Page 53 of Watch Over Me

"You didn't want this on Saturday."

Eddie wished he could take the words back as soon as they were out, but it was too late.

James glanced away for a moment before meeting his gaze again.

"It's not that I didn't want it. I just didn't know what it could be. I never—" He hesitated. "I didn't want to lose what we already had. I don't have a lot of… real connections with people, and sex could never be worth the risk of losing that, for me. But then I realized that it's not only sex with you that I want, or only hanging out as friends. I want everything else, too."

Eddie had stopped breathing, his throat tight, but James wasn't done yet.

"I want to see what else we could have, on top of everything that's already there, not instead of it. And I planned on talking to you about it today." He reached out his free hand and tangled their fingers together. "It's not a spur of a moment decision, I promise you. The furthest from that, actually, since I feel like I've been really dumb about this for a very long time."

Eddie chuckled, and then started laughing—loud, joyful sound that came out of nowhere, his heart bursting open.

James wanted him. He wanted to build something real with Eddie, something Eddie had been dreaming about for years now.

"In the interest of full disclosure, though," James added, making Eddie still, "I wasn't planning on having sex with you right away. This part, I admit, was fueled by what happened today. It didn't cause it, but it did make it harder for me torestrain myself."

"You asshole, you got me worried there for a second." Eddie huffed another laugh. "But I hear you. I wouldn't normally do this before we even went on a proper date."

Shifting a little, he slipped his thigh in between James's legs and pressed it against James's groin.

"Oh yeah?" James raised his eyebrows and let his hand travel down Eddie's body slowly. "Which date would this be?"

Eddie's breath caught when James brushed his thumb over his nipple. He could feel his cock getting hard against James's thigh.

"How about we count all the time you spent in my office after hours?"

James grinned as he pinched Eddie's nipple and made him gasp.

"I don't know," he said, staring at Eddie's mouth. "That's easily a few hundred hours by now. Are you sure you'd want to be doing this with me after so long?"

"Yeah," Eddie told him without hesitation. Maybe it was a serious answer to a silly question, but he didn't care. He had no reason to hide anymore, not if James wanted everything Eddie wanted, too. "I'm sure."

The admission earned him a kiss that was different than the ones before, harder and more demanding. James licked into his mouth as he rolled them until Eddie was on his back, with James leaning over him, pressing their cocks together.

Moaning into the kiss, Eddie opened his legs. He wanted James inside him, wanted to feel him everywhere.

"Fuck me," he whispered when they broke the kiss to catch their breaths. "Please."

James's eyes clouded with want, which made Eddie's heart skip a beat. He would say pretty much anything to see it happen again.

And if he thought the previous kiss was demanding, he had no words to describe this one. James was like a force released from a tight leash, and Eddie was just along for the ride.

A very, very happy ride.

About to be even happier.

"Condom and lube?" James asked when he pulled back, and Eddie gestured towards the nightstand.

"The drawer."

It had been a long time since he'd had company here, but the lube, at least, was well-used.

What came next was probably the longest and the hottest prep of Eddie's whole damn life. James took his time kissing every inch of his upper body as he teased, and teased, and teased, running his lubed fingers over Eddie's perineum, squeezing his balls, circling around his entrance. Every time Eddie thought he couldn't take it anymore, James would change some little thing, drawing out the pleasure.

By the time he slipped the first finger inside, Eddie was breathless, panting, and covered in sweat, and his moans had become hoarse as his voice started to give up.

"Please," he whispered over and over, clenching around James's finger, then two, then three. "Fuck me, come on."

---