Micah raises his left hand and places his right over his heart. “Cross my heart.”
“Okay, so.” I clear my throat. “I've been reading this book.”
To his credit, Micah doesn’t make a peep, so I continue.
“And it really gave me a lot of ideas. Everyone always makes sex sound so straightforward, in and out and done, but in the book, it’s described in a lot of detail!” Embarrassment creeps up my neck, but I don’t let it deter me. “And that’s…well, that’swhat I was hoping I could copy. Kinda like a playbook? But I understand if you no longer want to.”
Micah sighs, raising a hand as if to run it through his hair, knocking the cap off, and only just catching it with his other hand. He plops it down on the couch.
I let him make up his mind, trying not to fidget while I wait.
“Alright, but!” Micah raises a finger as well as both his eyebrows. “We’re going to have to lay down some serious ground rules. Like, tell each other what’s okay and what isn’t. Maybe also establish a…a safe word? So we know when to stop?”
I nod, a huge stone lifting off my chest, though it promptly gets stuck in my throat. There’s one more thing I should clear up while we’re at it.
“Okay, I’m totally on board, so…one uh…boundary: there won’t be,” I stutter, but there’s no way around the word, “any penetration. Like…I promised Colin that I would keep my first time bottoming for him. But I’m more than happy to…if…if you want to try that?”
Micah blinks a few times, but in the end just nods. “There’s more than enough for us to explore, I’m sure.” He grins, then looks around at the books stacked on the table. “Besides, I guess I’m going to have to get some reading done?”
I gape at him. “You want to readKeeping Noah?”
“Obviously? I have to know what those guys are all about after all. You can start making a list, and I’ll make my own.” He holds out a hand for me to shake.
I bite my tongue. I hadn’t expected him to actually want to read that book, but I nod and unfold my arm so we can seal this new deal.
“Okay, and…if we don’t like something,” I reiterate, mentally going through the plan and how it all falls into place. “We’ll use a safe word.”
“Exactly.” Micah nods, looking pleased with himself as well.
“Good. What…like what? Just stop?”
“Ah…I haven’t thought about that.”
I snort, shaking my head, but it feels good not to be the only one who seems out of his depth with all this. “I guess it should be something that’ll make it clear it’s crossing a line. Like foul or…” I wrinkle my nose. “No, not that severe, but—”
“Red card?” Micah throws in, snickering when I swat at him.
“No. Maybe…maybeoffside?”
Micah laughs all the way upstairs, where I give him the book.
Instead of letting go as he grabs for it, I hold on, then stretch up to give him a quick peck on his lips—a promise of what’s to come.
Micah, approx. June 18th
“So it’s true what they say in the streets—the lost son has found his way home.”
Noah didn’t have to lift his head; he would have known that deep voice anywhere. Comforting, like a hot shower after an exhausting day, it washed over him, teasing a sigh out of him. Home. After a decade, he was, in fact, really home.
Putting his glass back down onto the counter, he took a deep breath before swiveling around on his barstool.
“Owen,” he said. Or meant to say, since the name was nothing more than a whisper on his parched lips. For a short moment, he was worried about hallucinating this whole encounter. To get dragged back to reality by the kick of a steel-capped boot right in his ribs. But when his dark eyes roamed the other man’s face standing before him, it caught on to little details he had never seen before: small crow-feet around his blue eyes, a hint of gray in his blond beard, and when he smiled, his lips revealed a slightly chipped front tooth. This wasn’t some figment of his memory because he hadn’t been there for all ofthese little changes, wouldn’t—no,couldn’tknow of them if they weren’t real.
“Owen,” he croaked out again, and when the other man spread his arms wide, just to wrap them around him a moment later, he was sure.
This. Was home.
“Man, what the hell are you reading there?”
