There's nothing in his experience that even hinted to how much different things might be when a man actually cares about a person he's intimate with. Knowing that he wants a relationship, with a man, who he trusts with his life and at his back, and now having this and so much of it is changed for him.

Stroking his fingers along Vasquez's cheek, just beneath his jaw. All that he can do for him, touching him, caressing his skin, feeling the prickle of stubble against his fingers. That is part of it that he is loving, that it is so different and so tender and new.

Trembling, his hips moving a bit, nearly bucking up but held where he is.