Keeping Casey (Keeping Him #1) - Amy Aislin Page 0,68

to me that this will change things between us.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think things have already changed?”

“Yeah, but sex is different.” Casey trailed the tips of his fingers up and down Ethan’s palm, sending sparks up Ethan’s arm to the back of his neck and down his spine, igniting sensations that made his blood heat. “I mean, we’re about to see each other naked.” He whispered the last word, as though he didn’t want to be overheard.

“We’ve already seen each other naked.” High school locker rooms, sleepovers, and Ethan had one very vivid memory of comparing dick sizes with Casey when they were eleven or twelve. He understood what Casey meant, though—getting naked with the intent of having sex involved a certain level of vulnerability they’d never shared with each other.

“Huh.” Casey’s brow furrowed for a moment. “Good point.” His eyes swept Ethan up and down, and he stuck his tongue in his cheek. “Top or bottom?”

Rolling onto his side, Ethan kissed the corner of his mouth. “I don’t know,” he admitted, smiling at the topic of conversation. It was so like Casey to give him a pop quiz beforehand to make sure they were on the same page.

“You’ve never . . .”

Ethan shook his head.

“Not even when you were in Ohio?” Casey rolled on his side so they were face-to-face. “There was no one?”

He shook his head again.

“Oh. Okay.” Casey cleared his throat, softly running his fingertips over Ethan’s cheekbone, down his neck, to his collarbone, leaving tingles of warmth behind that made Ethan want to curl into him. “Maybe you’re vers, like me.”

“Well.” Taking a deep breath, Ethan blurted, “I want you to fuck me, so make of that what you will.”

Casey’s mouth fell open. In the next second, he tackled Ethan, who landed on his back with an “Oof,” Casey stretched out on top of him, grinning wildly.

“I love you madly, you know that?”

Every piece of Ethan’s heart that had always belonged to Casey melted, chest filling with warmth and security. He traced Casey’s lips with a thumb, committing his face, the soft and open expression in his eyes, to memory.

He hadn’t expected Casey to say it. At least, not this soon.

Ethan didn’t have a chance to say it back before Casey was trailing tiny kisses along his neck, muttering about how he was going to take such good care of him.

And he did.

He was patient and encouraging as they got naked, gaze reverent as more and more of Ethan was exposed, heating to molten when Ethan tweaked his nipple just because he could. Casey never rushed, he never pressured. And he was especially gentle with Ethan’s left side, as if he knew that it had been bothering him, even though Ethan had never said so.

Ethan held Casey’s every murmur, every gasped breath, every kiss, every trail of nails across his skin, in the palm of his hand to cherish always. To have Casey like this when he’d never expected to . . . It was a gift.

When Casey sank into him after taking his time prepping him and their gazes locked, something that had been missing in Ethan’s soul clicked into place.

And when they came together, bodies pumping, sweat-slicked skin sliding together, muffling groans in each other’s shoulders, it was with the knowledge that he belonged to Casey—completely, wholeheartedly—and he never wanted that to change.

As they came down from the high and their breathing evened, Ethan ran a hand through Casey’s sweaty hair and kissed his temple. There was so much he wanted to say. That Casey was the best thing to ever happen to him. That he was happiest, felt safest, in Casey’s presence. That Casey shone with a light so bright, it sometimes hurt to look at him, in the best way possible. Like looking into the sun and being consumed in comfort and contentment.

The words—the sentiments—were on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t know how to articulate them. How to adequately tell Casey what he was to him. Instead, he hugged him close and, into his temple, whispered, “I love you madly, too.”

Casey lifted his head to grin at him.

And it was perfect.

It was everything.

It was more than Ethan had ever hoped to have.

Chapter Nineteen

Casey was still riding a sex-with-Ethan induced high the following afternoon. Ethan had kept him up all night and it had been glorious.

He ached in places that made him feel alive.

They’d fallen asleep after round three, in the wee hours of the morning. The blare