Outside, the rain had started again, soft and steady against the window.
∞∞∞
The knock came at seven-ten.
Adriel had been sitting on the sofa for the last twenty minutes pretending to watch television. The show had been playing, characters talking, plot moving, and he'd absorbed exactly none of it. His mind had been elsewhere.
So when the knock finally came, he was on his feet and at the door in approximately two seconds.
Which was embarrassing.
He didn't care.
He pulled the door open, heart already hammering, and there he was.
Landen.
Slightly breathless from the stairs. His hair wind-tousled, dark strands falling across his forehead. His coat half open, revealing the collar of his shirt.
"Traffic," Landen said.
"It's fine," Adriel said.
"Sorry I'm late."
"You're not… it's fine."
Landen looked at him for one second.
Then he stepped forward.
His hand went straight to Adriel's jaw; warm, sure, familiar now in a way that made Adriel's chest ache. He tilted his face up, and kissed him.
His mouth opened over Adriel's immediately. Warm and sure and demanding in the best way. His tongue slid against Adriel's in a slow, deliberate stroke that made Adriel's knees go jelly on the spot.
He made a sound, surprised, and felt Landen's hand tighten against his jaw in response, felt the subtle shift in the kiss; hungrier now.
He tasted of coffee. Of cold air from outside. Of something underneath that was justhim, that particular flavor Adriel had been dreaming about for days.
They made it inside.
Somehow. Adriel wasn't sure of the mechanics, just that they were moving, stumbling, the door closing behind them with a soft click.
Landen kissed him the whole way down the hall.
Unhurried. Thorough. His hands moved; one still on Adriel's jaw, the other finding his waist, pulling him closer as they walked. They bumped against the wall once, twice, and Landen used it, pressed him there for a moment just to kiss him deeper, his thigh sliding between Adriel's.
Adriel gasped into his mouth.
Landen swallowed the sound and kept kissing him. His hand slid up under the hem of Adriel's sweater, palm spreading warm against his bare skin. The contact was electric; it made Adriel'swhole body jerk, made him press harder against Landen, made him want more.
Landen's palm moved slowly up his side. Tracing the shape of his ribs, his stomach, the curve of his waist. Each inch of skin he touched seemed to light up, to tingle, to demand more.
Adriel's head tipped back against the wall.
"Fuck, I missed you," Landen said against his throat. He pulled away from the wall, guided Adriel forward, and they moved into the bedroom.
The room was warm. Soft light from the lamp on the nightstand painted everything gold. The bed was made; Adriel had made it three times today, obsessively, unable to stop adjusting the pillows.
