Page 75 of Brace and Chase

“Jesus,” I mumble.

I have always been an ass man.

“You have?” he asks, and turns.

I’m speechless. His chest, his abs, those V-like things by his hips, and that dick...

“What?” I ask, remembering he said something.

“You said you’ve always been an ass man,” he reminds me, looking like a cocky little shit once more.

“Yeah, so?” I ask brazenly, doing my best to hide how flustered he has me. I think it’s safe to say I’m very attracted tothismale body. And I can’t find it in me to care about the why. He’s naked and wet and gorgeous in front of me after all.

“I’ve always been an ass man too,” he says at last.

I look up, not really minding giving up the show that is his body when I’m able to get lost in those dark eyes full of want.

“Good thing,” I murmur as I move in.

I circle my arms around his waist and lean down to seal it all with a kiss.

The hot, hard body against mine is new—everything is new—but it doesn’t feel daunting all of a sudden. It feels familiar, inevitable.

We kiss for an eternity, knowing that we’re going to have to face everything head on as soon as we’re out of the shower. I take my time. I don’t let my new hard-on deter me from discovering every kiss he gives me, or from enjoying the new exploration of his body.

The water turns lukewarm, and it’s like a warning to get moving. We do, washing ourselves quickly—even though when suds are covering his chest and abs I regret that it’s not my hands touching him—and sure enough, about a minute later, the water is ice cold. We hurry our asses out of there and he passes me a towel.

The silence between us feels safe, like nothing bad can happen in this cocoon we’ve made of his bathroom.

But soon enough, Charlie opens the door to his room and the cold air rushes in. I watch him, towel tied off at his hips, saunter away from me, and it’s in that moment that I know I might love the view, but I don’t want to see him walking away.

I need a moment to process that... monumental shift.

It feels big at least. Very fucking big.

I goto my own bedroom to get a change of clothesand put what I was wearing in the basket that sits in the corner of the room, then I go downstairs.

I left the door open so I heard when Charlie’s soft footsteps passed by and down the stairs. I want to be next to him again, yes, but I also know we need to talk about what it means. It was a test of sorts—before. Now we know how fucking electric we are together, at least that’s how it felt to me.

It’s time to find out if it was the same for him.

I find Charlie putting the lasagna back into the oven, and as though he knew I was coming all along, he speaks without looking over at me.

“It only needs to heat up for a few minutes, then we can eat,” he explains.

I watch him close the oven door and then he stands there, motionless. I decide it won’t do us any good to keep stalling.

I go over, grab him by the waist, and hoist him over my shoulder.

“What the fuck, Nik?” he shouts and instinctively latches on to my hips to keep his balance—he shouldn’t worry, there’s no way I’m dropping him—while I walk to the living toom. I drop him on the couch and move in before he can try to escape, lying down next to him then pulling him on top of me with my hands locked at his back.

He can’t escape my hold even though he wiggles to try and get away.

“Stop it,” I tell him gently. “Just talk to me.”

His body goes completely taut, and then seems to dissolve on me. He buries his face in the crook of my neck, and feeling his breaths in the sensitive skin there, I relax my hands and softly stroke his back. I’m going to give him all the time he needs. Although I would hate for him to take longer than the oven...

If he does, then I’ll figure something out.

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