Page 34 of The Fault Next Door

Nolan paused and narrowed his eyes. “Wow. So no thank you for doing the chores, or maybe just hello?”

“You don’t have to do the chores for me. I’m not useless.”

Nolan’s lips thinned. “What happened to make you so angry?”

“I’m not angry.” The lie slipped off his tongue so easily. He was furious. He hated how his father had come in and dropped a bomb of anger. His bones ached with hate and bile.

“You sure aren’t a ray of sunshine.”

Ryder growled. “I don’t have to be. Why don’t you leave?”

“Why don’t you tell me what’s really wrong?”

“You are what’s wrong.”

Nolan shook his head. “You know what. I don’t have to put up with this.”

He turned to leave, and that pissed Ryder off more. He reached for Nolan, spinning him around and pressing him up against the wall. The thought that he was useless twisted through him. Maybe he was just an ungrateful piece of shit, but he'd finally found peace with Nolan, and now he was fucking it up.

Nolan's eyes widened with fright, and he hated himself for scaring the man. He blew out a breath and thunked his forehead against the wall right next to Nolan's head.

"Fuck. I'm so fucked up. My dad came over and delivered his usual message that I'm a total waste of air, and I'm taking it out on you. I don't want to fuck this up, but I'm angry, and I don't know how to get rid of it when I can't do something physical."

Nolan placed his hand on Ryder’s belly, sending tingles of desire through him. “You know what helps relieve anger?”

“What?” Ryder whined.

“A blowjob. Just push your pants low and sit on the couch. I’ll do the rest.”

Ryder took a step back and narrowed his gaze. “This isn’t a trick, right?”

“No tricks. Just sit and let me blow you. Then we can talk about what the fuck is going on in your head.” Nolan tapped his forehead. “This head, not the other one.”

Ryder didn’t respond to Nolan’s words because he knew he would fuck it up. He moved to the couch as he shoved his pants lower on one side and then the other.

Nolan took over, grabbing his cock and jacking it a few times before wrapping his lips around the tip and sucking down. Rydersighed as he closed his eyes. Nolan was right. Having his dick sucked took all the anger away.

The words his father said didn't matter with Nolan's lips wrapped around his cock. He was getting close when a car door slammed outside.

“Fuck,” Ryder said as he pushed Nolan off.

"Stand, and I'll help you pull those up. We'll continue this later."

Ryder didn’t know if they would get to continue this later or if this would prove why he didn’t need to be gay.

Shock filled Ryder when he saw it was his boss, Jim, and not his mother or father. He went to reach out with his right hand to shake but winced.

“Sorry, can’t shake yet. It’s still too sore.”

“Man, I’m just glad you’re alive. If that load had fallen on you, I don’t even want to think about how bad that would be,” Jim said as he shook his head.

“Could it have crushed him?” Nolan asked.

Ryder could see the fear and shock on Nolan’s face. It felt good to have Nolan worry about him. He thought he’d lost that forever when Amy died. He wanted to pull Nolan close, but he kept his hands to himself.

Jim shrugged. “It looks like the equipment failed. I don’t know how, but the company that makes the pallet loader is investigating.”

“This is Nolan, my neighbor,” Ryder said. “He works at the medical clinic where I ended up.”