Chapter Twelve
Taz hadn’t planned their date with any expected ending in mind, other than knowing Will had a great time. The massage had been an impromptu decision, spawned by how relaxed Will had gotten while watching the movie—and also from Taz’s desire to remove some of Will’s stress. It had been a tough week for both of them.
Hell, it hadn’t even been an entire week yet, but somehow Taz’s life felt infinitely different than it had before Will. Infinitely different and infinitely better. Agreeing to walk to the park that first time—hell, was that really only this past Tuesday?—was the best decision he’d ever made.
It was also the most frustrating. Dipping into Will’s past was like playing Russian roulette with his mood. Bring up the wrong thing, and boom. The walls came up, and Will tried to shut down. But Taz was figuring out how to draw Will back out, cheer him up, and make it all okay.
He smiled through Will’s current laughing fit, loving every cheerful sound and squawk coming out of his boyfriend. And hating the man responsible for those cigarette burns with every fiber of his being. Will had admitted to being molested by more than one person, without giving any details. Molested could mean a lot of different things, from touching to penetration, and Taz had held out hope that the latter hadn’t happened.
The burn confession dashed that hope to pieces, and it made a deep-down part of Taz rage. He’d kept hold of that rage, though. No way did he want Will to see it, not when they were having such an amazing time. Taz would save the rage for later, when he was alone and could vent it properly.
Will calmed himself with a few deep breaths, and then they were lying side by side on the carpet, grinning at each other. Will’s cheeks were pink, his eyes shiny, so happy and relaxed in that moment that Taz hesitated to break the spell by speaking.
“Fuck, I’m thirsty,” Will said.
“Want a glass of water?” Taz could use some, too.
“Sure.” Will sat up, then scrambled to his feet. “Hang out, I’ll get it.”
“Okay.”
Taz wasn’t used to being waited on in his own place, so he enjoyed the novelty. He shifted so he could lean against the couch, legs stretched out in front of him. Will returned with two cold glasses of water; he handed one to Taz before dropping down next to him.
“Thank you,” Taz said. The cool water soothed his parched throat.
Will gulped his, Adam’s apple bobbing with each large swallow. “Damn, I needed that. Does wine always make your throat sticky?”
“It can, I guess. Certain drinks make me thirsty, especially cocktails. It’s all the sugar.”
“That makes sense. I did really like the wine, though. And dinner. Dinner was amazing.”
Taz thought back to something Will had mentioned while they ate. “Earlier you said you couldn’t believe food could taste that good, and then you really got into a movie about a chef.”
“Yeah.” Will started picking at the label on his bottle.
“Will you tell me more about that? What are you used to eating?”
“Whatever’s easiest. When I was really young, there was always peanut butter sandwiches, bologna, canned soup, stuff like that. Then when I was eleven, my mom got hurt at work and ended up hooked on painkillers. Eventually, that led to a heroin addiction. By the time I was thirteen, all of her disability checks were going into bills, or up her arm. There wasn’t anything left to buy food. So I started stealing, or rooting through store garbage cans for edible food. It was all about survival, not what it tasted like. For a long time.”
Will got quieter and quieter the more he spoke, until those final four words were barely a whisper. Taz squeezed Will’s thigh, hoping the contact helped. Will put his water down, then covered Taz’s hand with his own.
“When I first went into foster care, I had a lot of trouble eating,” Will said, still telling his story to his own knees, rather than to Taz. “It was a constant battle between me and Jennifer, and twice I ended up hospitalized with a feeding tube.”
“Christ.” Taz hadn’t meant to interrupt, but that slipped out.
“Both times my shrink threw a fit. He didn’t like that the doctors were forcing anything on me, because I’d been forced enough, you know?”
Taz didn’t know, not really. But he was smart enough to keep quiet and let Will talk. This was the most Will had ever told him about his past, and he wanted every scrap of information Will was willing to give.
“Eventually my shrink and I figured out why I was so scared of solid food, and we worked on it. I started eating more, but I still preferred bland stuff. Like basic turkey on white bread.” Will glanced over with a shy smile. “I kind of envied all of the crazy toppings you wanted on your sandwich. It scared me to try so many things at once.”
“There’s nothing wrong with turkey on white,” Taz said, returning the smile. “I ate a lot of plain ham sandwiches as a kid. Then I was placed with a Latino foster family, and I learned about spices and condiments.”
“I don’t know why I keep forgetting you were in foster care, too. I guess because you went to college, while I don’t even have a GED.”
“It doesn’t matter how far you went in school. I didn’t finish my degree.”
“But you could, if you wanted to.”
Taz shrugged. “I don’t know if I want to. I mean, I like the job I have. The hours are flexible and it pays enough to live on. Why bother finishing college?” But his lizard brain caught onto the idea of college, only not in the way Will had suggested. It latched and stayed put, but Taz wasn’t sure why.
“Good point,” Will said. “Everyone always talks about how important a college diploma is, but I bet there are thousands of graduates still flipping burgers and making milk shakes, because it’s the only job they can get.”
“True. Have you ever thought about college? Online courses?”
“No. I’d have to at least finish my GED first, and I honestly don’t care enough to study for it.” Will dragged his tongue across his lips in a way that was more thoughtful than seductive. “Honestly, after dinner tonight, I’m more interested in food.” He laughed. “Oh my God, my shrink would do backflips if he heard me say that.”
“Because of your past trouble with food?”
“Exactly. But that lasagna was so good.”
Bingo!
“Then let’s take a cooking class together,” Taz said. “There’s gotta be someplace around here that offers them. Local college, a community center, something. I bet it would a lot of fun.”
Will’s bright smile lit Taz up inside. “You’d do that for me? Hang out with a bunch of strangers so you can learn to cook?”
“Of course.” He’d do it for both of them. “You’d be doing the same thing. Facing a roomful of strangers.”
“I know, but I feel like it would be easier if you were there. And I might actually know a place.”
“Really?”
Will nodded. “I’ll make a call tomorrow.”
“Any hints?”
“Nope. It might be a dead end anyway. I’m not sure.” Will fiddled with his bottle, picking at the label. “So you know why I was in foster care. You said you went in when your grandmother died?”
“Yeah.” Gramma’s death had been heartbreaking for Taz. The woman had been his mother in every way except birth.
“Why did your grandmother end up raising you?”
Taz grunted, not eager to share that particular part of his past. The thing that had driven a wedge between him and his birth mother all those years ago. Some of it made a little bit more sense once he finally met Peter, but the whole thing had been a mess. Still, Will had been very generous with his sharing today. Taz could return the favor.
“My mother, Leta, was fifteen when I was born,” Taz said, telling the story in the order he knew it, so the whole crazy thing made more sense. “Still a kid herself. And she wouldn’t tell anyone who the father was, so she and my gramma decided that they’d raise me to think Leta was my sister. And that Gramma was my mother.”
Will’s entire body jerked. He stared at Taz with wide, startled eyes. “Seriously?”
“Yes.” Gramma had been a kind, attentive mother, while his “sister,” Leta, was standoffish. As a kid, he’d assumed it was because he was a kid, a tagalong she didn’t want around. “It wasn’t until first grade that other kids started bullying me. I was a ginger who looked nothing like my family. And then some neighbor kids said that my sister was really my mom, and how gross that was, and it didn’t make any sense to me.
“I came home that day crying, and when I told Gramma what the kids said, she told me the truth. That Leta was not, in fact, my sister at all. She was my birth mother. I remember being so confused and upset. I didn’t understand why they’d lie, you know? And Leta wasn’t remorseful at all. She seemed more upset that the secret was out than because it upset me. It was the first time I remember starting to hate her.”
“I don’t blame you,” Will said. “I mean, I get she was young, but to lie like that?”
“Our relationship never recovered. And the bullying at school got worse, because of the rumors and everyone thought I was some kind of incest kid. Eventually, Gramma moved me and her to the other side of the city so I could change schools and start over. We left Leta with her current boyfriend, who’d already knocked her up.
“It was better, just me and Gramma, but I also started acting out at school. That’s when I got the Tasmanian Devil nickname that eventually turned into Taz. I only saw Leta a handful of times after that, usually at Christmas. I think it was mostly her way of showing off my half sister and her husband.” He grunted. “After Gramma died, Leta didn’t want me, and she refused to name my birth father, so I went into the system.”
“That sucks so much ass,” Will said. “We hit the mother lode with shitty parents, didn’t we?”
“Shitty moms, for sure.”
Will’s face fell. “I’m sorry, I forgot about Peter.”
“It’s okay.” Taz liked this part of his story, because it made his first six years on Earth more reasonable. Sort of. “Meeting Peter was, at the time, the best thing that had ever happened to me. I finally knew who my father was, and all the soap opera–level lying made more sense. See, Peter was twenty when he had sex with Leta, and Gramma hated him because he wasn’t Lebanese, so if Peter had tried to be part of my life, Gramma would have turned him in for statutory rape.”
“Holy shit.” Will opened and closed his mouth several times. “I, uh, I don’t...” He’d paled a bit, and his fingers were shaking. “Oh God, not now.” He closed his eyes and took several long, cleansing breaths.
Taz leaned in and waited, concerned, and not completely sure why Will was fighting a panic attack.
You said “statutory rape,” you moron. What do you think happened to him?
His stomach soured. “Will, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Not your fault.” Will blinked at him several times. “But he didn’t rape her, right? It was just the age difference.”
“No, he didn’t force her. Not that Leta or Gramma ever said, no matter all the legal definitions of things. But the age difference helped me understand why he’d abandoned me, you know? Peter told me he spent a lot of time imagining who I was, what kind of man I’d turn out to be. That everything he did was to make a son he didn’t know proud.”
Except for the whole going-to-jail-for-eight-years thing. A truth he still hadn’t shared with Will, despite all of their promises to always talk and be honest with each other. But Peter’s past seemed like such a small thing, compared to Taz and Will’s present.
“You’re lucky to have Peter,” Will said.
“I know. After the assault, I’d have been lost without him. Nowhere to go, no one to look out for me while I recovered. Peter was like a guardian angel come to life. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”
“Hopefully, you’ll never have to find out.” Will flinched. “Um, except you kind of are finding that out, aren’t you?”
“In a way. It’s hard knowing Peter is three thousand miles away, but I also know I’m not alone.” Taz slid his arm across Will’s shoulders, enjoying the way Will nestled against his side. Warm and familiar. “I’m pretty sure that ours in a great example of good cosmic timing. I met you at exactly the right time in my life.”
“Same. Although I think I’ve got the better end of the deal with you. I’m a mess, and I might never not be.”
“If you weren’t a mess, then you wouldn’t be you.”
Will laughed, then pressed his nose into the side of Taz’s neck. “We are such a pair of hot messes, aren’t we?”
“Makes us kind of perfect for each other.” He could sit like that all night, with Will tucked in close, warm breath fanning over Taz’s throat, but—”I really do have an edible dessert for us. The restaurant’s website swore they sold the best cannoli in the city.”
“I’ve never had cannoli before. What is it?”
“How about I show you?”
Will resettled on the couch while Taz fetched the white pastry box from the fridge. He’d never had it before, either, but it basically looked like a flat, folded cookie stuffed with cream, sprinkled with chocolate chips. How could that not taste good? He’d ordered four, not realizing each one was nearly as big as his hand.
“Holy cow,” Will said after peering into the box. “I can smell the sugar from here.”
Taz put the box on the cushion between them, then gently picked one up. It was heavier than he expected. He held a chip-covered end out to Will. “Go ahead.”
Will leaned in and closed his lips around a big bite of cookie and cream. The sound he made was pure lust, and it shot straight to Taz’s dick. The cookie crunched, and Will chewed slowly, eyes half-lidded. A bit of the filling smeared his upper lip, and Taz nearly leaned over to lick it off. Will swallowed.
“Holy shit, that’s incredible,” Will said. “Whatever’s in the middle is...wow. Where has this been all my life?”
“A few miles away, apparently.”
Will stuck his tongue out at him. “Try it.”
Taz took a tentative bite out of the other end, getting a mouthful of crunchy cookie, firm chocolate chips and a thick, creamy center that pushed all of his buttons. He’d never believed in food as foreplay before, but hot damn, the cannoli was revving his engines. Watching Will take a second bite and practically make out with the sweet dessert sent a shiver of desire down Taz’s spine.
The sudden, unbidden image of smearing the filling all over Will’s body just so he could lick it up again sent Taz’s dick to fully erect so fast he got a little dizzy. Holy shit, but that had been the most erotic daydream of his adult life.
Will’s third bite was slower, and he licked a bit of cream off his upper lip before asking, “Too sweet?”
“Huh?” was as intelligent a response as Taz could muster.
“Is the cannoli too sweet?” His gaze dropped right to Taz’s lap. A slow smile curled his lips back from his teeth, and Will was all sass and fire when he met Taz’s eyes again. “Looks like someone really likes cannoli.”
“I like watching you eat cannoli.”
“Oh, yeah?” Will flicked his tongue out and swiped a bit of filling off the dessert with the tip. Oh so slowly, he drew his tongue back into his mouth and sucked on it.
“Guh.”
With the softest chuff of laughter, Will shoved the box to the floor, then climbed onto Taz’s lap, straddling him with a knee on either side of his hips. He rested his ass on Taz’s thighs. Tugged Taz’s hand, still holding the half-eaten cannoli, closer so Will could lick more cream out of the middle. Taz watched the path of Will’s mouth until he went cross-eyed from proximity. Then he closed his eyes and let Will thrust his tongue into Taz’s mouth.
An explosion of vanilla and chocolate and Will’s unique flavor shattered any higher thought Taz had left. He dropped the dessert to the floor, vaguely hoping it hit the box, and then twisted them both hard. He dumped Will onto his back on the couch, legs hitched up around Taz’s thighs, and kissed Will like he needed him to breathe.
And he kind of did. Nothing would be the same after this. Will had imprinted himself in his mind, his skin, his heart. There was no going back, no not falling in love. So he gave in, sucking on Will’s tongue, thrusting against Will’s erection with his own, hands in his hair. Engulfing the smaller man, but also aware of his reactions.
Taz never wanted to scare Will, or make him feel unsafe.
Will dragged his fingernails down Taz’s back, first over fabric, and then up below it to scrape skin. Taz arched into it, loving every touch, every spot their bare skin touched. He wanted more skin but didn’t want to stop kissing to make that happen. Except he needed to know. Taz released Will’s mouth, then panted, “You okay?”
“Fuck yes.” Will’s face and neck were flushed, and he hadn’t hesitated a second in his reply. “Please keep doing that.”
“The kissing?” He thrust his erection against Will’s and earned a harsh gasp. “Or that?”
“All of it. Fuck, you can touch me. Please, touch me.”
Taz didn’t need clarification on where Will wanted to be touched. All thoughts of slowing down fled when Will reached between them and started undoing his fly. Taz froze, entranced by the boldness, unable to do anything except study the handsome boy who was trusting Taz with his body. His too-thin frame, the flush on his skin, the rise and fall of his chest.
He didn’t realize his mistake until Will’s hand touched his cheek, all of Will’s earlier wickedness gone. “Shit, Taz? Are you having an episode?”
“No.” Taz shook himself a little. “Sorry, no.”
“Are you okay with this? I mean, I really, really want us to rub off together, but if that’s too much, too soon...we don’t have to.”
The incredible generosity of that statement made Taz’s heart ache in a good way. Will had been the one pressing to get physical, and now he was giving Taz an out. And Taz should have taken it. Except the cannoli and licking the cream, and Will fit so perfectly beneath him. He tried to look into the future, to see if he’d regret this tomorrow.
Survey says: not a chance.
“You’d really stop if I asked you to?” Taz said.
Will frowned, then made a very distinct show of looking Taz up and down. At Taz’s arms caging him in. Will was in the vulnerable position, and he seemed confused by Taz’s question. And then his frown smoothed out into understanding—Taz might be bigger and stronger, but Will wielded as much power in their relationship, and in their sex life, as Taz did. They were equals, and Taz was always going to treat him like one.
“Yes,” Will said, voice hoarse. “I’d stop.”
“Good.” Taz sat up long enough to yank his own shirt off and toss it away. Will’s expression shifted from disappointed to smoldering, so Taz helped him lose his shirt, too.
He didn’t think too hard about the next part, just got pants and underwear down and out of the way. Figured out how to hold his weight so he didn’t smother Will, and then their precome-slicked dicks were rubbing together, skin on skin, between their bellies.
“Oh, fuck, yes,” Will said. He hiked his legs higher around Taz’s hips, then hooked his ankles over his thighs, because he couldn’t quite wrap them all the way around.
Taz thrust against him a few times, finding a rhythm he liked, before wrapping his arms around Will’s upper body and kissing him. He devoured Will’s mouth, putting every emotion and sensation into it that he could. Driving them both higher, harder. He wanted to come so badly, but he never wanted this to end. This amazing connection, unlike anything he’d ever felt with a partner.
Will’s fingernails scraped up and down his back, and Taz didn’t give a shit if he left marks. Taz would wear them proudly. He wanted to suck a mark onto Will’s skin, to claim him, but that meant he had to stop kissing, and that wasn’t happening. Not while Will was bucking up against him, gasping and groaning his pleasure, writhing on the cusp of his orgasm. Will’s heels dug into Taz’s thighs, urging him.
Taz lost himself in a haze of sweat and sliding and kissing, lost in the trembling body beneath his that thrust up, harder and harder. Will made a sound like a scream, tensed, and their bodies slicked even more with Will’s release. Taz slowed down, still desperate to come, but not like this if Will was too tender after orgasm.
“Holy shit,” Will gasped. “Wow.”
Taz dropped kisses all over his cheeks and chin. “You’re so beautiful when you come.”
“Shut up.” But he grinned, clearly pleased with himself. “I haven’t gotten off like that in...ha. Not ever. Sex with feelings involved is kind of awesome.”
Taz laughed, fighting the urge to thrust against the damp belly beneath him. To chase his own release and soon.
Will wiggled his hips, still grinning. “You didn’t come.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You haven’t.” Will traced a finger across Taz’s collarbone. “No one has ever been as careful with me as you.”
“You deserve care and tenderness and love, Will Madden. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.” He kissed Will’s temple.
“Yes, sir.” Will’s questing hand slid between then, all the way down to grasp Taz’s shaft. He pumped a few times, coating Taz with his semen, slicking his grip. Then he held his fingers in a circle. “Fuck my hand, Taz.”
“Fuck, yes.”
Taz closed his eyes and couldn’t stop the mental image that followed—that the tight ring of fingers around his cock was Will’s ass. That he was fucking him with sure, steady strokes, claiming him in the most primal way possible. That when he finally erupted, he was coming inside Will instead of over his chest and fist. His entire body trembled as Will jerked him through it, only stopping when Taz began to settle his weight on top of him.
“You’re pretty gorgeous yourself when you come,” Will said.
Taz chuckled, somehow finding the strength to peel his eyelids apart. A drop of semen had landed on Will’s chin. He licked it off. It reminded him of his earlier fantasy of licking cannoli cream off Will’s body, but Taz was too fucking satisfied and exhausted to bother tonight. He’d be lucky to stumble his way into the bathroom to clean up.
“You’re all sticky.” Taz glanced at the clock near his desk. “Still plenty of time before curfew. You want to rinse off with me?”
Will’s eyes widened briefly. “Really?”
“Of course. Unless you’d rather shower alone.”
“No! I mean, as long as there’s room.”
Taz couldn’t stop his flinch. He started to raise up, probably smashing poor Will into the couch with his big, flabby—
“Hey, no, stop.” Will grabbed his shoulder and held him still. “I meant sometimes these old apartments have small tubs. There isn’t always room for two. Taz, I love that you’re soft in places. I’m all bones and sharp angles. We balance each other out.”
“You think so?”
“Yes, I do.” Will reached down and scraped his nails across Taz’s belly. “You’re not ugly, not any part of you.”
Taz pressed a slow kiss to Will’s forehead. “You make me believe you.”
“Good. It’s the truth. I’ve loved every single minute of tonight, even the couple of hard parts.”
“Me too. Come on.” Taz reluctantly stood on somewhat shaky legs, then pulled Will up to his feet. “I’ll scrub your back for you.”
Will waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Are you going to scrub any other parts of me?”
“You’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?”
“Can’t wait.”
Will hadn’t been entirely sure his legs would support him, not after the massive orgasm he’d had, thanks to Taz. Fortunately, Taz kept hold of his hand as they walked down the short hallway to the bathroom. Small, as he’d suspected, with mint-green tiles and a single-basin sink. But clean and tidy, and not a speck of mildew anywhere.
While Taz fiddled with the faucet, Will took the moment to really look at Taz, who was naked with him for the first time. Will’s earlier assessment wasn’t wrong. While Will was skinny, bony, and had a lot of sharp angles, Taz was wonderfully...not. The ghosts of past muscles still clung to his shoulders, biceps and even his legs. Auburn hair dusted his calves and thighs, and when he turned around, that same hair created a pretty nest around his soft dick. It crept up into a thin happy trail that stopped at his navel.
And his chest. Broad, with more curling red hair, and round, dusky nipples that Will really wanted to suck on. Taz had a few freckles on his shoulders that Will had never noticed before. All Taz needed was a full beard, and he’d be the perfect ginger bear.
“What?” Taz said.
“What what?” Will traced a finger through the smears of come on Taz’s chest, playing with the curls of hair. “I was admiring you, now that I’ve got you naked. It is weird that I kind of love how furry you are?”
Taz’s eyebrows arched. “Furry?”
“Fuzzy? Hairy? Whatever. I like it.” He looked down at his own pale, smooth body. He shaved once every few days, and he barely had any pubes. “I look like a child.”
“Hey.” Taz did that amazingly comforting thing of putting his hand around the back of Will’s neck. So warm and steady. “You look like a guy who had a tough childhood, and who’s working his ass off to do better. To be better, and not to let your past define you.”
“Good answer.” He pulled Taz down for a brief kiss. “Now I believe you said something about scrubbing my back?”
“Yes, I did.”
Sharing the shower with Taz was slightly challenging, since the tub was pretty narrow, but it was also an amazing experience. Will had never showered with a guy before, not even Guy. They’d always taken turns. But Taz was affectionate and attentive the entire time, following up his promise to scrub Will’s back with a soapy washcloth, swiping down over his ass enough times to start giving Will ideas he never followed through on.
Too much, too fast would only give Taz regrets.
Once Will was squeaky clean, he turned the cloth onto Taz, taking great joy in seeing just how sudsy he could make Taz’s chest hair. He created swirls and patterns, playing for so long that Taz started chuckling, and he didn’t stop until they were both rinsed off.
Another perfect moment.
So perfect that, as Will dried off with a big, fluffy towel, he couldn’t help but wonder when it would all come crashing down. He’d never been this happy in his life, and he didn’t want to lose it.
Taz wrapped a towel around his waist. “I’ll get your clothes.”
“Thanks.”
Will studied his reflection in the bathroom sink, desperate to see what Taz saw when he looked at him. All he saw was a kid with too-long hair, big eyes and no meat on his bones. Except that was all surface stuff. Taz saw past all of that, into the core of Will, and Taz liked that guy. The same way Will saw past Taz’s scars and saw the wonderful soul of the man he was falling hard for.
It didn’t matter that neither of them was perfect on the outside. They’d each found another soul to connect with in a way that probably came around once in a lifetime. Taz made Will happy, full stop, and he didn’t want to lose that.
When Taz returned with his clothes, Will yanked him into a hug. A full-bodied, hard hug that tried to tell Taz everything he couldn’t put into words. Taz’s arms held him tight, bare chest to bare chest.
“You okay?” Taz whispered.
“I’m perfect. I can honestly say I never thought I’d be this happy. Or content. God, I don’t want to leave.”
“I know.” Taz kissed his temple. “But I don’t want you to get in trouble at the house, and it’s a little too soon for you to move in.”
He’d said it in a joking tone, but it made Will look up, curious. “Would you want that, though? One day? Me to move in?”
“If that’s what you want. I can’t exactly move into your place.”
Will chuckled. “I don’t think you’d fit in my room. It’s a shoe box.”
“Or we could look for a different place together. This isn’t exactly the best building, and with two of us paying rent, we could probably afford a better apartment.”
“That’s a nice idea.” Will didn’t have the capacity to imagine apartment hunting with Taz. He had no idea how to go about it, or even what he wanted in a place. “It’s also maybe too soon to think about. We’ve been seeing each other for less than a week.”
“Feels like so much longer, and I mean that in the absolute best way possible.”
“I get it. But tonight wasn’t too fast, right?”
“No, tonight was perfect.” Taz pulled back far enough to meet his eyes. “You don’t regret anything, do you?”
“Not a chance. I hate that I have to leave, but that’s probably also a good thing.” Will could hear his shrink warning him about too much, too soon. Not getting attached just because someone was showering him with affection and attention.
But Taz wasn’t Guy. Not even close.
“Yeah,” Taz said. “Going slow, being careful means less of a chance of royally fucking this up.”
“Agreed. I guess I should get dressed.”
“Okay.” Taz seemed to release him with great reluctance. Then he backed out of the bathroom, even being so gentlemanly as to shut the door.
Will looked in the mirror once more, surprised by the wide smile on his face. A genuinely content smile he’d never seen before. “I’m happy,” he told his reflection. For the first time in his life, he’d said those words, and he knew in his heart how true they were.