Page 79 of Salted Candy

His whole life, he’d been looking for someone to pour his love into. To stuff them full of devotion until there was no space left. Someone who took all he could give and begged for more. This painting didn’t reveal any expression, but the gratefulness was obvious in each brushstroke.

Noah looked down at the title. Hanging below the canvas in small, printed letters, it read:SATED.

Benji smiled nervously beside him. “Think I’ll pass the class?”

Noah stared at him. At his beautiful Benji, nervous and fidgeting under the stark gallery lights, sweat gleaming on his collarbone. The hint of a bruise peeked through his shirt where Benji had unbuttoned it.

Benji’s smile faded. “Noah?”

Noah said the only thing that felt right. “Marry me.”

Benji blinked. His lips—those beautiful lips he’d captured in blissful submission, smeared with gold—parted.

A throat cleared behind them. “Ben.”

Noah frowned. He didn’t know anyone who called Benji that, except occasionally Daphne. And this definitely wasn't her.

They turned as one to see a man standing behind them, arms crossed and glaring.

Benji’s face went white. The noise that fell out of him was so shocked that, even if Noah couldn’t see the resemblance, he knew exactly what Benji was about to say.

“Dad?”