Page 48 of Home Between Homes

“That’s so hot,” Jack said, his hand wrapped tightly around my dick, his eyes taking it all in. My chest buckled over him for a moment, but since he hadn’t come yet, I activated my last energy resources and kept moving. He thrust his hips in sync with mine, and half a minute later, he closed his eyes, tilting his head back into the mattress as his dick throbbed and grew, shooting its load into me.

Everything shook and prickled.

I leaned down and kissed him again, enjoying the feeling of his dick pulsating inside me—three, four,fivetimes before it subsided. His hands on my back made me feel safe. His index finger moved in circles, just like my thoughts.

We stayed like that for another minute before he pulled out.

I slid to the side, now lying beside him but keeping my leg over his. I rested my head on his shoulder. “Good talk.”

He laughed so hard at what I said that I had to pull my head back because his chest was shaking. It took him a minute to calm down. “You always know how to crack me up.”

I didn’t even do anything.

“We need to talk, though,” he said, his smile fading a bit. “What are we going to do now?”

I pushed myself up and leaned against the back of his bed. “I haven’t thought it completely through, to be honest. All I knowis that I want to spend more time with you, or rather,allof my time. If that means staying in Seastone, then I want to do that.”

“What about your job at the FDA?”

“Have you forgotten that I have an offer here as well?”

Jack huffed. “As much as I’d like you to stay, I don’t want you to take a job that makes you sick for my sake.” His eyes went to the ceiling. “I don’t make much, but if we plan carefully and stick to a budget, I think I can support us both until we find a better solution.”

“You’re sweet. But you don’t have to provide for me. This might actually be good. I have to pay off my student loans eventually. I can’t justnotuse my degree. Is it a risk? Sure. Who knows if working as a vet will suck again? Will I fall back into the spiral? Who knows how things will turn out? But when in life do we ever know? Besides, being a vet has always been my dream—a dream that I thought was too much to bear in the end, sure. But with you around, I’m hopeful that things will be different. We survived a damn snowstorm together. I will survive going to work. I just have to learn to... set boundaries. I think I can do that with your help.”

“I’m happy to support you in any way I can.”

I turned to him and put my hand on his cheek. “So, can I crash here for a while?”

His eyes became teary as he looked at me. “If you don’t mind being with me and this...” He gestured around the room. “...then you can stay here as long as you like. I know it’s small, but you can have the bed. I can sleep on the floor for a while. Or we can get rid of the desk and get something bigger. And now I have to stop talking because, judging by your face, I shot way over the finish line.”

I couldn’t stop smiling at him. His already thinking about how he could accommodate everything for me was the most Jackthing ever. “We don’t need to change anything here. I already know that as long as I’m with you, everything will be fine.”

We exchanged more kisses and held each other. After a few minutes of warmth, a few tears rolled down Jack’s chin.

“They’re happy tears, I promise,” he reassured me as I wiped them away. “I just can’t believe how much I like you.”

“I like you, too...roommate.”

Jack chuckled. “Roommate, huh? I think I can get used to that.”

FOURTEEN

ONLY THE FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR

A gentle shakingwoke me from my sleep. My arms ached, and it took three tries to get my eyelids to cooperate.Damn.I was getting too old for naps. I hadn’t even planned on taking one, but with Jack’s warmth enveloping me, I must have drifted off.

Jack had his feet on the floor, but his left arm was still trapped between my back and the mattress. “I was hoping I wouldn’t wake you.” An apologetic smile adorned his face.

I blinked at him, and after a moment of coming back to reality, I lifted my chest to free his arm. “What time is it?”

“It’s a little after four.” He twisted his wrist and shook it as if it needed a second to wake up, too.

“We slept forfive hours?”

“Is that so surprising? Neither of us slept last night.”

I sat up, but the blood rushing to my head was my body’s way of telling me to give it a few more seconds before I could get out of bed. I leaned back and closed my eyes again.

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