Chapter 27 #2
My chin didn’t dip like his had. My whole body fell into his, my head burying itself in his chest before I remembered he was half naked and my nose was basically molesting his armpit. His hand found my chin and lifted me up so our eyes met again.
“Theo, I think you’re awesome. You know that, right?”
God, I had to fight to keep our eyes locked.
“I’m . . . I don’t . . . my body—”
“I want your body, Theo,” he said, his voice steady and firm. “I’ve seen your shirt lift, giving me a peek at a tight stomach. I don’t care if your chest and arms are smaller than mine. I actually like it better that way.”
I gaped. He was a gym rat, everything I would never be physically. I’d just assumed he was obsessed with muscles and tendons and whatever other body parts were improved by moving heavy things around. Never once had I considered that he might like skinny guys like me.
Intellectually, I knew there was no more delaying or avoiding. If my dreams about this night—dreams that ended in much happier ways that any other dream of mine—had any chance of coming true, the shirt had to go.
As if reading my mind, Jeremiah said, “Just take your shirt off, please.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Ooh.” His eyes sparkled, and a smart-ass grin captured his lips. “I’ve never been into the dom/sub thing, but you calling me ‘sir’ made Little Jer twitch.”
Reluctantly, I gripped the bottom of my shirt and pulled it over my head, again struggling to meet his gaze, fearing the disappointment that might be there.
“Better, sir?” I asked, desperate to take the attention off my toothpick frame.
He didn’t speak.
I waited.
Still nothing.
Finally, I looked down. He was scanning my chest, letting his gaze roam across my skin as though memorizing every piece of me. His lips were parted, though I couldn’t tell if they were smiling or frozen in disgust.
“Theo—”
“I know. I need to work out. I always said—”
Rough hands gripped me and pulled my bare chest into his. Before I could finish my protest, his lips smothered mine, his tongue finding its courage and sneaking between my teeth. The moment it hit my own, my chest expanded—as did something far more sensitive in my pants.
“Look who likes to be naked,” Jeremiah breathed between kisses.
“I really don’t—”
“Shut up and kiss me,” he ordered. “I think you’re the sexiest man I’ve met in years. I want to kiss you and hold you and feel you against me. I want to lick your balls and suck your cock. Hell, Theo, I want to be inside you and—”
“Really?”
What an idiotic thing to ask. He’d just answered that question with a lot of really tasty things. Why was I so fucking stupid?
His hands moved from my back to grip my ass.
“Oh!”
Then he kneaded.
“Oooh.”
Before I could think, he was shoving our cocks together, grinding me against his growing erection, kissing me like my mouth answered some question he’d been meaning to ask, like I held all the oxygen he could ever breathe—and he was determined to draw it out of me.
“Less talking. More kissing.”
“Yes, sir,” I mumbled into his mouth.
His chuckle ran through his lips and into my mouth. I couldn’t help but smile.
Then his hands were inside my shorts. I nearly leaped off the bed.
“Good. You’re up. You can take those pants off now,” he said.
Where had this bossy, in-charge tone come from?
Jeremiah had never been anything but kind, if a bit meek. For all his physical strength, he seemed to share many of the same insecurities I grappled with. And yet, there he was, taking control and telling me what to do. It was unnerving—and fucking hot.
Who knew being bossed around could make me weak in the knees?
When I hesitated to do as instructed, Jeremiah sat up, reached forward, and plucked the button loose on my shorts.
The zipper quickly followed, and before I could think, my neon green and blue boxers were revealed, except instead of an intimidating Hulk staring at Jeremiah, the head of my penis was sticking out of the pee-pee slit right above the Hulk’s head, making him look like a tiny fireman wearing a very fleshy helmet.
Jeremiah blinked.
Then covered his mouth.
Then fell backward howling at the ceiling.
“My little fireman,” he said between snorts.
Why, spirits of the deep, did you make this happen our first time getting naked? Why?
I reached for my shorts to pull them back up, completely unsettled and no longer feeling frisky. For the second time in as many minutes, Jeremiah’s hands shot out faster than I could think, holding my pants down with the firmness of Excalibur in its stone.
“Oh, no, you don’t. You’re getting naked right now, young man. I need to see the rest of that fireman. Just . . .” His grin turned positively evil. “Tell him not to hose me down yet. I’m all for a good dousing, but I’d prefer to actually start a fire before he squirts it out.”
My eyes squeezed shut, and I imagined the eighty-two shades of red my face and cheeks and ears and . . . fuck . . . every part of me must’ve been glowing in that moment.
Jeremiah’s hands tugging my pants to my ankles had me gaping down. He was a man on a mission.
“Step, please,” he said, giving me no choice but to walk out of my shorts.
“Now, we can make out with Hulk watching, or I can finish my job while I’m already in the field. Your call.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“Fuck it. Get me naked,” I said, surrendering to everything I’d wanted since the day Jeremiah showed up on my front porch. “But only if I get to strip you next.”
His grin widened. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
And down went Hulk—his helmet slapped against my stomach as my boxers slid down.
“I’m gonna lick that helmet for days,” Jeremiah growled, and my cock twitched again, clearly happy with that idea.
Once I was fully naked, I moved to push Jeremiah onto his back so I could remove his pants, but he stopped me, holding my wrists in his calloused grip.
“Change your mind?” I asked, knowing it wasn’t the case.
He shook his head without looking up. His eyes were roaming my chest and stomach and . . . Hulk.
“Oh, no. I just want to take it all in.”“I’m nothing special—”
Jeremiah’s head snapped up, and his brows knitted. “I need you to make me a promise. Right now. Or we’re not going any further tonight.”
“Uh, okay,” I stammered.
“You are the most special man I’ve met in a really long time, Theo Jamison.
You are my friend, and I hope you’re growing into more.
God, I hope that. I would protect and defend you, no matter what.
That means protecting you from anyone who would talk shit about you—including you.
Promise you won’t say things like that again. You deserve so much better.”
The heat in his eyes was only matched by the fire in his voice.
He wasn’t just saying things to be nice or placating me so we could have sex.
No, Jeremiah believed I was special. He was upset, maybe a little angry, that I continued to demean myself.
Seriously? No one had ever defended me like that.
Nerds like me were the butt of jokes, not the object of another’s defense.
I barely knew how to act or what to say, so I just nodded and looked away.
Jeremiah’s hand lifted to grip my chin and pull my gaze back to his.
“I’m serious, Theo. You are so damn special it hurts. I could list a hundred ways, but I know I’d miss some. If you can’t believe yourself, believe me, okay?”
Who was this man?
What were we doing?
My heart couldn’t swell any more or it would break free from my chest and fill the whole house.
I nodded again, this time a bit firmer than the last. “I’ll try.”
Jeremiah pushed off the bed to stand before me, then he cupped my cheek.
“That’s all I ask . . . and Theo, I meant every word I just said.
My life is better with you in it. We just met a few weeks ago, and I already know that.
I might not be book smart, but I know good people when I see them. You’re the best.”
Before I could fidget or object or deflect with some ill-timed joke, his lips were on mine, and his arms were pulling me close.
His kiss was all strength and hope and beautiful intention—and a thousand things I’d never felt—not from any man.
My skin prickled and burned as it met his, and I wanted that moment—that beautiful, simple moment—to last forever.
If that was what falling in love felt like, I wanted to leap off that cliff and never find the ground again.
My fingers traced the lines of his muscled back as we kissed, and another flame brightened and flared between us, my cock twitching so hard I was sure he felt it against his. The way he moaned in my mouth confirmed as much.
“I need to be naked with you. Now,” he breathed.
So I reached down and unfastened and then unzipped his jeans.
They slipped free more easily than I’d expected, revealing a blond bush and pulsing cock who apparently hadn’t bothered with a Hulk of their own.
My hand brushed his shaft as I lowered to help pull his pants free from his feet.
It was so thick and veiny, so incredibly hard and throbbing and—
“You can have him if you want,” Jeremiah said, a hint of amused arousal in his voice.
As I lifted my head from prying his jeans free and tossing them aside, I froze. His cock was right in front of me. If I stuck my tongue out, I’d lick it. It was that close.
So I did.
Tentatively at first.
Then I couldn’t stop myself.
What began as a gentle exploration devolved into an insatiable hunger that only one thing might sate: Jeremiah as far down my throat as I could manage.
I gagged immediately.
He jerked back. “Are you okay?”
I took him in my mouth again, swirling my tongue around his head while gripping his balls with one hand, pulling everything taut.
“Oh, shit. You’re definitely all right,” he said, staggering back a step before bracing himself with a hand on my dresser.
I grazed my teeth along his shaft, so gently they were little more than a tease, a tickle, and was rewarded when Jeremiah shivered.
Encouraged, I craned my head so I could take him all the way down, relaxing my throat as best I could, while letting his thickness slide inside me. When my nose pressed against a furry patch, I drew back.
“Well, damn, Theo,” Jeremiah said, a little breathy. “You’ve been holding out on me. All this time I thought you were just—”
I dove again, swallowing him whole.
There was no more pesky gagging.
When the first of his pleasure leaked into my mouth, I redoubled my effort, squeezing his balls and sucking with the force of a hundred vacuums.
“Oh, shit, Theo. That feels so good, but you gotta stop or—”I jerked back, letting him flop free. When I looked up, I found his eyes slightly glazed and a pleased grin parting his lips.
“You’d better not. I didn’t cook glazed pork so you could only last two minutes.”
Jeremiah’s sudden barked laugh was so out of place with what I’d just been doing that I couldn’t help a chuckle of my own.
“Come here, you,” he said, reaching under my armpits and pulling me up to face him. With one hand, he smoothed out my hair, while the other pulled my body into his.
“I’ve never wanted to be with someone so much, Theo. Will you let me take care of you tonight?”
For the hundredth time that night, I was stunned into silence. All I could do was stare at the beautiful man before me and nod.
“Good,” he said, then planted a gentle kiss on my lips. “I haven’t done this in, well, years, but I think I remember how to make someone feel special. But I need you to know something, and it’s important.”
I cocked my head. “What’s that?”
“This isn’t just sex for me. I care about you, Theo. Like, a lot. I know it’s only been a couple of weeks, but you’ve dug a hole in my heart and crawled inside. I don’t think I could kick you out if I wanted.”
I couldn’t resist. “So, I’m basically a mole cricket?”
“I’m . . .” Jeremiah squinted. “A what?”
“You know, they dig holes all over the yard and are almost impossible to get rid of.”
Jeremiah stared a moment, then his head fell forward to land on my shoulder as his body shook with laughter.
“I bare my soul, and you bring up yard bugs?”
I kissed the side of his head and whispered, “You want all of me? You get the bugs, too.”