“Maybe you’re different now, and there’s other dudes out there you could do that with.”
Sid shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
Dante gave into temptation and rose from the couch. He ghosted to where Sid stood and hovered a hair’s breadth behind him, absorbing his body heat without the rush of his touch.
Sid shivered. “I can feel you. Even if I couldn’t see you in the glass, I’d know you were there.”
Dante splayed his hand at the base of Sid’s spine, his palm to the thin cotton of his T-shirt. For the first time, it occurred to him that they’d had the entirety of their heavy conversation while he’d been shirtless, and heyearnedto feel Sid’s bare skin against his own.
He settled for rubbing soothing circles into Sid’s back and revelling in Sid’s answering moan. “Do you still want to know how I got into your house this week?”
“Hmm?” Sid leaned back, eyes half-closed.
“You asked me, but I never told you.”
“I forgot about it.”
“Perhaps I won’t tell you then.”
“You fucker.”
Dante chuckled. “It’s not that interesting. I reached through the letterbox and hooked the latch with my lanyard. Any fool could do it.”
“Good job I’ve got nothing worth nicking then.”
What about you? What if someone broke in to hurt you?Then Dante remembered Sid lived in a different world. One where shadows didn’t burst into his home in the night, take him away, and put a shank to his throat.
“Hey.” Sid reached up and cupped the back of Dante’s neck. “Where do you go when you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Space. You’re so sharp most of the time, it freaks me out.”
“Sorry.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.”
Sid sighed. “I should go.”
Dante said nothing, keeping his hand on Sid and clinging to the sensation of Sid still holding his neck. It would’ve been so easy to dip his head and take Sid’s mouth, but he stayed still, fighting instinct, fighting the fuckingprimalurge to claim Sid as his own.
“You know what I keep thinking?” Sid said.
Dante rubbed his back again. “That you could fall asleep standing up?”
“Apart from that.”
“Tell me.”
“I keep thinking that you’re right about how I perceive myself when it comes to sex. It’s like I’m too scared to test my body, and that’s not going to change as long as I’m too fucking proud to let someone see me like this.”
“I see you,” Dante whispered the words out before he could stop them. “I— Fuck, it wouldn’t be like that, I swear. You’d be the teacher. I’d be the student. The rest of it wouldn’t matter.”
Sid let out a low laugh. “So, in this hot-as-fuck fantasy, I’d teach you how to fuck around with dudes while testing my body with someone who already knew it might fail?”
“Something like that.”