Redemption (boyxboy) (18+)

Chapter Twenty-five

After that first night in Key West, the first time they completely give themselves over to one another, it gets easier.

At least, it's easier to pretend that they really are tourists, just a normal, happy couple on vacation, because that's what it feels like. It's heady and tingly and all-consuming to the point where they practically lose their appetites for anything other than one another - including Reid, whose intense love affair with cheeseburgers has never been eclipsed by anything before - and it doesn't matter if they're riding donkeys in the Grand Canyon or just drinking sweet tea on the back porch of an abandoned, moss-draped mansion in South Carolina. Because everything seems new, shining in a way it never has before.

The rest of October and nearly all of November pass in what feels like a montage from some silly romantic movie. It's as if their lives have been transformed into a string of snapshots of happiness and sadness and worry and confusion and delight, finding something new and unexpected with every mile they put on the Camaro's odometer.

*******

They go to New Orleans and indulge in beignets on Bourbon Street, laughing at the powdered sugar that coats both of their mouths as they stumble into the dark doorway beside the bakery to take their time kissing away every speck.

And Reid's just getting serious about it, pressing his thigh between Nate's legs and earning himself a whispered,  breathy "Reid," when some drunk asshole on the sidewalk wolf-whistles at them.

Reid doesn't bother to look up because Nate's mouth tastes like fucking heaven right now, so he just raises one hand to flip the stranger off while his tongue slides along the side of Nate's.

But apparently the universe is determined to cockblock him.

A bachelorette party staggers down the street and heads straight for them, giggling in their pink feather boas and clutching a rainbow of fruity-looking drinks between their perfectly manicured talons. Reid wouldn't have paid them any attention (because he's clearly got better things to be doing) but the bride-to-be is brave enough to teeter right up to them on her stripper heels and yell a slurred, "Yeah, you go, you fine-ass dude. You get that ass," as she perches her sparkly tiara - featuring a proud, prominent, and bedazzled dick and balls at its apex - atop Reid's head.

Nate pulls back just far enough to glance up at Reid's new crown, his mouth twitching at the corners, before turning to the bachelorette. Reid's not completely sure if he's going to smile or punch this girl, but he's on board with either option.

Of course, Nate does something completely different instead. He winks at the girl, slow and deliberate, before pulling Reid's head back down and fucking bites his bottom lip.

The girls shriek, laughing and making that supersonic "woo" sound only drunken sorority girls seem to have mastered. They fall against each other, fanning themselves, and their hurricanes slosh over the sides of the glasses as they totter on down the street.

"Now," Reid says, his tiara slipping to the side as he pushes forward, slotting his hips against Nate's to grind enthusiastically against the sagging door frame, "Where were we?"

*******

"I think I would like to ride a horse."

It seems like a simple enough request; just a random whim of Nate's because he's never been on one before.

He would have never said a word if he'd known just how annoyingly into it Reid would be. 

"Yee-HAW!" Reid hollers as the Camaro's tires squeal, flipping an illegal u-turn in the middle of the road and hauling ass straight toward central Texas. Apparently, there's some working dude ranch there that Bobby told him about once and the mere mention of horseback riding has spontaneously transformed Reid into a cowboy-crazed monster.