Staccato (Magnum Opus #2) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,68

because I’ve always been a coward. I’ve been willing to risk fear over happiness for most of my life, Adam, and I didn’t want to burden you with that.”

Adam settled, everything going calm. He gently curled one arm around Nik’s waist, the other dragging up to twist in the hair behind his head. “What about now?”

Nik huffed quietly and shook his head. “If you think I can let you go now, you’re out of your mind.”

It was enough.

It was enough, and Adam moved in to kiss him. He didn’t give either of them enough time for another breath, for another second of doubt to creep in.

His lips parted, and their breathing sped up between them, and for an endless second, that was it. Then Nik closed the distance, and it was so unlike before. The desperation was the same, the want, the agony of waiting this long—except there was now promise. This was Nik giving in, this was Nik cracking and bleeding bits of his soul into Adam as their tongues brushed together, hot, and slick, and velvet soft.

Adam groaned, his head spinning. He held on to Nik, right there in the dark, knees aching from the hard floor but unwilling to move as Nik devoured him like he needed Adam’s mouth to survive. Nik’s fingers were bruising as they held him, trembling as they clung like he might disappear if Nik let go. Nik made a helpless noise of want, and Adam pressed into him, and the moment became real.

This was his cliff, and he was leaping.

Adam rolled away from Nik, pressing fingers to his tender, swollen lips. He needed water, and probably some lip balm, but he couldn’t bring himself to go that far. They hadn’t done anything apart from lie in the dark and kiss, but he could have done that for the rest of his life and felt more satisfied than he’d ever been. Nik’s hands were warm, powerful, all-encompassing, and he could happily lose himself to them for nothing short of forever.

“Are you okay?” Nik asked after a prolonged silence.

Adam rolled onto his side and propped up on his elbow. It was even later now, and the room was darker, but the half-moon outside the window was bright enough, and his eyes had adjusted just enough that he could see faint details of Nik’s face. He reached out with one hand, tracing the curve of his jaw. “I’m good.”

“Just good?” Nik prodded, his lips curling into a smirk.

Adam poked at a barely-there dimple in Nik’s cheek he hadn’t been able to see, but he could feel. “Teach a man to fish.”

Nik laughed, then rolled toward Adam and pinned him to the bed, kissing him long and slow before pulling away with a wet smack. “That is not what that expression is for. And I wasn’t fishing for compliments. Yes, I like knowing that my make-out skills haven’t faded since high school, but…” He hesitated, then breathed out. “But this was heavy, and I know I put you through a lot.”

Adam closed his eyes and let himself feel the press of Nik’s body against his own. He was warm in his center, throbbing between his legs with want, but he knew he wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. Nik wasn’t wrong—this had been heavy, and Adam had spent weeks now believing that there couldn’t be anything more than friendship. He had been so determined, his resolve unshakable. So what was to stop him from changing his mind again?

“Please talk to me,” Nik pleaded. He cupped Adam’s chin and turned his face toward him, and Adam felt so utterly seen. “I can’t make it right if you don’t talk to me.”

“There’s nothing to make right,” Adam assured him, and he meant it. He curled his arms around Nik’s waist and held him tight, reassured by the pressure of Nik’s body above his. “I just…think I need to take it slow.”

“Yes.”

Adam’s eyebrows flew up, and he couldn’t help but wriggle his hips, drawing attention to where Nik was hard against his thigh.

“It’s an erection, Adam,” Nik said dryly.

“I’m aware of it. And I know what it means,” Adam countered.

Nik huffed, then leaned in to kiss him again, and his cock throbbed once more against Adam’s thigh. “Yes. It means,” he said when he pulled back, “that I’m attracted to you. That I think you’re unbearably sexy, and at some point, I’d like to orgasm with you. It does not mean that dealing with it is a requirement every