Page 36 of Cosy & Chill
Too Soon to Fall
Running a market stall in the winter wasn’t fun. Leo drew the sleeping bag closer around himself but couldn’t quite ward off the shivers. His feet felt like icicles and warming up enough so he could sleep seemed an impossible task.
He remembered similar nights from the previous winter. Properly cold, frosty days were fine. The drizzly, miserable days chilled him to the core. Today had started out sunny, but by mid-morning it had grown cold with a wind that bit and found every gap in his clothes. When it had started raining, most of the stallholders had called it a day and Leo had done the same.
The shivers didn’t settle. Leo unzipped the sleeping bag and grabbed his thermals. Dressing in long johns, a long-sleeved thermal top, and two pairs of socks just to go to sleep in a centrally heated house seemed idiotic, but Leo couldn’t give a fuck. He was tired, and too cold to sleep. So thermals and socks it was.
He zipped himself back into the bag and curled into a ball, unable to think of much else than how cold he was. Next week, he’d jump into a tub as soon as he came home and soak in hot water until the chill was gone. Unlike his studio, which had only had a shower, their new home had three bathrooms with huge tubs. Why shouldn’t he make use of one?
He was considering running a hot bath despite the ridiculous hour when the extra layers finally did their job. The shivers receded and Leo’s mind returned to where it had been most of the day.
Was Finn still awake? Was he sitting up, working away on his next project, headphones over his ears and listening to film music?
Leo had never met anyone quite like Finn. Back in the pub, he’d seemed content and settled, an impression that had changed radically when they’d stopped outside the store on their way home. Finn had been full of longing then, and his quiet despair had matched what Leo had felt earlier that evening. If Leo thought about it, it was this feeling that had prompted him to go and ask about the rent.
He wasn’t going to regret it, whatever happened to them. Because Finn was amazing. He might be quiet and disinclined to rock the boat where Leo was more outgoing and quicker to act, but Finn knew what he wanted and now he’d taken the first step, he wasn’t stopping.
It made him look ever so sexy.
Not that Finn had been plain to begin with. The grey eyes with their dark lashes were nothing short of striking, and Leo had been fighting almost from the start to keep his fingers from Finn’s riotous curls. In five days of sharing a house, he’d noticed sprays of freckles on Finn’s marble-pale skin, and an auburn treasure trail that was a tease in itself.
Despite that, Leo hadn’t planned to start anything. His good-bye peck had been an impulse. He hadn’t expected Finn to kiss him in return.
And what a kiss that had been!
Leo curled tighter into himself, a different kind of shiver rippling over his skin. When Finn had rested his elbows on the board, he’d been close enough for Leo to count his lashes. His smile had morphed from teasing to something Leo had no words for. Then he’d leaned even closer.
Their kiss had started hesitant and gentle—the barest touch of lips on lips—but it hadn’t stayed that way. By the time they realised they stood lip-locked in full view of anyone passing outside, Leo’s hands had been buried in Finn’s hair and they’d both been breathing as if they’d been running rather than kissing.
Finn yawning fit to dislocate his jaw, and Leo joining in moments later, had broken the spell. Neither had referred to the kiss when they’d parted outside their bedroom doors, but Leo hoped with all his heart that it wasn’t a one-off.
They hadn’t known each other long, but Finn was starting to mean something to him. More than a casual acquaintance, certainly. More than a business partner, too. More than…
Leo wasn’t quite sure what. He’d never had a boyfriend and imagined that Finn hadn’t either. Finn’s parents sounded as hopeless as Leo’s family. But even without any kind of experience, they were rubbing along well enough together. They were becoming a team and Leo, already tied to Finn by Cosy & Chill, wanted to see how far they could go.
Finn heard the church clock strike three. Hours had passed, yet he still couldn’t believe his daring.
He’d… kissed… Leo.
Leo was braver, more outgoing. A walking temptation, too, with his golden hair, deep blue eyes, and finely muscled body. Leo could have anyone he turned his gaze on. What he wanted with quiet, freckled, red-haired, inexperienced Finn was anyone’s guess.
Finn had considered it all while his hands were busy with needles and yarn. In the end, he’d pushed those thoughts aside. Leo had made the first move, had kissed him first. And Finn had meant to tease Leo as Leo had teased him, and he’d done it.
Only… it hadn’t stayed a tease.
Kissing Leo had been better than kissing Robbie Fisher. Soft and hot, comforting and exciting, careful and not. They fit in a way Finn had never felt himself fit with anyone else before.
It was exhilarating. And scary.
Finn wouldn’t trade it for the world.
He was solitary by nature. Had lost what most people considered family when his gran had died, and his father had grown increasingly hostile towards him. While he enjoyed the brush of yarn against his skin, saw objects take shape under his needles, and built his online store, he hadn’t minded being alone.
Leo was changing that. After just two weeks, Finn couldn’t imagine his life without Leo. The man was a whirlwind, stirring Finn out of his solitude, and making him see beyond a present made to be endured.
“It was a kiss, idiot. Don’t read anything into it,” he berated himself. “Leo was the boot up my backside that I needed to get out of that house and to start putting my father’s words behind me.”
He’d listened to enough self-development podcasts to know that his father’s constant vitriol had left marks on his mind. He hadn’t realised how much they’d influenced his actions. Why else would he have kept living at home, listening to insults, when he’d had the money to go and rent his own place the way Leo had done?
