Page 63 of Numbers Boy
My eyes slip shut, and I wrap my arms around his back to return his hold. And for the longest moment, we just breathe each other in. My heart thuds so strong and loud that I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear it. If he can, it would be fitting. Each beat is for him.
“So, what now?” Steve asks, lips brushing against my pulse point.
A massive grin curves my lips as I think about what comes next. Well, the next few things that come next, actually.
“Now,” I say, skimming my palms down Steve’s back until they’re cupping his perfect ass, “I see if I can wring one more orgasm out of you before we feed Stacy and take her for her morning walk. Then we meet our best friends for brunch and get started on being sickeningly in love for the rest of the foreseeable future.”
“Ooh, I like the sound of that.” Steve pulls back just enough to lock eyes with me. He opens his mouth to say something else, but his words turn into a garbled moan when I dip a finger into his crease to circle his hole.
My grin stays firmly in place as I use my hands to tell Steve where I want him to go, sliding my body down the mattress as his wiggles up. When I’m where I want to be – lying prostrate between his legs – I nip at a nearby freckle cluster and then proceed to tilt his hips up and eat him out until he cries out once more.
Hopefully, he wasn’t planning on talking too much at brunch. His poor voice needs to rest.
BOTH STU ANDBlake are already at the restaurant when Steve and I stroll in, hand in hand and matching smiles on our faces.
“So, when’s the wedding?” Stu asks playfully.
At first, Steve looks like he’s going to try and change the subject, but then he winks at me and faces his best friend before replying. “We’re eloping, actually. If we had a wedding, people would get too confused at the reception when immediately after I danced with my husband, I danced with you.”
Stu laughs and pulls Steve in for a hug, kissing his temple like he’s done it a million times before. Steve just grins at him for a second before his emerald gaze returns to me. My chest feels full to bursting at his teasing. I love that he has Stu, and I love that marriage to me is definitely on his mind. Someday, probablytoo soon for most people’s standards, I’m going to make that dream a reality.
But to my other side comes a scoff.
“Please, Noah would never do that to me,” Blake says confidently. “I’ve already told him that I get to be his best man. As his future husband, Steve, you should know that I will not be cut out of such an important day. Plus, the girls would riot even more than I ever could. And, a little friendly advice since you’re one of us now, you don’t want to be on Amy’s bad side.”
Okay, that’s fair. There’s no way I could ever celebrate finding the romantic love of my life without all my other loves there to support me. I can’t resist flipping it back on Blake a little bit though.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Blakey-poo. But if I remember correctly, we have another wedding to get through before we can worry about me and Steve.”
Blake blanches at that, and I wonder for a split second if it was the wrong move. I was hoping that making a joke over it would help ease some of the tension he’s feeling about Kyle’s upcoming nuptials, but it might be a little too fresh for that. Luckily, a beat later, he shakes his head and gets a stubborn look in his eye.
“Kyle is going to regret ever inviting me.”
“Who’s Kyle?” Stu asks, eyes pinging between me and Blake. “Do we hate him?”
“Kyle is my supposedly straight ex who’s getting married to another guy. So, yes,” Blake agrees, nodding at Stu, “we hate him.”
“Duuude.” Stu draws out the word, his dark brown eyes wide. “That has to fucking suck. And he invited you to the wedding? What a douche canoe.”
I catch Steve’s eye as our friends bond over asshole exes. He mouths, “I love you,” over his glass of water, and I swear I can feel my whole being settle.
“I love you, too.”
Just like that, I can see our future. And it looks better than I ever could have hoped for.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Steve - Epilogue
MY BREATHING ISsurprisingly steady as my heart races while I look out the window of one of the cottages that’s designated for getting ready at the place that we’ve rented for our wedding.
Our wedding.
The corners of my mouth somehow lift higher at that thought, even though I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling all weekend. Today, I get married to the love of my life.
It’s been a pretty quick engagement, barely six months since Noah and I both proposed. I shake my head as I think back to that day, hardly believing we were one ofthosecouples, the ones who both plan separate proposals without the other knowing. But then again, Noah and I have always clicked. I guess it’s not that much of a stretch that we both knew when it was right.
We had barely been dating a year when we both got it in our brains that it was time to propose. I had it planned for a drag brunch that I wasn’t performing in, and Noah was going to do it later that night at a drag show Evewasperforming in. When we asked Stu and Blake why they didn’t stop the mix-up from happening, they just laughed.
