Damn it. What am I doing? I need to pull away. We need to talk before this goes any further.

Pierce gathered what little strength he had left and stepped back.

He caught the flicker of disappointment in Kyle’s eyes — and it almost made him falter.

“Kyle,” he said, steady despite the tremor underneath, “we need to talk.”

He took a breath. “I want this. But first — we need to talk.”

“I agree with you,” Kyle said. “Where do you want to start?”

He gently pulled Pierce with him toward the couch, guiding them to sit down.

“I have some questions about our night,” Pierce replied, his voice edged with fear.
“Others about what you want to do now.” He hesitated.
“And a few more… about you.”

He glanced at Kyle, searching his face.

“And you?” Pierce asked quietly. “Do you have many questions?”

“I have a lot of questions,” Kyle said. “And I know some of them are things you won’t be able to answer.”

He paused, then added softly, “I’m okay with that.”
He took a breath before continuing. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go first.”

Pierce shifted slightly on the couch and waited.

Kyle hesitated — less afraid of asking the question than of hearing the answer.

“If I asked you to stay — to really stay in my life — would you?”

Pierce froze as he thought about the question.

Kyle noticed and spoke again.

“You’ve said more than once that this wouldn’t work. I still don’t understand why. But putting that aside… if everything were simpler, would you stay?”

“Kyle, if everything were simpler, I wouldn’t even have to think twice. That night, you wouldn’t have left this place — not even if the police had come knocking.”

Kyle smiled, unable to hide it.

“But things aren’t simple, Kyle.”

“But they could be — if you stopped making them so difficult,” Kyle said, his tone more serious now.

“That was basically the only question I really needed answered,” he added.
“Now come on — you start. I’ll answer.”

Pierce sighed.

“That night… was it really your first time? Because it looked like you knew exactly what you were doing.”

Kyle smiled, a little wicked.

“It was my first, I swear. We’re in the age of technology, P. I’m pansexual — what I watch to get off isn’t just straight stuff.”

Pierce raised his hands in surrender.

“You said that if you got home late, the police would be looking for you. Want to explain that?”

“As you know, my parents are diplomats, and they’re rarely in the same place for long,” Kyle said.
“I was tired of that. I wanted stability for once. A place to finish university. So they made a deal with Yanick.”

“I live at his place — he basically takes care of me — but there are fixed days and times when I have to call my parents, with Yanick sitting right next to me. That morning was one of those days.”

P looked stunned by what he’d just heard and couldn’t hide it.

“Okay… a little strange, but okay. Did you look for me after that night?”

“Oh boy, that’s not a good topic,” Kyle laughed.
“I got interrogated when I got home because of certain marks on my body, and since I didn’t tell him anything, he kept pushing for a while.”

“And yeah — every time a blond guy passed by, I tried to catch his eyes, just to see if it was you or not. He noticed. Asked several times what you looked like.”

Pierce blushed.

“You made a promise before you left,” he said, lowering his head, choking a little on the embarrassment.
“Did you keep it?”

Kyle turned red as a tomato.

“I did. And you’re still the only one to this day.”

Pierce lifted his gaze to meet Kyle’s.

“What do you mean? There was no one else after me?”

Kyle shook his head no.

Pierce couldn’t help but smile a little.