Page 56 of What You Own
“Yeah. You’re comin’ to my place, right?”
“Yes. I’ll follow you over.” I exhaled hard through my nose. “Good thing I packed my stuff up.”
“You did that too?” Ryan’s eyes looked like they might fall out of his skull.
I tapped my trunk. “Yep. I told you, I needed things in place.”
“You knew he’d kick you out.”
“I knew.” My chest ached with it—a dull pain that even Ryan’s love wouldn’t wipe away completely.
“I still can’t believe you did all this for me.”
I clasped his hand tight. “I did it for me too, babe.”
A car door slammed. Ryan jumped, and his hand jerked away from mine. He glanced around, a little embarrassed. I hated how anxious he got over small things because of a violent act in a dark parking lot, so many years ago. I hated how that night had ripped our lives apart. But I loved him, and I loved that we were finally together. Really and truly together, and out.
“So how cliché is it that I came out by singing a show tune?” I asked.
Ryan laughed—a genuine belly laugh that chased those phantoms out of his eyes and brightened his face. I vowed to make him laugh like that as often as possible. “Come on, hoss,” he said once he’d gotten control of himself. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter 16
Ryan
THEWARM,human blanket curled up around me from behind shifted, and that dragged me out of dozing and into fully awake. I blinked at my bedroom wall, surprised that it looked different this morning. Shouldn’t look any different, because I hadn’t changed a thing. Everything else had changed, so maybe that was it.
Like Adam sleeping behind me, his arm around my waist, forehead pressing between my shoulders. Hot breath puffing against bare skin. He’d never stayed over before, and now he was here to stay for as long as he needed. I kinda wished I was the big spoon so I could hug him tight and pretend it was enough. But I didn’t wanna move and wake him. He wasn’t thrashing around, wasn’t mumbling things like he’d done hours ago.
Adam had nightmares too.
Probably not the same nightmares as me, because I had a couple of ugly memories he didn’t. But he’d done something last night that might have cost him his daddy, and I wasn’t gonna minimize his pain. Not ever. We both had our fair share of pain to live with.
He’d been so brave last night. Time for me to man up and do the same. I had one last thing to tell him. One final secret before everything was out on the table. I’d do it after the fundraiser, though. No sense in adding more ugly to what was likely to be a crazy stressful day already.
Adam made a soft, strangled noise and pressed closer. I tensed up, waiting for another cue. To see if this required me waking him up. Only it might not have been a distressed noise, because he shifted again, and hot morning wood slid against my backside. Oh, I liked that a lot. We’d gone to bed naked last night because Adam asked for it, but we didn’t make love because we were both too wrung out.
I relaxed and rubbed back, against him. The arm around my waist tightened, then loosened. I knew the moment he woke up. A big breath blew across my spine, followed by a kiss. I shivered.
“Morning, Rye.”
“Mornin’ yourself.” Then I asked a dumb question. “How’d you sleep?”
“Better than I would have without you.” He moved his hips, angling his cock to slide down the crease of my ass, right toward my balls.
Oh hell yes. My own dick took notice finally, and blood flow changed direction. Adam’s hand snaked down and stroked me, tender but firm, until I was hard and thrusting—forward into his hand and backward against his cock. Pleasure rushed through me, along with a blast of nervous anticipation. This wasn’t something we’d done before, and in all the weeks we spent in this bed, he’d never asked to switch things up.
“You want to?” I asked.
Adam stilled, and I realized too late he wasn’t in on my internal conversation. But he seemed to understand. He worked his free hand down between us. Slid a finger into my crease. “Can I?” He was breathless, happy, a voice I had no chance of denying.
“Yeah. Anything you want.”
He rolled me onto my back and attacked my mouth, tongue sliding inside, chasing mine. Our breath wasn’t so great, but I didn’t care, and he didn’t seem to either. Our cocks slid together between our bellies. I reached down to grab them, holding them together to dance while we kissed, and my whole body buzzed with excitement. Awareness. Adam usually liked it when I got aggressive in bed, but I wasn’t gonna do that today. Today he got to lead.
We kissed until my lips felt puffy, swollen, and our cocks were slick with pre-come, and I thought maybe we were gonna go this way. Then Adam pulled off so fast I was sucking on air where his mouth had been a second ago. He grabbed supplies out of the side table, and then he was back, ripping open the condom. Rolling it down his shaft. I waited to be arranged, unsure how he’d want to do this. Adam loved taking it on his hands and knees, me slamming into him from behind.
He settled between my legs, and I figured on this being his plan. I lifted my legs up, holding them with my hands behind my knees. I shivered at how exposed I felt, all open for him. Him looking at me while he poured lube on his fingers. My belly trembled. Something skittered down my spine and settled in my balls. Anticipation. Fear. Need.
