leaning toward my streaking plan.”
“I was actually thinking that we should go to Portland again.” Noah’s cheeks flushed. “We could maybe get a hotel room and stay the night? Mom is in a bunch of committees, and she’ll be too busy to worry about me too much, so I think I’ll be able to get away with it.”
Alex’s heart jumped as he started to process what Noah was saying. A whole day and night together? It seemed too good to be true, so just to make sure, he asked, “Really?”
Noah nodded, looking nervous but determined. “Yes.” Noah leaned forward and spoke quietly. “This whole going-slow thing has been very gentlemanly of you, but I want more. Lots more. As soon as possible.” Then he blushed, cute as ever. “Maybe not all the way more, but still, more.” Noah closed his eyes for a moment and groaned. “I don’t know why you’d even want to come after an invitation like that.”
“It feels like a pretty tempting offer to me.”
Noah snorted. “Were you even listening? I pretty much asked you to come to Portland to not have sex with me.”
“No. What I heard was you don’t want to go all the way yet.”
“Same difference.”
“Not even close, actually. There’s a whole host of stuff we can do that doesn’t require somebody’s dick in somebody’s ass. It doesn’t have to be anal to be sex,” Alex said and enjoyed the fact that Noah’s cheeks were the color of a fire hydrant by the time Alex was done speaking.
“So what you’re saying is you want to go?” Noah mumbled.
Alex couldn’t help the wide smile as he pretended to mull it over, even though the answer was obvious. “It’s not like I have any great plans. I guess I can keep you company if I absolutely have to,” he teased.
Noah shoved Alex’s foot lightly with his and laughed. A low, throaty sound that went straight to Alex’s cock, but before he could suggest they do something about it, a shadow fell over their table.
Alex looked up and saw a woman standing in front of their booth, looking rigid and tense. Alex and Noah had kept their voices down, but there was no way to say if the woman had heard what had been said.
Noah jumped up and stepped out of the booth. “Mom. What are you doing here?”
The Mom part definitely explained the alarmed expression on Noah’s face. Alex stood up as well. He wasn’t exactly sure why or what he was planning to do, but standing seemed like the best possible move at that moment.
“Carl told me where to find you.” Noah’s mom had one of those tones of voices that managed to come off as disapproving even if that wasn’t necessarily her intent. She reminded Alex of a strict teacher. One of those brusque and terse types that most people knew not to mess with as soon as they crossed the threshold of the classroom. It did not bode well for Alex. Each and every one of those types of people had detested him on sight. Alex was relatively certain he gave off some sort of a scent that branded him as trouble. By the distasteful looks Noah’s mother sent Alex’s way, it seemed that she intended to tread the same well-worn path.
“That’s not really an answer. You hate the diner. Remember, greasy, unhealthy food?” Noah was saying. He stuffed his hands in his pockets but then pulled them out and grabbed a napkin from the table, his fingers flexing around it.
Noah’s mother turned her attention back to her son. “I do remember having said something to that effect, yes.”
“A couple of hundred times,” Noah added with an eye roll, and his mom actually smiled at that. She immediately seemed a hundred times more approachable. Sadly, that impression was gone as soon as she turned her gaze back toward Alex. Her whole body stiffened once again, like finding Alex sitting in the diner with her son had been somehow offensive.
“Introduce me to your friend, Noah. Where are your manners?”
Noah looked uncomfortable as hell, but he complied. “Mom, this is Alex. We work together at the center. Alex, this is my mother, Helen.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Alex said, going for polite but not exactly pulling it off. He didn’t like how nervous Helen seemed to make Noah.
Noah’s mom nodded and said nothing about the wonderfulness of having somebody like Alex enter her life. The nerve.
“Mom?” Noah prompted. “Why are you here?”
“I needed to talk to