More Than a Mouthful (Straight College Jocks #11)

Chapter 1

Ifreeze mid-combo, the controller going slack in my hands.

“Dude, why’d you stop?” Troy’s thumbs keep working his controller, eyes on the screen like he didn’t just say what he said.

“Wait, what?” I stare at him. “Run that by me again.”

“You’re letting me kick your ass.” He leans forward, elbows on his knees. “Come on, fight back.”

The game sounds blur together. I’m staring at the side of his face, trying to make it make sense.

Troy. My roommate Troy, who’s been through half the girls in our dorm.

That Troy. I’ve known him for two years, and in all that time he’s never, not once, mentioned anything like this.

He talks about pussy constantly. Shows me his Tinder matches.

Had some Kappa Sig girl over two nights in a row last week.

He’s a walking, breathing fraternity cliché.

I press a few buttons without looking, my character taking a fireball to the chest. “You’re bullshitting me.”

He finally turns to me, and the TV glow catches in his green eyes. There’s no joke there. No smirk waiting to break out. “It’s not that deep, bro.”

“Not that—” I set the controller on the couch between us. “Troy. What the fuck.”

“What?”

“You can’t just drop that and then go ‘what?’”

Troy shrugs his broad shoulders, pausing the game with a jab of a button. The screen locks in place, our two pixelated warriors caught in a standoff. “It’s not a big deal, Connor. I was drunk. I let a guy blow me. The end.”

His bare chest is red where he scratched it earlier, white socks hooked over the edge of the table like always.

We’ve done this plenty of Sundays, sitting here in our sweats, playing video games until our eyes burn.

Troy has become one of my closest friends over these two years.

But right now, I feel like I’m looking at a total stranger.

“But you’re straight,” I say.

“Yeah. Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

“Yeah, you know. Except when I’m balls deep in some dude.” He lets out a short laugh.

My eyes drop to the front of his sweatpants, to the outline bulging against the gray fabric.

A shape I’ve never paid attention to before.

I mean, why would I? You don’t clock another guy’s dick print and feel anything except the urge to look away.

Right? But now that I know that dick has been inside a guy’s mouth…

“That’s fucked, man.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s so fucked about it?”

“It’s gay, Troy. It’s as gay as it gets.”

He lets out a loud bark of laughter that turns into a cough. “No shit, Sherlock. Did you miss the part where I said I let a guy blow me? Come on, Con. Keep up, bro. What are you, homophobic or something?”

“I’m not.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“It’s just… weird hearing it from you, man. You never said anything about this shit.”

Troy laughs again, scratching at the line of dark hair disappearing under his waistband. “You’re taking this way too seriously. I was just horny as fuck. Saw an opportunity. Took it.” He picks up the controller again. “Now are we gonna play, or what? I was about to whoop your ass.”

Whoop my ass. The words have a different ring to them now.

My eyes are still stuck on the print in his sweats.

Why am I looking at it? I’ve lived with him for two years.

We’ve changed in front of each other hundreds of times, showered with the bathroom door open.

Our beds are close enough that I’ve heard him fuck girls while I was trying to sleep, heard him jerk off at night.

There’s no reason for me to be staring at his junk.

“What kind of opportunity?” I hear myself ask. “Like, how does that even happen?”

“What do you mean, how does it happen? You go to a party, you drink a bunch of shitty beer, you get to talking. Next thing you know—” He gestures with the controller. “Boom.”

“But like… how did you know he was, you know, interested?”

“Believe me, I knew. The dude wasn’t exactly subtle. Kept looking at my crotch.”

I quickly unglue my eyes from that exact spot.

“So I finally said, ‘If you want my dick that bad, let’s go to the bathroom.’” Troy leans back into the couch, stretching an arm along the back.

It lands a few inches from my shoulder. “He got this big-ass grin. Followed me right in. Guy was desperate for it. Already on his knees before I even locked the door. Kept going on about how big I was. Like, I get it, I’m hung.

Tell me something new.” He gives me a smug look, one I’ve seen a hundred times after he’s hooked up with a girl. “Just shut up already and suck it.”

I try to keep my expression neutral. “And you just… let him?”

“Let him?” Troy raises one eyebrow. “Connor, he was begging for it. Why the hell wouldn’t I?”

I don’t have an answer to that. I’m just picturing it.

Troy in some cramped bathroom. A dude on the floor, looking up at him with hungry eyes.

The music from the party thudding through the walls.

The sound of a belt buckle undoing. A zipper sliding down.

Ohs and ahs. Troy feeding him that dick.

Wet slurping. The thud of the door as somebody pushes against it from the outside.

Troy pushing back with his foot. “Occupied.” A grunt.

The guy’s head bobbing up and down. Up and down.

Faster. Faster. Then Troy’s thighs tensing—

“Anyway,” Troy continues, “it was pretty wild. The guy couldn’t get enough. He took all of it. Down to the base. Not many girls can do that, let me tell you.”

A traitorous warmth spreads through my gut, and there’s a twitch where I really, really don’t want one. I shift on the couch, trying to adjust without being obvious.

“That’s, uh…” I clear my throat. “Pretty crazy.”

“Right? I’m telling you, Connor, getting with dudes is the move.”

“How so?”

“They are just way more straightforward about what they want. And you know how it is. We’re horny bastards all the time. Why not put it to good use?”

“That’s… well, when you put it that way.”

“There’s no bullshit, no expectations. They won’t blow up your phone the next day with fifty texts asking where this is going. They just take your load and move on. It’s perfect. I honestly don’t get why more guys aren’t doing it.”

“Yeah, but most guys aren’t into dudes.”

“What’s the difference, at the end of the day? A hole’s a hole. You really gonna say no to a warm, wet mouth on your cock just because the person’s got a dick too?”

My throat is dry as dust. “Fair enough.”

“And dudes know how to give head. I mean, they’ve got the same equipment. They know exactly what feels good. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense for guys to help each other out.”

“I guess.”

“So yeah, I really don’t get why people make such a big deal out of it. We’re all just trying to bust a nut.” Troy nudges my leg with his foot. “Come on, champ, let’s play. This is getting way too philosophical for a Sunday morning.”

He unpauses the game, the sounds of battle crashing back to life.

I pick up my controller, but my hands are sweaty. My character gets hit twice before I even register what’s happening on screen. Troy combos me into the corner, and I don’t block any of it.

“Bro, you’re not even trying.” He glances over at me. “You’re not gonna have a crisis, are you?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“You sure? You’re looking at me all weird.”

I drop the controller into my lap, my thumb brushing over the worn plastic. “It’s just… you make a pretty good argument.”

A smile breaks out on Troy’s face. “Right? I’m telling you, it’s the way to go. I mean, you shouldn’t abandon pussy entirely, obviously. But as a supplement? Game changer.”

I look at him. At the way he’s sitting there, so relaxed, so casual about all of this.

Troy’s a handsome fucker. I’ve always known that. I’m not blind. He’s six-foot-three, keeps a regular workout routine at the campus gym. Light brown hair he’s always running a hand through, green eyes, stubble darkening his jaw. Girls flock to him.

I’ve always taken it in the way you appreciate a nice car or a good bottle of whiskey.

Purely objective. The breadth of his shoulders.

The solid swell of his pecs. The dark trail of hair leading down to…

yeah. I get it. I can see why some guy would be desperate to drop to his knees for him.

Even… even a guy who’s usually into girls.

“You’re kinda making me want to try it,” I hear myself say.

“Hell yeah, man!” Troy grins, slapping my shoulder. “That’s what I’m talking about. You should totally go for it next time we’re out. Trust me, you won’t regret it.”

“Why wait?” I look down at my hands, then back up at him.

The smile fades from Troy’s face. He leans back, sinking into the couch cushions. “Whoa, dude. Hold up. What are you saying?”

“I mean…” I take a deep breath. “Why are we sitting here playing video games when we could be doing that instead? You know. Supplementing.”