“What about you?” Nico asked, turning the tables. “You been in a serious relationship with a man?”
“No,” he answered easily. “Nor with a woman. Only Stevie.”
“Never?”
“Never.”
“Allergic to commitment?”
“When I was younger, maybe. Until Stevie,” Stone answered as though Nico hadn’t been goading him. “As I got older, the idea of one didn’t make me violently ill.” He laughed, rinsing the plates in the sink. “But I never found what I was lookin’ for.”
“Because you’d already found it. And left it behind.”
Stone’s discomfort was etched on his handsome face.
“Sorry. That was uncalled for.”
“But true,” Stone conceded.
Nico swallowed hard. “And whatareyou lookin’ for, Stone? Now, I mean.”
Those mischievous hazel eyes locked right on Nico when he said, “Nothin’.”
Nico frowned.
A smirk pulled at Stone’s wicked mouth. “I don’t have to look anymore. Like you said, I’ve already found it.”
It was a wonder Nico didn’t go up in flames.
Thirty-Two
Stone could tell his admission surprised Nico.
Enough that the guy choked on the last gulp of wine. Since he didn’t need the Heimlich maneuver performed, Stone finished rinsing the dishes and loading them into the dishwasher, giving Nico a moment to compose himself.
“Did you ever wonder if what happenedthat night… did you wonder if it was a one-time thing?”
That was a fair question. It was also something Stone had considered for years after he left. That night in the barn with Stevie and Nico had been rife with serious lust. Stone might’ve been compelled to think the memory had been altered over the years, and a repeat wouldn’t live up to the hype.
“Are we talkin’ about the three of us? Or…” He waved a hand between them. “Or what we did?”
“The second part.”
Was that insecurity he detected in Nico’s tone?
Drying his hand with a towel, he turned to look at Nico. “I was your first.”
Nico didn’t respond, but Stone wasn’t asking. He was acknowledging it since he’d never really given much thought to the fact that he was Nico’s first. He knew he was because he’d pushed the issue at the time, but it had felt right that night. Stone hadn’t thought too long or hard about how that might’ve affected Nico.
“Let’s just say, with you, it’s different,” he admitted, watching as Nico’s cheeks turned pink.
“How so?”
Stone had to admire the guy because he didn’t back down.
“I think it’ll be easier if I just show you,” Stone told him.
He didn’t ask Nico whether he was interested because Stone figured he wouldn’t be here if he weren’t. Stone tossed the hand towel on the counter before walking around the island to join Nico on the other side.
