Page 11 of Snowed In

Magnus grinned as he twisted his body and turned his face up. “I’ve wanted you for some time now. I don’t believe in fate, but I do sometimes wonder if the conscious universe gives us gifts.”

“Like a snowstorm making sure I can’t leave?”

Magnus licked his lips, then touched Adam’s sternum, trailing it down slowly. “Like a holiday we both dislike, at a time we felt most lonely, with a chance that we could both confess how we feel.”

Adam was quiet for so long, and Magnus strained his ears, trying to hear any hitch in his breath, but there were none. He dragged his hand a little lower, feeling for tension, but he couldn’t tell what Adam was thinking.

“Please talk to me. I need that,” Magnus told him.

“I want to do this,” Adam said, and there was most definitely a “but” coming. “But…I don’t know if I can have you and then let you go.”

“Why would you let me go?”

Adam cleared his throat. “You’d want more than this? I know we’re both busy, but?—”

“If we want it enough, we can make it work, yes?” Magnus told him. He leaned in. He could feel the heat of Adam’s face so close to his. He knew if he swayed forward just another inch, they’d be touchingmouth to mouth. “I want it to work.” He’d been keeping those words to himself for so long now.

He never thought he’d ever get the chance to say them. Now here they were, and he wasn’t going to fail himself.

“I really, really like you too,” Adam breathed out. “I’ve had a crush on you for so long, it’s embarrassing. I just…I don’t know. I knew you didn’t mind me, but I never thought it was more.”

“I never thought I’d have a chance to tell you,” Magnus said.

Adam moved his hands to grip Magnus’s waist, urging him to turn over, to straddle him. They pressed together through their thick sweats, and Magnus groaned. “I want to kiss you.”

“So kiss me.”

It took Magnus a moment to find Adam’s mouth—his fingers searching, first finding the thrumming pulse in the side of his neck, then the stubble along his jaw, and eventually his soft lips, pliant and parted for him.

He positioned himself and leaned in, letting Adam meet him halfway.

The kiss was careful. It was hesitant, like they were both afraid to get it wrong. But then Adam moaned and something between them shattered. It was like their chests opened up and their hearts connected, syncing each beat.

“Take me to bed,” Adam whispered. “Please. I need you.”

Magnus kissed him deeper, harder, desperately. “Yes.” It was the only word he could think of. It was the only word that was right in the moment. There were thousands more to be said over the next few hours, weeks, days, months.

Years.

But for now, that single one was enough.

Epilogue

Adam

Adam slammed the door accidentally on purpose so it would be heard through the house. He stopped, shaking the snow from his hair, and smiled when a figure came around the corner. His entire chest felt warm in spite of the frigid weather outside. It had been a damn miracle that he made it at all. The storm was early this year and nearly stood in his way between himself and his beloved.

But he would have crawled on his hands and knees in six feet of snow drift to make it.

It was the anniversary of the greatest love story he would ever know, and he had plans. Big ones. Plans that involved a ring in his pocket and a question on his lips—one he knew Magnus would say yes to, even though he was terrified to ask it.

He hung his coat next to Magnus’s cane and slid his boots beside Magnus’s loafers, and when he was finally free of snowmelt, he took his lover in his arms and kissed him long, slow, and thorough.

“Hello,” Magnus said very quietly.

Adam grinned. “Hello.”

“I was afraid the storm might have taken you.”

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