Page 23 of What You Own
We both lived, though, and here we were—me falling apart and Adam taking care of me like I didn’t take care of him.
He put me in the car. I dozed while he drove, but he held my hand the entire time, and it was real nice. He helped me up the stairs to my place, then unlocked the door when I fumbled my keys twice like a punch drunk fool. I tripped over a sneaker because the apartment was dark and I didn’t expect that.
“Ellie’s not home?” Adam asked.
“Guess not.” I hit the switch on the entry light. Her keys weren’t on her hook. Oh, wait. “You know, I think she said she had a date.”
“This late at night?”
“She’s seein’ someone who’s a bouncer at a club. He keeps weird hours.”
“Guess so.” He gazed around the place, which had to look small and dumpy compared to his daddy’s house. Faded paint, thrift store furniture, overflowing trash can because it was Ellie’s turn to dump it. At least the apartment smelled nice thanks to Ellie’s candle obsession. He wandered to the wall by the TV where we’d hung a few pictures. I didn’t know if I should kick him out or ask if he wanted a drink, so I let him look. Nothing up there I was ashamed of—only pictures of me, Ellie, and some of our friends and family.
He paused at a copy of the family photo from the last big family reunion. The one with me and Meghan in it. “How are your parents?”
“They’re good,” I said. “Still workin’ hard, as always.”
“Did you tell them about me?”
“That I saw you again? I couldn’t exactly hide it.”
He hesitated, unsure for the first time since he dragged me off to Pizza City. “What did they say?”
“They were surprised by the memory loss. My daddy was pissed at yours for keeping all that from you.”
His lips twitched into a smile. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” We’d been honest about things all night, so in for a penny…. “They also told me to be careful because they didn’t want my heart to get broken all over again.”
Adam moved closer, an arm’s reach away. “I didn’t intend to break your heart the first time, I swear. At Thanksgiving, I was scared, and I let my dad tell me what to do. Then I grew a pair of balls and tried to get you back. It sounds like I did for a fraction of precious time, and then the bashing ruined everything. I don’t want to break your heart ever again, but I’ve had a lot of time to miss you, Ryan. A lot of time to understand those months leading up to that night, and the reason why I went to the wrap party to find you.”
My pulse galloped off like a spirited horse. “And what did you decide?”
His mouth answered but not with words. He pulled me down and kissed me hard, and the first taste of him set me on fire. Nothing else mattered but kissing him. I thrust my tongue into his mouth, and he answered with a moan that made my balls tingle with need. I wanted to touch him all over, to prove he was real. I found warm skin beneath his T-shirt. He did the same, kneading muscles and flesh, and I needed our shirts off, but I didn’t know how far he wanted to take this.
I relaxed, giving up some control to Adam even though I wanted to manhandle him out of his clothes and into my bed. Passive was not my thing, but I did it for him, so I didn’t scare him off or take something he wasn’t ready to give me.
He took the lead, chasing my tongue into my mouth, licking at my tongue and teeth, and I made a noise deep in my throat. A noise that made him kiss me harder, deeper. We were moving, and I went with it until my shins hit the sofa and we went down. Adam covered me with his body, hips to hips, and holy hell, he was hard too.
When he moved up to kiss me again we didn’t line up anymore, but he pressed his thigh against my cock, and that worked too. He rocked into me, his cock solid heat on my hip, and I shoved my hands beneath those loose 501’s to grab his ass—oh yeah, an ass I’d wanted to grab for years—and I helped. He kissed me everywhere his mouth could reach. Mouth, chin, throat, he even sucked on my earlobe, and I might have made an embarrassing, needy noise when he did that.
This was happening. This was really happening.
He pushed my shirt up and tried to lick my chest, and that wasn’t working so we both sat up long enough to peel our T-shirts off. Adam had a six-pack I didn’t expect, right above a happy trail of black hair that disappeared into the waist of his boxers, which had made an appearance thanks to his stupidly loose jeans. He didn’t give me a lotta time to appreciate his body, though, because he went back to exploring mine with his fingers and mouth.
He licked my left nipple, and pleasure sparks shot up my spine. Then he bit, and I felt that in my cock. I thrust up, rubbing against his thigh, needing attention the one place we hadn’t gone yet. He stayed on that nipple, then switched to the other, and I probably said something like “please,” a few times, because damn, his mouth on me felt so good. Felt better than anything ever had before, because this was Adam.
I wanted to shove him onto his back, rip off his pants, and take that cock riding my hip into my mouth. I wanted to taste him, to feel him come in my throat, to see him undone on my couch. But I wasn’t leading this—not tonight, anyway. If we did this again—no, fuck it,whenwe did this again—all bets were off.
He moved his thigh away, and I growled at the loss of pressure, until he shut me up by undoing my fly. Yanking down my zipper. Hand flat on my belly. Sliding down. Oh shit, his hand was on my cock, squeezing, rubbing, and I kissed him hard enough to knock our teeth together. He made a desperate noise, so fucking sexy, and I shoved my hand into his boxers. Got my fingers wrapped around his hot, hard cock.
It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t real coordinated, but it was about as perfect as it could get in that moment. His strokes were rough, frenzied, a little restricted by denim, so I used my free hand to push my jeans farther down. Then his, baring our cocks, giving us space, but I couldn’t stop kissing him long enough to admire that. I was breathing him, existing inside him for a few precious moments, until it was all too much.
I came first, shouting it into his mouth, while I slicked his hand. My skin buzzed, and my strokes stuttered. I probably squeezed his cock too tight, because he bit my lower lip and grunted. Something in my brain stopped working right. I lurched up and had Adam flipped over on his back so fast he was probably still dizzy from it when I hunched down and took his cock in my mouth.
He yelled something. His fingers threaded into my hair, probably smearing come, and I didn’t care because he wasn’t pulling me off. I licked the length of him, then sucked on the crown, memorizing the feel of his satiny skin, the musky taste of him. He thrust into my mouth, and I let him. I’d wanted this for so long, and I had it and it was fantastic.
“Oh fuck, Rye, oh fuck.”
