21. Tyler
21
TYLER
I lay on my stomach, propped on my elbows, watching a tutorial about refinishing floors. I was going to use a little of the money I’d put aside to have new flooring installed, but now I'm looking into something more budget-friendly. I figured out that the apartment has a concrete subfloor, so I'm thinking about tearing up all the existing carpet and refinishing the concrete, then adding rugs in the main living space and bedroom. It's more work, but I don't mind. It'll save a lot of money, and I think it'll look really cool. I think Isaac will appreciate the modern aesthetic. As much as this place feels like it's becoming mine in a way I never expected, I want everything about it to feel like home to Isaac.
The mattress shifts as a warm weight crawls up the length of my body. I barely suppress a groan before I feel Isaac settle over my back, draping himself over me like a human blanket. A few weeks ago, this kind of closeness, this position, would have me tensing up and pulling away. Now I relish it, my body entirely at ease beneath his.
“What are you working on?" He murmurs, his breath tickling the shell of my ear. A shiver runs down the length of my spine as warm lips brush over the back of my neck.
I snap the laptop shut and move it to the bedside table. "It's a surprise," I say, grinning over my shoulder.
Isaac huffs a soft laugh and presses his lips against the side of my throat. "Not even a hint?"
" Mmm. I could maybe be persuaded," I purr, curving my back to press my ass up.
He groans and rolls his hips into me, his cock hardening. "How about now?"
"I need you to tell me your favorite color. It's for the apartment. I'm not great at interior design, but Brenna is helping."
Isaac pushes himself up and guides me to turn over, scooting down and settling between my legs so his head is on my stomach. Lifting the fabric of my shirt, he kisses and nuzzles the area before laying his cheek flat against my skin. "We need to talk about the apartment."
I look down at him questioningly.
"We need to cut the budget for the apartment renovations until I can move some stuff around." He sounds apologetic, and I know it's hard for him to admit to any troubles. "I know you were looking forward to it. I promise we can still do it, hopefully soon, but I'm cutting everything non-essential for a while."
I still for a fraction of a second before shaking my head. "No, don't worry about it. This is my project."
"Ty–"
"No, Isaac." I push up on my elbows so I can look down at him. "You let me live here rent free. You take care of everything. I want to take care of this."
"I don't want you using that money to–"
"To what? It's my money, Isaac."
"Don't you think you should save it? Put it away for emergencies?" He holds my gaze with an almost pitying look. "I'm sorry. I just… You value money a little differently when you've never had it."
His patronizing tone is like a slap to my face. Isaac is the only person I've ever had in my life that didn't underestimate my intelligence or infantilize me. I know he's been stressed about money lately. Things have been tense. I overheard him talking to Mac and Anders the other day when they came to check in on us since we hadn't been by The Nook since Valentine's Day. He was talking about how the political climate is hurting small businesses, and that between inflation and the tariff wars, the cost of starting a business is becoming impossible to manage. I’m only just now realizing he hasn’t had those same conversations with me. Does he think I'm dumb, or just that I'm a spoiled little rich boy that doesn't understand struggle?
I school my expression, but not before he sees the hurt there. His face falls. "Baby.I didn't mean that to sound condescending. I know you're capable–"
"Do you?" I snap. "Because I hear a but coming at the end of that sentence. Don't patronize me."
"I love you for you, not your money. I don't ever want there to be any question about that."
"So this is about what Guy said? I'm curious… Do you think I'm a desperate, attention seeking whore?"
"What? Of course not." He shoots up straight, looking far more offended than when Guy called him gutter trash. "Never."
"But you'll believe what he said about you?"
"It's not just him, though. Everyone from your world is going to think that. I can't ever be accused, you could never question me, if I never accept a dime."
I sit up and wrap my arms around his neck. "Isaac, I'd never question that. You're the most selfless, self-sacrificing person I know. You'd never take advantage of anyone, least of all me." I level him with a pointed look. "Letting people help you, letting them do their part, doesn't mean you can't do it on your own. You don't have to, though. We're supposed to be in this together, right?"
He hesitates, then swallows. "Yeah."
"So get over yourself. And let me have this one little thing. I promise I won't go overboard or anything like that. But I am doing it."
Threading my fingers through the back of his hair, I pull him down into a kiss. It's soft, lingering, and full of everything I can't quite put into words. I doubt sex is going to convince him that leaning on me isn't a weakness, to let me carry some of this burden with him, but I can show him how much I trust and love him.
Love.
Wait.
"Did you say…"
I think for a moment he'll deny that's what he meant, or deflect. It's way too soon. But he doesn't. Instead, he nods.
"Yeah, I said that."
"You love me?"
"Yes."
A soft whoosh of air leaves my chest.
"Good. Now show me."
I pull his shirt over his head before pulling him up the bed, then over me as I lay back on the mattress. He kisses me deep and meaningfully, stroking his tongue against mine, like he can feed me his love by putting it into my body with his. Which I can get on board with. Because I want him tonight.
"I want you inside me," I whisper against his mouth after he breaks our kiss to pull my shirt off. He stares down at me with soft eyes for a moment, then dips his head and kisses across my jaw and down my neck.
He works his way down my body, pulling the pair of boxers I stole from him down my legs before settling between my legs. His tongue laves through the creases of my thighs and swirls over my balls. He kisses and licks up and down my shaft, sucking at the tender flesh of my perineum in a way that has me whimpering.
Isaac pushes my knees against my chest and lowers his mouth to my hole. He has it and me wet and pliant in minutes. I'm writhing against his face, begging him for more.
I'm used to taking his fingers now, but he's never spread me to get me ready for more. It's a heady sensation knowing he's stretching me open, pushing lube inside me, getting me ready to take him into my body.
There's zero trepidation. Zero fear. Zero doubts. There's only love, and trust, and desperate need.
When I'm begging and rocking on his three thick fingers, he finally takes pity on me. Draping his body over mine, he never stops kissing me as he lines himself up and slowly pushes inside.
There's pressure. Maybe a pinch of pain, but it quickly dissolves.
Most of what I feel is an overwhelming fullness. Not just physically. I feel him in my chest, in the butterflies in my stomach. He's wrapped around my brain in such a way that I can't see past him. He's rushing through my veins and pumping through my arteries. He's filling my lungs, becoming part of the molecules that make me a living, breathing person.
"Are you okay?" he asks, holding himself flush against me.
I nod and shift my hips, wordlessly telling him to move. I'm incapable of words. I'm too full.
Isaac gently rolls his hips, pulling out and thrusting into me smooth and slow. He kisses me deeply with every other thrust. The rest of the time he's giving me all his words.
"You're so amazing."
"Fucking perfect."
"You feel so good, fit so perfect."
"I love you."
Pressure starts to build, warmth gathering at the base of my spine and slowly radiating outward. Isaac hears my body loud and clear, moving his hips in shorter, faster thrusts that hit that spot inside me, tightening the band of pressure into something imminent and dangerously intense.
Isaac wraps his hand around my sensitive cock, his hand shuttling up and down my length in time with his thrusts, and the band grows tighter still. When I look up into his dark eyes, the black depths swimming with emotion, it becomes almost painful. I can't breathe through the heaviness of it.
When it breaks, it's more than a physical detonation. Every one of my synapses explodes into pleasure that shoots outward to my toes and the follicles of my hair. It's a detonation of everything that holds me together–my pride, my anxiety, my well-honed sense of self preservation. Warmth bursts over my stomach, deep inside my core, and pours from my eyes as I hold on to Isaac with every bit of strength I have left.
He holds me and kisses me through it, whispers the affirmations I've become reliant on.
I'm not ready for him to pull out, to leave my body. The aftershocks of the physical release have passed, but I'm still reeling emotionally. I almost cry harder when Isaac pulls out of my body, but either he knows me on a level that should scare me, or I've said something out loud and not realized it. Because when he settles behind me, pulling my back against his chest and wrapping his arms around me tight enough to hold me together, he slides back inside me. I fall asleep with Isaac consuming every part of me.
I wake up later to a warm cloth being run over my abdomen, thighs, and ass.
"Are you wiping my ass?" I say groggily.
Isaac's laughter is soul cleansing. And when he lays back beside me and hugs me to him, chest to chest, I have the overwhelming need to thank him. Not for wiping my ass, exactly, and not even for taking care of me, but for caring for me, for accepting me for who I am. For saving me in every conceivable way.
He's everything.
There aren't enough words to describe what he means to me, so I give him the most important truth that has both torn me apart and kept me together.
"I love you, too."
Life threw us together in a brutal and intense way. It's been a whirlwind that has spun my entire world on its axis. But I love him more than I've loved anyone else in my entire life, more than I love myself. And there isn't a thing in this world I wouldn't do for him.