Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 10

heaven inside him, tight and slick. Riley pushed up his hips to take West deeper and hooked his feet behind West's knees, and when they kissed his tongue was hot and eager. Riley looked as blissful as when he played his violin, and his calloused fingers traced over West's back and sides and face like West was a new instrument he was eager to learn.
    "West, Westie," he gasped as he threw an arm over his head to grasp a pillow. West slid his hand up Riley's arm to rest their palms together. Riley's hand clasped his, interwove their fingers, and clutched West's hand tight. His body and fingers tensed, and his neck arched as he shouted. West clung to his hand as they moved together faster, and Riley's fingers squeezed his hard when West's hips snapped, frantic for a few last seconds of pleasure before the tension in his body finally released.
    Riley's face was so lovely as they moved together languidly, riding out the aftershocks, his eyes shining and soft and his lips swollen, the color deep in his cheeks. West kissed his mouth and rubbed their noses together, and stroked Riley's wrist with his thumb. Riley's fingers curled into West's hair and coaxed West's head to his chest, where West could hear his heart beating.
    ****
    Despite the tall latte with an extra shot he picked up on the way to school, West stumbled through classes the next day. "Burning the midnight oil, were you?" one of his friends asked, and West managed to smile and nod instead of shout, "I'm in love with the man of my dreams!"
    He was happy, despite his weariness, his body satisfied and his mind content, but there was something that still troubled him. Riley hadn't said he loved West in return. West went over the night in his head, and while Riley had said a lot, love hadn't come up again.
    Well, Riley didn't talk about his feelings much on a regular day. West could hardly expect something as big as love to be easy for him.
    As he trudged up the stairs to the apartment, he realized he could smell bread baking all the way in the staircase. He ran the rest of the way up the stairs and burst into the apartment, and Riley, reading on the couch, put the book aside.
    "Welcome home, babe."
    "Hi," said West, feeling warm at the "babe." "You made bread."
    "I made soup, too. Are you hungry?"
    "Very."
    "Good. It'll be ready in about fifteen minutes. Join me?"
    West let his backpack slide to the floor and lay on the couch at Riley's side. Riley wound an arm around his neck and kissed his hair, and then picked up his book again. West lay there, feeling Riley breathe, and then turned back his head to gently kiss Riley under his chin.
    "I guess you had a quiet day."
    "Quartet rehearsal this morning, but our next performance isn't until Sunday. So yeah, I've been lazy. I've puttered. Did the shopping, cooked for my man." He hugged West close again.
    West put his hand on Riley's chest. "I need to know something."
    "Anything you want."
    West inhaled. "I need to know I'm not another experiment."
    Riley put the book down. "What?"
    "You said you experimented, and I need to know I'm not another experiment."
    "West," Riley said. They both sat up, West feeling uncertain and small, and Riley took West's face in his hands. "Of course you're not an experiment. You're my best friend."
    "I need to know you're not going to change your mind in a week or a month or whatever. I need to know you're not going to decide men are only a phase."
    "Westie," said Riley, and the hurt in his eyes made West duck his head. "We've been together a day ."
    "I know," West said miserably. "All of a sudden you want me too and it's just— you've never dated anybody for long. You always move on to someone new."
    Riley stroked his cheekbones. "It's not sudden. It's been building a long time. You just didn't notice."
    "I never wanted to push you."
    "Push me," said Riley. " Push me."
    West climbed onto him and kissed him heartily. "I love you," he said. "I love you, Riley."
    "I love you too," Riley said, laughing. "Silly Westie. Don't you know you're the only home I've got?"
    "I do now."
    They kissed, sloppily and happily, and in the kitchen the buzzer on the oven rang. "Bread," Riley whispered and kissed West a few more times before they untangled themselves so he could go to the kitchen. "I hope you realize how much I love you, too. It's not everybody that I bake for."
    "I realize," said West. He propped himself on his elbow to watch Riley go into the kitchen. Riley looked like he always did, jeans and