11
“I’m sorry about the car breaking down,” Finn said as he joined Nolan in the sanctuary living room, having settled Ollie in for the night.
Nolan was hovering around the window, looking out at the rain as the sun set over the horizon.
“You have to stop apologizing for that,” Nolan said. “I had a great time today. Breakdown included.”
Finn moved to stand behind him, hesitating to touch but desperately wanting to. They’d been getting somewhere before they’d been interrupted.
“Glad to hear it,” Finn murmured, fingers itching to reach out.
Why shouldn’t he? Now that he’d admitted he was interested, Nolan didn’t seem to object.
The thought was terrifying, but if not now, when? The longer he waited, the harder getting back to dating would be.
Before he could decide what to do, Nolan turned to face him.
Finn watched him open his mouth and take a breath to speak, then close it again without saying anything. He waited while Nolan took another breath, and then looked up at him and held his gaze.
And then Nolan pounced.
Their lips crashed together, clumsy and awkward at first. Not that Finn minded clumsy or awkward—Nolan’s enthusiasm was hot, and he could live with a bruised lip. The soft, needy moan that rumbled in Nolan’s chest went straight to Finn’s cock, a burning spark of arousal making his breath hitch as it hit him.
Finn chuckled as Nolan broke off to gasp for breath, brushing their noses together as warm affection bloomed in his chest. Damn.
He couldn’t have stopped himself from smiling even if he’d wanted to. Everything about this felt good, just like he’d imagined it would.
Nolan sealed their lips together again with a desperate gasp, pressing his body into Finn’s as he stood on tip-toes and leaned against him for support. All of which was adorable.
Finn wasn’t entirely sure what to do with his hands—he wanted to grab two handfuls of Nolan’s ass and pull him closer, need and want filling up his chest, but he wasn’t sure they were quite there yet.
After a moment, he settled on letting them rest on Nolan’s waist, getting a happy sigh in response as Nolan took another break to breathe.
“This is okay, right?” he murmured a half inch away from Finn’s lips.
“I was thinking a little better than okay,” Finn teased. “If you warn me next time I can do better.”
“That’s not what I—”
“I know what you meant,” Finn interrupted, sensing the distress and uncertainty in Nolan’s voice. “It’s okay. Great, even.”
“Okay.” Nolan nodded, dropping down from his toes to lean with his head against Finn’s shoulder. “Kissing you is so much better than anyone else I’ve kissed.”
Finn laughed at that, proud of himself. “I’m never letting you forget you said that.”
“I won’t,” Nolan said softly, looking up again, reminding Finn that this meant a lot to him.
That he was new to it.
A curl of warmth tightened in his gut at the thought. He’d never really been one to seek out uncharted territory, but something about Nolan made him want to explore some of it anyway.
Finn wanted to be his first. He’d never been anyone’s, but he trusted himself to make it good and safe and nice for Nolan. The kind of first time he’d missed out on.
He trusted himself to take this at Nolan’s pace, and treat him like he was the most precious thing in the world, and leave him feeling good about himself after.
With that thought in mind, he tilted Nolan’s chin up with the tip of his finger, leaning down to kiss him again. Softly, this time, keeping the pressure against his lips gentle, giving him room to breathe.
He smiled again, the happy sound Nolan made in the back of his throat telling him that he was getting this right. Nolan was enjoying himself, and Finn was determined to keep it that way.
Blood was already rushing south, the pit of his stomach tightening as his arousal built, the first stirrings of interest in his cock making Finn blush. That was too much, too soon, but if Nolan was ready…
He hadn’t had sex in two years, so Finn was more than ready.
Feeling brave, Finn slid one hand down from Nolan’s waist to the curve of his ass, swiping at his lips with his tongue as he squeezed firmly. Nolan moaned in response, his lips parting to give Finn access to his mouth. His hips rocked forward, and Finn could feel his cock showing an interest, too.
That felt so damned good that Finn could have burst, joy welling up inside him at having found someone fun and cute and interested in him.
He pushed his tongue into Nolan’s mouth, stroking Nolan’s own, shoving his free hand deep into the other man’s hair to hold him in place, letting the heat and pleasure of kissing someone he really liked wash over him.
He could have done this all day and not gotten tired of it. Right now, he wanted to kiss Nolan forever.
“You owe me a hug—whoa,” Ezra said, swinging around the doorway to the living room and staring at the two of them, his deep blue eyes wide.
Finn let go of Nolan as gently as he could, his face burning with embarrassment as he subtly moved so he was in front of Nolan, shielding him.
Not that anyone needed protection from Ezra, but he’d had time to feel Nolan’s cheeks burning, too, and figured he could use someone to hide behind while he gathered himself together.
“Uh,” Finn said, not quite able to meet Ezra’s eyes just yet. “You’re back.”
“Try not to sound too excited,” Ezra said wryly, folding his arms and leaning against the door frame, one foot propped up against it. “I might start to think you missed me.”
“Of course I missed you,” Finn said as he recovered enough to look at Ezra’s face, seeing the familiar dimpled grin that he really had missed.
He wasn’t as close to Ezra as he was to Oscar, but they’d had some great times together. It was good to see him.
It would have been better to see him when he wasn’t in the middle of a makeout session. The first makeout session he’d been in the middle of for a long time.
“You gonna introduce me to the new guy, or what?” Ezra asked, nodding to Nolan.
Finn glanced at Nolan, who seemed to have mostly recovered except for a faint blush coloring his cheekbones. Which was a great look on him, as it turned out.
“This is Nolan. He’s, uh…” Finn paused, unsure exactly how to explain Nolan’s presence.
“Cute,” Ezra finished for him, grinning again. “I approve. You can keep him.”
Nolan cleared his throat awkwardly, but looked up to meet Ezra’s gaze. “Thanks. I’m actually a new volunteer.”
Ezra’s eyes lit up. “Awesome. We could use the help. How do you feel about birds?”
“Never met one.” Nolan shrugged. “But I’d like to.”
“Now I really approve,” Ezra said. “Pleasure to meet you. I’ll leave you guys alone, I was just heading home myself.”
“Uh, actually,” Finn interrupted. “I could kinda use a ride. My car broke down earlier.”
“I’ll take you home,” Nolan spoke up before Ezra even had the chance to answer. Finn looked at him, surprised, and saw Ezra slipping away out of the corner of his eye.
“Yeah?” Finn scratched the back of his neck, suddenly nervous.
Nolan coughed again, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I mean, if that’s, uh… I did mean to your home, not, umm, mine, but if you maybe wanted that…”
Finn’s stomach swooped at the thought of going home with Nolan. It definitely sounded good.
And he liked Nolan, and it’d been a long time since he’d gone home with anyone. What was the point in pretending this wasn’t exactly what he wanted?
“Well… no pressure, but… I would kinda like that,” Finn admitted. His stomach was already twisting into knots, but not because he didn’t want to do this. Just because he hadn’t done it in a while.
Nolan’s whole face lit up, his soft, warm eyes glittering with excitement. The knots in Finn’s stomach eased off a little, Nolan’s eagerness contagious.
“Good,” he said, pulling his car keys out of his pocket. “Did you wanna…?”
Finn nodded, gesturing for Nolan to go ahead of him. “Lead the way.”
Nolan brushed past him, heading for the door, and Finn followed with his heart in his throat. This was one way to turn a crappy afternoon into a great evening.