Where We Left Off - Romeo Alexander Page 0,31

careful.”

“Your dad’s an ass,” Tyler told him. “No offense.”

Nate let out a bark of laughter, the sound almost fragile. “No need to worry, as always, you speak the truth. My father is an absolute bastard, but he’s my family.”

Tyler wound an arm around his shoulders, squeezing him to his side. “He doesn’t have to be. Blood doesn’t determine family.”

“And do what, Tyler? All I have rests on my blood,” Nate told him.

“There’s always opportunities, somewhere out there, Nate. You don’t have to live this life, not if you don’t want to,” Tyler insisted.

Nate opened his mouth, closed it, and frowned. They watched the sun slowly set beneath the horizon, filling the sky and the surface of the ocean with brilliant colors. It spread over Nate’s face as he watched it thoughtfully, making him radiate yellow and orange.

“Was I the first?” Nate asked softly.

Tyler smiled at the subject change, and not just because it was less tension-filled. If Nate wasn’t going to argue with Tyler’s point, it meant he was considering it intently. Tyler would just have to wait until Nate came to his own conclusion.

“Well, since all we did was kiss,” Tyler said, shaking Nate gently.

“That’s what I mean.”

“Oh. Then, yes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

Nate put his arm around Tyler’s waist, holding him tight. “That makes me happy. Selfish as it is.”

Tyler shook his head. “It doesn’t make you selfish. It makes you happy that you were the first to kiss me. And truth be told, I wanted you to be the first person I ever kissed.”

Nate looked up. “You did?”

Tyler turned to him, still keeping an arm on him. “Of course. I had a crush on you from like, way back at the beginning of the friendship. Despite all the bullshit you’ve had to deal with from your dad, you’re still kind and sweet. You’re willing to come outside of your bubble whenever you think you’re going too deep and you were the best person I ever could have had as a best friend.”

Nate’s eyes widened as he whispered, “Tyler…”

Tyler smiled gently down at him. “I wanted you to be the first person to kiss me. I wanted it so bad. I wanted you to be the first everything, and honestly? I wanted you to be the last everything too.”

And then he was being pulled, Nate’s hand on the back of his neck pressing their lips together.

Tyler barely remembered the hurried, almost desperate kiss they had shared years ago. But he was pretty sure even that, the culmination of his young fantasies and dreams, couldn’t compare to the feel of Nate kissing him at sunset. Water lapped lazily at their bare ankles, and Nate’s fingers pressed tight into the back of his neck.

He was warm, and his body fit neatly against Tyler’s. Tyler tightened his arm around Nate, pulling him closer as their lips parted, tongues tapping against one another furtively. Nate was warm, his breath came in little gusts against Tyler’s lips, and he could feel the sudden tension of need become taut through Nate’s body.

Nate eased back a few inches, speaking hurriedly. “I can’t promise anything, but Tyler...can we have tonight? You and I, for the night?”

Tyler would have gladly given the man anything at that moment. It was even easier to agree to the thing that had been flitting through his mind from the moment their lips met. Nate couldn’t promise anything, but Tyler didn’t need him to. For now, he would take Nate in whatever form he could get, and they would deal with the rest later.

“Yeah,” Tyler told him softly. “You and me tonight.”

Nathaniel

Still a little taken aback by his own forthrightness, Nathaniel closed his hand into Tyler’s. The other man’s grip was firm in his as he walked them along the water’s edge. After agreeing to Nathaniel’s request, Tyler had said nothing, walking silently at his side. If it wasn’t for the gentle smile that Tyler kept on his face, Nathaniel might have wondered what was going on in the other man’s head.

Tyler glanced at him. “So, what were you thinking?”

Nathaniel stared at him. “Are you expecting me to give you explicit details of what I have in mind?”

Tyler laughed and Nathaniel just stared at him. There had always been something about Tyler’s laugh that drew him in. Whether it was the private little chuckle he did when he wasn’t trying to draw attention to himself or the huge booming laugh he had whenever he found something too funny to contain. No matter how the sound