Boston Boys [01] - A Life Without You by Erica Pike Page A

committed to each other as hetero couples, or at the very least that I am a person who would commit myself fully to Jesse, regardless of any statistics he might throw at me.
    When I open the door, I find Jesse wrapped up in his sheet on his bed. His teeth chatter and his body rattles like a flag in an ice storm.
    “Ugh, Adam, I’m literally freezing my ass off,” he complains while I quickly undress and put on a pair of pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt.

    78 Erica Pike
    “Are you naked under there?”
    Jesse nods, or I think he does, he’s shivering so badly.
    I walk into the bathroom. “Just put on some clothes and you’ll get warm.”
    “No way,” Jesse calls after me. “I sleep naked on principle.” I breathe out a laugh and feel the tension between us ebb away as I finish what I need to do in the bathroom. I dive under the extra thick cover I bought after it started getting really cold at night and Jesse eyes it with envy.
    “On principle?”
    “Yeah,” Jesse chatters. “We didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up, so Mom made me wear pink hand-me-down girl pajamas with pony figures and tiny hearts when I was a kid.
    I refuse to wear anything to smother the memory. Seriously, I’m scarred for life.”
    I roll my eyes with a snort. “That’s not a principle, that’s just you being weird.”
    Jesse either refuses to dignify that with a reply, or his jaws have frozen together. I’m guessing it’s a little bit of both.
    “Well then, come to my bed,” I say with a smirk and prop myself up on my elbow. “I’ll keep you warm.”
    “Yeah, right,” Jesse laughs through chattering teeth.
    I shrug and turn my back to him. “It’s really warm under here. I’ll just keep that offer open in case you change your mind, okay?”
    “Traitor,” Jesse chatters.
    I’m tired. Eric and I have been studying a lot lately but he never feels that we’ve studied enough. That’s why I’ve been going to sleep late this past week. That’s also why I haven’t been seeing a lot of Jesse, which, in a way, has been for the best. The few moments we do get together these days are hardly ever pleasant and almost always hurtful.
    My eyelids are so heavy, but before they can pull me into what A Life Without You 79
    I hope to be a dreamless sleep, I hear rustling from Jesse’s bed.
    He slips under my covers a minute later.
    “You win,” he says, convulsing all over.
    I turn to face him and wrap my body around him, resting his head against my chest. His figure settles into mine as if it was created to fit there. It’s not lost on me that this is the first time I’ve gotten to touch him for a whole week. “Sheesh, you weren’t kidding. You’re like a friggin’ icicle,” I say and try to relax my body to keep it from shivering.
    “Hey, you knew what you were getting yourself into when you made that offer. You promised to keep me warm, so stop complaining and do your job.”
    I smile into his hair and pull him closer. He’s completely naked. He didn’t even bring over his sheet. The knowledge of him being naked in my bed again has my mind reeling.
    “Hey!” Jesse says when my penis hardens against his stomach.
    I smile. “Sorry. Can’t be helped. Yours will do that too once you’ve stopped spazzing.”
    “No it won’t,” Jesse mumbles.
    But it does. After a few minutes he has stopped shivering and I feel the warmth spreading through his body. The first indication, though, was the hardness against my hip.
    Jesse groans and buries his face further into my chest. His hand goes under my arm and clutches the shirt on my back.
    And there it is again. His quiet, internal battle. He wants me. That’s evident from his lower regions, his stiff body, and his irregular breathing. He wants me, but he won’t betray Chirpy again. Or will he? For a moment I wonder exactly how far he wants me to go to warm up his body.
    I slowly stroke my palm over his back, and let it linger suggestively at the base of it, right