Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
The front door suddenly swings open.
Roman’s on the other end, and he nods at us.
“Yo,” he says. “Just wanted to come through and grab some more hot dog buns. Torin, you have to help me cook. Noah, you need to rest your broken wrist.”
Roman brings out a hand to rustle his fingers through Noah’s hair, and then through mine, like he’s some sort of old man calling two kids rapscallions.
“That’s it?” Noah says. “I’m finally in a relationship and you’re talking about grilling?”
Roman winks at Noah, and I see a tiny smile on the corner of his mouth. “I knew you two were going to end up together since the first day Torin walked into this house. This is just inevitable, really.”
Noah looks like he just saw a ghost.
I slide my hand over my hair, confused.
“But you acted like some sort of territorial bear when it came to Noah. I was ready to fight you if you tried to take him from me—”
Roman breaks out into a loud, sonorous laugh. “Take him from you? I was just ready to knock you cold if you ever hurt him. And that still stands now, Torin. Hurt him, and you’re going to get fucked up. Understand me?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Meet me at the grill,” Roman says, heading to the kitchen.
When Noah and I walk outside, multiple people give us high-fives. Most people down here are at various levels of drunkenness already, and people seem to have loved my impromptu declaration.
As we’re waiting beside the grill, Noah nods at me.
“You were afraid Roman liked me?”
“He does like you,” I tell him. “Maybe just… in a more brotherly way than I realized.”
“And how would you describe how you like me?”
I hook my finger through one of his belt loops. “Not like a brother at all.”
I tug him closer toward me.
“Very different from that,” he murmurs.
“I like you because you’re mine.”
I kiss him again and it feels like a small miracle doing it out here, in plain view of everyone.
I get to have you.
Anytime I want.
And nothing has ever felt more like freedom in my life.
Epilogue
NOAH, ONE MONTH LATER
“Brutal. Absolutely brutal,” I tell Torin as he grabs my hand.
I just walked out of my final exam for my Ancient Civilizations class. The past few days have been full of studying, which Torin took it upon himself to make… interesting.
As in, every time I recited something from the flash cards correctly, he’d stroke my cock.
Every time I got one wrong, he’d pull his hand away, edging me into oblivion.
It was one of the most distracting study sessions I’ve ever had, but by the end I came so hard I shot white streaks all the way up onto the wall behind me, and I managed to memorize every single one of the flash cards in the process.
“Brutal, but you fucking rocked it, because you’re a genius?” Torin says.
“We’ll see. I think I did okay.”
He leans in and covers my face in a million tiny kisses, then we start walking off in the quad.
This summer has been intense.
In all of the bad ways, and then all of the good ones, too.
But one thing I haven’t been prepared for at all is that Torin’s time at Crimson College is coming to an end.
I’ve sort of been dreading this week, like a looming thundercloud in the distance that I didn’t want to acknowledge. Torin and I both have another year left of college, and his school is an hour away.
It’s not that far, in the grand scheme of things, but I worry.
Any amount of distance could remind him what it’s like to be alone, and Torin has always been at his best when he’s alone.
“You ready for tomorrow?” he asks.
“Not really. I feel like your mom is going to somehow know, the moment we walk in.”
He squeezes my hand. “They’re going to have to find out at some point.”
“That doesn’t mean I want to arrive at the summer house with our tongues in each other’s mouths.”
“Mmm. I do,” he says, leaning over to kiss the edge of my mouth. “Kidding, kidding.”
Tomorrow is the first day of a week at the Vancliff summer estate, and I’m nowhere near prepared.
“I just want this week to go well.”
“When do you actually want to tell them?” Torin asks. “Because I’ll get on the roof of that goddamn castle just as quickly as I did Onyx House.”
I snort. “It’s not a castle. Just… a stone building. A big one.”
“A stone manor.”
“And I’m happy you’re going to be there with me,” I tell him, my heart squeezing in my chest. “Fuck, I’m going to miss you.”
He pauses underneath a tall oak, and I see a twinkle in his eye.
“Okay, I’m just going to tell you now. I was going to wait until later tonight, but I can’t stand seeing you sad, so…”