Page 28 of Past Lovers

Adam smiled. “Very okay.”

Clay laid little kisses to Adam’s ear… his neck… his shoulder. Adam squeezed Clay’s arms, closing his eyes.

“We have all night, hmm?” Clay asked against his ear.

“If you want,” Adam answered.

“Oh… I want,” Clay said. “But I need a rest first. You hungry?”

Adam hadn’t eaten. He’d been so lost in the past… and fearful of the secret he was about to reveal, that food hadn’t even come to mind. “I could eat.”

“I’m suddenly craving a cheesesteak from Paulie’s like mad,” Clay said with a smile.

Adam winced. “You wanna drive all the way across town for a sub at this hour?”

“I wanna go back to where it all began… and have a do over,” Clay said. “And this time, I wake up with youstillin my bed.” He looked around. “Okay…yourbed. But no running away this time.”

“Alright.” Adam chuckled. “Then I guess we go to Paulie’s.”

Chapter Eight

Sunday morning…

Clay awoke, a bit confused for a moment. He looked beside him and saw Adam’s copper hair and bare bottom and everything came back to him. A smile crossed his face… and he rolled over to lay skin to skin beside his man.

His man.

Maybe they weren’t there yet, but he’d considered Adam his ever since that night. Likely always would.

An errant thought had some of the old doubts whispering back into his mind, and the smile faded from his lips. When Adam stirred a few minutes later and rolled over, he smiled up at Clay.

“You’re still here.”

“You were the one who ran last time,” Clay said.

Adam’s smiled widened a little.

“I do have a question for you, though,” Clay said.

“Shoot.”

“You pushing me back to Melanie all those years… you don’t know how many times I thought about telling you the truth. To tell Mel, fuck youandthat video. Every time I’d had enough, every time I was at a point where I just wanted to be free of it, I came to you, wanting to tell you about it…” He paused. “And then every time, you’d convince me to go back to her… and I’d lose my nerve.”

Adam’s smile faded. “I never wanted you to go back to her. I wanted you for myself and it killed me to tell you to run back to her.”

“Why did you keep doing it?”

Adam frowned. “I was scared… that if you knew about that night… that I’d lose you forever.” He winced. “And I guess I thought it was better to be your friend than nothing.”

“Five years wasted,” Clay muttered.

Adam looked up at him earnestly. “I wish I’d been stronger and told you a long time ago. We could’ve avoided all this shit.”

“I’m just as much to blame. I let her twist me… and let doubt hold me in her grasp.” Clay sighed. “And weweren’thappy—she and I. I don’t know why she held on so long.”

“We might never know,” Adam said. “But we’re free of her now, hopefully. And free to explore what this is… if that’s something you want to do.”

Clay caressed the side of Adam’s face. “I want nothing more than to see what the future holds.”

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