Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Having a TV in my room again was nice. Moon had helped me set it up, plugging everything in and finding the remote I’d put in a random box that took us ten minutes to find.
Why I’d hidden it so well from myself, I wasn’t sure.
We’d finished the kitchen and decided to take a little break, cuddling and watching a show.
I liked having Moon in my arms. He was so warm against my chest, our breaths rising and falling in sync. I had no idea what show was playing, only that it had a lot of drama Moon seemed to be interested in. I wasn’t really paying any attention, if I was honest.
At least, I wasn’t until Moon turned slightly, forcing me to relax my hold on him so he could lie on his back and look up at me. “So, you’ve never done that?”
“What?” I glanced at the TV, noticing there were two men kissing against a wall in a dark, moody-lighted area. “Kiss someone?”
“Not just someone, Em, a guy.”
“Oh.” I looked back down at him. “No, I can’t say I have.”
He tilted his head, narrowing his eyes. “Have you ever wanted to?”
This conversation was reminding me all too well about the one we’d had in the car earlier.
It made me feel hot all over, also reminding me of the realization I’d had.
That I liked Moon a little differently than I’d expected to.
I glanced from his eyes, down to his nose, trailing the slope of it, falling down the curve, to the cupid’s bow just above his lips.
I swallowed, pushing the thick lump that was in my throat down into the depths of my stomach, along with the incessant fluttering there.
It was more like a constant rumble, getting louder and louder with each passing second.
His cupid’s bow looked so delicate, but not fragile.
No, nothing about Moon was fragile. He was full of fire, a brat to his very core, ready to defend with a moment’s notice—for himself, or for his family.
I trailed my eyes down to his lips, watching as they parted on a small intake of breath.
Looking back up, I stared straight into his eyes and nodded. “Yes.”
“Oh? Who?”
Too much, right? It’d be too much. Way too much, way too soon. There was no way in hell I was going to say it was him. “A guy who’s very special to me.” That was vague enough, right?
He rolled his eyes. “Okay, tough guy. Be like that. I guess that’s what I get for being nosy.”
When he started to turn away, I panicked a bit. I wasn’t ready to stop looking at him, watching every muscle shift across his features. It was mesmerizing. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Handsome. He was everything, whereas I had not even the slightest bit of courage.
I latched onto him, pulling him back toward me. “Wait.”
“What, Em?”
“I…” I didn’t know what to say. I kept looking at him. I couldn’t stop, actually.
He huffed and squirmed a bit in my hold. “Spit it out.”
“It’s you.”
He looked shocked, his lips parting once again, showing two of his top teeth. They were shiny with spit gleaming beneath my bedroom’s lighting. I was lost in the small gap between them, barely large enough to notice if I hadn’t been looking close enough. “You’re lying.”
I jerked my head back a bit. “What? What do you mean?”
“You’re lying, Em, that’s what I mean.”
“And how the hell would you know that, exactly?”
“Because I just do. You, the straight dude who just waltzed into my life all hunky-dory, do not want to kiss me. And if you do, I refuse to be an experiment.”
“You aren’t an experiment, Moon. Jesus, don’t insinuate that.”
“What else would I be, huh? Just the first guy you ever thought about touching lips with?”
Shaking my head, I tried my best to keep my hold light on him, even though I wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him around. “No, you brat. When have I ever said no to the idea of being something other than straight?”
He looked up and to the side, thinking.
“Exactly. I said never say never, because I’ve only ever been with women, but I haven’t shot the idea down completely. I’ve just never felt any particular way with a man.”
“Experiment, Em. That’s all I’d be. Some one-time experiment, and then you’d get rid of me, and our friendship would be ruined. I’ve never fucked with a straight guy, and even if you are totally hot, and I definitely want to kiss you too, I know better.”
“Know better? Ruin our friendship? Moon, do you even know me?”
“No. I don’t.” He steeled his eyes, placing one of his palms onto the mattress in preparation to get up.
“I know your heart, but I don’t know how you kiss.
I don’t know how it feels when you really like someone, or you’re just bullshitting.
I don’t know how you look, or how your energy feels when you’re actually attracted to someone—”
“My energy?” I cut him off.
“Shut up. I wasn’t finished. If you kissed me, Emerson Blake, I wouldn’t know if it was fake. Or if it was real. Or if you’re just fucking with me because you’re tired of my attitude all the time. I wouldn’t know, because you had Olivia for so long and—”
I placed my palm against the side of his cheek, holding him there as I leaned down and pressed our lips together. I heard him inhale through his nose as I tried to pour all of my thoughts, all of my feelings, and all of my energy into his lips.
We were frozen in time, not moving, hardly breathing, with our eyes closed. He felt stiff beneath me, and I was about to pull away when a small whimper came from his throat. His muscles relaxed one by one as his body fell back into my arms.
Slowly, I pulled away, pressing our foreheads together and whispering into the space between us.
“Did that feel fake, brat? Did that feel like someone who doesn’t like you?
Or some random straight guy wanting to experiment?
Did that feel like I’m not fucking attracted to you, or your fiery attitude? ”
His forehead rubbed against mine as he shook his head, raising his hand to splay against my cheek. “No,” he whispered, just as he pulled our mouths back together.
Kissing Moon was like kissing the entirety of the goddamn universe square on the lips.
It took my breath away, leaving me gasping for air and life.
The ringing in my ears faded to the far background, so quiet that the silence was much louder.
Everything heavy that’d sat on my chest lifted, leaving me weightless—as light as a feather.
He tasted like happiness. Like a future.
His lips shifted against mine in panting, rushed breaths as our heads turned in sync, finding new angles to devour each other whole.
I couldn’t get enough. I never wanted to stop.
I ran my hands over his arms, tracing every tattoo I’d memorized and locked away in my mind.
Moon engulfed me just as much as I’d engulfed him, and I could feel his fire spreading into me, showing me just how it felt to belong for once. Two flames, two fires, one so dwindled I never thought I’d feel it again.
I let him push me onto my back, his legs swinging over my hips, his body bending forward to keep our lips connected the entire way.
He ground into me just as his tongue chased mine, deepening our kiss.
I moaned deep in the back of my throat, my erection rubbing against his ass.
The pressure was like nothing I’d ever felt before, suddenly so fucking much with no release, and Moon had taken me, completely intoxicating me.
I could see nothing but him. His platinum blond hair.
The artwork on his body. How his eyebrow raised when he thought something I’d said was stupid.
I wanted it all. I craved it all. This was never supposed to be a friendship. It was a friendship built on tinder, waiting for the perfect moment to engulf in flames, forever burning, forever raging, forever scorching our names high enough along the sky for other planets to see.
Moon gasped into my mouth and pulled away, straightening on top of me. He threw his head back, moaning as he ground his hips against me harder. “Oh, fuck.”
His voice trembled as he said it, wavering in time with his hips. When he arched his back, I could see them—the outline of his nipple rings beneath his shirt. Fuck me. I curved my hands around his hip bones, holding him there, helping him move back and forth. “God fucking damn, Moon. Fuck.”
“Do you like it”—he smirked, looking down at me—“Daddy?”
I threw my head back, groaning and thrusting up into him, matching his pace. “Goddamn it, brat. You’re going to fucking kill me.” I pulled his hips and pushed them back, reveling in everything he was showing me. “Kiss me, Moon. Kiss me with that filthy fucking mouth of yours.”
He giggled—actually giggled. It was a breath of fresh air to hear from him. “Don’t gotta ask me twice.” I helped him grind our erections as he bent down, capturing my lips with his once more.
It was ecstasy in its purest form. Neither of us stopped. Neither of us slowed down. Moon roamed his hands from my shoulders, along my arms, and stopped on top of my hands, putting pressure over them each time I moved him into a downstroke.
So much. There was so much building inside of me. We got faster, sloppier, Moon basically taking over the closer we got. I let him lead, trusting him to get us where we so desperately wanted to be.
When it got too difficult to keep my mouth on his, I pulled away, panting. “Gonna come. Gonna come. Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, Moon.”
“Please,” he whimpered, pushing his face into my neck.
I could hear his soft cries as they got louder and louder, urging me on faster. One more thrust, one more grind, and I was fucking gone. All of my muscles tightened, my eyes squeezed shut, and I could hardly even hear the last few seconds as cum started to spread in my jeans.
What I could hear, albeit faintly, was Moon releasing a guttural, almost feral-sounding moan straight into my neck, right below my ear. “Emerson, oh god. Oh, god. Yes, oh fuck.”
All we could do was breathe. Our chests rose and fell in time with each other, sweat sticking to our skin as I held Moon against me, and his body fell limp against mine.
I held him until we caught our breath. I held him while we slowly gained our minds back.
I held him until the cum in our jeans was too much to handle, and we desperately needed to change into something different.
I gave him a pair of sweats, knowing he didn’t like wearing shorts, and gave him the privacy he silently requested as he cleaned up and changed in the bathroom. When he came back, we lay in the bed, my arms wrapped around him like we were before.
This time, though, our lips were a matching shade of red, swollen and puffy. His chin had caught the brunt of my beard, creating a slightly irritated burn against his skin. I couldn’t help but kiss it gently, savoring every moment.
He smiled, glancing between my eyes. “We need to discuss a few things if we do that again. There wasn’t nearly enough degradation happening.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, but I couldn’t contain my smirk. “Yes, we definitely need to have a talk about all of that. Because I absolutely plan on doing that again if you’ll let me.”
“That didn’t feel like an experiment.”
“Because it wasn’t, Moon.”
“It felt like you really liked me.”
“Because I do, Moon.”
“Moon, not brat?”
“Not for this.” I touched our noses together, rubbing them. “Not when I’m talking about how much I like you. Because I do. I do like you, and I want to do this again. And again. And again.” I pressed a kiss against his lips. A quick one, so as not to irritate the skin there too much.
He held my cheek again, looking straight into my eyes. “I’m not just some box to check off?”
“Fuck no.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” And I meant that with my entire fucking heart.
The final chamber had officially opened, carving itself with Moon’s name, right next to all the empty spots, waiting for the rest of the Miller family. After years of thinking I wouldn’t find someone new to let in, I’d finally found him. I’d found the one I’d been waiting for.
God, I hoped he was the one. I hoped he was someone I could say I was in love with in the very near future. I was too old to have fleeting moments. I wanted permanent ones, and thinking that could be with Moon felt fucking perfect. It felt right.
Like I’d secretly been waiting for him all my life.