Chapter 17
SIMON
The morning sunlight peeking through the gap in the curtains fell across my face in a warm strip as I woke. I hummed, stretching out, flexing toes and fingers. The bruises from yesterday ached, a dull, heavy feeling that made me reluctant to rise.
When I rolled over, it was to see a pair of familiar, impossibly blue eyes staring into mine. I couldn’t have helped the smile that tugged at my lips if I’d wanted to.
“G’morning,” I mumbled, something warm swelling under my ribs as Theo smiled back.
God, he was gorgeous. Not that he wasn’t always gorgeous—Theo was beautiful the way actors and models were beautiful—but there was always something about him in the mornings. A softness that made my fingers itch to reach out and stroke through his hair.
“Good morning,” he rumbled, voice thick and frayed with sleep at the edges.
“Sleep okay?”
I had no idea what last night had been about, and the awkwardness of that was already creeping into my voice.
The last time Theo had kissed me, he’d been dealing with his parents for forty-eight hours, still nursing a breakup that’d happened just seventy-two hours before, and so drunk he’d missed my mouth at first. I’d pushed him away, because I already loved him then.
I couldn’t handle the thought of being a rebound—no, rebound I could have lived with.
What I hadn’t wanted to be was a regret.
In the light of day, I wasn’t sure I hadn’t fucked up last night.
As if he could hear my thoughts, Theo rolled his eyes and, for a heart-wrenching moment, rose up on his elbow.
I thought for a second he was going to slip out of bed.
I pictured an agonizingly awkward day and had almost gotten as far as the rest of my life without him when he leaned in and kissed me.
A surprised little sound escaped me as I registered the kiss, the pressure against my shoulder as he pushed me onto my back, and...
“Minty?” I murmured against his lips, letting him shove me back onto the mattress without resistance. He tasted so strongly of toothpaste it made my lips tingle.
“Mm,” he hummed, rolling with me and climbing on top like he had last night, perching on my hips. My breath hitched as he rubbed against my morning wood, then again as I felt his pressing into my stomach as he leaned down to kiss me.
“Wanted to do this as soon as you woke,” he said, shifting his hips so we lined up a little better, cocks brushing against each other. “Minus the morning breath.”
“I still have morning breath,” I pointed out. I also wouldn’t have cared if Theo did.
We’d seen each other sick, hungover, and sobbing our hearts out.
I’d never been bothered by knowing Theo was human and had the bodily functions to match, and he’d never seemed to be, either.
One time, I was running a fever so high I could see sounds and periodically vomiting into a bucket when a really nasty flu was going around at work, and Theo had made me lie with my head in his lap while he ran a cold cloth over my neck and murmured comforting nonsense at me.
Well. It might not have been nonsense, but I hadn’t been able to make sense of it except for the sound of his voice.
“Don’t care,” he said, kissing me again, lips soft and parted, hips rocking against mine. “Want you.”
I still didn’t understand why last night had happened, and I still wasn’t completely sure I hadn’t fucked up, but if there was a living person in the world who could say no to a sleep-warm, eager Theo rubbing his cock against their stomach and making needy sounds into their mouth, it wasn’t me.
Instead, I slid my hand along the length of his pale thigh until I reached the curve of his perfect butt, giving him a firm, encouraging squeeze.
His breath caught, hips jerking against me.
“Yes, please,” he murmured against my lips, rubbing our noses together. “Just frot? If that’s okay?”
“Anything you want,” I said. Theo could’ve asked me to hang from the ceiling fan and I would’ve done it for him.
“Want you on top of me again.” He pulled back to look me in the eyes, throat working as he swallowed. “Wanna feel you.”
I shored up my grip on his ass and rolled us both over within a heartbeat, moaning at the same time as he did with the combination of pleasure and pain. I ached all over, everywhere he was touching me, and it was perfect.
“Theo,” I breathed against his lips, grinding down against him.
He laughed, fingers threading into my hair, thighs wrapping around my waist. “That’s it,” he said, squeezing me tight. “Fuck, you feel so good.”
Whatever this was, whatever was happening, I couldn’t resist him.
It didn’t matter what any of it meant, or what the future held.
Not while Theo was clinging to me with both hands and both legs, while he was writhing under me, rubbing off against my stomach and leaving sticky smears of precome in his wake.
The mattress creaked under us as we built a rhythm together, a counter-note to the litany of soft, needy sounds spilling between us. There was no technique to this—just two bodies moving together, heat and friction rising between us, sweat and precome slicking the way over bare skin.
All that mattered was that it was Theo, and me, and we were together. I’d been waiting more than a third of my life for this.
“Feels good,” Theo murmured, back arching. “Fuck, Sy.”
“I’m here,” I promised, ducking to kiss my way along his jaw, lips and tongue rasping over morning stubble. “I’ve got you.”
“Yeah,” he agreed with a dreamy sigh, thighs tightening, hips speeding up. “Harder.”
I dropped my forehead to his shoulder, pressing more of my weight against him, grinding harder and harder as his fingers dug into me. The way his breath hitched told me when I’d gotten it like he wanted, and I pressed soft kisses along his collarbones, his neck, anywhere I could reach.
Whatever was going on, I wanted to leave him with as much affection as I could. Wanted to etch how much I loved him into his bones, so he’d never have to go anywhere without it. So he’d always have this.
All I’d ever wanted was for him to have it. Me. However he’d take me.
“Sy,” Theo panted, voice straining, thighs tightening around my waist. “Fuck, Sy.”
“I’ve got you,” I promised. “I’ve got you.”
Theo gripped me tighter, fingers biting into my shoulder, shoving into my hair. He tugged me up to kiss me again, open mouthed, tongues brushing against each other. I could hardly believe he was so enthusiastic about having sex with me.
The bedsprings whined and creaked as his hips sped up, faster, faster, until it was a struggle to keep up with him. I panted against his throat and forced myself to match his pace, muscles protesting the strain, pain and pleasure curling around each other until I couldn’t tell which was which.
Theo whimpered in my ear, thighs tightening so hard I couldn’t breathe for a moment, then let out a choked-off cry as his back arched clear off the bed. A hot rush of fluids smeared over my stomach and I moaned in response, lungs burning.
“ Fuck,” I panted, lowering myself to one elbow to get a hand between us. I hissed as my own fingers curled around my cock, sobbing into Theo’s shoulder as I got myself off in two, three strokes, doubling the sticky mess between us.
“Fuck,” I repeated, stars dancing behind my eyelids as I gasped for breath.
I rolled off Theo as my arms threatened to give out, not wanting to crush him, and flopped onto the bed.
The ceiling swam a little as I stared blankly up at it, sweat and come cooling on my skin. Beside me, Theo was still catching his breath as well, and for a while the sound of the two of us panting blocked out everything else.
Then a bang startled me so badly I jumped clear off the mattress by an inch or so.
“Knock it off,” Delilah’s voice came through the wall. “I need my beauty sleep.”
I turned to Theo, eyes wide, and found him staring back at me, mouth hanging open. That room had definitely been empty yesterday.
We both burst into giggles at once, Theo curling up on his side and biting down on his fist to stifle his, me slapping a hand over my mouth.
“That’s not an improvement,” Delilah called through the wall. “Go fuck in the shower like civilized people.”
I looked at Theo again, brow raised.
“Bad luck to see the bride the night before the wedding. She must’ve moved rooms,” he murmured. His cheeks were flushed, eyes bright, hair all over the place.
He really was beautiful.
I reached out between us and took his hand, turning over to inspect his nails. In the morning light, I could see they were navy, after all. There was even a shimmer to them.
“I’ve got one like this,” I said, stroking his fingers. I’d touched his hands a thousand times—more, probably—but there was something different about it now. I was so aware of him, in a way I hadn’t been since the terrifying excitement of having a crush when we’d first met.
“I know,” Theo said. “Figured if I was being someone other than myself for the weekend, who better to be than my favorite person?”
Favorite person.
Wow.
He was mine, obviously, and I knew, intellectually, that I was his best and maybe only friend. It was different to hear it aloud, though.
I lifted his hand to my lips to kiss the knuckles before linking our fingers together. The way his eyes sparkled made something in my chest flutter.
Theo gave me a speculative once-over, breaking into a smile that spread slowly from his lips to his eyes, so wide it made them crinkle at the corners.
“You heard the lady,” he said, launching himself up and out of the bed, tugging me along with him. “Let’s be civilized.”