Arching my eyebrows, I rolled around to face him. “Do I detect a bit of jealousy in your voice, sir?”

He shrugged and leaned in to lightly kiss my nose. “Not really, but he did steal all the glory, despite the fact I had to catch most of his damn passes. I’ll tell you now, not all of them were that perfect.”

I moved my hand up his beard stubble. “Well, thank God I’m not the only one put out about the fact he’s so perfect, and I’m not.”

“Hey, I never said I wasn’t perfect. He just has to be...perfecter?”

“You mean, more perfect?”

He shrugged. “I like perfecter better.”

I grinned and snuggled against him.

“Keep talking,” he instructed softly as his hand strummed along my back. “I like learning about you.”

“Well, there’s not much else to say. After Noel left, I progressively started to slip. I grew lonely, stressed, perpetually worried. When Sander Scotini said hi to me one day in school, I was so starved for something to just...take me away from it all, I latched on to his attention like the...the stupid idiot I was.”

Oren tensed under me and his hand stopped moving. “You weren’t stupid. The fucker just knew to strike when you were the most vulnerable.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I guess. But I really should’ve known better. I should’ve known I didn’t mean anything to someone like him. I should’ve—”

“What the hell ever,” Oren snapped. He rolled me onto my back and rose up to send me a piercing scowl. “You meant to say you should’ve known you were too good for a pansy-ass rich prick like him, right?”

I smiled softly, but glanced away. “I know I’m not too good for anyone—”

“The fuck you’re not.” Grasping my chin, Oren turned my face until I was looking up into his eyes. “You are...amazing. And the only thing that douche did right was fuck everything up for you, because it landed you here. With me.”

I drew in a breath, unexplainably touched by the intensity in his gaze and the fever behind his words. He meant what he said. Tears prickled my eyes, but I blinked them away.

Setting my hand on Oren’s bare chest, I felt the steady thump of his heart under my fingers and marveled at what an amazing heart it could be. “So, you really don’t expect sex right now?” I asked.

He blinked at the question, obviously not expecting it, and maybe not even thinking about it. Then he scowled. “I told you I didn’t in the text, didn’t I? Did you think I was lying?” He sounded a little insulted.

“Well, no.” Hmm, this was strange. “I knew you weren’t lying...when you said it. But now that I’m here...”

He huffed out a breath, definitely insulted. “I know this might sound crazy, but I actually can survive without it for one night.”

“Yeah, but...” I shrugged self-consciously. “Since you’re being all nice, and snuggly, and understanding, I kind of...want it now.”

“Oh, Jesus,” he groaned, tightening his arms around me. “I think my dick just went instantly hard. Like, all the blood rushed south so fast my head is woozy.”

A smile lit my face. “Is it, now?” Instead of reaching up to massage his woozy head, my hand went south to massage...well, his other head.

The boy was definitely not lying. He was as hard as a rock under my fingers. He groaned as I wrapped my palm around him through his boxer shorts and pumped.

“Goddamn.” He arched under my touch, pushing his hips up against me. “I was prepared to be a noble gentleman and everything. But fuck that.”

“I’d rather you fuck me instead,” I said as I pushed him onto his back and crawled on top of him.

I knew I had to go home eventually and face Noel again, but I avoided it for as long as possible. After I fell asleep in Oren’s arms, I didn’t stir for the rest of the night. I woke to light streaming through the window and his palm cupped possessively around my breast.

He was warm at my back and I just lay there a second, reveling in the feeling of waking up in his bed, with his hands on me. When I drew in a deep, invigorated breath, loving this moment, he stirred behind me, shifting until he was spooned up against me, his morning wood nudging my bare bottom and his fingers reflexively tightening on my breast.

“Damn,” he said on a groan. “I could wake up like this every day. My cock really likes snuggling with your ass.”

I grinned. “Oh, does it? Or does it like this better?” Sitting up, I twisted around to face him, and then I rolled him onto his back so I could kiss my way down his chest and take his erection in my hand. His purple birthmark in the shape of West Virginia looked particularly bright this morning. I loved how he never bothered to hide it from me anymore. We hadn’t been together with the lights off since the demise of Midnight Visitor, and I loved that too. We were open about everything with each other, kept no secrets, and we shared all kinds of things I’d never shared with anyone else in my life.