Call it boldness or just a lack of patience, but the empty path felt too perfect for Dario to resist. He’d waited long enough for a moment like this, where no one could interrupt, and Ryan couldn’t hide behind polite smiles and replies. Dario reveled in the way the pastor’s son squirmed whenever he spoke, in the nervous twitch of his lips each time Dario dropped a teasing line just close enough to cross a line.

He knew exactly how dangerous this was. Ryan, the neighbor boy raised on caution. Maybe that made it sweeter, that sharp edge of wrongness beneath the thrill. Every offhand comment Dario made of “you look nice” and “damn, you trying to impress me looking cute like that?” had been building to this moment he’d finally take what he’d only toyed with before.

Dario stepped closer, fingers brushing Ryan’s sleeve just long enough to make him freeze. “You know,” he murmured, voice low and warm, “Anyone ever told you you’re cute when you blush like that?” His words were all teasing, but his gaze stayed locked on Ryan’s mouth.