Chapter 17
Enzo slipped into Cherry’s right before Kate locked the door.
She looked tired. Enzo could only imagine how Will looked.
“Busy day?” he asked.
Kate nodded. “We were slammed from four on. Rocco stopped by to help out and we had Mari, but it was a lot.” She paused, giving him a little smile and a gesture towards the back. “He’s in his office.”
Will was on his laptop when he sauntered in. He glanced up, meeting Enzo’s eyes.
“They left?” Enzo asked.
Will nodded.
“And without you,” Enzo said, feeling relief flow through him.
The only problem with him declaring them engaged was the possibility that the Johnsons wouldn’t leave, like they’d planned, and head to Tybee.
He’d been pretty certain they would, considering the store opening situation, but if they’d stayed .
. .well, that could’ve created some serious complications.
“Yes, thanks to you,” Will said, the corner of his mouth quirking up. “That was a risk. But it paid off.”
Enzo leaned over and kissed him, even more thoroughly than he’d done in the bakery earlier today.
He’d gone a bit overboard then, because he’d wanted to convince Will’s parents they were as wild for each other as they claimed.
But it hadn’t felt like too much. Actually the opposite. It had felt right.
“I figured you’d bailed me out, I could help you out right back?”
“Oh yeah?” Will asked in a teasing voice. “That’s all it was? You helpin’ me out?”
Enzo flushed. Caught out. “No,” he admitted.
Yes, he did look tired, but he looked happy, too. And Enzo wondered what he’d have looked like if they hadn’t sent his parents packing, together. If he’d been forced to internalize all that guilt.
“I thought so,” Will said knowingly, leaning back in his chair.
“And I talked to Rocco too—like you probably thought I did. He understands.” Enzo grimaced. “Okay, he mostly understands. But he won’t say anything. I made sure of it.”
“Good.” Will seemed relieved to hear that. That was all Enzo had wanted. To take some of the burden off the guy, some the interminable guilt he was all too familiar with, but he was afraid
“If you’re too tired to deal with the rest of the moving tonight—”
But before Enzo could even get his suggestion out, Will shook his head.
“Nope. I’ve just got two duffel bags of clothes left.
If you can help me, I’ll be done. Besides, Joy told me she needed the room.
” He grinned. “I think the exact words were, I need to sanitize and fumigate it from all the excess testosterone.”
“Excess my ass. I think it was just the right amount,” Enzo scoffed.
“That’s your story and you should stick to it, Honey Bunny,” Will joked, patting him on the arm, his grin widening. “Come on, let’s get going.”
They made quick work of heading over to the Inn, grabbing Will’s duffels. On their way out, they spotted Joy and Giana on one end of the long wraparound porch and they waved but didn’t come over.
“I want to say I’m glad about that,” Enzo said as they walked the few blocks over to his mom’s house—and the garage with his apartment above it. “I should be relieved she’s giving me some room to breathe. But . . .” Enzo sighed heavily.
“How many times has your mom said I told you so?” Will asked casually. But it wasn’t really a casual question.
Enzo glanced over at him, his handsome face shadowed as he unlocked the door. He’d already given Will a key, and he’d felt a whole lot of things as he’d watched him slide it onto his key ring, next to the bright pink keys Will had for Cherry’s.
“Not many yet, but I’m sure there’s more to come,” he said, pushing the door open. “I can’t believe this is all you’ve got.”
Will looked up from where he was setting down his duffel next to where Enzo had dropped his own load. There were half a dozen boxes and the duffels, and that was it. Enzo thought he traveled light, but Will put him to shame.
“Eh, there’s more stuff in my condo in Destin,” Will said. “But I realized I haven’t lived there in months and I’ve never missed any of it.” He glanced over at Enzo. “I don’t know what that says about me.”
“That you know what really matters,” Enzo said, coming up and putting his arms around him. It was so easy to tip his head back and meet his lips with his own. “Welcome home,” he murmured against Will’s mouth. Wondering if he was saying it to his boyfriend—or to himself.
Or maybe to both of them.
Will’s eyes were a serious, contemplative blue, but then they blazed hot when he leaned in and kissed Enzo more firmly. Like he was taking Enzo’s offer and accepting it with both hands.
They stumbled back, Enzo’s butt hitting the little row of cupboards in the tiny kitchen, and for a minute it was enough just to kiss, Enzo’s fingers gripping Will’s shoulders, but the kiss evolved. Turned hot and slippery and passionate.
Will broke off, panting a little, probably because Enzo had found his erection in his shorts and was palming it. “I need to shower,” he said. “I stink.”
“I disagree with the latter and agree with the former,” Enzo said and reached down, pulling his T-shirt over his head. “Come on.”
Will followed him, both of them shedding clothes, and it was glorious to not worry for a minute about who would hear them or interrupt them. Glorious knowing that they would get to do this over and over and Enzo didn’t have to hide his desire for it, anymore.
Didn’t have to pretend to look away when Will lounged, naked, against the bathroom vanity, every inch of him gorgeous and every inch of him belonging to Enzo.
“This is a nice bathroom,” Will said, glancing around. “And a nice big shower.” He grinned as Enzo reached in and flipped the water on, nice and hot.
Not that they were going to have trouble with the hot part on their own.
“You saw it the other day,” Enzo pointed out dryly. He’d given Will the full tour—not that it took all that long to tour the handful of rooms he’d “lived” in since he was eighteen. There was the big living room slash kitchen, then the bedroom, and the bathroom.
“Yeah, but you weren’t naked in it,” Will said, shooting him a hot look from those smoky blue eyes. “It’s nicer now.”
“Just how nice?” Enzo raised his eyebrow and slipped into the shower. Will followed like they were connected, and he couldn’t help but stick close.
“I’m gonna show you just how nice,” Will said in a deep, gruff voice, and then he was pressing him against the tile wall. Enzo gasped, the tile deliciously cool against his back, Will’s skin hot against his front.
Enzo understood Will better than he’d thought he would. He didn’t want to let him out of his sight, either.
What’s gonna happen when you have to leave in a few weeks?
Yeah, Will would be waiting for him here, but it wouldn’t be the same.
It would still suck.
But he shook that thought off. Maybe in a few weeks he’d feel differently. Feel less like his heart was in his throat every time they did this.
Enzo let himself sink into the sensations, Will cradling his face, kissing him fiercely, like he knew just what Enzo was thinking and wanted to dispel all his uncertainties and fears. Pressing his body insistently into the tile, Enzo gasping into his mouth as their cocks rubbed together.
“Want you,” Will murmured against his mouth. “Want you all the time.”
Enzo’s heart throbbed and his cock twitched. It was a combination he was helpless to resist. He didn’t even try. Just flipped their bodies and pressed Will back against the wall.
Slid his water-slick hand around Will’s cock.
“God,” Will groaned, “how do you keep being so goddamned sexy?”
“It’s a gift,” Enzo said. Then he slid to his knees, and Will made another of those half-restrained gruff groans that always made him weak in the knees. He’d brought this man to his knees.
“Not just a gift. A fucking miracle,” Will revised, as Enzo teased the tip of his cock with his mouth. He tangled his fingers into Enzo’s hair, gently tugging him forward, and Enzo went, easily. Wanting to give Will this probably as much as Will wanted it.
Will’s cock was engorged and twitching against his tongue as he sucked him deep. Loving the way he groaned as he let even more of it slide into his mouth.
His own cock was heavy and aching, and as Will’s hand caressed his head, fingers digging through his wet curls, gently coaxing him to take him even deeper, Enzo lost the last shred of his own self-control and wrapped his hand around it, giving a sharp twist that made him moan.
“You’re so fucking amazing like this, your mouth full of my cock.
You want to take it all? God, I think you do.
” Will was a surprisingly dirty talker. Was it any wonder that Enzo was wild for him?
He looked like a gay porn wet dream—all those tanned, chiseled abs and thick thighs and even thicker biceps—and had those guileless blue eyes, still innocent as so much hotness spilled out of his mouth Enzo was surprised he hadn’t spontaneously burst into flames.
“Come on, baby, take the rest, I know you can.” Will’s fingers were gentle on his skull but insistent as he tugged him the rest of the way, Enzo choking around the last bit of it.
He risked a look up and yeah, it wasn’t any wonder he loved this so much, because Will was in bliss, head tipped back against the shower wall.
Then he looked down, and their eyes met and the fire inside Enzo stoked even hotter, until he wasn’t sure he could take it anymore.
“Oh, yeah, that’s so good. So fucking good,” Will continued. He’d let Enzo pull out a little enough that he could use his tongue the way he knew he was best at, curling around the head. Relishing the taste of him. Sucking him hard.
Enzo reached up, wanting to send Will over the edge, and Will’s groan when Enzo palmed his balls and then slid a finger back farther, just grazing his hole, was enough.
Will muttered an oath and a second later Enzo’s mouth was empty and Will was jacking his own cock, come landing on Enzo’s face and his shoulders.
“Fuck. So hot like that,” Will muttered.