All the things Zack wanted to say—all the arguments and comebacks and demands he’d rehearsed endlessly over the course of the past week—died on his lips.

The mix of pain and elation he felt as he stared at John’s beautiful face was so potent it made him dizzy. The conflict was still present, but it shrank to a distant, fuzzy voice in the back of his head. He knew in that moment that holding on to his anger wasn’t worth losing the incredible person in front of him. Every fiber in his being pressed him forward, urging him to go to John. He needed to feel John’s heat, to tongue the water sluicing down his body, to be with him.

In a stupor, Zack stepped forward, invading John’s space. John exhaled sharply but didn’t step back. The mere inches between them were magnetized. Zack could hear John’s breathing quicken, and it made him itch.

“John,” he whispered, “stop me.”

John shivered and looked him dead in the eye. “No.”

Zack closed the distance, held John’s face in both of his hands, and kissed him.

Chapter 20

Zack had never been kissed like this in his life. It was like John was trying to unravel him using nothing but his lips. Zack was still holding his face, gripping it tightly, but it was John who was dominating the kiss. One second, he sucked Zack’s lower lip into his mouth and bit it; the next, he rolled his tongue over Zack’s in a way that made him light-headed. John seemed to be everywhere at once, invading his senses. It was more than Zack could process.

Then John wrapped his arms around him and pulled them close. Zack had nearly forgotten how good John felt against him: firm but pliable. The fact that he was half-naked was not lost on Zack. When John pressed their hips together and rocked, Zack saw stars.

“Zack,” John said breathlessly, “Zack, I missed you so much.”

Zack shushed him, moving to nip at his earlobe. “We can talk later. Right now, I need you.”

“But are you sure you—”

Zack crushed their lips together, and John turned to liquid in his embrace. Zack trailed his hands down John’s back. His bare skin was silky smooth and radiating heat. Just being able to touch it again felt therapeutic.

“Bed?” John asked between frantic kisses.

“Too far,” Zack answered. He maneuvered John back. They stumbled past the kitchen and somehow managed to make it to the living room without dissolving into a tangle of limbs on the floor. Zack gave John a gentle push, and he toppled backward onto the couch.

John blinked up at him, looking disoriented and disheveled in a way Zack would almost label cute.

“But,” he looked around, “isn’t this the last place you want to be right now?”