Page 32 of Friendly Skies
“How long?” Luis asked as Darius took the exit to merge onto the 10.
Darius glanced at the GPS. “Probably another half an hour. There’s a slowdown coming up. Why? You in a hurry to get home?”
Luis laughed. “Well, yes, to be honest, but what I meant was…how long have you…” He took a breath, suddenly shy and uncertain. “Have you—”
“Been in love with you?” Darius reached out for Luis’ hand and brought it to his lips without taking his eyes from the road. “For as long as I can remember.”
“Really?”“Cross my heart and hope to die. I’d even pinkie swear it.” Darius kissed Luis’ hand again before releasing it. “And you?”
Luis contemplated the question because, really, when did his feelings for Darius become something more? And what was that more? He probed at the edges of all the memories that were filled with Darius, looking for that one moment when this man beside him had gone from friend to best friend to the most important person on the entire planet. Someone who was as essential as the air he breathed for him to keep living.
“It’s okay if it just happened,” Darius said quietly, apparently mistaking Luis’ silence as an unwillingness to admit how recently his feelings had changed.
“It didn’t,” Luis said and looked down at his hands. “I’m just trying to figure out when it changed for me because as far back as I can remember, I’ve loved you. I think it took me so long to recognize I was gay because I’d always loved you, and no one else made me feel like you did.”
For a moment, Darius’ expression got serious, and he looked as if he were going to say something but was hesitating.
“Dar?” Luis asked. “What is it?”
Darius shook his head, glanced at Luis, and smiled. “Nothing, chico. I’m really glad we finally figured it out.”
“Yeah. We’re going to get so much shit from all our friends.”
They both laughed. “You check your messages yet?” Darius asked.
“Fuck.” Luis pulled his phone out. There were over two dozen unread texts and DMs. “We are never living this down.”
“They can have their fun.” Darius reached for Luis’ hand again. “After all, you’re the one I get to take home and finally do everything I’ve dreamed about doing since I learned my dick was made for something other than peeing.”
Luis shrugged. “Glad to see you’re not going to turn into a romantic sap just because you’re now my boyfriend.” He glanced at the roses in the back seat. “But you can continue to bring me roses anytime you want.”
Chapter eight
Darius
Darius felt the growingtension in the car as he exited the freeway for the surface streets that would take them into West Hollywood and then home. He knew Luis as well as he knew himself and would have been surprised if ideas of what would happen once they got home weren’t occupying his thoughts. They’d be occupying all of Darius’ as well if he hadn’t had to concentrate on getting them home in one piece so they could have those moments after they got there.
As it was, he nearly rear-ended someone who stopped at a yellow light rather than speeding through the intersection before the light turned red because he was more aware of Luis sitting next to him than he’d ever been. Luis, who had called him his boyfriend. Luis, who had said “I love you” to him and not meant it in a completely platonic way. Luis, who had called him full of fear that he’d lost Darius and then made all his dreams come true with those three words. Luis, who was and always had been his everything. Luis, who sat beside him, restless and unable to stop biting his lower lip the closer they got home.
“Is it weird to be nervous?” Luis asked as Darius pulled into his parking space next to Luis’ bright pink Mini Cooper convertible.
“I don’t think so because I’m right there with you.” Darius put the car in park and turned off the ignition, then reached for Luis’ hands and brought them up to his lips. “This is new for us. I think it’s normal to be nervous and maybe a bit overwhelmed.” He kissed each of Luis’ fingers in turn, pausing between words as he spoke. “We don’t have to do anything, you know. We can take it slow. However it works for us is how it works. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Neither am I.”
Darius stared into Luis’ eyes and was met with an intensity and growing heat as Darius continued to kiss his fingers.
“Like hell we’re going to wait,” Luis said, his voice husky. “I’ve loved you and wanted you for as long as I can remember. Let’s get out of the car. Go inside. And show each other what we want.”
They stared at each other, the tension, the desire building between them. Darius had no idea who made the first move, but suddenly, they were kissing, mouths opening to each other, tongues tangling, teeth scraping against lips as if they were trying to devour each other. It was messy and uncoordinated, completely different from the kiss they’d shared in the airport. That one had been a welcoming home, a promise of everything he and Luis had been and would be together, while this kiss was born of repressed and pent-up desires that no longer had to be hidden or held back or denied.
Darius’ body jolted to life, a searing ball of white-hot energy forming in his chest. The longer the kiss went on, the more Darius felt as if his whole being vibrated with this energy. And it wasn’t just him. He felt Luis, not just his body, but his heart and his soul. Nothing he had ever experienced compared to thismoment with this man, but as amazing as it was, Darius knew they were moving toward a moment that would transform them.
Pulling back from Luis, Darius raised his hand and cupped Luis’ cheek. “Let’s go inside, chico. Please?”
Leaving Luis’ flight bag and the roses in the car, along with the uniform jacket and vest Luis had tossed in the back, they got out. They were giddy as teenagers as they made their way out of the parking garage, stopping to kiss every few feet. As they attempted to climb the stairs to the condo they had called home for the past six years, they kept falling against each other and laughing, then kissing again. With Darius one step below Luis, their mouths met at exactly the right height, and Darius wished Luis would wrap his legs around his waist so he could carry him the rest of the way to the door. He grinned at Luis as an idea entered his mind.
“You’re planning something, aren’t you?” Luis asked.
