Chapter Twenty-One
Nate had a long week of meetings ahead of him.
The new show liaison, Jim Royce, wanted to meet with him tomorrow first thing, to go over the new format.
They wouldn’t be able to change everything up immediately—they’d need a new set, among other things—but Royce didn’t want Nate to be surprised by anything that was coming. Jess’s words.
Nate was pretty sure they just wanted to make sure he knew he wasn’t going to get any say in what was going on. He’d heard enough stories about how ESBN operated, and Jess had hinted at what he could expect.
It didn’t sound like fun. But it didn’t hold a candle to what Aubrey was going through, so Nate sucked it up.
He had his Lyft swing by Luella’s for dinner before heading back to Aubrey’s.
“Hey,” he said when Aubrey opened the door.
Nate had half expected him to be wearing grubby sweatpants and a ratty T-shirt, which was ridiculous in hindsight.
The closest thing he owned to grubby sweatpants were the ones with PINK on the ass.
Instead he was wearing the same suit he’d worn to Jess’s office, but he’d ditched the jacket and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt.
“Salmon croquettes or chicken and waffles? Or are we skipping to dessert?”
“Are those beignets?” Aubrey took the bag and stuck his nose inside for a sniff. “Oh my God. Come to Daddy.” He stepped back to let Nate pass him.
“I know it’s kind of early for dinner,” Nate said, hanging his coat by the door. “I figured we could heat it up later if you’re up to it.”
“I’m actually fine.” Aubrey put dinner in the fridge and took out a pair of plates for the beignets. “I mean, it sucks. I liked that job. I’ll probably want to break something later. But it’s not like I need the money.”
They were both lucky that way. “I’ll miss working with you, though. It’s not going to be the same.” Why didn’t Aubrey seem more upset?
Aubrey handed him a plate and gestured toward the breakfast bar. They sat. “The more things change, right?” Then Aubrey contemplated his beignet. “Oh… napkins.”
On second thought, maybe he was a little distracted. “I’ll get them,” Nate offered.
Aubrey put a hand on his arm. The first and second time he’d done that, Nate had thought he was comforting Nate. Looking at Aubrey now, though… maybe it was the other way around. Maybe this was Aubrey asking for comfort the only way he could.
Maybe beignets weren’t what he needed right then.
“Hey,” Nate said. “These’ll keep another hour, right?”
Aubrey tilted his head.
Nate stood and held out his hand. “C’mon.”
Aubrey didn’t resist as Nate led him to the bedroom. He let Nate undo the buttons of his dress shirt and slide it from his shoulders, unbuckle his belt and pull it through its loops. Nate kept his touch intimate but not sexual. This was about comfort. Anything else he’d leave up to Aubrey.
“What’re we doing?” Aubrey asked finally, as Nate gently nudged him onto the bed.
“Starting the day over. This one blows.” Nate left his own shirt over the back of the chair where he’d laid Aubrey’s. His pants joined it a moment later, and then he lay down in the bed next to Aubrey in his boxers and curled his body around him. “There. Better.”
Aubrey breathed deeply for a few moments. The tension in his back and shoulders slowly gave way until he was leaning into Nate’s body. He interlaced their fingers. “I have a question.”
“Shoot.”
“What kind of heathen leaves his socks on in bed?”
Nate snorted into the back of Aubrey’s neck. It must have tickled, because Aubrey hunched his shoulders against it. “Hey, it’s December in Chicago. Frostbite is a real concern.”
“The heat goes off in your swanky apartment one time,” Aubrey said dramatically. He sounded better already.
Nate smiled against his skin.
“We could get under the covers,” Aubrey suggested.
“Mm-hmm.” Despite his earlier comment, Aubrey didn’t actually feel cold—no goose bumps—and he generally kept his place a few degrees warmer than Nate did.
“Or,” Aubrey said, turning over.
Yeah, Nate thought so. “Or,” he agreed.
Their mouths came together slowly, a foregone conclusion without any urgency. Nate traced the shell of Aubrey’s ear, the line of his jaw. Their knees bumped; Aubrey adjusted to let Nate slide a leg between his so they could get closer.
Nate kissed Aubrey’s mouth, his chin, his cheekbone, and then started over. Aubrey clutched at the back of his neck, then his shoulder. Nate shuddered when Aubrey pressed a hand between his pectorals and slid it down to his navel.
It was easy to let his hands wander. Aubrey arched into his touches, sighing and gasping, letting Nate learn his body.
Nate kept his hands light, though, exploring the hard, smooth muscles of Aubrey’s back, the curve of his bicep, the dip of his waist. When he slid lower, palming the generous swell of his ass, Aubrey tilted his head against Nate’s so their noses brushed, breaking their kiss.
“I want,” Aubrey said quietly, but he didn’t finish the statement. When Nate opened his eyes, his face was flushed, his eyelashes fanned out against his cheeks. He brushed their noses together again.
Nate stole a handful of quick, sipping kisses. “Okay.”
While Nate fumbled behind him for the nightstand drawer, Aubrey wriggled out of his boxers. Nate rolled back with the lube and a handful of condoms, and Aubrey met him with a kiss.
Nate wasn’t in any more of a hurry now that Aubrey was naked. They entwined their legs again. Nate took his time working Aubrey open as they kissed, swallowing the sound of his gasps, biting back moans of his own as Aubrey stroked his cock.
He worked up to three fingers, Aubrey undulating against him, his face tucked against Nate’s neck. Finally Aubrey curled his leg toward himself and used his knee to push Nate away.
Nate could take a hint. He eased Aubrey onto his back and pulled a pillow from the head of the bed to shove under his hips while Aubrey unwrapped the condom. He rolled it down Nate’s erection, then rubbed his thumb in a circle under the head.
He leaned his forehead against Aubrey’s as he pushed inside. The tight heat of Aubrey’s body enveloped him, sending his head spinning. Aubrey exhaled a soft gasping sound as he tilted his head back and his hips up, cradling Nate with his body.
It was sexy and slick and gorgeous. Aubrey’s fingers slid through the sweat on Nate’s back, clutching him closer, and his body was hot and grasping around Nate’s cock, drawing him in deeper with every stroke.
His breath fanned softly over Nate’s lips, and he hooked an ankle around the back of Nate’s thigh, urging him on.
Finally Nate shuddered and pushed up on his arms, changing the angle.
“Ah!” Aubrey threw his head back, and the tendons of his neck stood out in stark relief. His face was a rictus of pleasure. A rivulet of sweat dripped down his temple.
Nate licked his lips, watching him, focused on his pleasure. Aubrey’s cock was hard between them, full and dripping on his stomach, but Aubrey’s hands were busy tweaking Nate’s nipples, digging into the flesh of his shoulders to urge him on.
Supporting himself on one hand, Nate reached for the lube and flicked the cap open. He knew he wouldn’t last, and he needed to make Aubrey feel as incredible as he did.
Aubrey cried out again when Nate closed his slick hand around his shaft. His eyes shot open, meeting Nate’s.
Nate leaned down again until their faces were centimeters apart.
At this angle he could barely move his hand, but it didn’t seem to matter.
Aubrey’s breath was hitching, his body coiling like a spring.
Clumsy, he lifted his mouth to meet Nate’s.
Nate’s teeth grazed his lower lip, and Aubrey shook just slightly.
Then he deepened the kiss, and Aubrey shattered around him, crying out into Nate’s mouth.
Nate followed him over the edge, helpless to do anything else.
For several moments they lay panting in each other’s arms. Aubrey’s pupils were blown, and he seemed dazed, his face slack.
Nate let him recover. It was pretty obvious he’d never felt that bone-deep, soul-deep connection that came from the kind of intimate sex you could only have with someone you loved. It was natural he’d feel vulnerable, and equally so to need time to process.
So he kept his mouth shut and quietly dealt with the condom, leaving it in a wad of tissues on the nightstand. Tissues were not going to cut it for the two of them, but he wasn’t going to nudge Aubrey toward the shower before he was ready.
“Nate,” Aubrey said finally.
Ah. His brain had finally rebooted. “Hm?”
“There might be something to this whole commitment thing.”
Months ago Nate might have bristled. By now he could recognize when Aubrey was deflecting attention from his own vulnerability. Instead of taking offense, he kissed Aubrey’s forehead. “I’ll have to take your word for it since I don’t have a basis of comparison.”
Finally Aubrey raised his head and a single eyebrow.
“I tried to have a casual hookup once, but it worked out,” he elaborated wryly.
Aubrey smiled and put his head back down. “I’m glad.”
“Me too.”
With the show undergoing a series of seemingly arbitrary changes, Aubrey suddenly had a lot of time to himself while Nate attended hours upon hours of meetings.
“I wish I’d gotten fired,” Nate joked one night when he came in the door at eight. They hadn’t been filming. He’d had seven solid hours of meetings.
You could retire and be my kept man, Aubrey almost suggested, but that would lead to a serious conversation he wasn’t ready to have, and Nate was already exhausted.
“Shower or bathtub?” he asked instead, and afterward they spent a pleasant half hour watching The Mandalorian on Disney Plus, because Aubrey was a closet Star Wars buff and Nate loved Baby Yoda.
Unfortunately, Aubrey found that the longer he went without telling Nate the truth about Vegas, the more difficult it was to broach the subject.