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“Do you like to swim though?” Jesse ran a finger across Lake’s collarbone.

Now that dinner and dessert were gone, Lake lay with his head on Jesse’s legs and stared up at the sky. The bright lights from the city made it too hard to see the stars but Lake knew they were there.

“Baby?”

“I like to float,” Lake answered. “Swimming for exercise is taxing.”

“You work out though.” Jesse squeezed the muscle in his arm.

“I like lifting weights,” Lake said. He laughed. “Just another contradiction about myself. I love dressing up and being pretty, but I also enjoy a good hard workout. Maxing out my muscles. Feeling it deep down.”

Jesse groaned. “You’re just using those words to get me worked up.”

That wasn’t a lie. It was fun to tease Jesse. Lake was safe with Jesse. He knew it in his bones. “Am I?”

“I know you are. I like seeing this wicked side of you too,” Jesse said.

“I’m a good boy,” Lake retorted. “Everyone knows that.”

“The best boy,” Jesse agreed. “With maybe a wicked streak that comes out around the right people.”

“Yeah.” Lake breathed out his agreement.

“Then I look forward to seeing more of this side of you.”

“And I want to watch you swim sometime,” Lake said. He could already picture Jesse in nothing but a speedo with his long arms cutting through the water.

“I might like to be watched.”

Lake flipped onto his side to peer up at Jesse. He dropped his gaze to Jesse’s forearms and then to where the collar of his shirt had parted. “Would you tell me about the tattoos?”

Jesse nodded. “Can I ask you something first?”

“Yes,” Lake agreed. He had been the one asking the most questions. There was just so much that he wanted to know about Jesse.

“Have you talked to your family since you moved out?”

The questioned surprised him and Lake couldn’t help but stiffen.

“You don’t have to answer,” Jesse told him.

“No, it’s okay.” Lake had been avoiding the subject with all his friends, but he was supposed to be opening up to Jesse. “I haven’t.”

“They haven’t called you at all?”

“Maybe,” Lake admitted. “I turned my phone off the minute that they left for the family camping trip.”

“That’s why you got a new number and phone?”

“It seemed easier this way,” Lake said. “I still have my old number and phone. I just…can’t…not yet.”

Jesse stroked Lake’s hair. “I’m sorry.”

“I was sad,” Lake admitted. “I tried so hard for so long. But then something else happened.”

“What, baby?”

“I started living my life for myself. I stopped wondering what my brothers would think, what my parents would say. Instead, I began doing what I wanted.”