Rare - Briar Prescott Page 0,81

a while. He didn’t want to sound accusatory because he wasn’t blaming Noah. Not anymore. How could he after everything he’d learned today?

“At first, I didn’t know you that well, and then I didn’t want you to treat me differently. You were flirting with me outrageously. This cool, larger-than-life guy seemed to want me, and I was… well, really freaked at first, but I liked it. A lot. I was drawn to you, and I’d never felt anything like that before. That’s why I didn’t know how to act around you at first. It’s not like I spent my days flirting at school, gaining experience. No one was out at school anyway, plus, I used to keep to myself most of the time.”

“Didn’t seem to stop Lacey,” Alex muttered sulkily.

Noah snorted. “Really? After all these years, you’re still jealous about that?”

Alex pressed his lips to Noah’s. The kiss was savage. Alex was claiming Noah. This time for good, and he didn’t want Noah to have any doubt about the fact that Alex was there to stay.

By the time Alex was done, Noah was breathing harshly, lips swollen and hair in an even bigger mess than before. “I guess that’s a yes,” Noah murmured with a dazed look in his eyes before he pressed his palm against Alex’s cheek. “Lacey didn’t want me. Not really. She tried to get me to ask her on a date, but I never did, so I was more of a game to her. She wanted me because she couldn’t have me.”

“Doesn’t mean I had to like watching her run her hands all over you.”

Noah smiled. “Cute,” he declared after he kissed Alex on the tip of his nose. “Anyway. Later when we got together—”

“You mean when you jumped me because you couldn’t keep your hands off me for one more minute?” Alex gave Noah a smug smile.

Noah rolled his eyes. “Yes. The brazen seduction was all me.”

“They say know your audience, and in all honesty, you dropping your pants like you did that day was definitely the hottest thing I’d seen. Made me want to—”

“It was so nice to feel normal for a change,” Noah spoke over him. “So I kept putting that conversation off. I… I felt like you saw me. Just me. And I was afraid if I told you, you’d start treating me differently. And then things got much more serious between us, and I guess I didn’t want the decision to stop donating be on your shoulders.”

“You didn’t want me to feel responsible,” Alex said, understanding dawning.

Noah shrugged. “I’ve been told practically my whole life how I’m special and how wonderful it is to have a gift of saving lives. My mom’s been telling it to me since we found out about the Rhnull blood. I was three, and they drew blood because I had some sort of an infection, apparently. I started donating regularly the day I turned sixteen. By that point, I’d already given blood for research purposes on numerous occasions. It felt like donating blood was my one great purpose in life. Making a decision not to donate anymore… you shouldn’t have had to take any responsibility for it.”

Alex tried to lighten the mood with a dumb joke. “You know I’m too selfish for that anyway.”

Noah didn’t smile. “No you’re not,” he said in a low voice. “You can bullshit everybody else with that claim, but I see you, Alex. Just like you’ve always seen me for who I am. You’re kind. You’re just. You’re good. Maybe there was a moment or two in there when you were a bit lost, but who of us hasn’t been? That doesn’t change the fact that I know that you’re the most amazing man I’ve ever known.”

Alex linked their fingers and gave the back of Noah’s hand a kiss. Warmth filled his insides. He felt about Noah just as Noah felt about him. Noah saw Alex. Always had. Saw through the jokes and beneath the carefree exterior, and still liked what was underneath.

“How come you got to keep donating back then?” Alex asked. “I mean, sure, we didn’t go all the way, but doesn’t a blowjob count?”

“Well, it was super fun, let me tell you. I got to recount the entirety of my sexual history—which, let’s be honest, was just you—to a couple of doctors. They tested me for pretty much everything they could think of. I didn’t donate for six months, while they retested again and again, and then”—Noah looked