Page 12 of Virgin Skin

“Alright. Yeah, I’m actually kind of a coffee snob, so I have options.” I flip on the kitchen light and go straight for the cupboard where I keep all of my coffee and accessories. “I have a subscription to a monthly ‘coffees of the world’ thing and some blends from Africa came yesterday. I also splurged on a fall variety pack from Door County. I highly recommend the bourbon pecan pie flavor. I have some more traditional ones too, Colombian, Arabica…” I trail off seeing the glazed look on Milo’s face.

“Uh, just coffee, dude,” he says with a laugh. “Whatever is fine. Pick one for me.”

I grab the bag of bourbon pecan pie beans and the grinder and set to work making a small pot for him. Coffee sounds like a great way to warm up right now, but I actually will lie awake allnight if I drink any this late. Once I have the machine loaded, I press the button to start it brewing and turn back to Milo. He’s looking around my small kitchen with interest, and a few beats of silence pass between us.

“Hey, while the coffee brews, do you want to meet Quincy?”

Milo frowns. “Who’s Quincy? Your roommate?”

I chuckle and shake my head. “No. Come on.”

I put my hands on Milo’s shoulders and spin him to point him towards the living room. Could I have directed him into the living room without putting my hands on him? Who’s to say?

I don’t drop my hands until we reach the large aquarium against the far wall of the living room. I’ve spent a lot of time setting up the tank, so I’m pleased to see the way Milo’s eyes light up when he takes it in. I built a whole underwater city for my little guy, mostly out of clay and a few pre-made fish tank decorations, with plenty of plants for him to use for hiding and duckweed growing on the surface of the tank for added shade and oxygenation. Milo bends down a little to peer inside and gasps when Quincy slinks out of one of the buildings.

“Oh my god, I thought it was going to be a fish.” He laughs as my axolotl swims over to ham it up.

I have a few ‘photo-op’ spots I painted onto the tank where Quincy can swim up and put his face for the perfect picture or just to get a reaction from guests. His favorite is the large handlebar mustache, and it’s always his go-to. Sure enough, that’s exactly where he heads, giving Milo his cutest grin and puffing up his gills. That’s all it takes to have Milo eating out of the palm of his hand, cooing and stroking the glass.

“I’ve never seen a purple one,” he says.

“They’re rare.” I drop a couple of brine shrimp into the tank as a treat for his performance. Quincy swims up to swallow them happily.

Quincy entertains him for a few minutes, posing in the cowboy hat spot and the astronaut helmet. Milo snaps pictures of both and then opens up his Instagram to share them.

“If Hero decides to follow you, he’ll know exactly where you took those pictures and there’s really no good way to explain why you were at my house.” Nerves churn in my stomach. If he really wants to post them, I can’t actually stop him. Hell, if he decides to tell Hero about the two of us meeting last night and rolling around in his bed at the motel, I can’t stop him from doing that either.

“Oh, right.” He grimaces and deletes the unfinished post, stuffing his phone back into his pocket.

I shove my hands into my pockets and look at him. “I wasn’t lying about this being complicated. You don’t want to sneak around and have to be careful about everything you say or post so you don’t tip your dad off about us.”

A defiant look flashes in his eyes, and he shrugs. “I’ve wanted a lot of complicated, stupid things in my life. At least this time there would be mutual orgasms.”

My whole body heats and I bite back a groan.

“You promised to behave,” I remind him.

He quirks a half-smile, that dimple indenting his cheek, tempting me to drag my tongue over the cute little divot.

“Just being honest,” he says.

The coffee machine beeps shrilly, and I let out a relieved breath at the excuse to get space for a second.

“Take a seat, I’ll be right back with your coffee.”

“Black.” He answers the unasked question of how he takes it. I nod, then hustle into the kitchen before I do something supremely stupid, like shove my tongue into his hot mouth.

MILO

I flop down on Piston’s couch and put my feet up on the coffee table. I can hear him moving around in the kitchen and a strange sense of nostalgia washes over me. Except, it’s not really nostalgia because this doesn’t remind me of anything from a happier time or anything like that. It’s like… future nostalgia. Is that a thing? It’s that same cozy, happy, longing feeling in my chest, but for something I justwishmight happen one day.

I huff out a laugh at myself and sink a little lower, feeling the exhausted weight of the day settling into my bones. It feels like Piston is taking forever to just pour a cup of coffee, so I pull out my phone while I wait for him and start doing a deep dive about axolotls, because why not?

“You know, it says you should rehydrate brine shrimp before feeding them to an axolotl. It’s easier for them to digest,” I say, loudly enough that he should be able to hear me from the other room.

“Those are only for occasional treats.” Piston’s voice is closer than I expected, startling me out of my Google rabbit hole. I sit up to find him leaning over the back of the couch, holding a steaming coffee mug out to me. “I asked the vet, and he told me it’s okay as long as it’s not the majority of his diet.”

“It says nightcrawlers are the most nutritious food for them, but a varied diet of worms, fish, and crustaceans is best.” I take the coffee mug from him and immediately take a sip. I moan quietly when the sweet flavor hits my tongue.

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