through the day, then he let Dmitri take over that week for the Farmer’s Market prep and the stall, and Wilder was able to close up early. Lorenzo cooked, and they watched TV, then Wilder had turned to him and lowered his voice. “I want you to eat my ass.”
Lorenzo had nearly come right then, like a man who had never experienced dirty talk before. Then he scrambled to obey, and it was the most glorious hour he’d spent since arriving in Cherry Creek.
Lorenzo smiled and reached out, tracing a touch down Wilder’s cheek. “You can ask me anything.”
Wilder bit his lip like he was unsure, then took a fortifying breath. “Do you think you’re ever going to get tired of this?”
Lorenzo blinked in surprise then propped up on his elbow and laid his hand in the center of Wilder’s chest. “Tired of what?”
“This,” Wilder said and waved his hand between them. “Fucking like this. Having limits?”
“I don’t know,” Lorenzo told him, and he saw the pain flicker in Wilder’s eyes, but also the appreciation for his truth. “I don’t think so. I think might get tired of only fucking one way—but there are so many ways for me to love on your body without being inside of it.”
“You’re so cheesy,” Wilder groaned, but he grabbed at Lorenzo and pulled him in for a kiss. “I don’t want to let him dictate what I can and can’t have,” he said after they broke apart. “And maybe someday it’ll be different, but…”
“Hey,” Lorenzo interrupted, pressing another kiss to his lips. “It doesn’t need to be. This isn’t about your ex.” Lorenzo ran his fingers around the pad of Wilder’s nipple and watched it peak, watched a flush rise on his neck. “It’s about you and what you need—and what you want. Being with you, however we’re together—it doesn’t feel limiting. Nothing about you has ever felt limiting.”
Wilder flushed a little deeper, and he ran his thumb over Lorenzo’s bottom lip. “Thank you.”
He wanted to ask what for or maybe what he’d done to deserve a man like him, but Wilder deserved better than second guessing, so he kissed that thumb, and then he kissed his palm, and then all the way up his arm to his mouth. “I love you. I love you so much.”
Wilder closed his eyes and breathed out. “I love you too. I want to take you on another date.”
“Yes,” Lorenzo said.
“Tomorrow.”
Lorenzo grinned. “Yes.”
Chapter Twenty
“Okay … it out … system,” Theo wheedled as they pushed past a cluster of bushes and made their way to the bank of the creek.
Wilder blinked at him behind the dark glasses. They were an ill fit and designer and less comfortable than the ten-dollar ones he bought at the gas station, but it had given Lorenzo a little thrill when Wilder picked them up and asked to borrow them for the afternoon.
“Say that again.”
“Get it out of your system. The complaint,” Theo clarified, leaning in close so Wilder would be able to hear him over the water. “The fact that I dragged your skinny, pale ass out here for some sun because you were wallowing behind the counter, and now you feel unproductive.”
Wilder sighed as they climbed onto a flat boulder and sat side-by-side. “I’m not going to complain today.”
“Yes, you are. Complicated sex thing or dead dad thing?” Theo asked.
Wilder chuckled at his lack of tact, and he shrugged. “Both? I don’t know.”
Theo grabbed a handful of rocks and tossed them in, one by one, before he spoke again. “Has your mom texted you?”
Wilder let out a bitter laugh and shook his head. He wanted to push the sunglasses off his face, but he’d been suffering a post-flight headache since he woke up from his sex-induced nap. And Lorenzo was a pleasant distraction from the pain, but he knew he had a few days left before it went away entirely.
“I wasn’t expecting her to. I basically dragged her to hell and back, and trust me when I say that my Deaf family is adept at reading between the signs.” He smirked a little. “I mean, they had to know how she was, though.”
Theo rubbed his fist in a circle over his chest. ‘I’m sorry.’
Wilder shrugged. He’d moved past his anger at them for never stepping in—for only offering bare-bones comfort when they were around. It wasn’t their job, even if he would always feel let down, but it was hard to be angry at all now. Not when a different path