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I wrapped my arms around his waist. It was crazy that every high school fantasy I’d ever had was happening right now. I took advantage of the situation and brought my lips to his, giving him the same light kiss I’d put on his hand earlier. He returned the kiss, equally soft. The goatee tickled against my skin. The kiss got more intense as our tongues came together, wrapping around each other.

He let his weight fall into me. Crashing into him on the ice gave me a small indication how solid he was. He was tight, compact, full of muscle, similar to my build. My hands went under his jacket and sweater and felt up his back, which was smooth and defined. My hands stayed in appropriate places, even though I wanted to go below his waistband. This did not need to be rushed.

I don’t know how long we kissed. We felt each other up under our clothes as much as we could. Alex got one hand under my sweater and lightly tweaked my nipples. I moaned, probably too loud for being outside, but he was very gently pushing all my buttons between the goatee against my neck, the caresses, the kisses, his body against mine.

He slowly broke the kiss. It felt like he’d taken away vital life support. “Is it too forward to ask you back to my place? I don’t want you to think I always take people home on the first date, but we could be a lot more comfortable there.”

“I’ll go anywhere you tell me too.”

Once again our hands locked together. It was a quick walk, probably less than five minutes. He lived on the fourth floor of a loft building. The living room and kitchen were open space with high ceilings. It was hard to believe three guys just out of college lived here; it was too clean. My place wasn’t this clean. There was a guy lying on the couch watching TV, hopefully this wasn’t going to stop us from continuing.

“Hey, Pete, this is Mitchell. Mitchell, Pete.”

“Hey, man,” I said.

The guy waived, but kept his spot.

Alex led me further back into the loft. I was glad to see, as he flipped on the light, that this room was clearly his alone, unless he had a roommate sleeping in the queen sized bed with him.

“We each have separate rooms, so it’s all good.” He locked the door, as if he’d heard the questions in my head. “I felt you tense up when you saw Pete.”

“Sorry. I just…well. I know you said you had roommates, but I didn’t expect you’d bring me back with them here.”

“I’m the only one without a boyfriend, but the other guys are over all the time. Pete’s is working tonight. He’ll be over later I’m sure. Martin is out of town with his guy.” Our hands were still locked and Alex used that to spin me in towards him, like a smooth dance move. “Let’s get this off of you.” He pushed the coat off my shoulders and down my arms. He caught it so it didn’t hit the floor and he tossed it onto a chair. “I think we need a little bit more atmosphere. One second.”

Alex quickly produced a few candles and placed them around the room, lighting them as he went. He also turned on a floor lamp and killed the big overhead light. A pretty stunning, intimate lighting scheme was created.

“This is a great place you’ve got.”

“Thanks.” He took his coat off and dropped it on the chair next to mine. “Not too over the top with the candles I hope.”

“Nope. I like it. I’ve never had anyone do a setup like this.” I caught a look at the clock next to the bed. “Do you know it’s after eleven?”

“Holy shit, really?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that okay?”

“Sure. It’s not like I’ve got a curfew.” I smiled. “Though if I did I’d be willing to blow it. I’m just surprised. We must have been parked against that tree a long time.”

“I think I’ve damaged you a bit, too.” He touched the area around my lips. “You’re very red. I think I scraped you a bit too much.”

“I don’t care. I loved that.” To prove the point I pulled him to me and aggressively went for his mouth. As deliberately as I could I made his whiskers scrape against my face.

“Beard fetish, eh?” He sort of giggled in between kisses.

“I guess you could call it that. Is that okay?”

“Hell yeah. There was one guy I went out with for a while who complained about it all the time.” I continued nuzzling him as he spoke. “Probably bad form to talk about that, isn’t it?”

“His loss, my gain.” I nibbled on his chin some more.

“Can I please get this off of you?” he asked, tugging at my sweater. I stopped the nibbling and let him pull the sweater up and over my head. “Nice. Feeling it earlier didn’t prepare me for this.” He ran his hand over my pecs. “Dude, you’re built. Were you like this in high school?”

“I don’t know how to answer that without sounding conceited or like a gym rat.”

“Just say yes.”