Page 66 of The Boy from Half Moon

“And what do you feel now?” he asked.

“Afraid.”

Tate’s eyes filled with compassion, and he adjusted how he was sitting, turning toward me. “Can you explain what it is you’re afraid of?”

There were a million things that frightened me. So many nightmares endured for years that I wanted to forget. But this wasn’t that. “This,” I said, motioning between us. “This scares me. What I’m feeling inside scares me. Not having this scares me even more. That’s a lot, right?”

“What if I told you that you could have this?” he asked. “That we could work on ways to make things less scary for you? And that… I’m afraid too?”

“I’m afraid of something else,” I confessed, pulling my hand back to my lap and staring at the five-digit duo as they battled each other. “Maybe you’ll want sex and then I’ll let you down.”

If he was offended or shocked by my words, he hid it well. Instead, he held his hand out again, palm up, asking me to reengage. I accepted his kindness, using my free hand to play with a loose thread on my shorts.

“Hey,” he whispered. “Can you look at me for a moment?”

I looked up and recognized the man I’d started to know better with each meeting. His expression seemed patient and kind-hearted—like he always showed when I seemed unsure about something. The thing about Tate that I liked so much was how he never spoke down to me. He didn’t act like he was the adult, and I was the child. I felt whole and respected by him—like he saw me as an equal despite my age and inexperience.

“Do you agree that honesty is best for any relationship?” he asked. I nodded my agreement. “Good, because I’m going to be very honest with you right now, Luke.”

“I’d prefer that,” I replied.

“You are correct that I want to have sex with you,” he stated. “If you and I are going to build a relationship based on trust, then you need to know that I am attracted to you and have an expectation that we will be sexual.”

He was direct, for sure. As anxious as I was after his declaration, I also needed him to know I wanted to have sex with him, too. My struggle would be how to express that I wanted to have sex without revealing what I’d done.

My experience with sex was limited to my experiences with Franklin, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do what Franklin did to me. What he did hurt, and I could not see how I would ever enjoy that kind of sex.

“And you’ll be patient with me?” I asked, not revealing the fear of what Franklin had done. “You’ll let me get used to being with someone I like very much?”

“Just between you and me,” he answered, winking. “The discovery as we explore one another will be a truly wonderful thing. A safe journey that will make you feel at ease and, I hope, protected.”

“Thank you, Tate,” I said. “Can kissing be enough for a while? And then you can show me the other stuff.”

He held his arms apart and smiled. “I could kiss you for an eternity, mister,” he teased. “And I’ve got all night, it seems.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Tate

My day was ending the same way it started. I was stretched out on my bed, my hands reaching for the headboard as my fingers tapped to the rhythm of my humming. Instead of sunlight breaking on the new day, the moon, in half phase, beamed its magical light into my bedroom. The irony of the moon being a half-moon didn’t escape me.

Luke was downstairs in my spare bedroom where we’d agreed he’d be more comfortable on his first overnight stay. My thoughts were on why he’d called. Not why in the sense that I knew he liked me and that we were at the beginning of something, but more of a how he was able to disappear for an entire night from his home at Half Moon Ranch.

Luke mentioned several times that he wasn’t allowed to form friendships with outsiders. I was also made aware that curfews existed where he came from. So understanding what he was doing downstairs had me worried for him.

Tonight, he stated he was willing to take the risks associated with dating an outsider. Putting all three issues into one problem seemed an even greater risk to his welfare, and that concerned me.

Even with all the worries occupying my mind, I was excited he was in my home. Granted, we were in separate bedrooms, but still, he was here, which felt like a monumental step.

When Luke stepped into the room after his shower, I was stunned at seeing him in clothes other than his usual conservative attire. The body I’d visualized under jeans and button-downs was amazing on its own, but now, without the number of barriers hiding his build, he was nothing short of breathtaking.

I didn’t ask so as not to embarrass him, but I think he wore my gym shorts commando. My shorts weren’t as long on his taller frame, showing off his muscled legs. His thighs were thick and strong, like squats were his full-time profession. His smooth legs were also creamy white, and I was certain they’d never seen the sun. When he walked across the floor to join me in the kitchen, I was weak-kneed as his manhood bounced back and forth under the soft gray material of the gym shorts.

I’d felt his erection against my body when we’d kissed on our last date, but that’s a hard way to measure a dick. Seeing the fullness of his penis in a flaccid state, flouncing around freely, filled in all the blanks. He was well-endowed with a large mushroom tip.

The white tank top, the kind I wear under my dress shirts, commonly referred to as a wife-beater, fit him like a second skin. His upper body was massive. Biceps nearly as big as my thighs, and a chest that the tank was struggling to contain, had my libido dialed up to red alert.

When he strode across the room toward me, his thick cock bouncing, it was like slow motion, fantasy jack-off material. After a year of dormancy for my sexual yearnings, my body ached to be joined with his. A feeling in my crotch tore through my psyche as it raged at me, demanding I recognize the hunger I felt for him. Going slow and being patient with Luke would be no small task on my part.

Sliding off the bed, I quietly stepped to the light switch and turned the overhead fan on. Either the temperature was warm because of our fast-coming summer, or my thinking about Luke’s body had set me on fire. I stepped out of my briefs and left them on the floor, returning to lie on top of the covers. The cool breeze blowing over my naked body immediately took my temperature down about a thousand degrees.

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