Mano went completely still.
“But not about that.” Ody pulled him a fraction closer, until there was nowhere else for Mano to look but at him. His chest was rising and falling too fast, panic and something deeper pushing up through him.
He stared straight into those teary honey eyes. “I lied about not kissing you if Anna hadn’t walked in,” he said quietly.
Mano blinked, slow and stunned.
“I would’ve kissed you,” Ody whispered, the confession trembling out of him. “I would’ve kissed you so fucking bad… I like you, Mano.” The words ripped out of him, rough and strained. “I like you so much and I don’t know what the fuck to do about it.”
Everything he’d been fighting against collapsed all at once.
He dragged a shaky hand through his hair, like he couldn’t believe what he was saying. “I’m with Anna,” he rasped. “I know it’s wrong. I know.” He looked away for a second. “But ever since that first kiss… I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Mano’s eyes were still wet under the moonlight, wide and shaken, like he didn’t know how to breathe.
Ody’s heartbeat hammered against his ribs, loud enough that he felt it in his throat. “Maybe I’ll regret this tomorrow,” he whispered. “But I can’t stand seeing you like this. Not because of me.”
Their faces drifted closer, neither of them resisting the pull between them. Ody lifted a trembling hand and cupped Mano’s face. His thumb brushed over tear-damp skin, slow and gentle. “I never played with you,” he said. “Ever.”
His fingers drifted along the edge of Mano’s lips, barely touching. “Everything I did these past few days…” Ody’s voice faltered. “Showing up half-naked in your room… pinning you to the wall… teasing you…” He let out a shaky breath. “I did all of itjust to be close to you,” he admitted. “To touch you. To have you for myself.”
Mano stared at him like the world had tilted. His chest rose in uneven, shallow breaths, every inhale catching, every exhale trembling.
Ody’s gaze dropped to his lips, drawn there without meaning to.
Mano swallowed hard, the movement visible in his throat, his pulse racing under Ody’s hand.
“God, I want you so much.” Ody pulled him in and crashed their mouths together.
It wasn’t careful or gentle. It was raw, hungry, almost violent with need, like something inside him had snapped and the only thing that mattered was Mano’s lips under his. His fingers tightened against the back of his neck.
Mano gasped against Ody’s mouth, his body jolting with the force of it. But the shock lasted barely a heartbeat. His lips parted under the pressure, melting into the kiss. His fingers curled into Ody’s shirt, weak but desperate, pulling him closer.
The kiss turned messy fast, all heat and need.
Their mouths collided again and again, deeper each time, their breaths mixing. Ody kissed him like he needed him to survive. Mano kissed him back like something inside him had finally broken open.
Their bodies pressed tightly together as they kissed, Ody gripping him. Mano’s shaky exhale hit his mouth, and he swallowed it in another hungry kiss, rougher, hotter, almost trembling with the force of everything he’d held in.
Ody had wanted this for so long. The need had twisted into something sharp, something that ate at him every night. It had gotten so bad that he let Kash touch him because it was the closest thing he could get to what he actually wanted. Because Kash was there and Mano wasn’t.
It was ten percent curiosity, panic, trying to understand why he suddenly wanted men at all, and ninety percent pure desperation. Desperation for this. For Mano. For the lips he was kissing now, the body he was holding, the boy he could never have.
And now Mano was right here. Right in his hands. Kissing him back with the same shaking need Ody had been drowning in for days.
They stayed impossibly close, the world fading beneath the sound of the waves. The kiss deepened again, tongues meeting, breaths tangling, both of them disappearing into it.
Then, like a punch to the chest, reality slammed into Ody. He had a girlfriend. Anna. Waiting for him back at the beach bar, trusting him.
And this… this wasn’t some confused moment with another girl. This was Mano.
The kiss slowed. Their lips parted, only by a breath. Foreheads hovered close, almost touching.
Ody’s breath hitched, his lips parting like the words didn’t want to come out. His grip tightened where he still held him, like letting go would make everything crash down around them. “What are we gonna do…?”
Chapter 38
Mano didn’t answer. His chest rose too fast. Ody rested his forehead against his, eyes closing, hands framing his face with a tenderness that didn’t match the chaos inside him.
