Page 13 of Ice & Sweet

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Luke

I wasn’t sure how we made it to midnight, but we did.

We’d spent the whole evening dancing, laughing, and drinking with everyone, eating bits of cake and late-night chips and bacon sandwiches as the disco lights threw neon colours across the walls. And every time I’d looked at André, I felt a fluttering of butterflies in my stomach.

I’d teasingly suggested we’d have to meet up in London, half expecting him to shoot me down, but then he’d offered me whatever I wanted and there was no way to take that as a joke. It seemed like we both wanted to see how viable this situation was outside of a hotel bubble and all we had to do was make the leap.

That was the hard part, though. And a tiny part of me wondered if we’d ever get to that point.

“Luke, get over here!” Kane called, waving me over to where the final ten or so guests were gathered on the dance floor. “We need a picture.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t already dragged your new husband upstairs,” I said with a grin as I slotted in next to Kane, who put his arm around me. André was on the other side of the group, half supporting a very drunk Toby, who was leaning against his shoulder.

“That’s for as soon as we take this photo!” Kane must have followed my gaze because he smirked and kissed my cheek. “You know, if you keep looking at André like that, he’s going to catch fire.”

“Like what?”

“Like he’s a tasty snickety-snack you wanna eat.”

“You’re drunk,” I said, rolling my eyes. I’d never been the most convincing liar, but I hoped that Kane was too giddy to notice. “I’m just wondering if we’re going to have to carry Toby upstairs.”

“Nope.” Kane kissed me again. “You like him!” He leant closer. “And you two totally snuck off together earlier! Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”

“I-I… you’re definitely drunk! Also why are you focusing on me? It’s your wedding day.”

“Exactly, so you can’t tell me off.”

“Where’s your husband?” I asked, looking around for Austin and spotting him talking to the DJ, phone in hand. “Austin! Come and get your husband. He’s drunk.”

“I’m not drunk! Just tipsy,” Kane insisted as he leant against me. “Also you and André would be cute together! It’s why I put you next to each other at dinner. You should totally fuck. You always had a crush on him.”

“I love you, but we’re not talking about this now.”

“Talking about what?” Austin asked as he strolled over to us, putting his arm around Kane and allowing me to duck out of his grip. “Are you causing trouble, kitten?”

I chuckled because kitten was the most adorably ridiculous nickname, but it was so perfect for Kane in a way I couldn’t explain. “Not causing trouble,” Kane said, shifting his weight to fall into his new husband’s arms. “I’m just telling Luke how cute he and André would be together but he won’t listen!”

Austin chuckled as he kissed Kane’s temple and then looked at me. “They would be but now definitely isn’t the time.” He lowered his voice and whispered something into Kane’s ear and I glanced away, deliberately ignoring how obnoxiously adorable and filthy they were being right now. I wasn’t going to bother arguing with Austin because I didn’t want the pair of them ganging up on me, especially with everyone around, so I just smiled as the DJ made us all gather together for one final photo before he played the last song.

“Want to dance?” André asked as various couples and groups took to the floor around us. For a second, I thought about saying no to spite the newlyweds and their schemes. But doing that would be like shooting myself in the foot and I wanted to dance with André more than I wanted to prove to Kane he was being ridiculous.

Because he wasn’t.

André and I were cute together.

“Did you know Kane sat us next to each other at dinner on purpose?” I asked as he pulled me into his arms until we were chest to chest and spun us around slowly. He smelt like something smoky, rich, and spicy, and I wanted to bathe myself in it so it lingered on my skin forever. The temptation to steal a T-shirt out of his suitcase before he left tomorrow was increasingly strong. Just so I had something to remember him by.

“I’m not surprised,” André said, shooting our hosts a dry smile.

“Did you know? Also, he thinks we’d be cute together.”

“That we’d be sat together? Sort of, but only because he said he’d sit me with people I knew… like you.” He frowned, a look of mild exasperation crossing his face. “Come to think of it, he mentioned you a lot.”

I groaned and put my head against his chest, trying to hide my rising blush. “He’s such a dick! This is all because…” I caught myself before I finished the sentence but I already knew I’d said too much. At least, if I were André, I’d want to know what the reason was.

“Because?” he asked softly. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“No?”

He chuckled, his hand tightening on my waist as if he were trying to pull me even closer to him—until there was nothing left but stardust. “You don’t sound convinced.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“You don’t have to tell me, but I promise I won’t judge you.”

I swallowed. It was now or never. I could run or make something up, but it felt like we were already dangling on the edge of a precipice, looking for a reason to leap. Sometimes you just had to say fuck it and hope there weren’t sharp rocks at the bottom. “I… I used to have the biggest crush on you,” I said, tilting my head up. “Back when Kane and I were together. And I guess it never really went away.”

André’s eyes went wide as the lights swept over his face, drenching him in pink, teal and gold. The full force of my crush smacked into me, knocking the air out of my lungs and threatening to send me flying across the dance floor. His mouth opened as the music surrounding us came to a close, ending our conversation before it had really begun.

We stared at each other as applause broke out around us and my hands came together without any input from my brain. I should have been looking at Kane and Austin, celebrating their marriage and the end of a perfect day, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the man standing in front of me.

André glanced away, finally breaking the spell, and I turned my head to see Kane and Austin kissing in the middle of the dance floor.

“Thanks for coming, everyone,” Austin said, looking around at all of us. “See you… who knows?” He grinned and squeezed Kane’s hand, and even from here I could see the desire burning in their eyes. I doubted they’d get out of bed in the morning unless the hotel burst into flames.

“Get out of here,” Peter yelled and a few people laughed. Austin smirked and winked.

“We’re going. You kids have fun! But you all have to buy your own drinks now.”

They strolled out of the room, barely glancing at anything that wasn’t each other. As soon as they were gone, the lights slowly began to come back on as things wound down. I knew we were two minutes away from the DJ starting to pack up and the late-night staff coming in to clear the last of the glasses, effectively kicking everyone out.

Not that I wanted to be here much longer.

“Do you want to go upstairs?” André asked, his eyes skimming over the last of the guests. I followed his gaze and realised that Toby was still being propped up by Dai and Haru.

“Yes, but do you need to…” I gestured at his bandmates. André shrugged.

“They’ll be fine. And if not, Toby can sleep in one of their rooms. His snoring isn’t that bad.”

“Let’s go then, before you get roped in.”

André slipped his hand into mine, clearly not caring that people were still around. It should have felt sudden, especially because it’d been barely thirty-six hours since we’d reconnected, but it only felt right. Maybe this was all part of the wedding hook-up fantasy world we were living in, but I didn’t give a shit. Because I’d rather have this now than never have had it at all.

And I wasn’t the sort of person to give up on things easily, especially not when I’d decided I wanted something. Or someone.

We made our way out of the reception, avoiding any other guests hanging around, and headed towards the lifts. I wished I could speed up time because waiting to get upstairs before asking André what he’d been about to say was testing my patience to the limit, and I needed to know.

If he was going to break my heart, I wanted to get it over and done with so I could go back to my room and eat my weight in mince pies while crying in the shower—the way any adult would process things.

His grip tightened on my fingers as the lift dinged, the door sliding open on our floor to reveal an empty corridor. I thought about asking whose room we were going to, but André had already led me to his door and pulled his keycard out of his pocket by the time the words had found their way to my tongue.

The opening door sounded horrifically loud, but my heartbeat was louder still as I followed André into his room, watching as he flicked on a couple of lamps. It was strange to feel so out of my depth but all I could focus on was the unfinished conversation hanging over my head like an axe.

“There,” André said as he shrugged off his jacket and threw it casually on a chair. “It’s just us now. We don’t have to worry about people listening… and I can do this.” He walked back over to me and reached out to caress my jaw, pulling me in for a deep kiss that had me melting. “I love kissing you.”

“Do it again,” I said, begging for one more before he sealed my fate. “Please.”

“Anything you want.” He kissed me again, his tongue flicking over my bottom lip and slowly pushing into my mouth, casually claiming me and drawing a whimper from my throat. “I have to tell you,” he said, his mouth brushing against mine with every word. “I had a crush on you too. From the very first moment I saw you.”

“You did?”

“Of course. You’re gorgeous, Luke. You always have been. I couldn’t ever take my eyes off you and I was so jealous of Kane because you were so fucking perfect.”

“I wish you’d known,” I said as a swirl of emotions rose in my throat. “You didn’t need to be jealous. It was all fake.”

“I wish I’d known too. Then I could have done this years ago.” His kiss was deeper this time, a little rougher too, and I groaned because it was everything I wanted his kisses to be. “My crush never went away either, Luke. Fuck, seeing you again yesterday brought it all back, and now…”

“Now what?”

“I don’t want this to end tomorrow,” he said fiercely. “I don’t want us to wake up tomorrow and go back to London and pretend this was just some casual wedding fuck to get us through the weekend. I don’t want to live the rest of my life knowing what you taste like and never getting to taste you again.” Another kiss, one that left my head spinning. “I don’t want to have any regrets, Luke. And I know letting you go would be the biggest fucking regret of my life.”

I grabbed the front of his shirt and grinned. “Don’t fucking let me go then.”

André smirked and pulled me in for another kiss.