Chapter 33 Stone
Stone
Five days into our parents’ eight-day stay, I’m going crazy.
Thank God, Hanlon and I are sleeping in the same bed because otherwise I’d be on a rampage.
We’re around people at work—people who are starting to ask questions about Logan’s desire to switch teams after working with me for several years.
We’re around people at the gym—including Micah, who pays a little too much attention to Hanlon’s form and movements if you ask me.
And when we get home, yep, there are people here, too.
“I’m going fucking crazy, you know that, right?” I tell him as we turn onto our road. We’ve been driving to work together this week because it’s the only time outside of bed that we have a chance to talk or touch each other without being seen or overheard.
“You aren’t the only one,” Hanlon says from the passenger seat of my Tahoe as the heel of his hand scrubs back and forth across my rapidly growing erection. “Let me suck you off,” he pleads.
“God, I want to, but I can’t handle road head while navigating this crap,” I say, bringing my hand to the windshield, indicating the shitshow outside.
The snowfall has been relentless this week, but a weird front has brought warmer weather, turning our roads to a dangerous, deep slush over the last twenty-four hours.
It’s also not good for the snowpack, and we’ve blasted every day this week.
“We have to come up with an excuse. I fucking need you, Stone. It’s hard enough as it is at work, pretending everything between us is nothing more than student and teacher.
But now, at home, I’ve got to go back to acting like we’re brothers.
All the while, I want to pump you full of my cum and watch it drip from your fucking asshole. ”
I skid on a patch of black ice covered in slush.
“Jesus Christ, Hanlon. Think you could be a little less descriptive while I’m driving?
” The fucker laughs, but I hear the need in it, and I take giving Hanlon what he needs very seriously.
“Tonight, okay? We’ll figure something out.
We’ll fuck on the floor if we have to, so the bed frame doesn’t give us away. ”
“Stone, you have hardwood floors. No one’s fucking on that floor,” he points out. “Our knees and spines would be bruised for two weeks.”
“Okay, the shower, then?” I offer.
“Too small. And slippery. If we go down, it’s going to wake the whole house, and that’ll be hard to explain.”
“Work with me here,” I say through gritted teeth, annoyed that he’s demanding time alone but shooting down every option I give him.
“What if I bend you over the dresser?” he asks.
“And risk yanking the mirror out of the wall? That is both loud and extremely dangerous.”
“Ugghhh,” Hanlon growls in frustration. “What if we tell them we have to go into work tomorrow for a couple of hours, but instead of going to work, we rent a hotel room where we can be loud and fuck on a nice cushy mattress?”
I think it over for a second. It’s risky because I know most everyone in this town, but it could work, especially if Hanlon goes in and gets the room.
“Okay, yeah,” I finally agree.
“Oh, thank fuck,” he sighs. “Now I just have to rub one out every hour until check-in.”
I groan. “You’re not helping.” By the time we pull into my driveway, I’m hard as granite. “I’m going to need a second before I get out.”
“Ohmygod, Stone. Look.” Hanlon points at the empty space behind his car. “Mom and Dad aren’t here,” he says excitedly, practically jumping out of the Tahoe before I’ve come to a complete stop.
“We don’t know when they’ll be back,” I point out.
Hanlon laughs again, but this time the sound is much happier, and of course, it goes straight to my dick.
“It’s not like it’s gonna take more than twelve seconds. Now get your ass in gear.”
I get out of the SUV and follow him into the house, but we don’t make it far. As soon as the door closes behind me, Hanlon slams me into the wall of the hallway so hard it knocks the breath out of me.
“Sorry,” he pants against my lips, grinding his hips into me. “Just really…” he trails off to lick my neck before finishing his sentence, “…fucking excited.”
We’re a mess of hands and tongues as we fight to make the other one come undone first. My hands are up the back of his shirt, even though his jacket is still on. His hands are frantically working the button on my snow pants.
When he finally takes me in his hand, my head thunks against the wall.
“Oh, fuck, yes. Keep stroking my cock like that, and it won’t even take five sec—”
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”
Instead of letting me go, Hanlon leans into me, shielding my dick from sight as he tucks me back into my pants.
“Jesus, Mom! Why the hell aren’t you with Dad?” Hanlon shouts louder than necessary.
“I just caught you with your brother’s privates in your hand, and you’re questioning me?”
“I swear to God…Stone is my stepbrother! He and I aren’t related!” Hanlon yells, finally facing his mom.
“You grew up together! You call his father Dad, Hanlon! How long has this been going on?”
Hanlon takes a small step in front of me as if he means to shield me from Lana’s wrath.
“Not long,” he answers.
“Hanlon, I have always supported you. Even when you came out to us, it didn’t change anything.
But this?” Lana’s eyes flicker to my crotch, like she can still see Hanlon’s hand there.
“This is wildly inappropriate. If I had known this is what would happen, I never would have contacted the American Avalanche Association and asked for you to be placed here.”
It takes a second for that to sink in, but when it does, Hanlon explodes.
“YOU WHAT?! Mom, I’m a GROWN MAN! How dare you meddle in my life like that!
Now the fucking board probably thinks I ran to my mommy to make sure I got what I wanted!
FUCK! You always think you’re helping, but all you’ve ever done is make me feel like I couldn’t do shit on my own, like you didn’t trust that I was smart enough to figure things out for myself!
You know where I gained all my confidence?
Stone. He was the only one who never babied me.
The only one who never let my diagnosis define me.
The only one who challenged me. He’s the one who taught me that I’m just as normal as everyone else. ”
Hanlon’s words make my throat burn.
I don’t know whether ten-year-old me ever consciously thought that I was helping him by making him do everything on his own, or if I was just being an angry prick.
But I’m grateful that by the time I was fourteen, I’d started to catch on to the fact that Hanlon liked a challenge, and I’d gotten my head out of my ass enough to make sure he had plenty of opportunity to prove himself and gain the confidence he’d need for life.
Of course, that didn’t mean that I wanted to hang around and babysit him forever, and I still left.
I imagine I’ll feel like shit about that for a long, long time.
“That still doesn’t excuse this,” Lana says, waving a hand back and forth between us.
I grab Hanlon’s wrist and pull him into me, wrapping an arm around his waist as Lana’s eyes darken in disgusted fury.
Before more can be said, the front door opens, and my dad strolls in.
Just great.
“Hey, honey. They didn’t have that cake mix you wanted, so I grabbed—” he cuts himself off mid-sentence when he sees the stare-down happening. “What’s going on?”
Lana props a self-righteous hand on her hip and aims a pointed glare at me.
“Stone, would you like to tell your father what I just found in the hallway?”
“Not really,” I grumble. “Seeing as this is my house and what you found isn’t really any of your business…”
“Stone!” my father bellows. “Watch your tone when you talk to Lana. What the hell has gotten into you?”
“That would be me,” Hanlon says.
I’m pretty sure he means he’s the reason I’m acting out, but considering he’s literally been inside of me, I can’t help the snort that escapes, and I bury my face in his neck to hide the rest of my laughter.
“Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Hanlon says in a tone that tells me he’s resigned to the absolute clusterfuck this is. I’m proven right a second later when he turns toward me, cups my face, and says, “Might as well rip the Band-Aid off,” right before he gives me the most soul-burning kiss of my life.
He makes it very clear that he doesn’t care about our parents standing four feet away. His lips part, and his tongue slowly caresses my top lip before he angles his head and deepens the kiss.
“What the fuck?” I finally hear my dad say. “Have you two lost your goddamn minds? You’re brothers, for crying out loud,” he says, parroting Lana.
“No,” I say, pulling away from Hanlon’s decadent mouth, but still holding onto his waist. “You two are married. Han and I lived under the same roof and spent time together as kids. If you remember, I moved out when he was fourteen, and I haven’t been home since he turned eighteen.”
“Is this why you stayed away?” my dad asks with a look of horror on his face. “He was a child, Stone.”
“Are you fucking kidding me right now, Dad?” Hanlon barks. “Do you honestly think Stone would go there?”
“Apparently, I don’t know where he’d go.”
“Why do both of you assume Stone seduced me and not the other way around?” Hanlon asks.
“From the time I was six years old, you both pushed for us to get along. To love each other. To take care of one another. You pushed and pushed, and the resentment of that bond being forced to take place immediately pushed Stone and me apart. Now, with time and distance, we’re brought back together…
by your doing, apparently,” he says, pointing to his mother.
“And suddenly, we’re too close. Love each other too much and in the wrong ways.
But we don’t think so. Our relationship finally makes sense for the first time in our lives. ”
“Well said,” I say quietly, pressing a kiss to his shoulder.
“I just…I can’t,” Lana says, not completing the thought.
“Can’t what?” Hanlon asks. “Can’t watch me be happy? Can’t believe I could find someone to love me despite the needs my diagnosis brings?” He grows more bitter with each statement.
“Stop it,” Lana says. “You know it’s neither of those things.”
“Then what?”
“I can’t stay. In my eyes, you boys are just as much brothers as if I’d birthed you both, and this is wrong. I can’t be a part of this.” Turning to look at my dad, she says, “Please see if you can change our flight to this afternoon.”
“Mom, come on, ignoring us isn’t going to make this better,” Hanlon pleads.
Yeah, we knew we were playing with fire, but I should have been firmer about boundaries while our parents were here. He and I both knew they wouldn’t take this well if they found out, and certainly not by finding out like this.
Lana spins on her heel and leaves us standing in the hallway with my dad, who looks terribly uncomfortable.
“Go ahead,” I tell him. “Might as well get it off your chest. I know you think I planned this somehow. You probably think this is part of some revenge plot to ruin your precious, perfect child as a way to get back at you for picking favorites.”
“Stone, I nev—”
I hold up my free hand to stop him.
“I don’t really care. Hanlon is precious, and now he’s mine. And I will do everything in my power to support him, to love him, and to protect him. And you and Lana can either get on board with that or not, but I’m not giving him up.”
Hanlon’s fingers dig tighter into my side while my dad…our dad…just stands there nodding his head, unsure of what to say.
This is his moment. This is his moment to fix everything. Accepting this now would cover a multitude of sins.
But he can’t do it.
“I have a phone call to make,” he says, following Lana down the hall.