Chapter 19
NINETEEN
LARS
Lars was tipsy. He needed to stop and just go to bed, but the girls were finally asleep, and it had been a long night.
Making sure the babyproof locks were secured on all the exterior doors, he’d then put Maddie in her crib before joining Aaron in the spare bedroom where they’d been drinking and talking for the past hour.
Aaron sat on the bed with his back to the headboard while Lars lay across the end, throwing a baseball into the air over and over.
Aaron had told him about everything that happened at dinner with his dad and Bri.
Lars couldn’t blame him for blowing up. He wished he’d been able to go with Aaron to support him.
Or to yell at his dad for abandoning them.
Lars wanted to tell him just how good of a man Aaron grew up to be without him.
“You should bring Bri over sometime to hang out with the girls,” he said. “They’d love that.”
“She would too, I think.” Aaron poured more tequila into his glass.
Sitting up with a chuckle, Lars said, “I thought you were going to stay away from that for a while.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t have a lot of options.” He gulped down a long drink.
“You don’t make good choices after tequila.” Lars tossed the baseball onto the floor, watching it roll away.
Aaron laughed. “And I make such good ones when sober?”
A snort escaped Lars before he could stop it. “You have your moments.”
“Hey.” Aaron playfully kicked him in the side.
Lars turned, pulling his own legs onto the bed and leaning against the corner post. “Kidding.”
Aaron started scrolling through his phone, and Lars wondered if he was looking for a date. He didn’t think Aaron had gone out with anyone since that guy from the bar.
Lars sighed. He didn’t really want to watch this. “I should go to bed.”
“Yeah, it’s going to be an early morning,” he said, still not glancing up.
A moment passed before Lars couldn’t help but ask, “Are you looking for a hookup?”
Aaron tensed then lowered his phone. “I… was scrolling through the app, yeah.” When Lars focused on the beer in his hands, Aaron added, “I don’t really want to do things this way, but it’s better than the alternative.”
Brow furrowed, Lars met his gaze. “What do you mean?”
“Hooking up with strangers instead of…”
“Instead of?” Lars prompted, not following.
Aaron hesitated before that familiar mask slid into place, the one he used when trying to play something off. “Falling for another person I care about and ruining everything. Again.”
Lars’s pulse quickened. He nodded in understanding, even as a million thoughts swirled through his head.
Who was Aaron afraid of falling for? They didn’t have many single friends.
Really, the only people he saw regularly who were single were Lars and Vi…
Well, and Harper and Colby, but everyone knew there was something going on there.
Wait. Was it Vi? Had all that resentment and tension led to something happening?
That didn’t sit well with Lars. He didn’t like it, and he didn’t want to admit why a burst of jealousy shot through him. Even to himself.
As Aaron set his phone on the nightstand, Lars asked, “Do you remember in high school…”
When he trailed off, Aaron looked at him in confusion. But that didn’t last long. Given the conversation, he seemed to realize what Lars was hinting at.
“Yeah,” he said with a chuckle, but it sounded almost… nervous. “We had some fun, didn’t we?”
Lars nodded as he picked at the label on his beer. “Do you ever think about it?”
“Sometimes,” Aaron answered softly.
Lars had been thinking about it a lot lately.
Especially after hearing about Aaron’s hookup from the bar.
When Lars lifted his beer to his lips, Aaron watched him.
Aaron visibly swallowed, and Lars wondered if he was remembering what Lars looked like with his mouth wrapped around other things… He shifted in his seat.
“I know it was a long time ago,” Lars said in a quieter voice. “I just…”
Setting his drink aside, Aaron leaned forward. “How long has it been?”
Lars sighed. Of course he was putting the pieces together, understanding what he was really getting at. But he shrugged, and pulling a page out of Aaron’s own book, he acted clueless. “Well, you started dating Charlie sophomore year, and our last time was shortly before that, so—”
“No.” Aaron shook a hand in front of him, smiling. “I mean in general—with Mel… or anyone.”
“Oh… um…” Lars cleared his throat and looked away again.
“Like six months. Remember that night the three of us got super drunk when you were living here after the wedding? The girls were staying with my parents that weekend.” When Aaron nodded with a smirk, Lars said, “That night. But that had been the first time in like a year.”
“Shit, dude. And you haven’t tried to hookup with anyone else in all that time? I thought the separation was official.”
“It is.” Sighing, he shrugged. “I don’t know. I just… don’t want to sleep with a random stranger.”
Aaron paused. “But you do want something.” When Lars didn’t respond, Aaron whispered, “What do you want, Lars?”
“Nothing.” Lars stood, grabbing on to the bedpost when he swayed. “I’m just drunk. Forget it. I should go to bed.”
He was nearly to the door when Aaron said, “Wait.”
Lars froze but didn’t turn back. His heart hammered in his chest. Slowly, Aaron moved closer.
“Lars, you brought up the past for a reason.” Aaron put a hand on his shoulder and turned Lars around to face him. “Didn’t you?”
Before Lars could even think of something to say, Aaron started lowering to his knees. Lars sucked in a breath. “What are you—”
“This is what you want, right?” He reached for Lars’s belt.
“Aaron, I…”
“Do you want me to stop?” He unclasped the belt and pulled it off before undoing the top button of Lars’s jeans, going slow enough to give him the option of ending this.
But Lars didn’t want to. He missed being touched by another person. And he meant what he said about not wanting to hookup with a stranger. Because for a while now, he’d been solely focused on one person. He’d tried so hard to fight it, but in the last couple of weeks, it had grown undeniable.
“Lawrence?”
“No.” It was barely more than a breath.
Aaron gave a smirk as he inched the zipper down. “No, what?”
Lars gasped as Aaron reached in to cup him through his boxers. “Please.”
“Please, what?” He eased the jeans down to find Lars already getting hard beneath the remaining thin fabric. “Do you want me to suck your cock?” Wrapping his hand around it, he stroked gently.
“Fuck,” Lars hissed, all but falling back against the door. He quickly set his beet bottle on the nearby dresser so he didn’t drop it. Because all he wanted to do right now was sweep his fingers through Aaron’s hair and grip tightly as he fucked his mouth. “Yes. God, please. I… I need it so bad.”
Aaron grinned and tugged the boxers to the ground.
It had been nearly a decade since they’d done this together, but something about it being his best friend had Lars horny as shit.
And Aaron seemed to want this just as badly.
Licking his lips, he began stroking Lars before sticking his tongue out to taste the slight glisten of precum on the tip.
“Aaron,” Lars groaned just before he fully enveloped him. Aaron moved slowly, taking in his length over and over. Lars let out a loud moan and gave in to the need to grab Aaron by the hair.
Taking that as encouragement, Aaron moved faster, deeper. He hollowed out his cheeks to suck harder, and Lars saw stars. He closed his eyes as his breathing grew ragged. He wasn’t going to last long.
Lars tangled his fingers into his hair to guide his movements, bucking his hips as he fucked Aaron’s face. Aaron gagged as he hit the back of his throat, and Lars immediately eased off.
“Sorry.” Lars started to release him, but Aaron grabbed his hand and held it to the top of his own head.
Remembering what Aaron mentioned about the other guy taking control, Lars tightened his grip and kept going. Aaron moaned, like he was getting off on just the feel of Lars, on the sight of him coming undone.
“Aaron, I… I’m not going to last.”
Aaron didn’t slow or stop. He used one hand to cup Lars’s balls, squeezing enough that Lars groaned and tilted his head back. It banged against the door. That had Aaron pulling away with a soft chuckle. “Shh. Don’t wake the girls.”
Lars nodded, clenching his jaw as Aaron continued sucking his cock. “I’m gonna come. Oh fuck!” he hissed when he hit the back of his friend’s throat once more. “Aaron.”
He didn’t ease off. Using his hand, he stroked Lars while swirling his tongue around the tip before going deep again. He met Lars’s gaze, holding it. And Lars couldn’t take it anymore. He tumbled toward the edge and exploded in Aaron’s mouth. Aaron swallowed him down. Every fucking drop.
When Lars was finally spent, Aaron leaned away and used a finger to swipe the corner of his mouth. Lars could barely hold himself up, his legs trembled, but he reached down and grabbed a fistful of Aaron’s shirt to haul him to his feet. Their mouths collided in a frenzy.
He couldn’t remember the last time he felt like this—so desperate, so hungry for more.
Trying not to trip with his pants around his ankles, he guided Aaron toward the bed one step at a time.
Lars ran his hands up under Aaron’s T-shirt, skimming his fingers along his stomach, his ribs.
He pushed him onto the bed, and Aaron bit his lower lip as he smiled up at him.
But then, all at once, he realized what he was doing. What they were doing.
This couldn’t happen, not like this. Not with so much up in the air with Mel’s job. Not when they were both drunk and lonely.
Shaking his head, Lars yanked his pants up and shoved his half-hard dick inside. “We can’t.”
It was all he could say. Horror filled Aaron’s eyes, like he suddenly understood that his best friend was rejecting him.
Lars felt like an asshole, but they couldn’t do this.
Whispering an apology, he rushed out of the spare bedroom and went to the master instead, leaning against the door after shutting it behind him.
Lars slid down to sit on the floor. How could he have been so stupid?
Never did he want to take advantage of Aaron or his friendship.
And that was all he could think about. Aaron was here to help out with the girls; he’d been doing so much for the whole family.
And now… Lars had come down his throat without a second thought.
He’d wanted more. So much more. But he wouldn’t risk their friendship like that.
And he’d learned the hard way nine years ago that he couldn’t be friends with benefits with anyone. Especially Aaron.
Because he would always want more with him.