He adds two fingers, and my body convulses, my cock leaking onto the sheets. A strangled sound rips from my throat as a hot flush spreads through me.
“Are you ready for me, baby? I need to be inside you so bad.”
“Please,” I beg, my voice hoarse.
He nips the soft skin on my arse before grabbing a condom and lube from his bedside table.
The bed dips as he climbs on behind me, notching his cock at my entrance. His fingers trace over the number seven on my back, and I swallow, anticipation thrumming through me.
“I’m not going to last long.” He leans forward and kisses my neck.
“Fuck me, Noah. I’m yours.”
He rests his forehead on my shoulder as he slides into me, and we both groan. His movements are slow at first, almosttorturously so. His hands find mine in the sheets, and our fingers entwine as he increases his pace.
The room becomes a symphony of grunts and skin slapping against skin until Noah’s cock swells inside me and he stills, finding his release. His lips find my neck, and he presses open-mouthed kisses to my sensitive skin, his body blanketing mine as we both come down from our highs.
As our breaths even out, the front door bangs open, and Dane shouts for Noah to pull out so we can get our gay arses downstairs to join the party. Jasper cusses him out, and the sound of people fills the house. Someone turns on the stereo, a Forever Summer song blasting through the speakers.
Noah groans, but he smacks another kiss on my cheek before sliding out of me.
My body aches in the best way as I roll off the bed and stretch my arms over my head.
“Go have the first shower,” Noah says, kissing my jaw before moving to strip the sheets.
I fight my grin at his cleaning tendencies, slipping my boxers on before I head for the door. Pausing, I glance back, drinking in the man I’ve fallen hard for. Every broken piece of him. Only he’s not broken anymore. Slowly, over the past six months, he’s been healing, finding himself, and bravely fighting for what he wants. Me. Us.
As I stand there, watching him put fresh sheets on the bed, smoothing out the creases in the sheets with careful precision, I’m hit with a wave of intense need to do anything I can to keep him forever. “I love you, Noah Bentley.”
The blinding smile he shoots me causes my heart to skip a beat. “I love you, Zac Kincaid.”
Epilogue
Noah
TWO & A HALF YEARS LATER
My knee bounces as we approach Perth. I haven’t been home since Grandad’s seventieth, and even though Zac’s sitting next to me this time, I can’t help but relive the horrible memories of that trip.
“Relax,” he says, placing his hand on my thigh to still my anxiety. A smirk tilts his lips, and he leans in to murmur, “Do we need to join the mile-high club to calm you down, Shadow?”
I snort, arching a brow. “Who said I’m not already a member?”
His eyes widen for a moment, but then a knowing smile splits his handsome features. “That’s cute, babe. But unless you and Nathan stole your grandad’s jet in secret, you’re a mile-high virgin.”
Deciding it’s best not to tell him about our gap year travelling Europe, I flip him off instead, and he laughs, leaning in to nuzzle my neck.
Hisdistraction works, and I sigh as I relax back into my seat.
Spending Christmas in Perth wasn’t the plan—I’ve been putting off going back with all the trauma linked to my childhood home—but Nan suffered a heart attack four months ago, and she’s not well enough to travel to see us this year.
I’m nervous to go home, but it’s not the only reason my pulse is spiking. No, it’s because of the man sitting next to me, and the life-altering question I plan to ask him when we fly to Sydney next week to spend New Year’s Eve with Hannah and her boyfriend, Tom. That is, if I don’t succumb to my anxiety before then.
This past couple of years have been the best of my life.
Zac moved in with me after he graduated. He was busy working as a clinical psychologist at Beckford Hospital, and I was swamped with soccer and a heavy course load, cramming a three-year counselling course into two, so we barely had any free time together. Adam and Isabelle didn’t mind me staying over, but it just made sense for him to move in so we could have our own space. Well, a space we also share with Dane, Jasper, and his girlfriend, Kate.
I graduated with honours three months ago, and Zac and I have plans to open a not-for-profit drop-in centre for LGBTQ+ teens. The idea is simple: a safe space for them to hang out, play sports, get homework help, talk to counsellors, or just exist without having to explain themselves. No pressure, no labels unless they want them, and absolutely no judgement.
