Chapter 76

“Look at us,” he murmured. “The transman and the criminal, and I’m the one doing the comforting. Nothing’s what it seems, eh?”

Rob cracked a tiny smile, and Eli kissed him again before uncuffing one arm and massaging the hand as he lowered it to the pillows.

“I’ll get us a blanket,” he murmured, “and we can curl up and cuddle for a little while, and I can really get the message through to you about being exactly what I need, yeah?”

Rob nodded again, but when Eli returned and covered him with a thick fleece blanket stolen from the sofa, he lifted his freed arm and beckoned with the fingers. Eli had to slide half under him to cuddle, but when Rob settled his weight firmly on Eli’s chest and let out a bone-shattering sigh, Eli didn’t dare to complain or change the arrangement.

He kissed Rob’s hair, smoothed a hand down his back, and began to whisper again.

“I love you…” 23

Eli came back to himself bathed in heat. Bright light was spilling over the bed, drowning his skin in warmth raw and powerful—but more welcome was the hot pass of a thumb rubbing lazy circles into the skin of his belly, dangerously low. His back was pressed into steel muscle overlaid with soft skin and hair, the rasp of stubble shifting against his neck and shoulder with every breath. The arm over his waist was heavy, the hand it controlled left purposefully low, almost cupping Eli’s naked flesh. It made Eli feel completely surrounded in heat, weight, and safety.

He arched his shoulder back into that scratch, and a kiss emerged from the stubble to press itself into his neck, silent and certain. The thumb stilled, and the hand pressed a little firmer into Eli’s crotch. Wet heat sank into Eli’s pelvis, and he rolled his hips forward with an involuntary sigh. The rhythm caught, Eli rubbing himself on Rob’s rough fingers, and feeling a hardness press itself between his thighs as Rob, slow and idle, began to follow his lead.

It was lazy and gentle, the movement more shifts than thrusts. The only sound was the rustle of sheets and the slow build of Rob’s breathing from deep and tired to a grunt in the back of his throat when Eli’s thighs squeezed around Rob’s length and clenched hard enough to bring him to the peak. And the only mark of that was the sudden jerk of Rob’s hips, flush against Eli’s backside, and the sudden dampness of the sheet over Eli’s legs. Rob’s fingers did not so much as twitch, maintaining their steady motion until Eli squeezed the solid wrist and pushed himself hard into them, shuddering through his own orgasm in Rob’s heavy grip, shivering and twitching like something caught fast in a storm

When he could breathe again, and his limbs began to regain feeling from the soft wave of pleasure that had crashed over him, Eli twisted in Rob’s hold. He curled under that heavy arm and pressed his face into Rob’s neck with a contented sigh, kissing a long scratch he’d left there last night. Rob mumbled, his voice an incoherent rasp that stirred Eli’s heart if not his exhausted blood. He tucked himself closer still, sliding a leg between Rob’s and burrowing into too-hot skin without a care for the heat of the sun at his back.

“V’you,” he murmured, and Rob nudged his nose against Eli’s hair.

“Move in with me.”

Eli blinked.

“What?”

“Move in with me,” Rob repeated. His throat was so relaxed that the words were barely forming out of pure sound, and Eli pressed his lips to that thick neck to feel them rather than hear them.

“For real?”

“Mm.” The hum vibrated lightly against Eli’s mouth.

Eli curled impossibly closer, wanting nothing more than to simply melt into Rob’s skin, burrow right into his very being, and take up residence there.

“Why?” Eli whispered.

“S’it wi’ you and why?”

Eli shrugged. “I dunno. We argue a lot…”

Rob huffed a laugh. “I’m a cock and you’re a total fuckin’ queen. ‘Course we argue.”

“But—”

“When we don’t, s’great,” Rob mumbled.

When Eli unburrowed enough to peek, those world-changing eyes were closed, the usually stern face still slack and relaxed.

“I miss you when you’re gone.”

Something squirmed in Eli’s stomach, hot and pleasant. He pressed his lips to the very corner of Rob’s mouth, and breathed, “Do you?” against the skin.

“Mm.”

“Like—”

“An’ you should be happy.”

“What? I am—”

“No.” Rob was waking up a little, his voice clearing and his hands turning in to hold Eli properly. “You’re not. You hate your job, you row with your folks a lot, you don’t relax at home like you do when you’re lounging on our sofa in your keks drawing.”

Eli swallowed. “And…and living here, with you, I’d be happy?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“You’d have to quit the stupid job to get the full effect,” Rob said, his eyebrows scrunching.