“Nice of Seth to invite him,” Harvey said, sipping his own beer. “Want me to paint your nails?” he asked, producing two bottles of nail polish. “I have Blood of My Enemies and Gold Digger.”
I snorted. No surprise that Seth had a polish calledGold Digger.OrBlood of My Enemies, for that matter.
“You paint nails?” I asked, sipping my beer.
“No,” Harvey admitted. “But it’s a sleepover, and I feel like I should. How hard can it be?”
I’d seen Dante paint his own nails and I got the feeling there was a technique to it, but Harvey was right—it couldn’t bethathard.
“Do your worst,” I said, offering my left hand first.
“I’ll do my best,” Harvey said. “But I can’t promise my best isgood. Blood or gold?”
“Blood, I think,” I said. “Maybe we can do an accent nail with the gold.”
“Like, on your thumb?” Harvey asked.
“I think the ring finger is traditional,” I said, smiling as I sipped my beer. “Are you sure you’re gay? I feel like we’re meant to know these things.”
Harvey looked up at me under his lashes, lips curled into a wry smile.
“Pretty sure I’m gay,” he said, shaking the bottle of dark red polish. “Based on all the things I’m thinking about doing to you.”
I sipped my beer again to wet my suddenly-dry throat. “What kinda things?”
“Allkinds of things,” Harvey smirked. “Love the sounds you make.”
The back of my neck burned. “Yeah?” I asked, voice a half-octave higher than I would’ve liked.
“Oh yeah.” Harvey murmured, taking my hand and holding it still while he got to work on my nails. “You’re hot, Ig. I haven’t done half the filthy things I wanna do to you yet. I want you in my mouth again, like last night.”
A shudder of need rolled down my spine, pooling in my stomach like molten lead. Last night, Harvey had taken his time, sucking me off while he prepped me and then fucking me so slow and thorough I came again before he did.
I didn’t want to think about the other guys he’d been with, but I loved that he knew what he was doing.
“Stop,” I said, squirming as blood flowed south. “If I pop a boner in these pants, everyone’s gonna know about it.”
“Can’t have that,” Harvey said, still focused on my hands. I’d spent so much of my life holding his hand, but it still felt new and exciting right now.
Liam had never been much of a hand-holder. Only when we were alone, and only when I started it. He’d never pulled away, but…
Harvey was volunteering. Harvey waspainting my nails, which I couldn’t even picture Liam doing.
He was a good man, in his own way, but he wasn’tfor me. He never had been, not really.
“I’m willing to admit I’ve got a jealous streak,” Harvey continued. “Want you all to myself.”
“You’ve got me,” I said without thinking.
“Good,” Harvey said.
A breeze coming in through the thrown-open doors out to the deck made me shiver.
“Cold?” Harvey asked, grabbing for a blanket behind him.
“Just a chill,” I said, glancing outside where Wes and Seth had dragged Andre into it, and now had him pinned down and begging for mercy as they tickled him, Theo licking his face eagerly. “Lotta stars out tonight,” I added, looking up.
“Forecast said it’d be clear all night,” he agreed, and then snorted. “Guess I picked up Grandma’s habit of genuinely caring about the weather.”
