Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 51803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“I didn’t want to crowd you. I thought you wanted me to let you off the hook -- like it was a one-time-only deal,” Valenti explained.
“Why’d you keep sayin’ it was gonna change us? Like it was the worst thing in the world, or somethin’?” O’Brian was obviously still upset.
“Well, it did, didn’t it? Look at us.” Valenti gestured between them with one hand. “We didn’t used to act this way, kissing each other, holding hands ...” His voice trailed off, and he could feel a blush creeping up his cheeks.
“You sayin’ you don’t like it?” O’Brian asked quietly. “Us feelin’ this way about each other, I mean?”
“Yes ... no ... I don’t know.” Valenti collapsed wearily onto the couch and put his head in his hands. “I don’t like the way it made me treat you, Sean,” he said at last. “The way it made me act toward you. What I did to you ...’Brian threw up his hands in disgust. “Not this again. Look, Nicky, how many times do I have to tell you? I liked it, too! I wanted it -- wanted you. So what if you got a little rough at the end? I’d been drivin’ you nuts by every possible means for the past two days and nights. I tell you what.” His voice dropped, and he leaned down to get a good look in Valenti’s anguished eyes. “If Conrad hadn’t put us in that damn glass box, I was gonna try and get you to do it that night anyway.”
“Really?” Valenti felt a little shocked. He had seen O’Brian when he was in pursuit of a woman he liked and knew how single-minded his partner could be, but he had never expected to have that possessive determination turned on himself. “You mean ...” He cleared his throat and sat up a little. “You mean, you were going to try to get me to ... to do you?”
“To fuck me, yes,” O’Brian said shortly. “Don’t get me wrong, babe, I was willing to go the other way, too, but you seemed like you’d be more open to bein’ the one on top, so to speak.” He shrugged. “Didn’t really matter to me so long as we ended up together in the end. So ...” He looked anxiously at his partner. “How do you ... you know, feel about all this?”
“Give me a minute. Just ...” Valenti shook his head. He didn’t know quite how to feel. Angry that O’Brian had been manipulating him. Flattered that his partner wanted him so much. Disgusted at himself for selling them both short ... The list just went on and on. O’Brian was giving him time to think, but it was obviously hard on the man, who was sitting on the couch beside him, fidgeting like a kid who had to pee. Finally, O’Brian burst out, “Well?”
Valenti looked at his partner’s anxious, beautiful face and wanted to smile. Wanted to, but didn’t quite. “I don’t know, partner,” he said at last. “I can’t tell you how I feel because I still don’t know where we stand. What does this make us? Do we try to go back to being just friends? Because I don’t think I can do that.”
“No, we’re a lot more than that now.” O’Brian’s expression softened. “I think we’ve been more than just friends for a long time, only we didn’t know it.”
“Yeah.” Valenti allowed himself a tiny smile. “You’re right about that, but that still doesn’t give me any idea what we’re doing here, Sean. Are we lovers? Or just fuck buddies? Are we exclusive?” He shook his head. “See what I mean? It’s pretty complicated.”
“No, it’s not,” O’Brian countered fiercely, leaning forward to make his point. “You belong to me, and I belong to you. What could be simpler than that? Nick, if I can have you, I don’t want or need anything or anybody else in the world. Call it whatever you want. Just say yes.”
He looked so nervous and sincere that Valenti grinned at him openly. “Sounds like you’re asking me to marry you or something,” he said. “Where’s the ring?”
“I’m not joking around here, Nicky,” O’Brian said earnestly. “Look, what we’ve got between us, well, it’s a lot better than any marriage I ever heard of. What we’ve been though together, the way we’ve been there for each other ... We have a true partnership, a true love, and if that sounds stupid and romantic, then I don’t care.” He leaned forward and kissed Valenti on the lips, gently at first, as if he wasn’t quite sure of his reception.
Valenti sighed and leaned into the kiss, parting his lips to welcome his partner’s tongue, feeling like he was melting from the waist down. What was it about this man whom he had known for so long and so well that could move him so much? Blood throbbed in his cock, making him feel that burning need, the urge to possess O’Brian completely. To be possessed by him, as well, Valenti realized.