Page 26 of Unlocked Dive
“Are you asking me to be selfish?”
I drop to my knees on the mat at his feet, offering up all my damaged, desperate fervor. “I’m not asking for anything,” I say. “I’m telling you totake.”
12
Byrd
Ithink I’m going crazy.
Echo on his knees, mouth begging to be fucked.
Ican’tIcan’tIcan’t.
I can.
“I can’t.” I’m crouched in front of him, running my hands over his hair, his face, his neck, and he’s closing his eyes, head falling back. And then he stands, pushing away, away, away, and walks to his room without a word.
I make him dinner and bring it to his room. He’s sitting on the bed, watching something on his phone, wearing headphones that he doesn’t take off when I enter.
“Thanks,” he says. “I’ll do the dishes.” And then ignores me while I hover in the doorway, torn.
When he emerges, I flee up the stairs to my own room and spend an agonized half hour listening to the water running and pots banging and the clink of plates being fitted into the dishwasher.
Now the house is quiet, and I’m lying in the dark, slowly losing my mind.
Fifteen years and a half-dozen lovers, and it’s always been me on my knees.
Gabriel was the first, needy and perpetually unattainable, even when I thought he was mine. Lara was the last, fragile and weighed down by her fears, always looking for reassurance.
And now Echo—vital, immediate,real—offering something I never knew I wanted. Am I brave enough to take it? Am I foolish enough to keep pretending I can resist?
“Have you ever just taken what you wanted?”
“You need to learn to be selfish every once in a while.”
Will Reggie forgive me if I betray her trust to take her advice? Will Echo forgive me if—when—he finds out I loved his brother first? Do I even care anymore, when my body is an anguished roil of need, sweating in my sheets and shivering in my cool, dark room?
It’s after midnight when I swing open his door and step through into a dream.
Echo is sprawled on his stomach, angelic by moonlight with his face pressed into the curve of a bicep and the sheets low on his hips. With a deep breath, I lower myself next to his pillow, my fingers hovering between the sharp angles of his shoulder blades like I could touch his vanished wings.
He stirs when the mattress shifts beneath my weight, turning his face toward me and opening his eyes. There’s no surprise. No recoil or rush of breath. He looks at me like he’s been waiting to wake and find me in his bed. All his vibrant color is bled away, leaving him a creature of liquid and shadow, sleep-soaked and warm, and I drop my hand to his back and brush along his spine until my fingers tangle in his hair.
Without a word, he throws an arm across my waist before tugging me closer and shifting to bury his face in my lap. A low, drowsy hum rumbles in his throat, vibrating over my groin andfrying my last remaining brain cells. Heat pools everywhere his bare skin touches mine—the inside of his elbow curled around my hip, the smooth contour of his chest against my thigh, his ear brushing along my abdomen above the elastic of my briefs. His breath is hot through the thin cotton as he nuzzles my cock, and my fist tightens in his hair.
He rolls his own hips lazily into the bed, the sheet slipping to reveal half his naked ass, and the sight of the pale skin and round flexing muscle sends me back onto the pillows with a groan.
Echo lifts his gaze at the sound, rubbing his jaw lazily over the swollen head of my cock as he takes in my expression.
“You done saying no?” he asks, voice husky with sleep.
“Yes.” I brush my thumb over his lips, and he catches it between his teeth, swirling his tongue around the pad. It’s enough to have me thrusting beneath him, grinding my cock against his throat and into the hollow under his jaw.
He grins, a white flash in the dim, before dropping his head to lick along the groove at my hip. I run my hands over his silky shoulders, kneading the firm muscles as he works his way across my abs with wet, sucking kisses and trailing teeth.
When he hooks his fingers in the waistband of my shorts and exposes my hard length, I go still, irrationally shy under his dark, heated gaze. His breath breaks free in a rough sigh, feathering over the sensitive skin.
“Wow,” he whispers, gifting me another grin. “This is going to be fun.”
