeper this time, more sure, morehungry. I can feel him beneath me, feel the subtletension in his thighs as I straddle him, the flutter of his pulse where my hand rests at his throat.
Theo’s fingers dig gently into my hips, holding me there, guiding me forward until our bodies are perfectly aligned, heat to heat through our clothes. I move against him slowly, once, twice, and the low sound he makes, barely stifled, nearly undoes me. It’s not a moan, not really. It’s softer than that. Need buried under restraint.
And still, he lets me do it again.
My hands slide beneath his shirt, palms skimming over his ribs, his stomach. His skin is warm, unscarred, smooth in places and calloused in others. I trace every inch like I have the right to. Like this isn’t something we’ll both be damned for.
Theo arches slightly into the touch. His lips drag along my jaw, then my neck, kissing gently, open-mouthed. One of his hands travels up beneath my shirt in return, fingertips brushing over the small of my back, trailing higher along my spine. I shiver, pressing into him harder, needing more...needing all of it.
He doesn’t ask.
Heknows.
His hips lift beneath mine, tentative at first, then bolder as we begin to move in sync. A slow, grinding rhythm, frantic beneath its restraint. Our mouths find each other again, and it’s messier this time. Wet and breathless.
I can feel how hard he is.
I know he feels me too.
But there’s no rush to finish. We stay suspended in it,thismoment where we can just exist together. Where the sun is warm on our skin, and the flowers shield us from the world that would tear us apart if it saw what we were becoming.
His hand slides to my thigh. My fingers tangle in his hair.
We grind against each other, again and again, breathcatching, eyes fluttering closed. Every rock of our hips drags another sound from one of us. Every touch deepens the haze.
“Liam,” he gasps against my mouth, “I-”
His voice breaks.
He doesn’t finish.
