Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! My heart was about to pop out of my chest any moment now.
"Say it again," I said. Begged, in fact. "Say it again."
"What?" Aiden asked.
"Say it again… That you…love me."
He looked at me for a moment, and then as if he understood, he leaned forward and kissed me gently on the lips. When he moved back, he said softly, "I love you, Haru. I want you as mine. Will you be mine?"
Suddenly, it was all too much, and I burst out crying like a kid, with tears flowing down my cheeks. Fuck!
"I love you, Aiden," I sobbed. "I love you so much it hurts. You have no fucking idea how much I've endured. I thought you were going to kick me out and never want to see me again because I'm gay and am in love with you. I thought you'd find me disgusting…"
"Holy shit!" Aiden said, his voice shaky. "Just… Holy shit!" He hugged me tight as I buried my face against his chest.
When I managed to calm down, he asked, "When? When did it start?"
I wiped my eyes. "I don't know. Puberty, I guess. Fourteen. Fifteen. Who cares? It's been a long time and I was about to give up and—"
Aiden shut me up by kissing me on the lips, hard out. He even plunged his tongue into my mouth and demandingly kissed me like he was starving for me or something. When he finally terminated the kiss and moved back, he said, "Don't. Just don't say it. I never want to hear you say you're giving up on me."
Oh, fuck! I couldn't believe it. Just couldn't. Aiden had just confessed to me that he loved me. Shit! Was this even real?
"Can I hear it?" Aiden said.
"Hear what?"
"That you love me."
I licked my lips and then said, "I love you, Aiden. I want you. Every night I imagine you and me together, making out like we made out the other night."
Aiden sucked in a shaky breath. "Fuck!" He raked his fingers through his blond hair. "Was that why…"
I nodded. Not one bit ashamed of my behavior. I said, "When you kissed and touched me, I was over the moon. Whenever I see you with some girl, my heart hurts and I just want to burst out crying, because I was so jealous."
Aiden tightened his arms around me and then kissed my forehead. "I'm sorry, Haru. It must have been painful."
I nodded.
"But it's different now. Let's start anew. I want you as mine. I want you in a serious relationship with me."
"But you're not gay, right?" I asked. I wanted to be clear, after all.
Aiden smiled. "I was pretty sure I wasn't. But maybe I'm bi. Then again, I don't find myself attracted to girls these days. So, maybe I am gay. Then again, I don't find myself attracted to other men, either. Just you. You're all I ever think about. You're special to me, Haru."
My heart quivered warmly at hearing that. I was special to Aiden, and shit, I was fucking elated about that.
"But what about our bros? They'll think we're weird, right?" I asked, uncertain.
"They know," Aiden said, which took me by surprise.
"They know?" I asked, astounded.
He nodded, chuckling. "That I'm in love with you. We chatted last night and they encouraged me to talk to you about my feelings."
"I see," I said. I couldn't believe that Aiden would talk to our other brothers about this sort of thing. And damn, but I had missed out on something good. "Wow."
We both lapsed into silence. I guess we both simply couldn't believe this, just couldn't comprehend that this was actually happening, confessing our feelings to each other.
I finally said, "How come you're not at work today?"
"I took the day off."
"Because you wanted to talk to me?"
He nodded.
"What if I hadn't come home? You would have wasted a day waiting for me."
He chuckled as he stroked my cheek with the backs of his fingers. "I had Jess text me."
Oh. So that was how it was. He had Jess keeping an eye on me. How cunning, as expected of Aiden.
Suddenly, he stood and nudged me to as well. "Where are we going?"
He gave me a gentle smile, his eyes twinkling, which took my breath away. He said, "To my bedroom."
I felt flustered instantly. Though I knew what his intention was, I still asked, "Why to your bedroom?"
He pulled me into his arms and then kissed me gently on the forehead. "Because we've both been enduring this forbidden love for far too long, and we need to make up for lost time. If I had told you my feelings for you two years ago, we wouldn't have had to suffer this much."
I said, "It would have been illegal, anyway. I was only sixteen."
He chuckled. "True, but at least we wouldn't have had to suffer emotionally. I wouldn't have been able to touch you, but at least we would have known where we stood where our feelings are concerned."
True enough, and I nodded. Then, because I couldn't help myself, I wrapped my arms over his shoulders around his muscular neck and stood on tiptoe to kiss him on the lips. When I moved back, I said, "I love you, Aiden."
He smiled, his eyes expressing an assortment of emotions I hadn't seen on him before: love, joy, contentment, and satisfaction all rolled into one. He was breathtakingly beautiful to look at. He was a man who had finally gained what he desperately desired most, which was me.
I was precious to Aiden, and I felt so overwhelmingly happy about that that my heart was about to burst with the joy of it all.
"Me, too," he said. "I love you, too, Haru."