One Tent My Forbidden Stepbrother novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Night Watch

The fire watch was Dad's idea, and Dad had not looked either of them in the eye when he assigned it.

"Eleven to four," he said, handing Blaine a radio. "Lookout rock. The grass is tinder this year, and if anything lights up, you call it in."

"Both of us?" Blaine asked.

"It's a long night, and a man should have company."

So at eleven they climbed the dark path to the granite shelf above the camp.

They carried a wool blanket, a thermos and a radio that crackled every ten minutes.

The whole valley lay below them.

The stars were thick across the whole sky.

The creek was a pale thread at the bottom of the dark.

Blaine spread the blanket on the flat stone and sat with his knees up.

Perry sat beside him.

For an hour they talked about nothing.

The lights of a far-off town.

The one faint sound of a cow.

The postdoc, who had left that morning with a cheerful wave and a promise to cite Perry's paper.

Then Blaine fell silent.

The radio crackled.

"All quiet," Perry said into it, and set it down.

"Per."

"Yes," Perry said.

"I want something."

Perry turned his head.

Blaine was looking out at the valley, not at him, and his jaw was tight.

"I want you to," Blaine said. "Tonight. You."

For a second Perry did not understand.

"You mean," Perry said, and stopped.

"I mean I want you to take me." It came out rough. "I've done it twice. Both times a long time ago, and neither time because I wanted it."

Perry's chest went tight.

"Blaine. You don't have to give me anything. We've got time."

"I know what we've got. Ten days." Blaine turned his face to him at last, and it was open and unprotected, with the starlight in his eyes. "I'm not giving you something. I'm asking."

Perry put the thermos down very carefully.

"Say why."

"Because I trust you," Blaine said, "and I don't trust anybody, and I want to know what that's like."

Perry kissed him.

He did it slowly, a hand on Blaine's jaw, and Blaine let out a shaky breath and opened for him.

They undressed on the blanket under the wide cold sky.

Blaine lay back, enormous and bare, with his knees bent and a muscle jumping in his thigh.

Perry knelt between Blaine's bent knees and looked at him.

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