I was woken up from a hazy dream by the morning sunlight breaking in through Enzo’s bedroom window. He had thick, dark red shades, but there was a slit down the center that allowed the light to sneak in and land right on my face. I stretched underneath the covers, rolling over and throwing an arm over a still-sleeping Enzo. He could sleep on the sun itself, it didn’t matter how much light there was. I joked that his eyelids must have been abnormally thick. He’d then joke that his eyelids weren’t the only thick thing about him.

I smiled as I pulled myself closer to Enzo. There were butterflies in my stomach, as if they had been asleep with me, waiting until the second I woke up to activate. Today was a big day, one I’d been looking forward to for months now. Since the second I walked out of the hospital, really. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to wait for much longer after that.

We were both naked under the soft white covers. I could feel his body heat mixing with mine. It had my morning wood throbbing against Enzo’s ass. I kissed the back of Enzo’s head and glided my hand up and down his side. He was starting to stir. My hand stopped on his hip before dropping, my fingers feeling Enzo’s hardness before closing around it. I gave a few slow, lazy strokes. He gave a small, sleepy moan and started to gyrate his ass, softly at first, onto my hard dick. I pushed myself into his crack while I continued jerking him off and kissing the back of his neck, using my teeth to graze over the sensitive skin before sucking it into my mouth. He was moving harder onto me, moaning more frequently. Sleep was giving way to lust. He was tilting his head, giving me access to more of his neck.

I sucked a little harder, moving my hips more, my cock leaking onto Enzo’s ass.

“Good morning,” he said with a moan as he rolled over onto his other side so that he was facing me. His eyes were still cloudy with sleep, and his hair was messy from the pillows. He looked so fucking cute. I was so grateful that I got to see Enzo’s face every morning. I went in for a kiss, unable to resist. Underneath the covers, our legs entwined and our cocks pressed together, intense heat emanating from the both of them. I brought a hand up to Enzo’s head.

“Good morning,” I said into the kiss. Meaning it down to the core. Every day I woke up next to Enzo was guaranteed to be a good morning. Our tongues were soft and slow at first, warming up from a night of great sleep. I pushed my hips forward, rubbing more of myself on him. I could feel my stomach getting sticky and wet from our mixed excitement.

“You’re so sexy in the mornings,” I said when we broke from the kiss, a hungry smile on my lips.

“Just in the mornings?” Enzo asked, reaching down and grabbing me in both his hands.

“You make me hard twenty-four seven, Enzo.”

“Bien,” he said, slowly stroking me. “That’s what I like to hear.” He grabbed both our cocks in his hands. I closed my eyes, enjoying every single second of this.

“Keep going,” I moaned, loving how it felt when he jerked us both off. He listened and continued his strokes, holding a little tighter. My balls ached. I pulled away before I blew too early. I hadn’t even put him in my mouth yet.

“Come here,” I said, propping myself up on the bed and throwing the comforter aside so that we were both exposed. I moved lower on the bed, admiring Enzo’s body on the way: the light covering of hair, the soft rise of his stomach, the biteable thighs that were wide open, giving me more than enough space to kneel between. Oh, how I loved this man’s body. I fucking cherished it. Every day, I felt blessed to have him, to be able to kiss him. Especially after I stepped onto Death’s doorstep, only to turn around at the last second. That gave me a brand-new appreciation on basically everything in my life. And if I ever forgot about that appreciation for some reason, I had a five inch scar on my chest that served as a permanent reminder.

I bent down, sucking him into my mouth. He gave a deep moan and stretched out his legs. My tongue swirled around his head, rubbing over the sensitive slit, tasting his sweetness and wanting so much more. He throbbed between my lips, my own cock responding in kind. I started jerking myself off with one hand while my other went to work on Enzo, stroking whatever real estate my tongue couldn’t cover. Enzo was one gifted man. I didn’t have to wonder where the term “Italian stallion” came from, that was for sure. He was hung, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

I tried fitting as much as I could into my mouth, looking up to see a blissed-out Enzo, his head pushing back on the pillow. His hands came up to my head as his legs rose up as well. I knew what was coming. And I wanted it. I craved it.

With purchase on the bed and his hands on the back of my head, Enzo started thrusting upward while simultaneously pushing my head down onto his cock, fucking my face and driving me absolutely wild. He went faster, his cock pushing deeper down my throat. I was getting teary-eyed, but I wanted more. He kept going, groaning and saying something in Italian I couldn’t make out.

When he stopped and I came up for air, his cock was left soaked, a rope of saliva dripping down onto his groin. He reached down and used it as lube, but instead of using it to stroke himself, his fingers slipped down between his ass. He looked up at me and licked his lips, a sight that almost made me blow right then and there.

“I need you inside me, Zane.”

That was all I needed. I reached over and opened up the drawer in the bedside table. Inside was a sleek black bottle of lube. I grabbed it, the already slippery bottle almost slipping out of my grip.

“Cazzo, you’re so sexy, Zane.” Enzo was practically purring as he watched me squirt some of the lube on my cock. I stroked, spreading it on myself before pouring some more on my hand and rubbing it between Enzo’s legs, all over. I grabbed his cock, stroked, and then went down to his balls. He moaned and lifted his ass up from the bed, giving me the space I needed to slip a hand down beneath him, my finger curling and finding his tight hole.

“Ohhh,” Enzo said as he ground his ass down on my lubed finger, his hole already taking me in deep, my finger disappearing inside him. My cock was throbbing in the air, ready to be buried inside my man. I slipped my finger out. He looked so hot, lying there for me, his dick hard and leaking. I grabbed his legs and lifted them onto my shoulders. I kissed his leg as I moved forward on the bed, pressing my cock up to his hole. We had gotten tested together and left the condoms behind the second we got our results.

Sinking into Enzo was pure, unadulterated bliss. The kind of stuff a drug addict feels after their first hit. Except this was how I felt every time we made love. It was always such an intense high. Especially when I was looking down on him, our eyes locked, his mouth agape as my cock sunk in deeper, past the head. I could feel the warmth spread. He was so tight, and the heat was insane.

“Oh fuck,” I hissed, pushing myself in until I was balls-deep. I held myself there for a moment, leaning down so that I could kiss Enzo, relishing in his warmth.

“I love you,” I whispered to him. I began to slowly move my hips.

“I love you, too, Zane.” He was looking me straight in the eyes. Our lips met again. My hips moved faster as we became one. I righted myself back up and held on to Enzo’s legs as I began to go even faster.

“Yeah, Zane, yes. Faster, bello. Faster.”

I gave him exactly what he asked for. I started pounding into him, driving myself deep with every thrust, picking up my pace so that the room was echoing with the sound of our bodies slapping together. His cock bounced against his stomach. Enzo grabbed himself and started jerking off while I continued to fuck him. I looked down, watching my cock get lost inside of Enzo. I could feel myself getting closer and closer.

“Cazzo, Zane, right there. Oh, fuck, I’m going to come, baby.”

“Do it. I want to see you come all over your chest.”

“Yeah?”

Seeing him so close to coming was all I needed to launch myself over the edge. “Fuck, Enzo, you’re going to make me come.”

“Fill me, Zane.” His eyes were burning with a passion I found hotter than anything else. My head fell back and let out an animalistic grunt. My thrusts became erratic as my cock began to explode inside of Enzo’s ass. I plunged myself in deep, plugging Enzo, opening my eyes to see him coming all over his chest, just like how I wanted. I could feel him tightening around me with every blast. It was almost enough to make me come twice, back-to-fucking-back.

When it was all over and I was sure I wasn’t going to spontaneously pass out, I collapsed onto Enzo, kissing him and relishing the feeling of having him underneath me, our bodies still shaking with aftershocks. We were both catching our breaths. The morning sun felt like a spotlight, and we had just given one of the best performances of our lives. Well, until the encore. Then I was sure that performance would only top the last. And so on and so on.

“Good morning,” I repeated again, sounding much more awake than I had earlier.

“Excellent morning,” Enzo said, also sounding way more awake.

“Well, get ready, because the day’s only going to get better.”

“Oh really?” Enzo asked. “I’m having a hard time seeing how.”

“You’ll see,” I said, smiling.

He really has no idea what I have planned, does he?

I had absolutely zero fucking idea of what Zane had planned for us. The concrete jungle rose up around us as Zane drove through the busy streets, which he’d been doing for the past hour or so.

“Are you trying to throw me off?” I asked, when he had made the same left turn twice in the span of ten minutes.

“What? No, relax.”

It was a Saturday, so everyone was out and about. It was a bright, breezy spring day with plenty of big, puffy clouds crossing the blue sky above. I was trying to figure out where Zane was driving to, but he kept taking weird side streets, and his driving pattern didn’t really make any sense. At one point, I thought we were heading toward the Bronx; another moment I thought we were about to get on the bridge to Jersey.

I didn’t really know what Zane had planned, but I was going along for the ride, regardless. I had found that closing my eyes and doing what Zane told me to do usually ended up with the both of us being very happy, so what was one more time?

I looked over to Zane. He was looking incredibly handsome in a light blue short-sleeved button-up shirt, his strong biceps pressing against the fabric of the shirt. He had gotten a haircut a few days ago, short on the sides and a little longer on the top. I reached across the center panel and put a hand on his thigh, giving it a good squeeze before Zane’s hand came to find mine.

“Still don’t know what we’re doing?” he asked.

“No idea.”

“Okay, good.” He pulled the car into a dingy parking lot. I looked around but couldn’t really figure out where we had gone. We pulled into a spot when Zane’s phone started ringing. He glanced at the screen, and his brows drew together.

“Huh?” I asked, sensing something was up.

“It’s Cole. Weird he’d call me on his day off.”

“Pick up,” I said. Cole was the detective assigned to work on the Unicorn case. Everyone at Stonewall had their eyes and ears open to any clues of who the monster could be, but Cole was the one Zane had chosen to take the lead.

“Hey, Cole, what’s going on?” I watched Zane’s facial expression change from curiosity to disappointment to anger. Cole’s voice was loud, but not loud enough to make out any clear words.

“Fuck, okay. Keep me updated.” Zane hung up and slipped the phone back into the pocket of his dark jeans.

“What was that?” I asked, curiosity piqued.

“Nothing, nothing.”

I arched a brow. “Didn’t sound like nothing.”

Zane sighed. “I didn’t want to dampen the mood, but the police found another Unicorn victim.”

“Merda.” My head dropped back on the headrest. The last time the Unicorn struck was six months ago. It was long enough for the community to start letting down their guard, which was probably exactly what the Unicorn wanted.

“Let’s not get hung up on evil right now.” Zane started getting out of the car. I followed, still unsure of what the hell was going on.

“Did he have any details?” I asked as we walked toward the street.

“We’ll get the full rundown later,” Zane replied, clearly wanting to change the subject. I looked around, trying to pinpoint exactly where Zane had taken me.

“Okay,” he said. “Before we keep walking, you have to put this on.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick black cloth. I looked from the cloth dangling in his hand to him and cocked my head, my heart rate starting to pick up a bit. What the hell was Zane planning?

I stood there while he tied the velvet cloth to my face, covering my eyes and blocking out all the light.

“Okay, I can’t see anymore,” I confirmed. Zane’s hand went on my lower back and started to guide me.

“Perfect,” I heard him say from my left. “Just how I wanted.”

“That doesn’t sound sadistic whatsoever.”

Zane chuckled as he continued to lead me. He grabbed my hand, and we walked, and walked, and walked. It felt weird, walking through the streets with the sounds and scents suddenly emphasized. “Are we even still in New York?”

“Yup,” Zane said. Finally, we started to slow down. I had only tripped about fifteen times trying to get to wherever spot Zane was leading us to.

“Okay,” he said. “Finally, we’re here.” I could hear the smile in his voice. I could also hear a bunch of other people around me. There was the loud sound of conversation, and was that… an opera singer?

“Enzo,” he started. I felt him walk behind me, his hand leaving mine and trailing across my lower back. He reached up and I felt my blindfold come loose. The next thing I knew, the blindfold was off and the sun was beating into my eyes. I shut them before I could get used to it.

When I opened my eyes again, I immediately recognized where we were. The Bethesda Fountain, a statue of an angel with her wings spread, was spouting water in front of me. It was one of the iconic symbols of Central Park built back in the eighties.

That’s why Zane had to blindfold me. There’d be no other way to get me toward the center of Central Park without me knowing otherwise.

But the fountain was different. There were rose petals, a bed of them, floating in the water. And that wasn’t where the roses stopped. There were petals on the ground as well. And they were laid out in a peculiar shape. They spelled out words. They…

“Enzo,” Zane said again. Realization of what was happening hit me in the face. “The second I met you, I knew you were the one who’d teach me to love again. I may not have admitted it in that moment, but there was no denying it. Deep down, I knew. Then life threw us a few curveballs, and we handled them like experts. Expert ball handlers.” We both laughed at that. Zane dropped down to one knee. My heart was in my throat. Behind him, the rose petals spelled out the one question I knew was on its way.

“You showed me that love doesn’t die, Enzo. A lesson I would have never learned if you hadn’t come into my life when you did.” His eyes were getting wet. Were mine? Were those tears I felt going down my cheeks?

“Enzo, the love of my life,” he said, looking up at me with those eyes that told a thousand love stories, written only for me. In his hands was a velvet navy blue box holding a matte silver wedding band. “Will you marry me?”

I didn’t hesitate. “Yes,” I said. “Sì!” I was laughing and teary-eyed and an overall mess, but I was also happy. More than happy. I was over the moon, to the stars, past the stars. Zane slipped the silver ring on and got up from the floor, pulling me into an embrace, our lips meeting to seal the deal. I thought I heard clapping and cheering, but all I could focus on was the man who completed me in every single way.