Page 129 of All the way home

Zach laughs, and he lets it happen, lets himself lean against Kieran, kisses him so that it becomes something else, some other, wilder thing that some other braver, bolder Zach is initiating, so the real Zach gets to just float along with it and feel. Feel when the pressure point of Kieran’s thumb releases. Feel when he reaches up with both hands to frame Zach’s face, fingers pushing his hair back.

On a subliminal level, Zach knows that the evening has been working up to this point. Some part of him has been aware of it for hours, but even that hadn’t prepared him for what it would actually be like.

It’s like—

Pushing, just to feel Kieran push back. Winding his fingers through Kieran’s hair and down the back of his neck, hands wandering, his heartbeat in his neck, thundering in his ears, so fast and light it leaves him untethered.

Kieran kisses him like he wants to. Like he’s been wanting to, deliberately, pushing so Zach has to turn, stepping back until his back hits the glass. He curls his fingers around the fabric of Kieran’s shirt, under his peacoat, and—

In his pocket, Kieran’s phone starts beeping, high-pitched and shrill in the empty space around them.

Breaking away, Kieran lets out an indignant huff, a sound so unexpected and so Kieran that Zach can’t help laughing.

Kieran follows his mouth and catches it, lips soft and warm and eager.

His phone beeps again.

“What if it’s important?” Zach whispers into the kiss, loath to pull back, fully aware that if he doesn’t, Kieran won’t either. “What if we’re boarding?”

“I don’t care,” Kieran groans, but it’s clear that he does, because he squeezes his eyes shut, then steps back with one hand fumbling in his pocket for his phone. Some of the dazed pleasure melts away as he takes in whatever’s on his screen. “It’s Rena.”

“Are we?” Zach asks, out of breath. “Boarding?”

“No. She’s just asking where I am.” Kieran taps out a message, then looks up and flashes Zach a grin. “And what I’m doing.”

Laughing, helpless, Zach asks, “Are you going to tell her?”

“Wasn’t planning on it, no.” Kieran rolls his bottom lip under his teeth as he continues typing.

Zach leans against the glass and watches, fixated, thinking that he’d like to try that out himself.

“She’s requesting counsel,” he adds, amusement lingering in the corners of his mouth.

That mouth.

Then Kieran’s shoulders slump and he lets out a groan. “Not now,” he says, seemingly more to himself than to Zach. “Seriously?”

His stomach flips. “What?”

“She’s asking if I can go meet her,” Kieran says. When he looks up and meets Zach’s eye, there’s something intense and searing in his expression.

“Is it serious?”

“Must be, if she’s outright asking.”

“Well,” Zach says, swallowing hard, loath to get the words out, “then you should go.”

Kieran gives a sharp nod, then closes his eyes and lets out a low, quiet breath. “Holy shit.”

Zach laughs, breathless as he passes a hand over his face. “So long as you come back.”

“Well, obviously.” Grinning at him, flushed and bright, Kieran starts back toward him, then stops. He glances over his shoulder. “God. This is the worst. I’m going to go before I talk myself out of it.”

Half of Zach wants to try to talk him out of it. The other half really, really needs to sit down. Does Kieran feel as desperately hopeless as he does? Not meaning a word of it, Zach says, “Yeah. You should go.”

Kieran laughs. “Yeah. Yeah, I should.”

But he doesn’t.