Page 28 of Finders Keepers
Two large warm hands cupped his face, pulled him close; callused thumbs brushed lightly across his cheeks and back. Heat emanated from Nate’s wide swath of bare flesh. Agonizingly slow, he grazed his nose alongside Wesley’s, brushed his lips across Wesley’s, nipped and licked at the sensitive flesh.
Wesley savored every touch, his lips parting on a sigh. Like a hummingbird trying to escape a cage, his heart thumped against his ribs.
Nate’s tongue flicked across Wesley’s bottom lip, warm and slick; hesitant at first, but then bolder, warm and unmistakably him. He explored and tasted, caressed and lapped. Wesley’s pulse thrummed as this tantalizing man deepened the kiss, slow and thorough, as if he had all the time in the world.
Quite different from the explosive kiss in his trailer five days ago. Tender and sweet, exploratory, and not just physically. He sensed the shift in their connection, or maybe that was wishful thinking, he wasn’t sure.
Eventually, the kiss ended. Nate’s hands slid to Wesley’s shoulders; his forehead came to rest against Wesley’s. His breath soughed in the quiet space between them. A sense of tranquility flowed from their pressed-together brows down toWesley’s toes. If only this arrangement could last forever. But it couldn’t. He settled his hands on Nate’s waist, the skin soft and warm against Wesley’s fingers.
“God, Wesley…it’s been ages since I’ve felt like this.”
Everything inside Wesley ached for this man. Nate needed physical touch—soft, loving touch, as opposed to chiropractors, sports massages, and hockey hugs. He needed someone who cared abouthim—the young man abandoned by his father, the teen forced to become the head of the household. From the little Nate had shared over the course of the weekend, it’d been too damn long. And not from anyone who gave a shit about him.
“When was that?” Wesley asked, almost afraid of the answer. It’d been a long time for him too, but Nate seemed to feel the lack so keenly.
Nate shrugged. “High school.”
So definitive, no question. Wesley’s heart broke. “Oh, honey.” He wanted to cart him off to Bora Bora and spend weeks just kissing and caressing his naked form. “Did you know you were gay then?”
“Oh, yeah. First kiss was with a guy at least.” Nate snorted, shook his head once, a small smile playing around his lips. “We’d been practicing over at the OSU campus, and I’d seen a flier for a party. One sponsored by the LGBTQ alliance or a gay frat or something. I don’t remember, but I went. With my size, I passed as a college student, so no one questioned me. It was...” Nate rested his lovely hind end on the ledge again and shook his head. “...amazing. All these people, same gendered couples holding hands, loving on each other. People just drinking and talking. Dancing. A lot of drinking. I wasn’t drinking but I carried around a half-full bottle of beer for a while just so people wouldn’t keep offering.
“There were the cruisers, of course. I was chatted up multiple times, but I was too nervous to take anyone up on anoffer. Some of the guys were too aggressive, you know? Sure, I was six-two, 185 pounds—but I was seventeen. Didn’t know shit about shit except hockey. I was smart enough to realize that at least. I’d never done anything beyond masturbate. I didn’t want to get myself in too deep.”
Nate swiped his hand down his face; the rasp of callus against stubble floated on the air. He crossed his arms and continued.
“And then this guy just started talking to me. Vaughn. He was tall and looked bookish. But he was a sports fan, so we talked football and hockey for a while. We ended up on the back porch huddled under a blanket on the porch swing and, at some point, he just kissed me. We made out. He ended up on his knees in front of me.” Nate laughed. “My first blow job and I was already so turned on from the kissing and groping that I didn’t last long at all. But he was cool about it. Wouldn’t let me reciprocate. Then he sent me on my way. I think he figured out I was underage. As first times go, I can’t complain.”
“I’m glad,” Wesley said, but his heart broke. Seventeen. That was the last time Nate had felt wanted—not for a role he played, but for himself.
Nate slid his palms down Wesley’s arms and twined their fingers. “Come to bed with me—just to sleep.”
Wesley wanted nothing more than to tuck himself in next to Nate in that big bed he’d discovered when he’d explored the condo the other day. But doing so was such a dangerous game to play. He squeezed his fingers with Nate’s, peered into the shadowed depths of Nate’s eyes. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
A low huff escaped Nate. “It’s a terrible idea. Doesn’t mean I want to any less.”
Wesley wasn’t sure which one of them would take their parting the hardest as it was. Sleeping together was bound toblur the lines between what they were and what they could be. Their eventual parting would be all the more painful. Blurring those lines, though…so, so tempting.
Chapter Eleven
Nate awoke curled around a warm body without a trace of confusion over who was nestled in his arms or how they’d gotten there. He’d slept better than he had in ages. Those late-night rendezvous between him and Wesley were becoming a habit and one he didn’t mind even a little.
Wesley was right, though. Sharing a bed had been a spectacularly bad idea. He wouldn’t regret doing so, couldn’t regret it, but it couldn’t happen again. Getting used to sleeping with someone only to go their separate ways sooner rather than later invited the sharp sting of loss, especially when what they had wasn’t his to keep.
Wesley shifted slightly and a few muscles tensed under Nate’s fingers. He was awake, easily discernible from the way his body went from slack and weightless to subtly present.
“Good morning,” Nate said.
“Mmm, hi,” Wesley replied, soft and sleepy. His body slackened once more as if reassured Nate wasn’t going to push him right out from under the covers and onto the floor.
“How’d you sleep?”
Wesley hummed an affirmative. “You?”
“Surprisingly, yeah. Since I haven’t shared a bed with anyone in forever, I wasn’t sure how well I’d actually sleep with another person in my bed with me.”
“What time is it anyway?”
Nate rolled backward, noting the brightness of the world beyond his window blinds, and grabbed his phone. “Close to ten.”
