“Then how did you—”
Luca’s grin widened.
“You stole it.”
“He had three unopened bottles in the back of the cabinet with the towels. They were in a gift basket he hadn’t even unwrapped, so I doubt he’ll miss them. There were different scents. I figured green tea would be the least offensive.”
“And what are you going to tell him when he asks about where it went?”
Luca pulled Nox back down and pushed him over. “I’ll tell him I needed it so the man I want to spend the rest of my life with could make love to me.”
With Luca gone from Nox’s mind, he didn’t have to worry about Luca knowing if the injections didn’t work, he’d live without Nox for a very long time.
But those worries didn’t belong in this moment.
Nox ran his hands over Luca’s smooth shoulders, down his arms, to the crook of his elbows, his fingers on each hand. He traced the length and curve, where the creases marked each knuckle, to the palms, where lines crisscrossing the skin could supposedly tell the future.
“What are you doing?” Luca laughed a little.
Nox kissed his fingertips. “Everything I wanted to do.” He pulled Luca closer, and they exchanged inhales.
Nox traced the edge of Luca’s cheek, how it led to his ear, the curve of the top, a small scar in the shell, the freckle on the lobe, the notch between it and his jaw.
His throat, long neck, elegant, curved, Adam’s apple.
The vee of his collar bone. The shallow valley between his pecks. His nipples, darker than his skin, with a few scattered hairs.
Nox followed the dip of Luca’s rib cage. He’d gained weight since Nox first saw him. Luca’s ribs no longer showed, only the shape, now covered in muscle. The build of a healthy man no longer facing death.
Lower, to where the faint hairs leading from Luca’s chest thickened into a trail passing over his navel, where his pelvis blended into his torso, and the thick bed of hair between his legs where his cock jumped with each quick breath.
But Nox didn’t stop there.
He urged Luca over him, and he straddled Nox’s waist. Firm thighs, strong against Nox’s sides, globes of Luca’s ass cradled against his pelvis, Nox could have stayed like that forever. Just touching, just petting, just admiring the person he loved more than anything in the world.
Because he wanted to.
Because he could.
Because lying there, he was a man without the monster.
* * *
Nox stared up at Luca with a serene expression.
“What?” Luca said.
“Just counting my blessing.”
“You only have one?” Luca tried to laugh, but he didn’t have the strength under the weight of Nox’s gaze.
Nox held Luca’s face and brushed his lips over Luca’s. “You’re the only blessing I need.”
Luca stole a kiss, slipping the tip of his tongue past Nox’s lips. When Luca tried to pull away, Nox held him with a hand on the back of his head.
And unlike Luca, Nox did not keep the kiss light. He did not tease with the tip of his tongue. He screamed his hunger with every caress, every movement, every breath exhaled and inhaled. He worked Luca’s mouth until his lips threatened to bruise.
Nox broke the kiss and Luca rested his forehead against his and he lost himself in the grey of Nox’s eyes.