Page 59 of Brighter Shades of Light
As he covered my body with his, claiming my lips once more, I glided my hand up and down his spine.
Every inch of him was flawless, from his gray-blue eyes down to his impeccable physique. But the real beauty came from what was beneath it all—the boy who grew up with dreams of being a Marine and the man who made it happen. He had tangled me in his web along the way, and now I couldn’t imagine going back to a life without him in it.
Cody ground his hips into me, lightly grazing his teeth up my neck. As he gripped the arm of the couch above my head, his thick bicep rested near my face. I turned my head to kiss it. Mimicking sex, he thrust forward and sucked the sensitive area below my ear.
My head spun as all my blood rushed south. I admired his strength, but his control was most impressive. He was greatly aroused but was taking his time, kissing me, touching me.
The moment was somewhat affected by the rumbling of my empty stomach.
Cody’s kisses to my throat lessened, as did his grinding. I kneaded his shoulders, trying to get us back in the moment.
When my stomach grumbled its complaint again, Cody chuckled and rested his head on my collarbone.
“Did you forget to eat again?” he asked, meeting my stare. Humor was alight in his eyes.
“Yes.” I had eaten a sausage and egg biscuit for breakfast, but I couldn’t remember if I ate anything for lunch. Most of the day was spent in my office and then in the lab for research, and once I returned home, I went straight to my study.
Cody’s weight lifted off mine, and he stood from the couch. He put his shirt back on, and disappointment trickled through me. I didn’t want him to leave.
“Is something wrong?”
“Yeah.” He arched a brow. “I can’t have you being hungry. Come on.”
He offered me a hand, and I took it before he pulled me to my feet. I was still a little light-headed and felt off balance as he led me away from the couch.
“Where are we going?”
“To your kitchen.” Cody kept hold of my hand as we walked under the archway into the kitchen. He let go and scrunched up his face, surveying the large room. “Mind if I take a look at what you have?”
“Not at all.”
I leaned against the counter and watched as he searched through the refrigerator, not expecting him to find much. My last trip to the grocery store was about a week ago, and there was very little to cook. No meat and only a few vegetables. I wasn’t sure what was in the cabinets.
“I apologize for the poor selection.”
Cody turned to me with a smile. “Nah, I got this. Just give me a few.”
After pulling the butter, zucchini, and spinach leaves from the refrigerator, he searched the cabinets, finding a box of penne noodles. My interest was piqued at what he’d do with them. I had no sauce of any kind, and I tried not to think about how dry and bland the noodles would be without it.
“We didn’t have much money growing up,” Cody said, filling a pot with water and placing it on the stove. He added salt and turned the burner on high. “Dad and I would get creative sometimes when we were short on food money. He tried to make it a fun game. Like, ‘what experiment will we do tonight, Code?’ And then we’d search the kitchen from top to bottom, pulling out everything we had.”
He had mentioned his upbringing before, but it never failed to make my chest ache. Not only the thought of him going hungry a lot as a child, but also the sad look in his eyes when he spoke of his father.
“Your father sounded like a great man.”
“The best.” Cody smiled sadly. “I think he would’ve liked you, Sebastian. Before he died, he said he wanted me to find an intelligent guy who treated me right.”
“He didn’t have an issue with your sexuality?”
“Nope. I know I was one of the lucky ones.” After rinsing off the zucchini, he grabbed a cutting board and a knife from the block. “Dad was religious and had more Christian values I think most other Christians lack. He said God made me this way, and I didn’t need to feel ashamed about it.”
“I don’t believe in God,” I said. “But if I did, I believe your father was on the right track.”
“Are all scientists atheists?” Cody asked. He chopped the zucchini before placing a skillet on the other burner. As the water in the pot started to boil, he added the noodles.
“I can’t speak for all of us, but for me, the idea of one celestial being creating the universe and everything in it is difficult to wrap my head around. If God created the universe, who created God? Science is logical and can be proven. The other? Not so much.”
“That’s why people have faith. Just because you can’t see it or prove it’s real doesn’t mean it isn’t. I’m not super religious and don’t go to church or anything, but I like to think God is real. That maybe He’s the one who set into motion the events of the Big Bang and let the universe go from there.”
