Charlie Labrecque was nervous.
Though he had a script in mind, he knew perfectly well that even the most well-rehearsed words could get twisted, or forgotten, or ignored. It was entirely possible he would open his mouth, and everything that came out would be wrong, and he would be back exactly where he started from.
The only thing that kept his feet moving toward the front door was the knowledge that it couldn’t get any worse. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And the last time he’d made this kind of attempt, it had gone much better than he’d ever imagined.
His hand shook as he knocked at Bryce’s door. When he realized it was also sweating, he hastily rubbed his palm against his pants. He had started sweating while practicing in front of his mirror that afternoon. He had hoped he wouldn’t have any sweat left in his body by this point.
There was a good chance Bryce would be out, but he opened the door a few minutes later and blinked. “Oh. Hey. Come on in.”
The invitation took Charlie by surprise. He’d expected to have to grovel just to get inside. He didn’t turn it down, though. He was going to take every advantage he could get.
“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
“Nope. Just making myself some dinner.” He gestured absently toward the kitchen. “Fortunately, you knocked before I added the critical element. Milk.”
“Milk? What are you making?”
“Cornflakes with a side of bananas. You want some?”
Charlie stared at him for a long moment before blinking and shaking his head. “No, actually. I, um…” He took a deep breath. “Maybe we could go grab something a little more substantial. My treat.”
“Oh…well…I already poured out the cereal and sliced the banana. But I’ll take a rain check.”
Disappointment slashed through him. He had hoped…but of course, Bryce wouldn’t want to go out. Charlie couldn’t say he’d be willing to even let someone in who’d been so inconsiderate.
“Can I change my mind on your offer, then? I’d like to talk to you, if I could.”
“Yeah. Talking. Sure.” Bryce sounded less than enthused about the prospect, but at least he had agreed rather than trying to push Charlie out the door. “I guess we had to get this out of the way sooner or later.”
Charlie caught his arm before he could turn toward the kitchen. “It’s not like that. I want to apologize, not push you away even more.”
Bryce smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You don’t really have to let me down easy. I know I made a mistake.”
“It wasn’t a mistake. I’m the one who messed up, not you. I got scared, and I overreacted.” He ventured a step closer, though he didn’t dare release Bryce. It was the first thing to feel right in a week. “All this time, I’ve been worrying about how I was going to fit in, but it dawned on me that I’m really over-thinking all of this. I just wanted to be happy. I wanted to stop pretending. But I never had to with you. Never. Not before, and definitely not after. Last Saturday was…the most amazing night of my life. Hands down. And maybe I only deserve to have the one after the way I treated you. But if I don’t fix this, I’ll just stay up all night, every night, wondering why I’m dating the Deans of the world. Instead of dating you.”
“Are you sure you want to date me right now? I know I went too fast and I probably pushed you too hard. I really will understand if you want to just pull back and…I don’t know…start somewhere before ill-timed declarations.”
“If I didn’t want us to date, why would I have shown up on our special date night?” Charlie tried to smile, but the longer it took for Bryce to make some sort of decision, the harder this got. “Saturday nights. We promised. I want to keep that promise.”
Bryce licked his lips. “What about the other nights we discussed? You know, Friday and Sunday, for starters.”
“You can have anything you want. All I ask for is you.”
“Charlie…” For a moment, Bryce’s hand fluttered between them, like he didn’t know what he wanted to do with it. His name hung between them, and Charlie held his breath, knowing that this was the moment where things could go either way. He didn’t release his breath until Bryce gripped the back of his neck and brushed his lips across Charlie’s mouth.
In that moment, Charlie knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d made the right decision.
“Tell me what to do to make it all up to you,” he said, his words rushed. “Anything. You name it.”
“Don’t worry about it. You don’t need to…make anything up to me. Unless you want to stay here tonight and make up for the week we’ve lost.”
Charlie drowned in Bryce’s bright eyes, the eyes he’d dreamed about every night for the past six days “I don’t want to go,” he murmured. “Part of the reason I got so scared last weekend is because it didn’t seem possible that something so right could happen so effortlessly. That you could have been there the whole time and I just needed to say please and I’d have everything I’ve always wanted.”
Bryce snorted. “Imagine how scared I was when I took one look at my married neighbor and fell head over heels.”
“You hid it well.”
“I didn’t really hide it. I just tried to treat you like you deserve. I don’t want you to think I was just your friend because I was settling for whatever I could get, you know?”
“I don’t.” His gaze dropped to Bryce’s mouth. He wanted another kiss, but he didn’t want to press his luck. “Are you going to let me take you out now?”
Bryce began walking, pushing Charlie backward until his shoulders touched the wall. “How about you let me keep you in?”
Charlie swallowed. When Bryce took control like that, every nerve ending in his body dropped to its knees to beg for more. “Yes, please.” He rested a shaking hand on Bryce’s hip. “I just want to be with you. I don’t care where.”
“Good.” He claimed Charlie’s mouth with a kiss that only hinted at his hunger. “Because I’ve missed you so much this week.”
Sliding his hold downward, Charlie cupped Bryce’s ass and squeezed, groaning in anticipation against Bryce’s lips. “Enough that you’ll skip the cornflakes for me?”
“I’ve already forgotten about the cornflakes.” Bryce’s hand pushed beneath Charlie’s shirt, his knuckles brushing over his ribs. His mouth wandered from Charlie’s lips, teasing his earlobe before moving to nuzzle his throat. “You smell good.”
Charlie tilted his head to ease the way, his lashes fluttering shut as each scrape of stubble brought new goose bumps to the surface of his skin. His other hand came down to grab the other side of Bryce’s ass, and he used the hold to grind their midsections together.
“You feel good. God, you feel good.” Blindly, he turned to claim another kiss, this one harsher, more desperate than its predecessor. Now that he had Bryce back in his arms, he couldn’t stop shaking in relief and more than a little need. He wouldn’t let go this time. He might not ever let go again.
“I need to get these clothes off of you,” Bryce murmured, but he was distracted from that task by another long, hungry kiss. “So glad you’re here…” He clawed at Charlie’s shirt, but he refused to step back, and didn’t get far with his attempt. He moaned with frustration. “Let’s get to the bed first.”
It sounded like the best plan ever, but executing it was more difficult than he’d imagined. Bryce wouldn’t stop kissing—not that Charlie wanted him to—and Charlie couldn’t seem to let go of his ass—not that Bryce seemed to mind that, either. They fell against one wall, then another, before finally stumbling through an open door into a darkened room.
“Please tell me I can fuck you tonight,” Charlie panted between kisses. “I don’t care when. Just sometime.”
“God, yes. Please.” He gripped Charlie’s cock through his pants. “I want that so much, I would have asked.”
They didn’t bother with the light. After a few moments, Charlie’s eyes adjusted to the dim room—enough to see the desire on Bryce’s face when he lifted his head. Charlie wasn’t familiar with the room, and he wasn’t prepared for the bed when it hit the back of his legs. Bryce gently shoved him to the mattress, his hands going to Charlie’s belt.
The other man was more of a silhouette than solid form as he opened first the buckle and then the button and zipper. Mesmerized, Charlie kicked off his shoes and lifted his hips when Bryce yanked the pants down his legs, and he feverishly pulled his shirt off over his head before Bryce needed to do it himself. His chest tightened when Bryce didn’t move, when he just stood there and gazed down at him. Even without being able to see the details, he was helpless under Bryce’s appreciation.
Slowly, Charlie fisted his cock, watching Bryce lick his lower lip at the same tempo he pulled on his shaft. “It wasn’t just because it was my first time, was it?” It was the burning question of the week for him. “Last Saturday. It wasn’t so fantastic because I’d waited so long to experience it. It really was because it was you and me, wasn’t it?”
Bryce didn’t answer immediately. He pushed his sweats off and lifted his shirt overhead, giving Charlie a chance to return the appreciative stare. He straddled Charlie’s hips and fell forward, catching himself on his hands with his mouth only an inch away from Charlie’s.
“It was all you and me. I’ve been with plenty of guys, Charlie, and it’s never been like that before.”
The heat overwhelmed him. From Bryce’s skin, the weight of his body, the intoxicating shine in his eye. Charlie skimmed his fingertips up the other man’s spine, shivering himself when the muscles rippled with each soft touch.
“We’re going to have to test that theory with lots and lots of trials.” He licked lightly over the stubble on Bryce’s chin, whimpering at the glorious texture. “Just to be sure.”
“I always enjoy testing theories.” He skimmed his mouth over Charlie’s brow. “And I think you’ll be quite pleased with the results.”
Bryce caressed his chest, dragging his fingers down his body and over the tight muscles in his stomach. They both shuddered when his nails scraped across Charlie’s shaft, and the shudders turned into full moans when Bryce closed his fingers around the throbbing flesh.
“God, what you do to me…”
Charlie grasped the back of Bryce’s neck and guided him back to claim his mouth again. He sucked Bryce’s tongue into his mouth, encouraging him to explore, while he deliberately scraped his lips over and over the stubble as much as he could. It helped to contain his cries, because Bryce never eased the grip on his cock. He didn’t even stroke him. He seemed perfectly content just to squeeze at irregular intervals, as if offering Charlie a taste of how tight his ass was going to be.
“Don’t move,” Bryce said, the words hot against Charlie’s mouth. “I need to get the condom.”
It was difficult to relinquish his hold on the other man, but Charlie let him go long enough to lean off the side of the bed. Charlie was quite certain it took the space of an eternity for Bryce to find the box of condoms and the lube. Why did he keep it in such an inconvenient location? They’d have to be sure to keep everything in touching distances from now on.
He caught the wrist holding the lube and took it away. Nobody was touching Bryce’s ass but him. “How long before we can dump the condoms altogether?” he asked, his voice husky with desire. “We’re going to be exclusive, right?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m clean, but I’ll schedule myself for another test, just to be sure. As for being exclusive…that depends on if you’re done sowing those wild oats.”
Flipping open the lube, Charlie slicked up two fingers, his eyes unwavering. “I don’t want anybody but you.” He couldn’t help his smile. “You were the one who kept pressuring me to go out looking for some fun sex with random strangers I found in bookstores.”
“Yes, well…I was trying to help. I never claimed to be the smartest guy on the block.”
Charlie tossed the tube aside and reached around Bryce’s hip. His fingertips skimmed down the crease, halting when he reached the tight pucker. “Smarter than me,” he said as he slowly sank both fingers into the hole. The heat made him gasp. He assumed it was the penetration that did it for Bryce. Slowly, he twisted his hand, back and forth, to stretch the muscle. “God, I love your ass. You have to let me eat you out again.”
Bryce pushed back, fucking himself on Charlie’s fingers while his breath grew more ragged. “I already told you once. Tell me what you want. What you’re going to do.” He dropped his head and licked Charlie’s chest. “You don’t always have to ask for permission.”
“You might have to tell me again.” His forearm trembled, as much from the sensation of Bryce squeezing around his finger as the whole enormity of what the man insisted. “It still seems a little surreal that I can even have it. And I’m not…I don’t want to mess this up.” He cupped the back of Bryce’s head and waited until he met his eyes. “I want this to work. So if that means you walk into a room and I tell you to bend over so I can sink my tongue into your ass, I guess I’ll just have to do it.”
“Yes, I guess you’ll have to do that.” Bryce rocked back and paused, his tight muscles trembling. “I want you to be happy. If that means I have to bend over for your tongue…” He clenched. “Or your fingers. Or your cock…whenever you say so, then I guess I don’t have a choice.”
“No, no choice.” Charlie tested curling his fingers to see what kind of response he’d get, smiling when Bryce locked around him. “Making me happy means pounding me into the mattress when I need it, too. On a fairly regular basis.”
“I can handle that. Even if that means I have to make special trips to your house…” Bryce dropped his head and moaned. “Okay…I can’t…take this anymore.”
Charlie brushed his mouth against his temple. “Which part? My fingers or all our plans? Because I gotta say, I’m having fun with both.”
“Your fingers. They’re just making me hungry for your cock.”
“Even if I give you another?” He didn’t mean to tease Bryce, but their back and forth games had put him in a more playful mood. Locking one arm around Bryce’s waist, Charlie held him still as he pulled his fingers out, only to curl all four of his fingers together and push them inside. “Or maybe all of them, instead.”
The cords of muscle stood out in Bryce’s neck and shoulders, and he gasped Charlie’s name again and again. He didn’t pick up the same rhythm he had before, but his thighs trembled, light shivers running through his body. He groaned as Charlie eased his fingers out of the stretched channel, and finally began to move as Charlie pushed inside again.
“You’re…really…going to kill me here. God…don’t stop yet.”
“I won’t.” He couldn’t. The look on Bryce’s face made him throb in ways he’d never imagined were possible. His skin pulsed, his cock ached, but Charlie couldn’t look away from the bliss written across the other man’s features. If this brought him so much pleasure, what would fucking him for real do? Charlie only knew one thing. “You have to ride me.” He drove his hand in, burying the fingers to the knuckles and twisting. “You’re going to ride me so I can see everything this does to you.”
“Yes, yes. I will.” He reached for a condom that had been forgotten on the bed, his fingers closing around it after the second attempt. He tore into the foil with his teeth—a move that was already familiar to Charlie, but had been much more fluid the previous week. Now Bryce was shaking, and he paused and took a deep breath every time Charlie twisted his wrist. “Let me…get this on you…”
Reluctantly, Charlie pulled away, but he only got his hands out of the way long enough for Bryce to slide back onto his thighs in order to reach his cock. Because he needed to touch Bryce. He needed to run his fingers over that lightly furred chest, tweak the already taut nipples. He needed to draw his thumb over that succulent mouth, groaning aloud when Bryce parted his lips and bit at the fleshy pad.
The condom snapped into place, and the very first thing Charlie did was settle his hand on Bryce’s hip and push him up. He held his breath as Bryce grasped his length, everything tunneling down to the way he angled it away from Charlie’s body, the way he positioned it at his stretched hole, the gleam in his eye when he finally began to sink down onto it.
“Oh, God…” It was all Charlie could articulate. Nothing had prepared him for this. Nothing had ever felt so hot, so tight, so perfect before. The muscles in his legs locked, his entire body rigid while he waited for Bryce to take him all the way in. One inch. Another. He moved excruciatingly slowly. By the time Charlie felt Bryce’s perfect ass brush against Charlie’s balls, they were both shaking.
“Don’t move,” he gasped. “Let me just…”
Bryce responded with a closed-mouth moan—one that was a little higher pitched than the others. He gripped Charlie’s shoulders, nails digging into flesh, back arching, sweat running down his throat and chest. Bryce’s eyes were closed, and he looked completely lost in the sensation of being filled, of being stretched. Lost in the slow burn Charlie knew he was experiencing. It was worth it to watch him. To monitor and record every passing second.
Ultimately, Charlie wasn’t sure who moved first. They both needed the friction, but Bryce barely allowed an inch to leave his body before he slammed back down again. His muscles flexed and quivered, tightening around Charlie until they were both throbbing.
“You’re going to be the one to kill me here,” Charlie rasped. Desperate for something to keep him focused, he fisted Bryce’s cock, running his nail along the slit. Bryce immediately clenched around his length, driving Charlie to snap his hips upward. They both groaned. “Just ride me, damn it. You know you want to.”
Bryce smiled. “I like it when you get bossy.”
He straightened, his hands leaving Charlie’s shoulders, and rose up on his knees. Charlie almost protested as he felt his cock sliding out Bryce’s passage, but he pressed back down again before Charlie had the chance to really miss him. The first handful of strokes continued like that, slow and then fast, until Charlie was tempted to grab Bryce’s hips and take control of the tempo himself.
Shivers ran through him, hot and then cold, on each intoxicating glide. Charlie kept hold of Bryce’s cock the entire time. He loved the way it twitched every time he bottomed out inside Bryce’s ass, and the way the vein throbbed against his fingertips when Bryce would gasp for breath, and how it never stopped dripping mouth-watering, clear fluid, no matter how many times Charlie used the palm of his other hand to wipe it away.
He made sure Bryce watched him lick it off his skin when he did that. He wanted Bryce to know just what the taste did to him.
The third, or maybe the fourth, time Charlie licked the pre-come from his palm, Bryce groaned and fell forward, their chests connecting. The new position meant Charlie had to bend his knees and lift off the bed to drive into Bryce’s ass, and that prompted a new array of moans and grunts from Bryce’s chest. Bryce’s mouth had a hungry, raw edge that sent fresh shivers down his spine.
Charlie had to hold onto Bryce’s hip now, use just a little bit of force in order to keep their rhythm smooth. Bryce didn’t seem to mind. In fact, Bryce seemed to thrive on it, pushing back and pushing forward as if to urge Charlie to do it more. He bit at Charlie’s lower lip, and scraped his stubble across Charlie’s jaw when he began devouring his neck. Charlie cried out when he felt the teeth, and his hand jerked along Bryce’s cock, pumping him in almost frantic need.
“Charlie…you’re gonna make me…God like that…” Words and lips and teeth warmed Charlie’s neck, and he stripped Bryce’s cock faster. “Oh…God…” That was Charlie’s warning, but it was all he needed. Bryce clamped down on Charlie’s cock, and he shouted against Charlie’s neck, a sound that was only muffled by skin and flesh. Bryce’s cock jerked and come shot on Charlie’s hand and his stomach, stream after stream splashing on his skin, revealing how much Bryce needed this.
Fresh scents hit his nose, and though he was loathe to let go, Charlie slid his sticky hand away from Bryce’s cock in order to grab his other hip. “Harder,” he panted. He shoved at Bryce’s body while he thrust upward even more desperately, slamming in and out of his ass with ever-growing ferocity. So close. He was so close. He could hear it, inhale it, feel it coming. Not even getting fucked the previous weekend had driven him this far with hot, heady desire. Nothing had ever come close.
The flick of a tongue over his earlobe. Scorching breaths flowing down his neck. Bryce’s voice coaxing him into coming, telling him over and over again just how good it was, how great they were together.
Charlie didn’t need the reminder, but he grabbed it anyway. He clutched it close, and Bryce closer, and drove up one final time into the man’s tight ass, erupting so fiercely the world went white.
When he came back to himself, Bryce was kissing him again. Charlie sighed into the kiss and tightened his arms around Bryce’s ribs. They remained locked in the caress until Charlie’s breathing began to even and the tension eased out of Bryce’s muscles.
“How was that?” Bryce’s lips moved against the corner of his mouth. “As good as the last time?”
“There was a last time?” They both smiled at his small joke, though Charlie was the one to now seek out the kisses, soft and languorous to match his boneless body. “It’s crazy how good it is. How good we are.”
Bryce buried his face in Charlie’s neck, his weight settling more firmly on Charlie’s chest. He didn’t mind. He liked the heat and the pressure. He needed it. “We’re as good as I had hoped we’d be.”
“I should have trusted you.” Charlie kissed Bryce’s temple. “I’m sorry I didn’t.”
“It’s okay. You’ve been through a lot. I’d rather you be sure…than just going with the easiest path.”
“You’re not the easiest path. You’re the best one.” His arms tightened around his back, and he closed his eyes against the raw wave of emotion surging through him. “I can’t say what you want me to, but I can tell you…I think it’s going to be very easy to love you, Bryce.”
“How do you know that isn’t exactly what I want to hear?”
Charlie smiled. Rolling to his side, he winced slightly as he slipped out of Bryce’s ass, but he barely noticed the absence for the sight of his lover’s shining eyes. “You’re going to keep me on my toes, aren’t you?”
“I’m going to try. You need somebody to keep you on your toes, to keep you from getting too comfortable.”
“I like my comfort.”
“Exactly my point. Don’t worry. I won’t shake up your world too much.”
“No.” Skimming his thumb over Bryce’s swollen lip, Charlie mused on how impossible it should have been to feel this happy, this content, this satisfied from something as simple as a few words. But there was nothing simple about Bryce, or their path to get to this place. This was a man who had riveted him from the start, and it dawned on Charlie as he leaned in for another kiss that his earlier declaration about how easy it would be to love Bryce had been a vast understatement. “You’ve shaken it up just right.”
THE END