Page 48 of Patchwork
“I didn’t mean to make you cry.” I use my thumb to catch a couple of strays he missed.
“They’re good tears,” he assures me. “I want that. I want everything you just said. Except…”
“What?” My heart sinks. Did I come on too strong after all? I can’t regret anything I said though. It was all true, and it’s about time I actually laid it all out, even if he’s going to tell me that he isn’t ready for all of it.
“I just came from my meeting with Van. I’m not renewing my contract with Black Sheep. I’m going solo, and I told him I want it in whatever new contract he negotiates for me that I’ll only tour one month a year. Are you sure you want me at your place eleven months of the year? Invading your life and making Diva love me the most?”
I bark out a laugh and launch myself at him, crawling on top of him and kissing his still salty cheeks, his lips, his throat. Onyx squeals with laughter of his own, and we fall into another deep, slow kiss.
“Ourplace, rockstar,” I correct him between strokes of my tongue against his.
“Does that mean you want me to pay for half the cost of the sunroom?” he asks, nibbling my bottom lip.
“You bet your cute ass.” I nip his jaw and he squirms underneath me. And suddenly all of this is real. Onyx is coming back to Fall Crosse to stay. We’re going to try this thing, with all of our feelings on the table, no more tattoos or tours to hide behind.
We’re all in.
Chapter 22
ONYX
There’ssomethingdifferentaboutthe way our tongues tangle and our hands wander and explore. All the walls between us are gone. There’s no more saving face or playing it cool, there’s just hot, vulnerable, unrestrained need in every muffled moan and panting breath we trade. He tugs on my shirt and the fabric catches on the barbell through my left nipple, sending a jolt of heat through me. I gasp against his mouth and Hero kisses me deeper, like he can’t get enough of me, like he’s trying to devour me.
The couch is too narrow and way too firm to be comfortable—nothing like the deep couch at Hero’s place, with cushions that mold around your body and make you want to burrow in deeper. This couch belongs in a showroom, not a living room. The feet scrape noisily against the wood floor with every thrust of our hips, grinding our cocks together through too many layers of clothes.
He sighs around my tongue then breaks the kiss. I let my head loll back with a chuckle of my own, and Hero kisses teasingly down the exposed column of my throat.
“Why don’t you show me your bedroom?” he suggests, laving his tongue over my Adam’s apple and canting his hips to grind the heavy shape of his erection against mine again.
The pressure of the slow drag and the catch of each one of my barbells on the cotton of my briefs makes my skin heat and my gut ache for more. More of his mouth on mine, more of his hands on me, more of everything he’s willing to give.
“It would be a proper farewell to this apartment for you to be the first and only person to fuck me in that overpriced bed.” I sneak my hands under his shirt and find home in the familiar slope of his slightly rounded belly and the feeling of his soft body hair under my palms.
“I’m the only one you want.” He lets out a satisfied purr against the edge of my jaw like he’s just now figuring that information out as he grinds down on me again.
“I’ve told you that a dozen times, sweetness,” I remind him, carding my fingers through his beard and then using my grip to roughly tug his mouth back to mine. I drag my lips back and forth against his teasingly, not quite a kiss, but the promise of one.
His eyes soften and I see the vulnerability shine through, a sheepish smile curling the corners of his lips as he lifts his weight off of me slightly.
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I thought it was just your way of stroking my ego.”
“I don’t lie.”
He nods, brushing our lips together again with the motion.
“I know,” he whispers, and then he catches my mouth in a full kiss.
Our tongues slide and our cocks throb. Even through our clothes, I can feel how hard he is for me. He’s as desperate to be inside me as I am to have him there. He loops his arms around me, and I gasp into his mouth as he heaves me off the couch. I knew he was strong, but damn, I didn’t think he’d be able to lift me so easily.
I wrap my legs around his waist and tangle my fingers in his hair. He tongues my lip ring, and I murmur his name as he carries me blindly towards the bedroom, miraculously managing not to run into any walls or furniture along the way.
“Kaiden,” I whisper into the kiss. “Kaiden.” It feels so fucking good to say his real name. It’s exactly the right shape on my tongue and my lips. “Kaiden.” It’ll feel even better to scream it when he’s balls deep inside me. “Kaiden.”
He feeds me a quiet moan every time I say his name, his grip on my ass tightening, his heart thundering against mine. The bedroom door is already open, my bed still messy from when I rolled out of it a few hours ago. Lying in it alone last night, grumbling to myself about the brightness of the city lights and the fact that Hero wasn’t in bed with me feels like a different lifetime now. That belongs to the past, just like Black Sheep. Just like the years I spent giving away little pieces of my soul because I thought it was the only way I could keep the music. It’s a new chapter now. A solo career, a bed in Fall Crosse that willalwayshave Hero in it, and music the way I want to play it.
The music in my head is as unrestrained as Hero’s touch, nothing careful or cautious left. He tosses me onto the bed, my surprised laughter echoing off the walls as the mattress creaks under my weight. I crawl backward to make room for him, watching greedily as he strips his shirt over his head and tosses it aside.
“Pants too,” I command, lifting my hips so I can shimmy my own jeans off.
