Because I Want To - Grace R. Duncan Page 0,11

friend, spent more time than not with him since they met when they were two. He and Adam had shared all of their firsts with each other—first kiss, handjob, blowjob, sex, everything. How could he walk away from all that?

But how long could he feel Adam’s body around him, touch and kiss without Adam returning the feelings before it got to be too much?

Matt settled in, brushed his lips over Adam’s forehead, then tightened his arms around Adam, his mind a mess.

Chapter 6

Adam hit pause on the Xbox controller, then stretched and yawned before turning to Matt with a sigh. “I’m hungry. Want to order pizza?” A growl from the general vicinity of Adam’s stomach punctuated the question.

Matt wrinkled his nose. “We had that every night through your heat. And, like, every night since.”

“Nuh-uh. You ate at work a couple of nights.”

Matt rolled his eyes. “Nitpick. How about Chinese?”

Adam nodded. “Yeah, okay. That sounds good.”

Matt leaned over and pulled out his wallet, but Adam waved at him.

“Let me get it this time. I still have money from the lawn mowing and stuff I did.” He stood and crossed the room to dig through the pile on his desk for the menu. He snatched up his cell phone and turned to Matt. “What do you want?”

“What do I always get?”

“Ugh. Variety isn’t a bad thing, you know?” Adam shook his head.

“Not in some things, true. But I’m happy sticking with the same for others.”

Adam wasn’t sure what to do with that, considering the look Matt leveled at him. Adam certainly didn’t need variety, at least in some things, like sex partners. He’d only ever wanted Matt, hadn’t even been tempted by either their friends or, truthfully, anyone else. Someday he’d have to give up on Matt when Matt got married. Adam would have to find a partner of his own and let go of the unrequited mess in his heart. He pointedly ignored the quiet inner voice that reminded him Matt had never been with anyone else either.

Annoyed with his wandering mind, he dragged his attention back to what he was doing and focused on ordering food. He had to concentrate to decipher the heavy accent on the other end of the line. He’d always thought it was a little funny that the local Chinese restaurant was run by a Latino guy, but the food was good, so he didn’t question it. Still, he had to work to understand the man on the other end of the line.

“Half an hour or so,” he said when he hung up. “In the meantime we have more zombies to kill.”

“You know, that’s kind of gross right before we eat.” Matt made a face.

Adam shook his head as he settled back onto the floor next to Matt and picked up his controller again. “You are so weird. You have the weakest stomach out of anyone I’ve ever met.”

Matt rolled his eyes, then grinned. “And yet, you still put up with me.”

“No one else will,” Adam said, sticking his tongue out.

“Asshole,” Matt said, but he was smirking.

The banter was old, and Adam had lost count of the number of times they’d done this very exchange. “I don’t deny it. Focus or we’re dead.” Adam pointed at the screen.

They both managed to get lost in their fight against the Infected as they made their way across the southern US in search of a safe zone. They called out warnings, growled in annoyance when they missed a shot, and dropped plenty of “fucks” and “goddamns” as they worked through the campaign. It took two rings of the doorbell before Adam was willing to hit pause and put the controller down.

“Bad timing.” Adam sighed. “We’re gonna die when we start again.”

“We can back up. Go get the food.” Matt waved toward the door.

Adam brought the Chinese back upstairs, then kicked the door shut before dropping the bag next to Matt. He plopped down then pulled the Styrofoam containers out of the bag and checked each before he handed the beef and broccoli to Matt. He took out chopsticks, soy sauce, and eggrolls and passed them out, then sat down with his own sesame chicken. “Good thing you don’t eat red food,” Adam said, snickering as he popped a piece of the chicken into his mouth.

“I don’t know how you can go from killing zombies with their blood and brain matter splattering everywhere to eating food with red sauce on it.” Matt shook his head as he picked up a