Bas barely got out the please before Jacob hurled himself into his lap, sealing their mouths in a hungry kiss and getting as close to Bas as he could.

No doubts, no second-guesses between them, just pure need and want.

Both of them finally on the same page.

He hadn’t known what to expect when Bas showed up at the square, then led him back to his room. He’d ignored all the similarities to that night in Vienna—the hand on his back, the gentle words, the careful consideration—because where that night had gone, from lowest to highest to impossibly lower, was not a roller coaster Jacob had wanted to ride again. At best, he’d hoped his team wasn’t blistering angry at him for missing the heat.

He hadn’t expected to scale an even higher mountain. No, not a mountain, a cliff, because at the top stretched a future he hadn’t dared hope for. Bas had laid himself bare, revealing fears Jacob knew all too well. Fears they could tackle together, and Bas wanted that too.

Wanted him to stay. Wanted to stay with him.

Charming uncoolness and all.

He smiled against Bas lips, liking this new view of himself.

Bas fell back on his haunches, and Jacob climbed his body, taking Bas’s shirt with him. He growled in frustration when he ran up against their joined mouths. Laughing, Bas pulled back and shucked the shirt.

Jacob started to dive back in, then halted when he saw the two metal pieces hanging in the center of Bas’s chest. He’d been so out of it earlier, he hadn’t noticed the bullet chain sneaking out from under Bas’s collar. His father’s dog tags sat right over Bas’s sternum, a shiny contrast to his tan skin, Julio’s initials to one side, and a blast of colorful tattoos on the other.

Following his gaze, Bas slipped his fingers under the chain, as if to take them off, and Jacob shot out a hand, holding them against Bas’s chest. “Don’t.”

Bas lowered his hands onto Jacob’s shoulders. “I didn’t want you to be without them, in case you needed them to keep you safe.”

“Bas,” Jacob choked out.

Bas squeezed his shoulders, and Jacob lifted his eyes, meeting Bas’s blazing blue ones. Everything was right there to see. “I want to keep you safe, Jacob. You look after everyone else. Someone has to look after you.”

An answer to that soft-spoken question weeks ago in the tattoo parlor. A question that had sounded like a promise then.

But who’s looking out for you, Jacob?

Now, the answer sounded like a vow.

“I’d like that,” Jacob said, then made a vow of his own. He dragged the hand on Bas’s chest, and the tags under it, over to his heart, over the tattoo that was a reminder of fear and regret. “And I’ll keep this safe, for you.”

Bas’s heart thumped beneath his hand, like it’d heard their promises and joined in the agreement. Jacob’s heart was beating just as hard, sealing the deal, and Bas was there to catch it. “I’d like that too,” he said.

Jacob fell against his body, greedy mouths, heaving chests, and beating hearts slamming together, safety between and around them. Straddling Bas’s lap, Jacob rocked their lower bodies together, both of them groaning. Bas trailed fingers down his back, under the waistband of his shorts, holding them flush, while Jacob coasted his hands over Bas’s shoulders, neck, and jaw, on the way to Bas’s dreads. He pulled them loose, letting them slip through his fingers and around their faces.

Diving deeper into the kiss, he rocked his hips harder against the growing need between them. More certain of himself than he’d been in weeks, Jacob wasn’t bashful about asking for what he wanted. He tore his lips away, skating them along Bas’s jaw to his ear. “Fuck me, please,” he whispered there.

Bas moaned, bucking his hips.

“Is that a yes?” Jacob asked.

Bas’s hands traveled up his back, around to frame his face. “Not today,” he said, in stark contrast to every signal his body was sending. Only Bas’s hands on his face kept it from falling. Bas must have felt the strain. “It’s not because I don’t want to,” he said. He bucked again, ramming his erection against Jacob’s. “That’s how much I want to.”

Jacob thrust his hips in return. “Then why not?”

“Because you have to swim tomorrow.” He leaned forward, mouth brushing the shell of Jacob’s ear. “And when I fuck you the first time, it’s going to be so hard you won’t be able to walk, much less swim, for days.”

The embarrassing, unintelligible sounds were back. Because “ungh” was all Jacob could manage in response to that promise, his mind and dick otherwise engaged in fantasies of all it entailed.

Just “ungh.”

Then Bas went and made it worse. “You’re going to fuck me instead.”

“Gonna come,” he huffed out, Bas’s words propelling him to the edge.

“No, baby, and you’re not gonna lose your virginity on the bathroom floor either.”

“Not helping,” Jacob keened.

“Hold tight,” Bas said. Arms wrapped around Jacob, he powered up to standing.

The sudden equilibrium shift probably would have gotten the better of Jacob, if he wasn’t so busy trying not to come, distracting himself by kissing every inch of Bas’s neck as Bas carried him to the bed. His back hit the sun-warmed sheets, then his hips were lifted as Bas stripped him of his shorts and boxers in one go. A rush of cool air blew across his front, but only for a few seconds as Bas finished undressing and carefully laid the dog tags on the table. Naked, Bas stretched out over him, his body settling comfortably atop Jacob’s, their cocks grinding together.

Bas kissed over his collarbone and down to tease his nipples, and Jacob lolled his head on the pillow, eyes fluttering, on their way to closed. Until they caught on the shining medals on the table. As much as he wanted to take Bas up on the offer, he shouldn’t, not if it’d compromise Bas’s race tonight.

He glided his hands over Bas’s sides, meaning to get Bas’s attention, then losing his train of thought as muscles rippled under his fingertips. He caught it again, though, as a dread brushed his chin, a hint of chlorine in its wake. “You have to swim tonight,” he said.

Lifting his head, Bas stared down at him, cheeks flushed, his blue irises obliterated by black pupils. “Which is why I’m going on top.” He levered up then, moving his thighs outside of Jacob’s, straddling him like Jacob had fantasized half a million times. Jacob ran his hands up and down the powerful muscles while Bas stretched for the drawer, coming back with a condom and lube.

Bas smirked as he ripped the condom open. “Am I going to be able to get this on without you coming?”

“Will you think less of me if I do?”

A hand landed next to Jacob’s head, and Bas’s lips brushed over his. “I could never think less of you, Jacob.”

They sank back into a kiss, getting lost in each other’s mouth and the sway of their bodies, until Jacob crept too close to orgasm again. He squeezed Bas thighs. “Now, please, if I’ve got any shot at this.”

Chuckling, Bas slid back and pulled the condom out of the packet. Jacob bit his lip, not giving a damn about his crooked teeth, as Bas rolled the rubber down his cock. That part he survived; it was a closer call when Bas slathered lube all over him, spreading it with long, sure strokes. Then Bas reached his slick hand around behind himself. If Jacob had had any doubts about what Bas was doing, which he didn’t, they would have been answered by the slack-jawed look of pleasure that rippled across his face.

And God, was he beautiful, lit by the midday sun streaming into the window. Skin glowing, blond hairs gleaming. Dreads loose, a halo around his face. Tattoos vivid, alive almost. Cock straining, and right there within Jacob’s grasp.

He skirted a thumb over the tip, and Bas gasped, jutting his hips forward. Encouraged, Jacob ran his whole hand over the head, collecting the moisture there and stroking down. And back up. Over and over, Bas’s hips rocking in time, until groaning, Bas raised up on his knees, took Jacob’s cock in hand, and guided it to his ass, slowly lowering himself onto it.

Jacob’s grip around Bas’s cock faltered as his own pushed past Bas’s rim. He dug the nails of his other hand into Bas’s thigh, fighting every instinct to thrust up. So warm, so fucking tight. But he had to be careful, let Bas control this part. Better for him too, he told himself. He was looking at a two-thrust max as it was.

The longest ten seconds of his life ended with his cock fully seated in Bas’s ass, clenched tight, so mind-blowingly perfect Jacob wasn’t sure which way was up any longer. He arched on the bed, and warm lips came down on one of his nipples, sucking and nipping. Jacob whimpered, finally giving in to the need to thrust.

“Fuck, you feel good,” Bas hissed. His hand skated down Jacob’s side, and he bowed his back, wedging his cock between them, moisture leaking onto Jacob’s torso. Clutching the sheets with one hand, Jacob brought the other between them again, jacking Bas in time with the lift and roll of their hips. “That’s it, Jacob. You drive.”

Concentrating on the cock in his hand, Jacob stroked and watched Bas’s face. Tilted forward, it went slack again, his eyes shuttering, as his chest heaved in time with Jacob’s. Like they’d trained, burned into instinct now.

“Not gonna last,” Jacob panted after several more thrusts.

Bas expanded in his hand. “Feel me, Jacob. Neither am I. Let’s go, together.”

He clenched his ass, and Jacob was a goner. Back arched clean off the bed, he tightened his hand around Bas’s cock, felt sticky warmth coat his fingers, and he came with a strangled, incomprehensible string of sounds that he wasn’t the least bit embarrassed about.

In the midmorning light, Bas sat propped against the headboard, sketching a new design. It had come to him last night, after he’d returned to his room, another gold medal richer, to find the most priceless gift asleep in his bed. He’d taken off his clothes and crawled between the sheets behind Jacob, who’d mumbled, “Congrats,” before falling back asleep in his arms.

Still amped from the race, Bas had lain awake for hours, listening to Jacob’s light snores, thanking his lucky stars Jacob had given him another chance. There were still things to sort—how this would work with Bas in California, running his shop and swimming, and Jacob in Texas, taking care of his father and finishing school—but Bas was confident they could figure those things out. He and Jacob were growing together, not apart like he and Julio had. That was when the idea had hit him for the new design. He visualized it in his mind, the changes here and there he needed to make, and once satisfied in heart and mind, and his body downshifted from the adrenaline rush, he’d dozed off, lulled to sleep by their matching breaths.

He’d woken with the bells at sunup while Jacob had slept right through them, clearly still exhausted. Bas had slipped out of bed long enough to grab his tablet, then, with Jacob snoring at his side, he’d put stylus to screen, getting the design down. Hours later, just as he put the final touches on the design, Jacob stirred. Squirming on his stomach, he stretched in the larger bed and buried his head in the pillow, hiding from the sun’s rays.

Bas smoothed a hand across his shoulders and down his spine. “Morning, Pup.”

Jacob turned his head, smiling with his eyes still closed. “You stayed.”

Bas’s chest ached at the surprise tinging the happiness in Jacob’s voice. He never wanted Jacob to doubt him again. He’d gladly stay with him through the night, longer if Jacob would have him. More than that, Bas never wanted to be the source of Jacob’s self-doubt again.

Closing the tablet and laying it on the floor, he slinked back under the covers, rolled Jacob onto a hip, and plastered himself to his front, soaking in his warmth. Excited at finding him semihard already.

Good.

Because Bas had a plan to prove to Jacob he had absolutely nothing to doubt, about Bas or himself. Drawing him into a lazy kiss, Bas traced his tongue over Jacob’s lips and crooked teeth, worshiping every nook and cranny of Jacob’s mouth. Continuing his devotion, he rolled Jacob onto his back and trailed kisses over his collarbone, down his sternum, and around each nipple, before following the trail of dusty blond hair to his erect cock. Swallowing him whole, Bas sucked up and down, making Jacob cry out and bringing him to the brink. Jacob cursed louder as Bas slid off his cock and, with his tongue, paid homage to Jacob’s balls, taint and rim, teasing, licking and thrusting the tip of his tongue inside enough to taste and torture. Jacob was back to the edge in no time, a writhing mess begging for release.

Lifting from between Jacob’s legs, Bas stretched over him and grasped their hard cocks in his hand, pumping them together. “Yeah, baby, I stayed,” he whispered hoarsely against Jacob’s lips, so close to coming himself.

Jacob’s answering whimper was as good as any fist around Bas’s dick.

“Because this—” Bas squeezed them tighter, rutting his cock against Jacob’s through his slick grip “—is how much I want you. Always want you, Jacob. Never doubt that.”

Jacob snaked out a hand, wove his fingers through Bas’s dreads, and hauled him down for a kiss that lasted until come splattered their torsos. Limbs weak, Bas collapsed on top of him, heedless of the mess.

Jacob held him there, legs wrapped around the backs of his thighs and arms tight around his shoulders. “I want more of that,” he said, nipping at Bas’s neck.

Bas ran a hand down his side, rolling them onto their sides and palming Jacob’s ass. “Plenty where that came from.” Grinning, he slapped the round, firm cheek, then rolled the rest of the way onto his back and toward the side of the bed. “But we have a race to win first.”

Jacob didn’t move to follow. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“Am I sure what?”

“That you guys want me to swim with you tonight?”

“Jacob,” Bas whispered, dropping another quick kiss on his lips before pulling back and bracing a hand on the bed by his head. “At no point has anyone—me, Alex, Dane, Coach, anyone—doubted your ability to swim the medley relay. Fuck, Jacob, don’t you realize?” He palmed the side of Jacob’s face with his left hand. “You’re the one who’s held us together.”

“I didn’t do that,” Jacob said, lowering his chin.

Bas gently lifted it. “You made Alex laugh when he was a walking thunder cloud. You didn’t single out Dane, when all the rest of us did.” Letting go of Jacob’s chin, he coasted his hand down, over Jacob’s neck and his shoulder to his tattoo, and rubbed a thumb over it. “You gave me a beautiful canvas to work with when I was a nervous wreck over my friend. You let me see you that night, Jacob. And that beauty stuck with me, sunk its claws in deep, and never let go. You’re the glue, baby. We need you. And I’m so sorry if I, if we, if anyone ever made you feel like you weren’t.”

Jacob laid a hand over Bas’s, over his tattoo. “I just want to help you guys win. Help you get the gold. I know it means so much, after losing it last time. I was afraid I was fucking that up.”

“You didn’t fuck up anything.” Bas righted himself and offered Jacob a hand. “Will you swim with us tonight? Will you help us win the gold?”

Jacob slipped a hand in his, fingers entwining. “I’ll do my best.”

Bas lifted Jacob’s hand, kissing the back of it. “That’s more than enough.”