Page 99 of Finley

“Why on Earth would you?—”

“Shh…” he said, and then took Brantley’s lips again in a slow, possessive kiss. “I told you yesterday. I was on my way back here to fly home to you.”

“Yes, but?—”

“But nothing. That’s what I was doing. Coming to find you.”

“But you love your job. They offered you a partnership.”

“So did you…just now. Didn’t you?”

Brantley’s mouth parted, and he frowned until he realized what he’d just said. Then his face lit up in a blinding smile. “Yes. Yes, I did.”

“And I know which one I’d prefer.”

Brantley cradled his face, and he narrowed his eyes. “Are you serious?”

Daniel took Brantley’s hands and pinned them by his head on the bed. “When are you going to understand that it’s always been you? From the moment you called out to me at school and I turned around in the hall—I was done. Everything I did, from running with Derek, to studying my ass off, toleavingyou…it was all for you.” He grinned against the mouth kissing his and then lifted his head. “Now, I’m doing this forme. Because all I want, and have ever wanted, was you. I love you, Brantley Hayes.”

AS HE STAREDup into Daniel’s golden eyes, Brantley couldn’t believe he was hearing him right. Had he really just said what Brantley thought?

“I love you. Did you?—”

“Shh,” Brantley interrupted, running his fingers across Daniel’s forehead and down the sides of his face to his smiling mouth. “Let me enjoy it.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow and rocked his erection over Brantley’s growing one. “I can feel how much you’re enjoying it.”

With a bark of laughter, Brantley grabbed Daniel’s ass and rolled him to his back. “Don’t try to distract me, young man.”

“Ohh, I like that,” Daniel teased, and leaned up to nip at his lip.

“Of course you do, deviant.”

Daniel planted his feet on the bed and raised his hips. “Hmm… So, what lesson are you going to teach me today, professor?”

As he stared down at the beautiful man beneath him, Brantley wondered how he’d ever been so lucky to have him walk into his life—twice.

“I’m going to teach you how much I love you. All you have to do is lie back and pay close attention.”

As a wicked grin curled Daniel’s mouth, Brantley placed a kiss over his bronzed chest and then closed his eyes.

“Tell me this is real,” he whispered.

As fingers stroked through Brantley’s hair and tipped his head up, Daniel looked up with glistening eyes and said, “It’s real.”

And Brantley couldn’t help but come back up and kiss the man now wrapping his arms around him.

As their legs entwined and their lips met, he let every emotion he was feeling rise to the surface.

Finally.

It had taken them seven years to find their way back to one another. And as they lay there with the sunlight dancing in through the window, Brantley thought that every agonizing year that had passed had been worth it for this moment.

There was nothing in their way, nothing to prove to one another, and as he laid his head down to listen to Daniel’s heart, he knew that this man was it for him.

As his eyes drifted closed in the lazy morning sun, Daniel whispered, “Ohh…let me count the ways I love my teacher.”

And Brantley chuckled against his chest and kissed him.