"Can I crash here tonight?"

Mark's question, uttered in the soft rhythmic cadence that I was fast coming to associate with him, took me by surprise. I curled my fingers around a strand of his reddish-gold hair and tried to keep the hopefulness out of my voice. "You want to stay?"

"I-oh, never mind," Mark muttered under his breath, apparently regretting whatever impulse had driven him to reveal what he obviously considered a weakness.

I wasn't half as brave as I thought I was, but as usual, my mouth outran my brain, and I blurted out, "You can. If you want to, I mean. I'd-"

He moved his head to glance up at me with those eyes that seemed to change color with his mood, and I felt his eyelashes brush against my stomach. God, he was beautiful, in a completely feral way, and he made my skin burn wherever he touched me. "What?"

"Hm?"

"What were you going to say?"

For a wild boy with what seemed like every intention of complicating my life, his gaze was unexpectedly clear. There was a purity there that made me want to give him everything. Even if he never asked for it. "I'd like you to stay," I whispered, hearing the huskiness that betrayed me.

He heard it, too, because his eyes, which had been smoke-gray, suddenly deepened to jade green. "You would, eh?" he asked, deliberately lowering his head again to my stomach. I could feel his breath on my flesh and I closed my eyes against the sight of him, a kiss away from taking my dick in his mouth, because just the thought was enough to make me hard.

"Yeah," I said hoarsely. He nuzzled my groin, his nose gently nudging the little hairs aside, and my hands tightened into fists. I struggled to keep from touching him, afraid that he'd think I needed this, and then I realized...I did. "Please..." I murmured inarticulately, and the sound he made was somewhere between a groan and a sigh.

"I like...the way you taste," Mark said, his tongue licking lightly along the length of my erection. My cock throbbed impatiently, but I held still, resisting the urge to thrust into that warm, wet space that waited to swallow me up. "Ummm..."

"It's okay," he said with a grin that I could hear in his voice, "we don't have to talk."

It wasn't that I didn't want to talk to him. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to say. Or maybe I was scared of what I might say.

*****

He did taste good. He came with an apologetic moan, and I shivered cause it was such a fucking pretty noise.

I left my place between his legs and slid up his body to press a milky-white kiss against those lips. He gave a startled gasp and opened his mouth, and I slipped my tongue inside. His fingers twined through my hair again, and I thought, Jesus, there's something possessive about the way he touches me. But that didn't bother me. I wanted to be claimed.

No one ever wanted me to stay before.

But he did.

*****

He stroked my hair almost absently, and for a second, I wondered if he was trying to put me to sleep. Then he said, "We should get up, take a shower, put some clothes on..."

"Or we could just stay here and fuck," I teased. Only thing was, I don't think I was kidding.

"Mm..." Now there was a non-committal noise if I ever heard one. What did that mean? I think I would have been fucking happy just to hold him all night long, but...if we didn't fuck, and we couldn't talk, what the hell was I doing there?

I felt the sudden tension in his body, and I realized that he must have come to the same conclusion I had. Something else was going on with us. But what? I didn't believe in love at first sight. I didn't believe in true love. True love was something that happened to stupid boys who weren't careful to keep their fucking feelings to themselves.

That's when I got really scared. Cause I didn't want to keep whatever this was to myself. I wanted to be with him, and I didn't want to examine why. I just wanted to, that's all.

Suddenly his stomach growled. Loudly. We stared at each other for several moments before we both burst out laughing. "Guess I worked up an appetite," he said between giggles.

As our laughter faded, my heart clenched at the realization that more than anything else, I wanted to kiss him again. More than anything else. Including fucking. "I s'pose I should feed you then," I managed to say softly.

"We'll have to go out," he said.

I nodded mutely.

"We could bring something back here," he suggested.

"Aye," I whispered, fairly certain that I was making a bloody fool of myself now.

He bit his bottom lip, and I sighed. "I bet we can get something better than pizza with all that money."

Money! The money! How could I have forgotten the fucking money? Wasn't that the whole point of all that sexual exercise in the park?

His face darkened, and I knew he was sorry he'd brought up the goddamn money. I caressed the side of his face with my fingertips and whispered, "I didn't do this for the money, y'know."

The light in his eyes came back, intensifying with each passing second that we looked at one another. "Me neither."

It was getting pretty shaky out there on that limb, but at least I wasn't alone.