Chapter 22
Bryce
Things with Merrick went the way they always had.
Half of an apology and a promise to listen better in the future.
Bryce knew it wasn’t ideal, but that had always been the resolution to disagreements with his brother.
He reminded himself of that as he packed the few things he’d scattered across Merrick’s guest room and put them in the back seat of his car.
He’d really left home with the clothes on his back and not much else.
It was still well before dinner by the time he got everything unpacked into Holden’s studio, but he was hungry just the same.
Bryce made himself a sandwich and ate it standing at the counter, trying to make sense of the whirlwind his life had become since the plane touched down in LA.
Even though Bryce enjoyed bartending at Rapture, especially when he worked alongside Callum, his shift passed at a snail’s pace. He was just too eager to get back to Holden’s place…to his place.
Their place.
It was right before three when he slid the key into the lock and let himself in. The lights in the apartment were off, but Holden was on the couch, fully dressed down to the sneakers, his face illuminated by his phone.
“Everything okay?” Bryce asked, lingering in the doorway.
Holden jumped up from the couch and shoved his phone into his pocket, joining Bryce at the door.
“You’re just in time. Let’s go.”
Before he could argue, Holden grabbed him and yanked him back out of the apartment and down the hall.
They reached the stairwell and instead of going down, Holden led him up and up and up until they were on the roof of the building.
The wind was cooler that high, and Holden wrapped his arm around Bryce’s shoulder without being asked.
Bryce had no idea what was happening, but he still let Holden usher him to the ledge where two patio chairs were open and waiting for them.
“What are we doing?” Bryce asked, taking a seat for himself, just like Holden.
“Stardust,” Holden said, reaching over and taking Bryce’s hand in his, the one with the D-U-S-T across his knuckles.
Holden kissed each letter, then angled his face toward the sky.
“There’s some planetary alignment. Jupiter and Saturn and Mars, I think.
I saw it and paid more attention to the time, not the names. ”
Bryce chuckled, vision going a little soft around the edges. They didn’t have a telescope so they probably wouldn’t be able to see anything, but no thought had ever counted more.
“I love you so much,” he blurted, and Holden answered him with a shy smile. Holden tucked his chin toward his chest and a few strands of hair fell into his eyes, making him look young and bashful, and Bryce was out of his chair before he could think better of it.
He straddled Holden, grabbed his face and kissed him hard. The move seemed to startle Holden, but he recovered quickly and returned the kiss, melting against the back of the chair when Bryce pressed their bodies together.
“The sun is going to come up soon,” Holden murmured against his lips. “As much as I want more of this, can you see anything? Can you show me?”
Bryce reluctantly unfolded himself from Holden’s lap, but before he could move back to his own chair, Holden yanked him down onto his lap and looped his arms around Bryce’s stomach. Holden rested his chin on Bryce’s shoulder and the two of them turned their attention toward the sky.
“The red one is Mercury,” Bryce said, not even needing to point. “The big bright one is probably Jupiter, so I would assume the other one in line with them is Saturn.”
Holden made a contented sound in his ear.
“It’s wild we can see them from here.”
“Wild we’re made of the same stuff as they are,” Bryce countered.
Holden brushed his lips across Bryce’s ear, and Bryce shivered, pressing himself harder against Holden’s chest.
“At work today, I was listening to Asha talk to Smith about Riggs,” Holden said.
“Asha?”
“Smith’s best friend. The one Merrick tattooed.”
“Right. Okay.”
Holden tightened his arms around Bryce’s waist. “She was giving him a hard time about how he fell off the face of the planet when he met Riggs. How the only thing that mattered to Smith in those early days was being with his man.”
Bryce smiled and searched out the stars of Orion’s belt, looking for a constellation he knew by heart while Holden spoke softly into his ear.
“They’re still like that. Obsessed with each other and attached.”
“Like us?”
Holden made an agreeable noise. “It made me feel like this was okay. With you.”
“Was it not before?”
“It was, but…”
“It felt okay for us,” Bryce guessed, “not for everyone else’s perception of us.”
“Something like that.” Holden closed his mouth and left a featherlight kiss against Bryce’s neck.
“Do you believe in fate?”
Holden nodded, chin digging into Bryce’s shoulder.
“Is that what this is?”
Another nod.
Bryce inhaled and let a comfortable silence fall. Down on the street, there was hardly any traffic to be heard, no one out walking yet. The sun was still hours away from cresting the eastern horizon and Holden’s arms gave him more peace than Bryce had ever known.
“Are you cold?” Holden asked him later, words rough for how long they’d sat in silence with each other.
“A little.”
“Let’s go inside. I’ll warm you up.”
Bryce crawled off Holden’s lap, fighting the shiver that slammed into him from being fully exposed to the early morning air. “Was that an innuendo?”
“Not this time.” Holden took his hand and left their chairs, a stoic invitation for return.
They walked together back into the apartment and locked the door behind them.
Holden and Bryce stripped each other naked in the entryway, leaving a trail of clothes and socks in their wake.
Roaming hands turned to rough grabs and soft kisses, and then Holden took him right to bed, pressed him down into the sheets and kissed him hard against the back of his neck.
“It would be hot, by the way,” Bryce murmured, the words trailing off into a yawn.
“What would be hot?” Holden smiled against his neck, teeth cool against Bryce’s flushed skin.
“I think sometimes about waking up with you inside of me,” he admitted, another sexual interest he’d never shared with anyone. “Like you were so overcome you couldn’t even wait to wake me up.”
Holden let his hand trail down Bryce’s bare hip and over the swell of his ass. He stopped short of touching Bryce’s hole.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Holden promised. “We have years ahead of us, don’t we?”
“I hope so.”
Bryce’s lashes fluttered closed, and Holden nestled his half-hard cock between Bryce’s ass cheeks.
“We have plenty of time to explore every possible way to get you off,” he said, “And after that, I think we can probably still find some more.”
“I’ve got to be honest. I like it when you talk, Holden.”
“I like it when you talk too.”
Bryce angled his head back and chased after a kiss, which Holden freely gave, and then Bryce fell asleep, content and loved, cocooned in the arms of the man who loved him as he was, and as he’d ever be.