“You aren’t listening,” Damon said. He grabbed his shoulders and shook him, forcing him to hear, nofeel, the truth. “I love you.”
Elliot swallowed, his eyes searching back and forth between Damon’s. “As a friend?”
Damon shook his head and slid a hand to the back of his neck, gripping his hair. “You’re my best friend. My favorite person. You’re the only one that I want to wrestle with”—Elliot snorted—“You’re the only one that I find stupid excuses to touch and make up silly plans to trick you into coming over.”
“You did steal my keys, didn’t you?”
Damon smiled. “I was jealous of all the time you were spending without me.”
“I was studying!” Elliot laughed.
“Yeah, and I was with Chelsea, but all I was thinking about was getting rid of her so we could hang out.”
Damon put his hands on either side of Elliot’s jaw. “I love you. More than a friend. More than anything platonic or innocent. I want to kiss you and hold you and dance with you. When I look at you, my heart hurts with how much I love you. My dick hurts with how much I fucking want you.”
Elliot’s laugh was a little watery.
“You’re beautiful. You’re perfect,” Damon said. “I will always be there for you. I love you.”
Elliot took an uneven breath. “I love you too.”
Damon pressed their foreheads together. “Yeah?”
He nodded, tears in his eyes. “So much. For so goddamn long you don’t even know, Damon.”
“You been pining for me, Croft?”
Elliot pushed his shoulder. “Fuck you, Montré.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
He rolled his eyes. “Is this how you flirted with all your girls? And here I was, jealous of them.”
“Shut up.” And to make sure he shut up—Damon kissed him.
Chapter Nineteen
Damonlovedhim.
His hands trailed up from Elliot’s waist to his neck and cupped his jaw. Their lips met, pressing sweet and soft, before desire ignited and overtook rationality. The hungry passion between them that had been ignored and denied came pouring out. Their kisses became frenzied. Damon’s tongue swept into Elliot’s mouth, devouring him.
The pain in his chest, the ache of his magic, sighed in relief. It bloomed into a warm effervescence that filled his body, his limbs, and transferred to Damon from his palms.
Damon groaned into Elliot’s mouth, and Elliot inhaled his sounds. Their love manifested as the sweet magic that had been stoked between them their whole life. It was the completion of a circuit that had been unfinished until now. A peace, a wholeness, a rightness that Elliot couldn’t get enough of. He’d never get enough of Damon.
Damon’s hands were in his hair, caressing the back of his neck, making him shiver. Elliot sucked on Damon’s tongue. Heat and desire and need built in his stomach, in his groin. Magic heightened every touch.
“God, that feels good,” Damon said as he tilted his head back and Elliot sucked and licked down his neck. His palms were shining, a bright star in the night sky. “Your magic feels so damn good. You feel so amazing.”
Damon’s hands grabbed at Elliot’s shirt, scrambling toward his belt—
“Wait,” Elliot gasped, grabbing his wrists.
Damon’s hooded eyes stared at him. “Probably not the right time, huh?”
Elliot exhaled a laugh. “No. Maybe not.”
Damon laughed, and then Elliot was laughing too, a release of pent-up feelings expelling from them.
