Page 69 of Ethan

Ethan tipped his head up, almost like he already knew, and maybe he did.

Maybe that was inevitable, too.

“Done what?” Ethan asked.

Hank stopped right in front of him, leaned down, and right before he covered Ethan’s mouth with his own, said, “This.”

It wasn’t a perfect pastel fairy tale, that was for fucking sure, but it wasn’t nothing, either. Not when Ethan gasped a little against his lips.

It wasn’t easy, but Hank tried to give them both a second to acclimate to the idea.

Not that he really needed it—he’d been wanting to kiss Ethan long before he’d actually come to terms with it—but he could give Ethan that.

But Ethan wrapped a warm hand around Hank’s neck and dragged him in closer, mouth opening under Hank’s, and it was Hank’s turn to gasp.

He’d worried, more than once, if it wouldn’t be as good as he’d imagined. But reality blew every fantasy right out of the water. Ethan’s mouth was soft and earnest, and so,soeager. It wasn’t quite like kissing a girl—Ethan’s mouth was rough around the edges with his baby version of stubble—but even if it wasn’t the same, that didn’t make it bad. Helikedit. Liked that holding back wasn’t even on his radar. Hank could lean in and nip and nibble at Ethan’s lips.

Groaned in the back of his throat as Ethan’s mouth opened against his and the kiss deepened.

It felt so good Hank knew just how easily he could get carried away. Pin Ethan to this couch in his brother’s apartment and let the heat flaring between them take over.

But he shouldn’t. Hewouldn’t.

Still, pulling back was harder than Hank imagined. Not even because Ethan had one hand wrapped around his neck, and now the other curling possessively around his waist. Not even because Ethan was making these delectably desperate noises in the back of his throat.

It would be so fucking easy to chase after the next one. And the next. And the next, after that. The most slippery slope in the entire world, and Hank wanted to let gravity take him right down it, take the decisions and the power right out of his hands.

It wasthatthought, ironically, that gave Hank the final push to pull back.

Ethan’s eyes fluttered open, dazed and hot against Hank’s face. The clear blue of them almost swallowed entirely by pupil.

He flicked out his pink tongue, licking his bottom lip, like he wanted to keep tasting Hank there.

Shit.

Ethan didn’t let go of him either, and Hank found himself leaning farther in, knees bumping onto the edge of the couch before they found purchase there. It was weird, kind of, to be in Ethan’s lap, when he was the bigger of them. But Ethan stroked a hand up and down his back, reassuring and warm, and what they should or shouldn’t be doing fluttered away, a thought too fleeting to catch.

Ethan’s voice was low and deliciously rough when he finally spoke. “Were you going to do that tonight?”

There’d been a part of Hank that kept resisting the idea that their dinner tonight was supposed to be a date. That at the end of the night, he would walk Ethan to his door and then press him against it, just like he was pressing Ethan into the couch cushions now.

But the feel of Ethan’s mouth on his mouth had blown away the last of the lies he’d been telling himself.

“Yeah,” Hank said and couldn’t help himself. He leaned in and kissed Ethan again. Gentle but insistent.

Ethan’s head hit the back of the couch, but that hand on Hank’s neck pulled him right along with him, and for the first time, he felt the hard ridge of Ethan’s cock, clearly just as into this as Hank’s.

Nothing about that freaked him out. Instead, the very undeniable fact of it made Hank kiss him again. And again. One sliding into the next. Not thinking, just feeling.

Ethan panted into his mouth, Hank’s hands burying into his curls, and sure enough, they were as soft as he’d imagined. He was obsessed with how pliant Ethan went, hot and soft under him, and Hank’s eagerness flared deep and real. Irrefutable.

Under him, Ethan arched, and pleasure spiked. It wasn’t fancy or sophisticated or like anything he’d let himself picture in that hazy fairy-tale future, whenever he’d allowed the thoughts of sex with Ethan to crowd in.

This definitely felt like something they’d stumbled into, without really even intending to, carried away by the addictive intensity of their kisses.

Hank hesitated, wondering if he should stop them, if he should say something, but then Ethan gasped out, “God,please,” and Hank would do just about anything to make him sound like that again.

Grinding down onto Ethan’s lap, he swallowed the next sound and the next, their mouths moving together hot and wild. Slick and messy.