Chapter 23 The Best Friend Confession #2
Laz groaned, hands framing his friend’s face, afraid he might try to run away again. But those were hands at his back, claws digging but never piercing as he was pulled flush against the demon.
The only thing odd about the kiss was their heights being so similar, something that struck Laz as silly when he was kissing a male for the first time in his life.
But it wasn’t just any male, was it? It was Dav, his best friend.
The demon who had been there for scraped knees and hiding bruises from his father before he and Sev had finally moved out.
The demon who didn’t care when Laz only lifted fists and claws in jest and cowered from any real violence.
This was the demon who had protected him from the moment they met, and had thought with his foolish fucking smart brain that leaving was some fucked up form of fucking protection—
“Fuck you,” Lazerath growled, yanking back. Dav’s eyes were glassy, blinking at the sudden shift. “Fuck you for ever thinking my life would be better without you.”
Laz didn’t know what he was doing, only that he needed to be kissing Davarox again. Needed that taste and that feel and to squish Dav’s ridiculously chiseled jaw until he got it in his head that—
Dav was the one to pull away this time, both hands doing nearly the same squeezing on Laz’s face as he was doing to him. “You—” He gulped audibly, lips swollen and wet. “You don’t like males.”
“Unclear,” Laz confessed, arms trembling. “But I very clearly like you.”
His grip prevented Dav’s head from shaking completely. So Laz pressed his forehead to his friend’s—more-than-friend’s—and stared right into his eyes. “Actually, I love you.”
Tears slipped down Dav’s cheeks. “You—”
“Don’t,” Laz hissed, squeezing his eyes shut.
“Don’t fucking tell me how I feel, Dav. I know how I feel.
I can’t explain it, but I fucking know that I love you.
Not just in a friend way, and not even in an as-of-last-night way.
I fucking love you, and I think it took…
a lot of fucking things for me to finally notice it, and I’m sorry—”
“Don’t apologize,” Dav choked out. His hands grasped for purchase again, like he was trying to crawl inside Laz in the same way Laz wanted to burrow into Dav. “Please don’t ever apologize. I was so fucking terrified of losing you, I just tried to ignore my feelings.”
“You and Rose really do need to work on that,” Laz said around a half-sob, half-laugh.
Dav mirrored the noise, sniffing. “That woman figures things out much faster. She’s too smart for us.”
“She fucking caught on to your obsession with me, didn’t she?”
Dav let out a wet laugh. “Fuck off. Would you have put your mouth back on me if she hadn’t caught on to you, too?”
Laz leaned back, pushing Dav’s face away. “You fucking shoved me off!”
“I was about to fucking come down my best friend’s throat when I didn’t think you liked me like that!”
Laz didn’t know how it happened, but Dav’s arm was around his neck, smothering his face into the demon’s gray, muscular chest. His feet stumbled as he tried to wrestle his way out, even though he’d never been able to do it before when they’d fucked around like this as kids.
But it was freeing, and he was fucking happy, and—
“Ahem.”
The soft clearing of a throat had them freezing, heads snapping toward the bedchamber where a small, sexy human body had leaned against the jamb, arms folded over her chest. Her brow was arched, but a smile tilted her lips as she watched them.
“Well.” She padded over to where they remained frozen. She eyed the scones before plucking the fluffiest from the batch. Slowly, she lifted the pastry to her lips, tongue testing the corner before she took a bite and moaned.
The sound went straight to Laz’s cock, and at his back, Dav’s twitched.
Rose swallowed and brushed a crumb from the corner of her mouth, giving them a once-over. “Don’t let me interrupt. I especially liked the part where you were recounting my make-out session with Laz at the tip of Dav’s cock—”
Davarox released Laz and they both dove for her. Rose’s scone went flying as she squealed, and they chased after her until Laz got hold of her hips, Dav squishing them in his arms as he pulled them down to the plush rug in the living space.
A rush of kisses, lips on skin, and then they were laughing and gasping for air in a heap.
Rosalind still ended up in the middle, her legs draped over Laz’s lap and head resting comfortably on Dav’s chest.
“Are you both… We’re all good?”
Davarox pressed a kiss on the top of her head. “Yeah, baby. Better now.”
Lazerath squeezed her knee. “Hey, beautiful?”
Her fingers froze where they’d tangled into Dav’s hair, his braid a lost cause. “Yeah?”
“I love you. Maybe that’s a lot too soon, but considering how miserable not saying anything made Dav—”
“Hey.”
“True,” Laz said, anticipating Dav’s argument. But he turned his gaze back to Rose, whose eyes had gone watery. “I’m done not saying how I feel when I feel it, okay? Look at what that did to me and Dav, so, I love you. And you don’t need to—”
“I love you, too.” Her voice was steady, firm, even as she sniffled and gave him a gentle smile. “So much. My heart is so full with you.” She looked up at Dav. “Both of you. Dav, baby, I love you.”
When Dav smiled, Laz realized he’d never seen his friend so happy before. So at ease.
Davarox reached up and cradled her cheek, holding her gaze to his. “Baby, I love you, too.” His hand slid down her throat and belly, finding Laz’s hand without effort. “I’m sorry I was going to leave before—”
Rose jerked upright, glare downright glacial as she pinned him to the spot with her look. “I’m sorry, you were going to what?”
Lazerath let out a howling laugh, enjoying the sight of Dav squirming in fear underneath her. “Oh gods, Dav. You’re going to need a dozen more of those scones to get out of this one.”