Chapter 13
Holden
Holden had never been in love, but the way Bryce hooked their fingers together and allowed himself to be led out of the club had Holden wondering if this might be what it felt like. His body buzzed with anticipation as he walked Bryce into the parking lot, straight to Merrick’s car.
“Have you been bringing your brother’s car over for our hookups?” Holden asked.
Bryce unlocked the door and sank down into the driver’s seat.
“Sometimes. Sometimes I use an Uber.”
Holden chuckled and leaned down, one hand braced against the top of the car, the other on the driver’s door. “Are you coming over?”
“I don’t know.” Bryce’s answer was breathy. “Am I?”
“I think so.”
Bryce nodded and Holden stepped out of the way so he could close the door.
There were no parting words, no affection.
Holden’s feelings were far too close to the surface to risk letting any of them out.
He was falling for Bryce and that hadn’t ever been part of the plan.
They’d talked about it a little, the last night at his house, but had that meant anything official?
God, he was pathetic.
On the way back to his apartment, he picked apart every conversation he’d had with Bryce, trying to make sense of what they were to each other.
When he parked, Bryce was already there.
They walked to his front door together, fingers barely brushing for how close they were.
Bryce crowded him in when he tried to unlock the door and much to his embarrassment, he fumbled the keys.
It took an eternity, but they finally made it inside, and when Holden locked the door, all the air left the room.
“You look distraught,” Bryce said slowly, toeing off his shoes and kicking them into the corner near the front door. “Is everything all right?”
“I’m just thinking too hard.”
“About?”
“You. Obviously.” Holden slid his hands around Bryce’s waist and walked them both into the living room until Bryce’s thighs hit the arm of the couch.
“If you keep talking like that, it’ll go to my head.”
“You’re the one who told me I had the cock of your dreams. How do you think that made me feel?” Holden teased, tracing his fingers over the waistband of Bryce’s jeans.
“Hopefully like you were the best lay in the world.”
Holden chuckled and nodded. “I mean, yeah.”
“I’m sensing a but.” Bryce leaned in and nipped Holden’s lower lip.
He could take the conversation two ways.
Holden could admit he was developing actual feelings for Bryce and see what happened, or he could shrug it off and give Bryce a reason to stop talking.
The latter would have been the most appealing one a handful of days ago, but that didn’t seem to be the case anymore.
Holden felt greedy and he wanted both, but he didn’t want to put himself—and his heart—on the line.
“No buts,” he lied.
Bryce pulled back, dark eyes searching Holden’s face for the real answer.
Bryce must not have found it because he frowned and hoisted himself onto the arm of the couch, then over it entirely.
He collapsed onto his back with a loud exhale and scooted into the corner, away from Holden.
It wasn’t a deflective move, but the intent was to put space between them and it had worked.
Holden was frozen with the fronts of his legs against the side of the couch, his cock traitorously hard against his thigh.
“Permission to speak freely,” Bryce murmured.
“Alright.”
Bryce popped the button of his jeans undone and tugged down the zipper, then slid his hand into his underwear and grabbed his cock.
He arched his back and moaned, throat bobbing as he swallowed, and it was impossible for Holden to not imagine the way Bryce’s throat thickened when Holden shoved his dick into it.
“I don’t want to fuck anyone else,” Bryce said. “I know you don’t believe that, but it’s true. Even if I met someone else who I found attractive…” His hand moved slowly, stroking from root to tip, and Holden’s stare darted from Bryce’s wrist to his face and back again.
“Even if?” he prompted.
Bryce laughed under his breath. “Look at you. Wanting me to talk for once.”
He didn’t just want it.
He needed it.
A sudden and unexpected fear took root at the base of his spine, the knowledge everything was on the precipice of changing. Only he couldn’t tell if the change was for better or worse.
“I haven’t even looked at anyone else since I met you,” Bryce went on, talking as leisurely as he touched himself. “All I think about is you.”
“All I think about is you,” Holden said back.
Bryce’s mouth twitched into a smile, and he adjusted his pants to reveal the slick and swollen tip of his cock. He kept stroking himself, eyes locked on Holden, who hadn’t moved except to breathe.
“Is it childish to want to call you my boyfriend?”
Holden swallowed hard. “I don’t think so.”
“You like how it sounds?”
Holden nodded, and Bryce flipped onto his hands and knees, crawling back to the side of the couch where Holden stood. They were both still completely dressed, and Bryce jerked his chin.
“Let me see you,” he whispered. “Let me look at my boyfriend.”
Holden reached back and grabbed the loose material of his shirt to tug it over his head.
He tossed it onto the floor and then pushed his jeans down to his ankles, stepping out of the tight denim.
His underwear went next, then his socks, and Bryce watched him the whole time like he was a dessert buffet being unveiled.
“I want to see you too,” Holden finally managed to say.
Bryce wiggled out of his clothes, and his bare skin made the arch of his back look even more indecent.
“Don’t move,” Holden murmured and Bryce smiled wide at him in reply.
Holden grabbed a bottle of lube and then manhandled Bryce so his chest pressed against the back of the couch and his legs spread wide enough to make room for Holden behind him.
He tossed the lube onto a cushion and spread Bryce’s ass apart and buried his face into the sweaty heat.
Bryce bucked and cried out, and Holden pushed him down against the couch so his meal wasn’t interrupted.
He sucked and kissed Bryce’s hole, groaning at the taste of him.
“Jesus Christ, I’m so fucking lucky my boyfriend knows how to eat ass.”
Holden slapped his hand against the side of Bryce’s thigh in warning. “Shut up.”
“God, there he is.”
Holden dug his fingers into Bryce’s skin and got back to work.
He made a sloppy mess of Bryce’s ass, then made quick work of slicking his cock and leveraging himself up onto the couch.
He pushed his shaft into Bryce’s spit-soaked hole and bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from coming on the spot.
Bryce muttered a curse, reaching back and grabbing Holden’s thigh to support himself on the edge of the couch. Holden breathed hard, burying his face into the crook of Bryce’s neck to catch his breath.
“Please kiss me,” Bryce said next, and Holden screwed his eyes closed. “I want to taste myself on you.”
There was no way Holden could tell him no, so he gave Bryce what he wanted.
What they both wanted. He slanted their mouths together and pushed his tongue past Bryce’s teeth, and then he started to move.
The positioning was far from perfect, but the need to get deep was primal.
Holden rutted up, slamming their bodies together while trying to keep their mouths fused.
Bryce reached around and started to stroke his dick, his entire body tensing and grabbing onto Holden for dear life.
They’d had sex before, but nothing like this. This was awkward and frantic, and it was fucking beyond hot.
There was no role play happening between them, no gags and no rules, just an urgency Holden had never experienced with another partner.
Sweat prickled the back of his neck, and Bryce didn’t stop talking.
He wasn’t making much sense, but even when Holden kissed him, Bryce’s mouth never stopped.
And much to his surprise, Holden found it didn’t bother him.
With their bodies fused together, slick and wanting, Bryce spoke freely.
It was different from a normal conversation, less insistent but just as important.
“Hush,” Holden finally whispered, bracketing an arm around the front of Bryce’s chest and pinning their bodies together.
He slowed his pace until Bryce closed his mouth, and then he shoved Bryce down into the cushions and really started to fuck him.
Bryce’s words turned to moans, turned to whimpers, turned to cries. It was unrestrained and it was perfect.
“Where do you want me to come?” Holden asked, already on the edge of an orgasm he knew would make him see stars.
“Everywhere,” Bryce begged. “Deep.”
Holden slammed himself home, slamming his cock so deep into Bryce the tip of it kissed the soft second hole.
Bryce screamed and trembled, and Holden came.
He grabbed Bryce’s hips so hard he was sure to leave bruises, but he needed to ground himself or risk losing his heart entirely.
He came with his whole body, his heartbeat pounding in his ears, his pulse heavy and insistent in the center of his shaft.
Holden spilled deep into Bryce’s body, and Bryce came all over his hand, all over Holden’s couch.
Holden’s orgasm went on forever, and he folded himself over Bryce’s back, kissed the sweaty dip between his shoulder blades.
Beneath him, Bryce’s entire body shivered, and Holden managed to move them both onto the floor so neither of them had to hold themselves up. His cock still pulsed even though there was nothing left to spill, and he rested his forehead against the back of Bryce’s neck.
“Do you have a plug?” Bryce managed to ask, reaching back and digging his nails into Holden’s thigh.
“What?”
“Do you have a plug you can put in me? To keep your cum there.”
Holden’s dick managed to find some more cum, another dribble of it leaking out of his slit.
“I have a plug.”
“Please.” Bryce’s voice cracked, an unignorable kind of desperation in his tone that had Holden pulling out of the other man and clambering to the other side of the studio to get a plug out of the nightstand.
When he came back, Bryce had moved onto all fours, back bowed with his ass up, cheek pressed against the hardwood floor.
“I didn’t want it to come out,” he murmured.
Holden’s breath caught in his throat, and he carefully petted his hands down Bryce’s spine before easing the plug into his still wet and stretched hole. The silicone toy popped into Bryce’s body and, in response, Bryce let out a gasping breath that sounded a lot like a sob.
“Hey.” Holden traced his fingers up Bryce’s ribs and shoulder and neck until he reached Bryce’s face. “You’re okay.”
Bryce didn’t say anything, but he let Holden pull him into his lap, one leg on either side. He took Bryce’s face into his hands, making note of his tear-stained cheeks and his chapped lips. He brought Bryce’s face down to his and pressed their mouths together, swallowing down another strangled cry.
He wasn’t the only one fighting back some insecurities, it seemed. One thing he knew for certain was he had no intention of making Bryce face his alone. Holden stroked his thumbs across Bryce’s cheeks and kissed the salt tracks from the corner of his mouth.
Holden was so obviously falling in love with this man.
Bryce, who was his opposite in every way but also Bryce who somehow fit into all the nooks and crannies he’d never realized needed filling.
Because Holden loved his quiet and he loved his peace, but he loved Bryce just as much. Maybe someday he would love Bryce more.
“Hey,” Holden whispered again, ready to find out. “Bryce. Bryce. Talk to me.”