Page 53 of Yard Sale

“I’m not putting you on the couch,” I told him swiftly.

“It’s not a big deal. I was probably going to sleep out here anyway since⁠—”

“Aravind.”

His silence was heavy again, and this time, I couldn’t take it.

“Am I saying it wrong?”

“What?” He took a step closer to me, and I lost most of his face, though I focused on the contrast between his skin and his sweater right by his collarbone, so I knew where he was.

“Your name. You always get all…quiet and weird when I say it. If I’m fucking it up, you can just tell me.”

“No. God, I—” He was suddenly all in my space, sliding his flat palms up my chest until he had them on either side of my neck. His fingers drew gentle lines there, and I felt like melting into him. “You don’t say it wrong.”

“I don’t understand. Why does it upset you?”

“It doesn’t.” He bowed his head, forehead tapping against my collarbone. “You say it. My whole name. You don’t get weird and try to give me a nickname. You never have.”

I cleared my throat. “You told me only your friends call you Ara.”

“Yes…?”

“Then you said, so you can call me Aravind.”

He froze, then suddenly burst into a long, loud peal of laughter. “Oh my fucking god, I forgot I said that. I was such an asshole.”

My hands curled around his waist. It didn’t have any curves to it, but he was so slender. “You were, kind of. Yeah.”

“You can call me Ara if you want, but I really like when you say my name. People always take the easy way out, but you learned to say it properly.”

I hummed, then tipped my head down as he lifted his chin, and our foreheads knocked together. “It’s not difficult. I’ve heard a lot worse. I mean, these Finnish guys…”

He laughed. “Yeah. But people get weird when your name isn’t Anglican and your skin is brown.”

I had no idea what to say to that, and I knew it probably wasn’t my place. “I like your name.”

“I like yours. And you. I like you. I really want to kiss you.”

I didn’t make him wait for it. I didn’t make him ask for it again. I’d wanted to kiss him since we were at the house, and now there was nothing to stop me. Taking him by the back of the neck, I tilted his head back, then laid my lips over his.

He didn’t let me keep control for long. His tongue touched mine with powerful sweeps as he tasted every inch of my mouth, the piercing clicking against my teeth, and he backed me up until I hit the wall, and then he slotted his thigh between mine.

“Let’s fuck.”

I choked a bit on my tongue. “Um.”

“Unless you don’t want to.”

“No. I very much want to.” More than anything. “And you won’t have to gag me this time.”

“Mm. Have to, no. Want to…” He let that sentence hang for a moment. “I think I’d like your noises tonight, but I’m not making any promises for the rest of this week.”

I shuddered, then coasted a hand down his back before pushing the tips of my fingers behind the waistband of his leggings. I felt something lacy beneath them.

“You’ll like those too. They’re red.”

I could picture them in my head as I stroked a touch over his ass, and then I pulled my hand away. “Condoms?”