Page 52 of Aftermath

"You okay?" Cam touched his scruffy cheek to get his attention.

Austin nodded automatically, eyes on the approaching trail of dust.

It was probably someone who had seen the fire. Maybe. Well, he hoped it was.

"You?" Austin asked back as an afterthought.

"Peachy."

As it turned out, it was a man and his son who drove the truck. They'd seen the smoke from the house fire and had decided to drive over to check it out.

They were shocked to see the seven men; the seven men were blank.

Austin and the others found out they were just outside Johannesburg, or Jo-burg as the two locals called it, and it was one of the many ghost towns in the area. Why it was called a ghost town when a group of people—no matter how small it was—still lived there, Austin didn’t understand.

But that didn’t matter.

Two strangers were about to take them back to Bakersfield.

The sun rose on the way.

The men covered their faces with their hands.

Direct sunlight after months without it, combined with the desert dust, had definitely caused Austin some problems. One doctor told him it was the darkness in the basement that had impaired his vision, and another one said it was sudden sun exposure that had caused it. No matter the reason, he now needed his glasses—and shades for when the sun was out. Stupidly, he didn’t follow the doctors' orders all the time, but he tried. He could still function without them, but it was only a matter of time before the headaches came, not to mention dryness and the mother of all itches.

Checking the time, he noticed the group session would end soon, and he hoped to get a minute alone with Cam before he had to drag his own ass up to Gale's office. Because these past days had been fucking exhausting, and he missed Cam. He missed him a lot.

On a few occasions, he'd thought about telling Gale about his new…could it be called a relationship?…whatever it was, with Cam, but he'd decided not to. At least not yet. It was so new, and it was a safe haven he wanted to keep to himself for now. Maybe if he'd considered it to be unhealthy to be with Cam, Austin would speak up, but he couldn’t.

It wasn’t like he had to see Cam every hour of the day. He didn’t feel particularly clingy or needy; he didn’t get anxious when Cam left the house or anything. He just wanted…he wanted them to be together. Spend their nights together, be closer than a phone call away, and have the same place to call home. He wasn’t ready for it yet, and he had to think of Riley, too, but it was what he ultimately wanted—

Cam opened the passenger door and got in before Austin could finish his thought.

"Fuck, you scared me." Austin blew out a breath. Turning in his seat, he took in the mouthwatering sight he'd missed. "How did the session go?" He wanted to reach out, but this was the first time they were out in public since…well, since they'd fucked. Austin wasn’t sure what was okay to do.

They were at the far end of the parking lot, though—several spots available between Cam's Camaro and the next car—so he supposed it was safe…

"It went," was all Cam said, and he wasn’t struggling internally. He leaned over the console and the cup holders and pulled Austin in for a hard kiss. "You're in a suit," he mumbled, palming Austin's crotch.

"Christ," Austin hissed. Despite his shock, he bucked his hips into Cam's touch. It was all instinctual. "I—I thought I'd skip the beach bum look for when I looked at the apartment." He abandoned all words and deepened the kiss. There were fifteen minutes until his session with Gale; he was going to make the most of it. "Let me just roll up the windows." Now he wished there was such a thing as medical exemption for the tint laws in Cali; alas, there wasn’t. It wouldn’t be completely secluded, but the windows were still partially tinted.

"Did you get the place?" Cam asked huskily as Austin went for the fly on his jeans. "No, fuck that." He pushed Austin back and started unbuckling Austin's belt. Then he unzipped his fancy suit pants. "Now answer my fucking question."

"I, ah—" Austin groaned when Cam pulled out his semi-hard cock. "Shit. Yeah, I got it. Signed a six-month lease and paid the first month's rent—ahh." Cam leaned down and swallowed him whole. "Ohhh."

How many times in the past few days had he thought about this? Austin had lost count. Sliding off his shades, he placed them on the dashboard to see Cam better. Then he threaded his fingers through Cam's hair and just focused on his lover's amazing mouth.

"Suck me slowly," Austin murmured. By now, he was rock hard and hitting the back of Cam's throat with each pass. "Fucking perfect." He groaned and guided their movements. His hips thrust upward, and he pushed past Cam's wet, soft lips, feeling his cock slide along Cam's tongue. "Damn," he moaned. "I could've used you in my showers." The fantasies didn’t come close to the real thing.

"Oh, yeah?" Cam kissed and licked the length, reaching Austin's sac. He kissed and licked there, too. And sucked. "Don't hold out on me. Tell me what you've thought about."

It was pretty damn difficult to think, though. "Uh…" Austin's eyes were fixed on Cam's mouth. "About fucking you. I want to be inside you again." His head lolled back against the headrest as Cam sucked him in once more and hummed. "I can't stop thinking about you." He also wanted Cam to fuck him. In his morning showers, Austin had released in thick streams of come, a tight grip on his erection and fingers in his ass—all at the thought of Cam taking him. "I want you inside me, too," he admitted in a lust-filled voice. And this time, Cam moaned around him and sped up. He tightened his lips, which drove Austin to the brink of insanity.

It had hurt at first to finger himself, but fantasies about Cam doing it had made Austin love it. First one, while he made himself hard, then two as he stroked roughly toward a release, then three as he came against the shower wall.

When his body tensed up without warning, waves of heat washing through him, he barely got a word out before his climax took over. But Cam had obviously sensed it. While Austin rocked deeper into his mouth, Cam swallowed and kept sucking. His tongue swirled around the head, and his teeth grazed teasingly along the tight skin.

"Goddamn…" Having unconsciously held his breath, Austin started to pant. He slumped in his seat as Cam tucked him back into his boxer briefs and zipped up his pants. In an oddly tender gesture, he also grabbed Austin's hand and kissed it—and he noticed why.

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