Page 71 of Sapphire Spring

“Deal.”

Still under the covers, Naser took his time wriggling acrossMason’s body, an act that involved him gripping and caressing Mason’s thighs inways that caused a hungry stirring in his balls. Once he’d reached hisdestination, Naser picked up Mason’s phone and gave him a questioning look.

“Go ahead. I’m sure you remember the code.”

Naser bit his bottom lip, tapped the code in, and startedswiping through Mason’s playlists. A few seconds later, he looked up at Masonagain, his brow furrowed. “You have a prom playlist?”

“I loved prom. You know, except for the part where…”

The heavy memory settled over them both.

Kiss from a Rosehad been the theme,the décora sparkling enchanted garden that had filled an entire ballroom at theDisneyland Hotel. In the weeks leading up to the dance, all three of them hadpissed offthe closest thing they had to regulargirlfriends, so the three golden boys of Laguna Mesa had decided to go stag,with plans to get wasted and hit up a strip club after. They’d gotten a jump onthe getting wasted part thanks to Chadwick’s flask.

Mason hadn’t expected Naser to show, but he looked for himanyway and soon spotted him in similar circumstances. Dateless, the third wheelto his math club buddy Kenny Yang and Kenny’s girlfriend, Jessie, both of whomhad been accepted early to Harvard. He’d been checking the time on his phone sooften, Mason wondered if his family had forced him to attend the dance for atleast an hour and he was counting down the minutes until he could jet.

Then Naser had gotten up to leave, and Mason, emboldened byseveral swallows ofStoliand the fact that hisbuddies were already too buzzed to know what he was doing, gathered the courageto follow Naser out—alone.

“You followed me out. You never used to come for me alone.What were you after?”

“I wasn’t coming for you, but I…” Mason’s hungry smilefilled the awkward silence.

Naser cocked his head to one side, still holding Mason’sphone in his hands. “You werenotactually going to try to hook upwith me at prom.”

“I was open to all possibilities.”

“You were wasted. I saw the flask.”

“We were about to graduate. I didn’t know if I’d ever seeyou again. Freedom was on the horizon. I don’t know. Everything seemedpossible.”

“Also, you were wasted.”

“True. But you sure as hell shut me down.”

Naser averted his eyes, looking sheepish and chastened. Onprom night he’d done anything but. As soon as Mason had called out the words,“Hey,Nas,” Naser had whirled, jaw tense, eyesblazing from a blend of anger and fear set to boil by the sound of Mason’svoice. And Mason realized immediately the injuries they’d inflicted upon theguy couldn’t be healed in a moment, not with a single kiss, or even several.That he’d been an idiot to think the heady mix of booze, sparkling décor, and theirimminent graduation could offer up a special moment on par with the love songsbeing played in the ballroom they’d both left.

“I can’t even remember what I said,” Naser muttered.

“I do. You said,Gofuckyourself, MasonWorther.”

Naser flinched. “Sorry. But you can’t blame me for thinkingit was going to besome kind of CarrieWhite pig’sblood situation.”

“I can’t, and you don’t need to apologize.” Mason caressedthe side of Naser’s face with his knuckles. “But that’s not what it would havebeen.”

“What would it have been?”

“I don’t know, but for a moment, I was willing to find out.”

Naser looked to the screen of Mason’s phone. “Just for amoment, though. So, it’s probably better we didn’t do anything if it was justgoing to be…you know, a moment.”

Mason could feel it in his gut—Naser wasn’t talking aboutthe past, he was talking about the present.

“Yeah,” Mason said. “Soit’s a goodthing we waited until it could be more than that.”

Naser’s eyes flashed to his—desire and expectation, withoutany of the reserve or hesitations of the day before, the years before.

“Are you asking me to go steady, Mason?”

“Something like that, I guess.”

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