Chapter 10
Bryce
Holden kept his word.
Bryce woke up the next morning with a hard-on between his legs and a soft cock slipping out of his ass. Holden’s chest was pressed against his back. The sheets smelled like laundry soap, and the sound of Holden’s cell phone alarm was the worst thing Bryce had ever heard.
Holden eased the rest of the way out of him with a grunt, rolling to the nightstand to silence his phone.
Bryce turned onto his side and watched Holden flip onto his back, forearm pressed against his eyes.
Bryce liked and hated when Holden tried to hide himself.
Liked it because it gave him ample opportunity to appreciate the gorgeous physicality of him without being seen, and he hated it because he despised the fact Holden felt it necessary to hide in the first place.
Bryce pressed a kiss against Holden’s chest and climbed out of bed.
He didn’t want to be told to leave, deciding instead to do it on his own terms. His body hurt, though.
His legs were so sore from the sex, his balls heavy, and his hole well fucked and tender.
He didn’t dare reach back to check himself, because he didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of Holden.
After his bath the night before, Holden had fucked him once more, and then they’d fallen asleep with Holden still inside of him.
It was the best sleep Bryce had gotten in years.
The best night. The best morning. The best lots of things.
He stepped into his underwear, hoping he could get back to Merrick’s before he made too much a mess of himself, but a quiet groan from the bed stopped him from reaching for his pants.
Bryce looked over his shoulder at Holden, now sitting up with his elbows braced against the tops of his thighs.
“It’s a little early for regret,” Bryce said.
Holden fixed him with a glare. “I think I liked it better when you didn’t talk.”
“I think I liked it better when you did,” he said softly, shoving one leg then the other into his pants.
Holden let out a long breath. “What’s your plan, then?”
“I’m going to go back to my brother’s place and finish unpacking. Maybe think about finding a job.”
“So, you’re going to stay in LA?”
Bryce sat down on the edge of the bed, his denim-clad thigh almost pressed against Holden’s still naked leg. “That’s always been my plan.”
“Are you going to stay with Merrick?” Holden asked.
“For now.”
Holden rubbed sleep out of one eye with the knuckle of his thumb, bobbing his head in agreement with Bryce’s answer. “He can’t know about us.”
“Is there something to know?” Bryce asked, hating the way his palms had started to sweat. He dried them on the tops of his thighs, then stood up and went in search of his shirt.
“You know what I mean.”
“You’re right. My brother probably shouldn’t know that you come like a fucking faucet.”
Holden rolled his eyes. “He probably shouldn’t know you guzzle cum like a dying man at an oasis either.”
Bryce’s cock jerked at the thought of it.
“He shouldn’t know the things that come out of your mouth when you’re horny,” Bryce said next, mouth twitching into a smile. “You’re disgusting when you get going.”
That earned him a laugh, and Holden stood, looping an arm around Bryce’s waist and hauling their bodies back into contact. It felt so good to be close to someone, to be close to Holden.
“He shouldn’t know how hard I get for you,” Holden whispered into the crook of Bryce’s neck. “How I want to tie you to my bed and fuck you until I can’t see straight.”
“You can’t say things like that to a man when you’re about to send him home.”
Holden’s stare danced across Bryce’s face, and Bryce’s throat went dry at the appraisal. He placed his hands on the slim angles of Holden’s hips, waiting….and wanting.
“When can I see you again?” Holden finally asked.
“You’re the one who has to go to work.”
“You’re the one who has to find a job.”
Bryce chuckled, pursing his lips. “Finding a job will be easy. I’m a good bartender with a stellar personality. Plus, everyone wants to fuck me.”
He’d meant it as a joke, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Something equally dark flashed in Holden’s eyes and then the few inches between them felt like miles.
“That’s not what I meant,” he said quickly.
“But it’s true.” Holden cleared his throat and took a step back. He didn’t have anything on besides his underwear, and Bryce had ruined his opportunity to appreciate the sight of him.
“I don’t want to fuck anyone else.”
“Okay.”
“I didn’t go get tested for a one-off,” he said, hooking his finger over the waistband of Holden’s boxer briefs and dragging the man back toward him.
Thankfully, Holden let it happen and Bryce thanked his lucky stars.
It was always going to be his mouth that got him in trouble, and he found himself immediately yearning for the night before when the only reason he’d needed to open it was to take Holden’s cock into his throat.
“Okay,” Holden said again.
“I’m serious.”
Holden opened his mouth and Bryce covered it with his hand. “Don’t you dare say okay to me one more time. I know I said the wrong thing or I know you took it wrong. That’s not how I meant it, and—”
Holden smacked Bryce’s hand out of the way, tilting his head to the side sympathetically.
“I know you didn’t mean it that way.”
“I don’t want to fuck anyone else.”
“You haven’t even been in town for two days,” Holden argued. “You don’t know that.”
Bryce huffed out a laugh, wishing Holden would understand just how much Bryce meant exactly that.
He’d had plenty of sex over the course of his life, but he’d never—and he meant never—found someone who clicked with him physically in the ways Holden had.
Never mind the immediate attraction between them, their chemistry in bed was undeniable.
Bryce wasn’t about to go out looking to replicate it… or jeopardize it.
“I don’t want to fuck anyone else,” he repeated, sliding his hand into Holden’s underwear and squeezing his dick. “I’ve dreamed about this cock my whole life, you know.”
Holden’s eyes sparkled with amusement, and the air in the room lightened.
Perfect, Bryce hadn’t ruined everything yet.
“Your whole life?”
Bryce nodded, giving Holden’s shaft a stroke.
“Dreamed about your mouth and your hands too,” he murmured, leaning in close and brushing his mouth against Holden’s parted lips.
“So you’re saying I’m the man of your dreams?”
He laughed and kissed Holden then, feeling brave.
Instead of taking charge as he had the night before, Holden let himself be kissed.
He went pliant under Bryce’s touch, groaning when Bryce took him back down to the bed, spread himself out over the top of Holden’s mostly naked body.
Bryce was still hard, but Holden was nowhere near it.
That didn’t stop Bryce from grinding against him, from rubbing their bodies together.
“You might be,” he said on an exhale.
Holden grabbed him by the hips and flipped him onto his back. He notched his knee up beneath Bryce’s balls and pressed until Bryce’s eyes rolled back and he went quiet.
“You could be the man of mine,” Holden teased. “If you would stop talking so much.”
A box of butterflies opened in Bryce’s stomach, and he pretended to zip his lips and toss away the key.
He couldn’t read the expression on Holden’s face, and he worried again he’d said the wrong thing or gone too far.
But Holden leaned down and kissed him again, hard and insistent.
There was no tongue in it, no spit, just rough desperation, and then a cold gust of air as Holden climbed off the top of him.
Bryce pushed himself into a seated position, watching Holden fidget with his hands.
He stood and adjusted himself. Leaving Holden’s bed was proving to be much harder than he’d expected.
Bryce forced himself to finish getting dressed, keeping his eyes on the floor because it was apparently impossible for him to look at Holden and not lose his fucking mind.
“When do you want to see me again?” he asked after getting his shoes on. He had his phone, three ignored texts from Merrick, his wallet, and his keys.
“No one has ever asked it that way.”
Holden had moved to the couch, still far too undressed for Bryce’s sanity.
“Well.” Bryce shrugged helplessly.
“I want to see you after you get a job,” Holden said.
Of all the answers Bryce had expected, that hadn’t been one of them.
“Who knows when that will be.”
“You said it would be easy.” Holden smirked at him. “Consider it incentive.”
“You’re mean.”
“I could be,” he agreed. “If you’d like that.”
Bryce shivered, breaking eye contact to stare at the ceiling. “I won’t be able to get a job if I walk into every place with a hard-on. It’ll scare the clientele.”
“I figured the hard-on was part of the 'everyone wanting to fuck you' thing.”
Bryce’s jaw fell open and he stared at Holden, feeling more like a gaping fish than a man. “Did you just make that into a joke?”
Holden shrugged one shoulder toward his ear.
“Fine,” Bryce said, an unnerving lightness blooming in his chest. “I’ll go get a job.”
“Good.”
“How will we celebrate?”
“I haven’t decided,” Holden said simply.
“Do I get a say in the festivities?”
“As much of a say as you had last night.”
Bryce’s eyelashes fluttered in a very embarrassing way. “Okay,” he rasped.
“Is it?”
“Very.”
Holden’s tongue traced across the plump curve of his lower lip and his stare roamed over Bryce’s burning hot cheeks.
“Are you sure?”
Bryce managed an abbreviated nod, turning his entire body away from Holden. He bracketed his hands on his hips, sucking in an embarrassingly loud breath of air.
“You can’t keep doing this to a man,” he complained.
Holden let out a soft laugh. “What am I doing?”
“Reducing me to nothing more than bones and muscles and want.”
“I can stop,” Holden suggested.
Bryce dipped his chin toward his chest in defeat. “Please don’t.”
“Get out of here, Bryce,” Holden said gently. “Go let your brother know you’re alive, go find a job, do the things you need to do, alright? I’ll be here when you’re done.”
He wanted to turn around and kiss Holden, but knew if he saw Holden there on the couch with all that skin and those blue eyes and that amazing mouth, he’d get drawn right back into bed.
He had things to do, Holden had to go to work, and he’d never meant for this to happen.
Everything he wanted to say tangled in his throat, so he nodded, then let himself out of Holden’s apartment.
He didn’t look back, but maybe that was for the best.