19. LUCAS #4
Attaching the headboard to the wall was theoretically straightforward, but we quickly realized we’d have been a lot better off if we had a drill on hand.
I ended up leaning my full body weight into the screwdriver to try to sink the screws into the wall.
On the third one, I slipped and put a gouge in the wall underneath where I’d been trying to drive the screw.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed, shaking out my hand, which had hit the wall hard.
Max carefully let go of where he’d been supporting the headboard—it held its own weight with the two screws already in it—and pushed over to me. “You ok?” he asked, sounding concerned.
“I am,” I said, then glanced at the new scrape in the wall. “Not so sure about the wall, though.”
He ran his fingers over the gouge. “Oops.”
“‘Oops’ is right. Well, I guess you can fix it whenever you eventually move out before you turn the room back over to your landlord.”
He snorted. “You created the hole. You’ll be the one to fix it when I need it done.”
Did he realize that he’d just insinuated that I’d still be around when he moved out? Probably just a figure of speech. He watches you, I heard Eli say in my head, but I shook it off. I didn’t want to get myself all excited when I knew better, deep down.
“Luc?” he said, looking at me curiously.
“Hm?” I gave my sore knuckles another rub, not returning his stare.
“I…” He paused, then shook his head. “Nothing. Except that I’m gonna miss you.”
A feeling of warmth spread through my stomach.
It was the first time Max had expressed any kind of regret about moving out of my place, had indicated that he wasn’t already mentally moved on from me.
Was I brave enough to… I bit my lip. “You don’t have to,” I ventured warily. “We could...keep hanging out.”
He looked at me sharply. “We could?”
Was it hope, or just confusion that I heard in his voice? “Yeah.” I nodded. “Just because you don’t live in my spare room anymore doesn’t mean we can’t still do stuff together.”
He sucked in a breath, and now it was definitely something like hope on his face. “Like, stuff? Or like, stuff?”
Was he asking what I thought he was asking? Did this mean he wanted to continue with the—cough, cough—stuff? “Um, either?” I offered. “Whichever you want.”
Abandoning the pretext of looking at the headboard entirely, he turned fully to face me. “Are you serious?”
“Um...yes? Unless that’s the wrong answer, in which case, no. I don’t want to pressure you into doing anything you don’t want to do.” And now I was starting to sound like Eli.
He regarded me levelly for a minute, and then his face softened into a smile. “What if I want to do you?” he teased.
“Are you kidding?” This was everything I’d been wanting. Well, almost. It wasn’t exactly a declaration of undying love, but it was at least a declaration that he didn’t want us to be over. “You’re more than welcome to ‘do’ me any time you want, Max.”
Still smiling, he pushed himself closer to me and stretched his neck up.
I bent down to meet him, and our lips met in a kiss that tasted like relief.
We stayed like that, just letting our lips linger on each other’s without deepening the kiss, for a moment that felt like eternity, and then I pulled back. “Hi,” I whispered.
“Hi,” he whispered back just as quietly. “I missed this.”
I chuckled. “Max, we’ve been together all day, and we had sex a few hours ago.” Not that I hadn’t missed him too, every second of this morning, but I was pretty sure that was just me.
His expression fell. “But not for a while before that. And I missed it. I missed you. And I know you probably just weren’t interested and didn’t even realize how long it had been, but -”
“I realized,” I broke in. “I thought you weren’t interested. You didn’t, you know, touch me.”
“I’m always interested,” he shot back. “But I don’t want to constantly be climbing you like a monkey.”
I leaned down to kiss him again, more firmly this time. “Maybe I like monkeys.” There was a pause, and then we both burst out laughing. “Ok, that sounded weird,” I admitted. “I swear I’m not into bestiality.”
Max’s laugh turned into a snort of amusement.
“A likely story. Kiss me again.” This time, I took his lips in an open-mouthed, wet kiss.
Max groaned into my mouth and ran his hand up my side until he could tweak a nipple.
My body jerked at the sensation and his groan changed into a laugh.
He pulled back a fraction of an inch. “Not here, with the door open and everything.”
“Doors close,” I informed him with a wiggle of my eyebrows.
“Luc,” he said, “if we don’t get this furniture together, there’ll be nothing to fuck on.”
“Oh. Good point.” I lifted up the screwdriver that had been dangling from my hand. “Guess we should get back to it.”
“Mmhmm.” He rolled himself backwards, giving me space to work again, and I put the screwdriver back in place against the screw that had started this episode. “Screw my bed tight, baby.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t hold back a smile. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You love me,” he joked.
“I really do,” I agreed before I could stop myself, then froze. Oh hell, had I just told him I loved him?