Page 76 of The Step Don't

Troy gives me his attention next. “Colin, do you take Ash, your stepbrother, to be your boyfriend?”

“I do.” I mean, weddings are fun.

“Is there anyone who objects to this union?” Troy asks.

“I do!” Brenner teases, but Taylor elbows him in the gut and they laugh.

“Try again with someone else. Ash is mine.”

Ash flushes slightly.

Troy says, “You guys are looking at each other like you’re gonna bone, so with the power of Alpha Theta Mu, I now pronounce you boyfriend and boyfriend.”

Troy takes Frat Cat from me just before Ash’s hands are on my face and he’s pulling me close, taking my mouth in a kiss, surrounded by the cheers of our friends.

21

Ash

We have somedrinks and dance, enjoying a…what is this exactly? A boyfriendposal reception?

Fortunately, most of the guys are finished giving us an appropriate amount of hell for the ceremony and are having their own fun, when I lurch at Colin, shamelessly kissing him in front of my fellow frat bros and Brenner and Taylor. I thought it’d be a quick kiss, but the way Colin pulls me in, his tongue sliding between my lips…I can’t help myself.

“And now…I’m getting hard,” I say between kisses before feeling his crotch. “You too, apparently.”

Colin chuckles. “Maybe if you keep touching it like that, it’ll go down.”

I laugh before releasing him, mainly because as supportive as our friends are, they don’t need to see me jerk off my stepbrother.

“And here I thought I was gonna outsmart you,” Isay, “and pull off this great boyfriendposal.”

“Outsmart me? I know you’re smart, but that’s pushing it.”

“At least the guys know me well enough to know this had to end in dancing.”

“I figure if they hadn’t ended it like this,” Colin says, “you’d still be dancing. Have Marty chasing you off the media console.”

“Sounds about right.”

“Someone say my name?” Marty approaches.

And I love the guy, but I’m gonna be pissed if he so much as makes a snarky comment. I don’t want any hell during our special moment.

“Hey…can I talk to you guys for a second?” Marty asks, and the softness in his voice catches me off guard.

“Of course,” Colin replies.

Marty moves closer, pressing his lips together. He looks so serious. Although, this is Marty, so no surprise there.

“I just…” He hesitates. “I know I can be a lot sometimes, and I don’t always see things the way everyone else does, but I try. When you called me about you and Ash, I thought you were playing a prank, and if you needed me to be there for you and I wasn’t, I’m sorry.”

That’s not what I expected.

“It’s okay,” Colin says. “Even though Ash and I were really hooking up, we were joking when I called you, soyou didn’t miss a moment to be there for me.”

Marty takes a breath—maybe the first decent one since he approached.

“You’re good, bro,” Colin confirms.

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