Riley's POV

He looked like he had just seen a ghost. I couldn't blame him. I was confessing to him something not to be taken lightly. I had panicked and bared my soul, laying my feelings out there. It was stupid. I couldn't take the words back.

This was not the plan! What made it even worse was that I wasn't lying. How on earth is confessing love supposed to protect anyone?

"Casey, just please stay" I said.

He shook his head. I thought he was saying "no", until he said, "What do you mean you love me as more than a friend?"

I sighed. I didn't want to elaborate, but the can was open. I had to say something. I chose the truth.

"I don't know how it happened. I don't know. You've always just kind of been my sounding board, you know? My chef, my test dummy, my diary, my audience, my wall..." I said and trailed off.

"You've always been my punching bag", he jumped in. There was a grin on his face.

I smiled and continued, "...The television soap that I don't want to watch always complaining about Calvin; a giver....of advice I don't want; you've always just been there and I guess I just fell kiddo".

He rolled his eyes. "And you have just ruined it. Kiddo, really?" He was smiling though.

"Do you want me to call you puppy?"

"You can't fucking call me kiddo. You are 2 months older than me!" he protested.

"Puppy it is", I said.

The mood had become lighter, but I knew the room still had tense air flowing. My confession was still hanging in there. Casey still had to process it.

I was about to open my mouth when Casey surprised me by lunging into me. He wrapped his arms around me in a hug and moved slightly back for a kiss. I couldn't deny him. It was short, but even it held some meaning.

"I love you", he said softly.

"Um..." I said.

"Don't say something stupid", he warned and looked at me. "When you were in that coma...it was the worst thing...and then you couldn't remember anything, you couldn't remember me...God Riley, I thought I lost my best friend. I thought I lost the guy I'd given my heart to without even knowing".

I felt my heart soar. I knew from the kiss the other day that Casey felt something. He wasn't the type to just kiss anybody. To hear him say he loved me made the irrational part of me happy.

I pulled him into a hug. His body was warm against mine. "Stay with me?"

He pulled out of the hug and I saw the anxiety on his face. He'd thought of something and it wasn't good. He was going to say no.

"What about Mandy?"

"This won't be the first time you've stayed..."

He shook his head. "No! I don't mean me staying; I mean...you are together. Do you love her?"

The uncertainty in his eyes drew me to them. He was afraid of the answer. He was much more vulnerable than before.

"Honestly, when I got with her I knew nothing. I don't really know what happened, you know. She was nice when she came to visit. She said how about we give it a try and I just said okay. I didn't even know stuff about myself", I said.

"And now?"

"I feel nothing", I lied. I felt something. It wasn't love, but Mandy made me go haywire. It was the thing that made me say yes to her proposal, but I couldn't tell Casey that.

"You shouldn't string her along", Casey said in disapproval. "That's what Eugene did".

I wanted to tell him I wasn't Eugene, but I couldn't. I was similar to Eugene. I was only going to hurt him. Casey was a mess after Eugene. Mr. Stone was right in trying to protect him. I should have been protecting him too, getting him away from me.

But...I was saner when he was closer to me. Before Casey came, I'd been having those terrible thoughts about hurting someone. I wanted to embrace what being a Darkener meant. It was a powerful desire I felt unable to contain.

It was similar to when Miguel was there, when I had Matt next to me. In the moment I had succumbed to the desire.

In Casey's presence, those thoughts and desires seized to exist. That's why I selfishly wanted him to stay.

"I won't", I said quietly.

"I suppose I could stay for a bit longer", he said.

Within a few minutes we were lying on the bed, facing each other. We weren't touching, but I could feel the unsaid attraction between us. Casey was half-naked, his t-shirt and hoodie having been discarded in the living room.

"So I guess you know your sexual orientation now?" he asked.

I coughed.

"I don't really know. I've never been attracted to anyone except you", I admitted.

"You are Cassexual", he said and giggled. I loved hearing that sound.

"Don't get ahead of yourself", I said smiling at him.

"Is it weird I feel like we have been here before?"

"Yeah, it's my room. Of course we've been here before", I said.

"No. I mean, it feels as though we've already done the whole first date, movies, long walks thing. We've done things that couples do. We've slept here many times and I've had my hands in...places before...in a sleepy state of course", he said.

He just looked so beautiful lying next to me. Casey was naturally good-looking, but that time he was glowing. His blue eyes looked brighter. His slightly prominent cheekbones were highlighted by the smile on his face, with his pearly-white teeth showing. I was just transfixed by the beauty staring back at me.

His face changed to worry again suddenly. He was going to ask the all important question: What now?

I couldn't let him ask it. I wasn't ready for it. I had no idea what was supposed to follow our confessions. These weren't normal circumstances. My uncertainty would shatter his heart and I didn't want that. He couldn't utter those words.

I closed the gap between us, my lips swooping on his in a bruising kiss. He didn't resist. He kissed me back fully. At first our kiss was slow with the stings of the desire between us, but it quickly got steamy and erotic. He seemed to have forgotten what he wanted to say, which was great.

Casey's POV

Riley knew.

He knew what he was doing to me. He knew how to kiss me the right way. He knew his mouth would turn me into putty in his hands. It did.

He sucked my lips sensually, licking and biting slightly. My body was throbbing for his touch, wanting to feel his hands on me. I pulled him down onto me when he moved his body over me. My hands went to caress his body, moving my hands with skills I didn't know I possessed on every inch of skin I could access.

He released a sexy groan and pulled back slightly, only to claim my lips yet again. I loved the light suction, the playful nibble and the flick of the lip. My lips were starting to swell. After more minutes of kissing and moans, I finally decided to do something drastic. I didn't want to be the mewling mess he was busy creating. He had given me pleasure I didn't think I was capable of before. It was his turn to be on the receiving end.

I managed to move him underneath me; not that it was easy. Riley didn't give up control easy. He never wanted to be vulnerable.

When I got him to give up just a little of his control– with my legs on either side of his body, I bent down to kiss him. I secured his hands at the top of the bed with one of my own and proceeded to kiss him from the side of his lips, all the way down. I trailed my tongue down, coating him with my warm saliva. I'd never done that before, but I knew I was doing something right when Riley bucked his hips and cussed.

I stopped just where his pants started, and moved my head up so I could kiss his hardening nipples. My tongue circled a bud and Riley moaned, grabbing my hand and positioning it over the bulge in his pants.

Just feeling how hard he was made my member twitch in excitement. I continued my hot wet attack on his nipples while rubbing him. He was turning into putty in my hands.

I got off him to take off his pants.

"These are tighter than a duck's arse", I said chuckling and took my own pants off.

"Still not tighter than yours", he said.

I felt my cheeks burn and glared at him.

"Come back", he said softly. "Puppy?"

I rolled my eyes and climbed onto the bed, straddling him again. His hands rested on my butt, pulling me down to sit on him. I moved my hips up and down and sideways just to tease him. The feel of his bulge against my own was building up pressure in my groin.

"Shit!" he cussed.

I smirked and swayed my hips. Riley stopped me with his hands, inserting his hand in my briefs to cup my buttcheeks. I froze as his hand delved between my butt cheeks. He touched the sensitive spot he was looking for and I moved my hips to feel his finger move to and fro. It felt so good to have his finger on my tight band of muscles.

It was my turn to moan.

I was panting now as Riley opened me up slightly. I was losing the control that I'd strived for. All I could focus on was how I wanted his finger deeper in me. I wanted him to take the final plunge. I needed this.

"...yep, tighter", Riley's words cut through the haze that was clouding my brain.

I could focus enough to know what I had to do. I removed Riley's hand out of my boxer briefs and got of the bed slightly. Grabbing Riley's boxers at the top, I pulled them down with a bout of bravery I didn't know I possessed.

I paused for a brief moment, staring in awe at the sight before me. Riley was big, hard and deep-hypnotizing kind of pink – or was it the sheer fact that this gorgeous sight before me belonged to him that was hypnotizing?

"Casey", Riley snapped me back.

He didn't quite manage to do it entirely. All I could think of was how I wanted his length inside me. I could feel my hole twitching. I wanted him inside my mouth too. I wanted to taste him, lick him to a point he screamed my name.

I positioned myself over his length, gave him a few strokes and kissed the tip before taking him into my mouth. Inexperience didn't for a second matter. Being there with Riley, I just knew what to do. It came naturally.

Riley gasped as I enclosed around him and began sucking him off. He bucked up his lips to meet me, shouting a thousand obscenities. I could feel he was close as I bobbed my head up and down, with my hand at the base of his shaft doing similar movements.

Riley moved my leg over his body, leaving us parallel in different directions. With his hands on my waist, he brought me down on him, stopping my movements.

He'd taken me to orgasm and driven me crazy, but the feel of his wet fingers on my opening was...just unexplainable. My briefs were now on my thigh. In that moment I said a thousand words that didn't exist in my head. I released moans after moans until I was breathless. I just, I couldn't breathe.

I had only just returned to loving him with my lips when he decided he needed to literally be on top, getting the control he so desired. He got my briefs totally off the moment he could, removing the final barrier and leaving me totally naked once more, except for my grey socks, which stood in contrast with my skin.

His lips grazed my lips as he spread my legs apart. As I was getting into the rhythm of the kiss, he snatched his lips away to move his tongue along my thighs towards a spot throbbing for him.

"Oh shit!" I cried out when his hand enclosed around me.

He looked up slightly. His eyes were heavy, tainted by desire and lust.

"We should stop", he said hoarsely.

"I agree", I said.