Page 105 of String Boys

Stars burned cold overhead, shifting in time to the music of the universe, and the sea roiled beneath them in an endless hush.

“Wow,” Kelly whispered.

Seth pulled him tight, his back to Seth’s front, and held on.

“The world is so big.” Kelly’s voice—troubled, worried—pinged in Seth’s chest, a plaintive note that wouldn’t stop ringing.

“See those two stars?” Seth had taken astronomy this year—his first college science class, actually.

“Yeah?”

“They onlylooklike stars from here.”

“What are they really?”

“Suns. Twin suns. They revolve around each other, each one carrying their own planets that revolve around them. But they’re tied together. Like gravity. And there mayseemto be all this space around them, but they’re really the beating heart of their own solar system. Only they know.Theyknow that their other half is out there.”

“But… do they ever get to be the same sun?”

Seth tightened his grip. “Not in astronomy. But humans aren’t stars, baby. Because we’re here. And I’m touching you. And that’s not going away.”

Kelly turned in his arms then and raised his briny face to Seth’s and his shaking hands to Seth’s cheeks. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

Seth lowered his head and took Kelly’s mouth, his kisses, as Seth’s own, starting their own thermal detonation. Body heat boiled between them, and Kelly moaned, kissing harder. Seth wrapped his arms around his shoulders, bending so he could slide his hands down the back of Kelly’s jeans.

Kelly stiffened and pulled away.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Kelly—”

Kelly shook his head and placed his fingers over Seth’s mouth. “Bed.” His smile was jagged and bright and dark, like stars. “I want to touch you when I’m warm.”

Seth nodded and allowed himself to be pulled back to the house, into the warmth.

They undressed in the dark, both of them leaving their clothes in careful piles on their luggage, and then slid into the bed in their underwear, their chilled hands and feet making giggly contact with their warm places. Finally, Seth took Kelly’s hands and tucked them under his arms, shuddering as the cold threatened to overwhelm him.

Kelly shuddered too, and as they warmed up together, he scooched closer, until he was firmly in Seth’s arms.

Then Seth could talk.

“Did you… you know…?”

“No.” Kelly kissed his chest. “I didn’t get afraid. I just… I wanted this. You wanted beautiful for me. I just wanted you.”

“We got both,” Seth said happily.

Kelly’s low chuckle warmed him. “You are feeling very smug, aren’t you?”

“Mm….”

Kelly found his mouth in the dark, and it was like those moments on his father’s couch again. Long and slow, slow and deep. Mouth, lips, tongue, teeth, every stroke, every thrust, every foray a new and exciting combination. Seth’s nerves lit up, crackling with energy, with wanting, and Kelly whined, pulling away.

“This was not well thought out,” he panted.

“How thin are the—”

And in answer, they heard Chloe crying downstairs and Craig’s warm voice, vibrating through the floorboards.

Seth groaned softly, burying his head in Kelly’s shoulder. His erection—oh God. In the last six months, he’d beenmadeof erections, but at the sound of his father’s voice, it throbbed quietly into flaccidity. “This isn’tfair!”