Beyond Moonlight Read Free Page B

with maintaining it for so long. For Shane, the constant trips to the stylist would’ve gotten old really quick. But, then, he’d never spent all that much time on his own personal appearance. Outside of his normal shave and shower routine, his only real concession to vanity was the occasional application of eyeliner and the rare Dior shopping spree.
    Not that he’d ever complain about Jesse’s new routine. The blond was nice, though he did prefer Jesse with darker hair, but it wasn’t the hair on his head that mattered to Shane—it was the lack of hair everywhere else. Jesse kept his entire body free of hair and silky smooth. In the past Shane hadn’t cared about that kind of thing one way or the other, but with Jesse just the idea of all that sleek, bare skin sent a shiver of heat straight to his groin.
    Shane set his own guitar aside and leaned back against the couch, trying to ignore the telltale bulge in his jeans. God, how was it possible that after two months of nearly constant sex he still wanted Jesse so badly? They’d been off tour for a few weeks, and barring a short trip to London for Jesse to collect some more of his belongings, they hadn’t been apart since. If it were up to Shane, they never would again. He loved having Jesse with him all the time, falling asleep together, playing music, making love. The last leg of the tour, after that concert at Madison Square Garden, had been like a fantasy. Part of him still expected that any second he’d wake up and it would’ve all been a dream.
    He wanted Jesse with him every minute of every day. Shane knew that was unrealistic—there would be times when Moonlight was busy in the studio, or touring overseas, and vice versa—but as long as he knew Jesse was coming home to him after, he could deal with those separations. And when he himself wasn’t busy with Luck, well, that was simple. Wherever Jesse went, Shane would follow. For the rest of his life he would follow, because now that he had Jesse back, there was no way in hell he was ever letting go.
    “I think I’ve got it!” Jesse’s face lit up with that dazzling, sweet, familiar smile. Shane’s chest almost ached at the sight of it. Goddamn. Even though he was lucky enough to have that same smile bestowed on him multiple times a day, it still had the power to take his breath away. “Listen to this.”
    Jesse started playing again, but Shane had stopped listening to the music. All he could see was Jesse’s face: that stunning smile; pale, flawless skin; those gorgeous, dark-lashed eyes. There was nothing that wasn’t beautiful about him. When they were kids, Shane hadn’t seen it right away. That slow-blooming attraction had snuck up on him, in little stomach flips and lightning quick moments when Jesse’s smile or his eyes or his laugh made Shane’s heart stutter in his chest. Until one day he’d realized that suddenly everything about Jesse turned him on, that somewhere along the way, without ever intending it, he’d fallen for his best friend— hard .  
    Shane couldn’t deny his body’s immediate response to Jesse’s new look, that instantaneous spark of lust that had driven him crazy all spring and summer. He was only human—a fact made painfully clear by his fuckups over the years—and Jesse’s Kayden incarnation was sexy as hell. But even back then, when Jesse was more nerdy than chic, when he still wore glasses, when his body wasn’t tight and lean as it was now, Shane had wanted him. Desperately. More than anyone or anything. He’d wanted to be Jesse’s first, his last, his everything. He still did.  
    “Marry me.”
    The words were out before Shane could stop them. Jesse’s playing broke off in a discordant jangle of notes. He stared at Shane in wide-eyed shock. “What?”  
    Shane felt heat creep up the back of his neck. He hadn’t meant to just blurt it out like that. For weeks he’d been thinking about it, trying to come up with the perfect proposal: where to do