LEO was in the kitchen when Cole came in, determination burning bright within him. Niamh took one look at him and made her escape through the open kitchen window without so much as a by-your-leave, and Leo turned a curious look on Cole. He opened his mouth as though to ask a question, but Cole didn’t give him the chance.
“Do you ever miss dancing?”
Leo blinked, and his mouth worked soundlessly for a moment, and his cheeks pinked. “I… yeah, I do.”
“Good.” Wait, maybe Cole’s enthusiasm was getting away with him. He didn’t want Leo to think he was happy Leo was miserable. “Come out with me tonight.”
The lovely pink flush deepened and spread to Leo’s ears and neck. “Tonight? I thought… don’t you have dinners with your gran on Fridays?”
It was sweet that he remembered, but Cole didn’t want to think about Gran right now. “Not this week.” Despite Leo’s lack of answer, his determination didn’t wane. He didn’t know what cards Kate would have read for him, and he didn’t have her gift. But he was standing on the cusp of something tonight. They both were. “Come on,” he said again. “What do you say?”
He didn’t worry that the curse would prevent Leo from accepting. It had loosened enough; Cole could see it, could practically taste it. And when Leo ducked his head and smiled, quiet and almost bashful, before raising his head again and meeting Cole’s eyes, Cole knew.
Leo said, “All right.”
THROUGH some happy accident or miracle of foresight, Leo had actually picked up one of the polo shirts he typically wore clubbing when he’d swung by his apartment weeks ago. The thin material fit him like a second skin, and the color matched his eyes, not that most of his pickups would’ve noticed on the dance floor. When he put it on after a quick shower, his stomach tightened in anticipation.
Maybe tonight, finally. Cole had asked him to go dancing, and he’d said yes. Maybe the curse was breaking.
Cole must have been getting dressed in his bedroom, because he wasn’t downstairs when Leo finished in the bathroom. Niamh was, though, flitting from chair back to chair back in the kitchen, squawking when she saw Leo. “Well. You clean up nice.”
“Thanks.” Leo fought the urge to fidget. “You wouldn’t happen to know if this is… I mean. Would it be okay with you if I… if Cole….”
Niamh crowed a laugh. “Sweetheart, if I had any objections to you dating my witch, I’d have run you off long before now.”
Leo flushed.
Before he could say anything, footsteps on the hardwood alerted him to Cole’s presence, and he turned around. Cole had put on dark-wash jeans and a touchably soft green T-shirt that bore an avocado and the slogan Rock Out With Your Guac Out. The peaks of his nipples refused to play second banana to the ridiculous slogan, which would have been distracting enough on its own. Cole himself looked sheepish, though: he gave Leo a once-over, and his ears and neck went red, and he stuffed his hands in his back pockets. Please don’t draw more attention to your chest, Leo thought wildly. “Wow,” Cole said. “Maybe I should change.”
Four months ago Leo might not have given Cole a second look. Now Leo needed him to understand Leo liked this version of him, with the silly T-shirts and the bad jokes and the heart of gold. “Don’t you dare.”
They both blushed until Niamh scolded them that their cab had arrived.
The town boasted exactly one gay bar, which reflected well on it, considering it didn’t even have a Starbucks. Not much reflected well on the bar, however, largely because it was too dirty to reflect anything.
Cole paid the driver and their cover, and they went inside.
Zippers took advantage of the lack of competition to boast sticky floors, an ambiance that reeked of cheap beer and too much cologne, and the sort of plastic chairs Leo remembered from high school classrooms. At least that would make cleanup easier, he supposed, if cleanup was in fact a thing that occurred at Zippers. But the bar took up one entire long wall, drinks cost half what they did in the city, and the DJ kept the dance floor packed with opportunities.
Leo loved this place.
“I’m gonna hit the bar,” Cole said, leaning close so Leo could hear him over the throbbing bass. “You want something?”
Leo wanted something, all right, but Zippers didn’t have it on tap. “Let me get it this time. Are you actually drinking?”
“I’ll take their sweetest cocktail,” Cole said, grinning.
Leo glanced around, but considering the volume, no one would overhear. “Not worried about mixing magic and booze?”
Someone bumped Cole from behind, knocking him into Leo’s chest, but it didn’t faze him. If anything, when he looked up at Leo with a hand between his pecs for balance, he positively smoldered. “Not tonight.”
It took Leo a handful of heartbeats to remember that he was supposed to be doing something. “Sweet drinks,” he said, turning toward the bar. “Coming right up.”
Cole smiled and disappeared onto the dance floor.
Like the last few times he’d been here, Leo had the slight handicap of being unable to flirt with the bartender. Fortunately Tanya was an old friend, or as old as it got for Leo in these parts, and she didn’t much appreciate male company anyway.
“Well, well, well. The cat came back.”
“I just couldn’t stay away.” Leo dug his wallet out of his pocket. “I need your sweetest cocktail, please. And my usual.”
Tanya raised an eyebrow as she snagged the grenadine. “Two drinks, huh? You back on the horse?”
Now there’s a choice of words. “We’ll see how tonight goes,” he hedged, not wanting to jinx it, and slid a twenty across the bar. “Thanks, Tanya.”
“Go get ’im, tiger.”
Leo took the drinks and went to look for Cole.
It was early still, and the club was only at half capacity. Leo found Cole dancing in a small group near the edge of the dance floor and sidled up behind him.
“Brought you something,” he said, leaning close to Cole’s ear.
Cole tilted his head back, and suddenly their bodies pressed together from shoulder to hip. He smiled, slow and lazy, and took the drink—easy to spot, since Leo was drinking gin and tonic and Cole’s was bright purple. The group fell away, and Cole swayed against Leo to the beat of the music vibrating through the sticky floorboards.
“Is it just like you remembered?” Cole asked, head still tilted so Leo could see his face.
He took a chance with the curse and moved his empty hand to Cole’s hip. “No,” he said honestly, then leaned the side of his face against Cole’s so he wouldn’t have to look when he added, “It’s better.”
Leo felt Cole smile against his cheek, and then he covered Leo’s hand with his and moved it low over his stomach.
For a handful of heartbeats, the blood rushing in Leo’s ears drowned out the beat of the music. All he could do was let Cole guide his body until the sense returned.
Even when it did, though, Leo followed Cole’s lead. They finished their drinks and discarded the glasses on the nearest table. Then Cole pulled him deeper into the thickening crowd of writhing dancers.
Other bodies moved against Leo’s now, but his attention never strayed from Cole: the heat of his body under Leo’s hands, the scent of his witchy soap and clean sweat, the sweet confidence with which he looked at Leo, inviting him closer. The sweep of his eyelashes. The red-purple stain of his mouth.
The beat changed and Cole turned, slotting one of his thighs between Leo’s and draping his arms around Leo’s neck. Leo slid his hands into Cole’s back pockets, peripherally appreciating the firm, round curves, but Cole’s eyes held him captive now, full of desire and promise. Leo thought the curse must be broken. The curse was broken and he’d fallen under a new enchantment, only this time magic had nothing to do with it.
Leo leaned down so their foreheads touched, and Cole drew him closer still. Another breath and their lips would brush. Leo held his breath in anticipation. Any moment now—
“Leo? Is that you? Holy shit, it is!”
Damn it.
Cole gave him a forgiving look as Leo raised his head. “Eric. Anton. Long time no see.”
Cole slid his hands down Leo’s arms, squeezed his hands, and excused himself to the restroom.
“I thought you didn’t like us anymore,” Eric said, looking pointedly after Cole. “But I see that’s not the case.”
“You’ve just found someone else you like better,” Anton finished shrewdly. “No wonder we haven’t seen you here. I bet he never lets you leave the house!”
Leo opened his mouth, ready to defend Cole, who wasn’t the jealous type, but Eric snorted.
“He never lets Leo leave?” he scoffed. “I saw how they were looking at each other. If they never leave the house, it’s because they can’t keep their pants on long enough. He looked like he wanted to devour you right there on the dance floor.”
I wanted him to. Leo gave them a strained smile and didn’t bother correcting their assumptions. “It’s good to see you guys. Maybe I can introduce you to Cole later?”
Anton and Eric exchanged glances. “Later?”
Leo couldn’t possibly get any warmer than he’d felt pressed against Cole on the dance floor, but he managed to flush anyway. “I don’t think we’re going to be sticking around much longer.”
Eric hooted with laughter, but Anton simply indicated over Leo’s shoulder; Cole had just emerged from the restroom. “Good for you,” he said, grinning as he shoved Eric into the writhing crowd. “Maybe we’ll see you around.”
LEO’S friends had gone by the time Cole returned from the bathroom. Excellent. Not that Cole would’ve minded meeting them, under different circumstances. But tonight he had other plans.
“Hey,” Leo said as Cole got closer, encircling his waist with both arms. His body was firm under Cole’s touch, but his eyes, his voice, the curve of his mouth were so, so soft.
Cole couldn’t wait anymore. “Shut up,” he murmured, raising his hands to Leo’s face. His skin was soft too, under Cole’s palms; he must have shaved after his shower. Leo didn’t move, barely breathed except to lower his eyelids.
Cole closed his too and kissed him.
At the first touch of their lips something fell into place. Leo tightened his hands on Cole’s waist and opened his mouth with a sound Cole couldn’t hear over the music in the club but felt down to his toes. A heartbeat later Cole traced his tongue over Leo’s bottom lip and into his mouth and moved his hands back, threading them into Leo’s hair, a tangle of warm, fine silk.
The lines of the curse flared green, the frayed length of it tightening, brittle. And then Leo sighed against him and it disintegrated and Cole felt that too, tilting his head deeper into the kiss as Leo slid his hands down his back.
When the kiss broke, Leo was watching him with wide, hungry eyes. “Cole.”
He shivered as the word went through him. “Let’s go home.”
It was early enough they didn’t have trouble getting a cab. But they didn’t touch in the back seat apart from the fervent clench of their hands together on the cracking vinyl. The car had barely stopped outside Cole’s house when Leo passed the driver a twenty and pulled Cole out after him.
They kissed when the front door closed behind them, with Leo the aggressor and Cole happily plastered against the wood. They kissed on the stairs up to the bedroom, knocking pictures askew as they tore at each other’s clothes. At the landing, Cole’s jeans tangled around his feet and he stumbled to his knees, and he and Leo dissolved into giggles. If the universe was trying to keep them apart, it would have to do better than that.
“Should’ve taken our shoes off downstairs,” Leo said, bending to try to undo his laces but hobbled by his own denim. “This is bad house-manners karma.”
Meanwhile Cole, kneeling, had worked his feet free and kicked his jeans off. “I forgive you,” he said, swatting Leo’s hands away from his shoes. Cole could do it faster—he dug his fingers into the laces and tugged until they loosened, Leo balancing with his hands on Cole’s shoulders. He toed off his shoes and Cole looked up, questioning.
When Leo nodded, Cole curled his hands into Leo’s waistband and pulled his jeans down.
That left Leo standing in formfitting black boxer briefs, his cock straining at the fabric. For a moment Cole forgot himself and stared, taking in the fine red-gold hair that led down from Leo’s navel and clung to the tops of his thighs. Cole cupped the backs of Leo’s ankles, intending to run his hands up slowly, take his time—but Leo slid his hands into Cole’s hair instead and pulled him to his feet.
“You’re killing me,” he murmured, shoving Cole toward the bed. “I need to touch you too.”
Cole landed on his back on the bed, legs splayed. “That seems fair,” he agreed, reaching out his arms in invitation. “Where do you want to start?”
Only, instead of jumping on the bed like Cole expected, Leo stood rooted to the spot, expression nakedly hungry yet somehow apprehensive. What was going on in his head? “Leo?”
But the moment broke, and Leo shook his head. “I have no idea,” he admitted quietly.
Oh. Well, Cole could help with that. “I have a couple ideas if you’re open to suggestions.” He waggled his eyebrows and patted the bed beside him. “But you’re going to have to come a little closer first.”
Leo climbed onto the other side of the bed. Before he could overthink it further, Cole kissed him, curling his body into Leo’s so that their knees brushed, cupping the side of his face. Leo hummed into the kiss and the tension melted out of him, his hand going to Cole’s waist, then his hip. Cole trailed his fingertips down Leo’s throat to his chest, chasing goose bumps. He could have gotten lost in the valley between Leo’s pectorals. Leo had better muscle definition than Cole, but also better than anyone Cole had ever met. With anyone else he might have been self-conscious, but he already knew how Leo felt about him, so self-consciousness seemed self-defeating. Leo correctly thought Cole was awesome.
And Cole was going to prove it, hopefully with sex.
“See,” he gasped as Leo slid his hand under the waistband of Cole’s boxers. “You didn’t need my help after all.”
Leo laughed through his nose, then shifted his weight and pulled until Cole was lying on top of him, braced over his shoulders, their groins aligned so Cole could feel Leo’s dick hard next to his own. “I might need a little help,” he said, both hands on the bare skin of Cole’s ass now. Cole groaned, grinding down. “Don’t think I can get these off without your cooperation.”
“Oh, I’ll cooperate in getting off.” Cole planted his elbows on the bed and rose to all fours. “Don’t worry about that.”
This time Leo’s laugh turned into a moan as Cole sucked kisses down his jawline toward his neck. “Oh, so now you’re putting words in my mouth.”
Cole grinned against his clavicle, then bit lightly, testing. Well, Leo had dated a vampire; it was an educated guess. Leo shivered pleasantly. “Really. You’re gonna give me an opening like that?”
“That’s not the only opening I’ll give you,” Leo promised, only it turned into a yelp when Cole bit his nipple, almost accidentally, in surprise at the blatant invitation. “God, do that again.”
“Sorry, busy now,” Cole murmured against his sternum, mouthing his way south. He slid his hands down Leo’s chest to pluck at his nipples, though; he wasn’t heartless. Another day he’d take his time and explore properly. But tonight—well, they’d waited long enough.
Leo’s stomach twitched under Cole’s lips when Cole reached his navel, and he nipped instead, then sat back to run his hands up Leo’s thighs. “Hey, question: Should I use a condom to suck your dick?”
Leo groaned and his hips jerked under Cole’s hands. “I work in a hospital. I had a panel done last week. All negative. The paper’s in my jeans pocket if you want.”
“Presumptuous!” Cole exclaimed, delighted. Those boxer briefs had taunted him long enough.
“Hopeful,” Leo corrected, lifting his hips so Cole could finally, finally clap eyes and hands and mouth on all of him. Leo’s dick was as beautiful as the rest of him, thick and hard, wet at the tip. “It’s been a long time—”
He cut off on a high-pitched syllable as Cole took him in his mouth. He tasted as good as he looked, and he held completely still as Cole devoured him, pushing himself as far as he could go, until the head of Leo’s cock bumped the back of his throat. Then farther.
“Oh God,” Leo groaned, his thighs splaying open.
Cole ran his hands up the insides of his legs, caressing, and Leo opened more. Damn it, he should’ve grabbed the lube. He pulled back, licking his lips, teasing his thumbs along the crease of Leo’s groin. “Can you reach the drawer?”
Leo’s chest hitched with his breath as he reached over his head and slid the drawer open. He pulled out a brand-new bottle of lube and an unopened box of condoms. “Guess I’m not the only one who was presumptuous.”
“Hopeful,” Cole teased, biting lightly at the inside of Leo’s thigh as Leo dropped the lube near his hip. “Maybe determined.”
“Horny,” Leo said as Cole put his lips back on his dick, reaching for the lube.
“Now who’s putting words in whose mouth?” Cole murmured against the base of Leo’s shaft.
Leo threaded his fingers into Cole’s hair. “Trust me, words are not what I want to put in your mouth.”
Cole licked the head of his cock, slow and showy. “What’s stopping you?”
Nothing, now: he pushed Cole’s head down. Cole went, humming in satisfaction, keeping his mouth just slightly too soft to satisfy. He trailed his left hand over Leo’s thigh, cradled his balls. With his right, he opened the lube—thoughtfully unsealed before they’d left the house—and wet his fingers.
Leo’s dick leaked steadily, his hand a welcome weight on the back of Cole’s neck. And when Cole teased a finger between his cheeks and slid it across his hole, he made a keening sound Cole would be jerking off to for the rest of his life. His own cock throbbed in sympathy.
Leo let go of Cole’s hair when Cole slid a finger inside him, instead fisting his hands in Cole’s sheets, his biceps straining, legs flexing. Cole let his cock fall from his lips so he could concentrate on the whole of him, splayed out as a feast for Cole’s senses: Cole could have devoured him with his eyes, or his hands, or his mouth, but the soft whines spilling from Leo’s lips were just as delicious, and he smelled—sweet but earthy, like a garden in a rainstorm.
“Cole,” Leo moaned, and Cole suddenly realized he had three fingers curled against Leo’s prostate and had been massaging it, wringing out each beautiful sound. “Are you going to fuck me sometime this year? Because it has been a long four months, and I don’t know if I can last four more.”
Right. Cole carefully withdrew his fingers, relishing the quiet shudder of Leo’s body. He pressed a kiss to the inside of Leo’s thigh and lifted his head to search for the condoms, only to find Leo had one waiting.
“So it’s like that,” Cole said, but when he reached out to take it, Leo bent his knee and nudged Cole closer so he could do it himself. The first touch of Leo’s hand on him had him biting his lip to hold in a gasp; Leo’s grip was warm and knowing and firm. He stroked Cole root to tip, root to tip, then smeared the fluid at the head before rolling the condom down his length.
Leo arched an eyebrow. “No smartass remarks now?”
“Gnnh,” Cole agreed. “On your back?”
Leo nodded frantically, and Cole grabbed the pillow from his side of the bed and shoved it under Leo’s raised hips. “Good?”
“Could be better,” he said breathily, and wrapped his leg around Cole’s hip, digging his heel into his ass.
Cole didn’t—couldn’t—argue. He knee-walked closer, leaned down, braced himself on one arm. And then he pushed in.
Heat overcame him, bleeding from his cock to his balls to the small of his back, settling in his gut. Cole squeezed his eyes shut, struggling for control. Leo’s body held him just right, from the clench of his ass to the cradle of his thighs to the hands that had come up to card through his hair again, and Leo arced into him, straining for more, and any tenuous grasp of self-possession Cole might have had fled.
He snapped his hips, lowering his head until their faces touched. Right away Leo tilted his head back so his breath filled Cole’s ear, and Cole shivered. His hips snapped again of their own accord, drawing a punched-out cry from Leo. Then Leo pulled Cole’s mouth to his in a wet kiss that made the hair on the back of Cole’s neck stand up.
“Yeah,” Leo murmured into Cole’s mouth, the whisper lingering on Cole’s skin. He cupped the hinge of Cole’s jaw, thumb brushing Cole’s ear.
Yeah, Cole agreed, and fell apart, thrusting wildly as Leo cried out beneath him, sliding his other hand down to dig his nails into the flesh over Cole’s hips.
“Yeah,” Leo said again, raising his hips to meet Cole, urging him on. Cole couldn’t lift his head, too overcome, but he shifted his weight to his left arm and slid his right between them, encircling Leo’s cock. “Cole—Cole, fuck,” and wetness spilled over Cole’s fist, and Leo clenched, and his nails dug into Cole’s back hard, and Cole came, biting his lip to keep his words from spilling out.
When he could breathe enough to move without fainting, Cole pulled out and rolled carefully onto his side, keeping his legs close to Leo’s, not wanting to lose the contact.
Leo let go of Cole’s waist, but not his face, just holding him as they breathed in the intimate quiet. Their noses touched. Cole ached with it, with how much he felt for Leo and how much Leo must feel for him. He had wanted this his whole life; having it felt almost unreal.
Leo kissed him again, slow, without agenda. Cole melted into it, wondering at the etiquette: Was it rude to try to pull Leo closer when his available hand was covered in… Leo?
It turned out he didn’t have to decide; a second later Leo shivered, and not in the pleasant way, and drew away from the kiss. “I would love to stay like this all night, but, uh, this is getting cold.” He gestured.
“You look like a really muscular overfrosted donut,” Cole observed before he could stop himself.
“Well, there’s something I’ll never eat again.” Leo made a teasing face. “Let me go clean up.”
Cole wanted to tell him no, to keep him in his bed and get a washcloth and a towel for him, but realistically, no washcloth was going to cut it. On impulse, he kissed Leo’s nose. “All right, but hurry back.”
The shower started in the bathroom, and Cole took a few seconds to clean himself up too. He was debating changing the sheets when the water turned off again and Leo appeared in the doorway.
“C’mere,” Cole said, sliding into bed and patting the sheet beside him.
Leo obeyed, and Cole pulled up the blankets before turning out the light and curling his body toward Leo.
“This isn’t going to be awkward tomorrow, is it?” Leo asked quietly after a moment, and Cole realized his advantage. He knew what would break the curse, and he knew what had broken it.
“Are you going to sneak out of bed and pretend this never happened?”
“No.”
“Regret getting involved with another obscure and avoid me in the morning?”
“No.”
“Steal my candy stash and run off with Niamh in the middle of the night?”
Leo snickered. “No.”
Cole curled up a little. “Deny my need for postsex cuddling and break my heart?”
The sheets rustled and the bed dipped as Leo wormed closer, until he was close enough to coax Cole to turn onto his other side. Then he spooned up behind him, linked his hand with Cole’s, and settled both over Cole’s sternum. “Definitely not.”
Something in Cole’s chest loosened, and he closed his eyes, content. “Then I think we’ll manage fine.”
He fell asleep feeling Leo smile into his ear.