#3
A bit slower, I trudged up the stairs. I should’ve been jumping for joy, but part of me held back.
To give Korden privacy, I’d moved into our parents’ bedroom about a month after they’d passed.
It had never—not in a million years—occurred to me that I might have sex in there.
Still, after detouring to Korden’s bedroom and securing supplies, I headed into my bedroom.
I’d washed the sheets yesterday, so everything was clean.
I hadn’t made the bed, but that didn’t matter since we were going to get right to it, apparently.
I headed into the bathroom, where I stripped, pissed, and brushed my teeth. I sweat little at work, so I was a shower in the morning guy. Just before I turned off the light, I caught a fleck of shimmering emerald paint in my scruff. As I scraped it off, I wondered if I should be shaving.
The sound of the shower shutting off slammed that door shut.
I nabbed the lube and condoms and positioned myself in the center of the bed.
Then I paused. I had toys, and I’d used them many times over the years.
It was funny how doing that in my parents' bed hadn’t bothered me.
Still, as I spread my legs, coated my fingers, and pressed inside myself, a strange feeling settled over me.
I was the adult. I had been for eight years.
This house was now my responsibility. I ran the business.
And, for the first time in my life, I was about to have sex. We’d barely kissed, and we were heading right to anal. That should’ve felt wrong. Weren’t we supposed to do jerk and suck first? Get to know each other? As adults, not as teenagers.
Gawain appeared in the doorway, impressive in shadows, all muscle, sinew, and obvious strength.
Dark stubble covered his jaw. My gaze followed the black hair on his chest that arrowed down his happy trail, and yeah, wow, he was definitely happy to see me.
He advanced toward the bed, and as he came into the lamplight, his grin widened. “Oh, I like how you think.”
Which had me faltering. Was I supposed to—
He knelt on the bed and crawled over to me. “May I?” He indicated the lube.
I nodded furiously.
First, he donned a condom—which was an impressive enough sight to behold—then he coated his fingers and replaced mine. Slowly, he sank into me, watching my face and undoubtedly gauging my every reaction.
God, I want you so badly.
As if hearing my unspoken words, he twisted his fingers. Then he scissored. Then he sank deeper and unerringly hit my sweet spot.
My cock jerked, leaking a drop of precum from the tip.
“Gotta love the prostate.” He leaned forward to press a kiss to my lips. “Are you ready for me?”
Part of me wanted to scream that, yes, I’d been ready for him for more than half my life. The other part of me wanted to savor. I had no idea what tomorrow held. If he’d stay. If he’d go. Whether this was a quick fuck—a one-night stand—or if this meant as much to him as it did to me.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” To prove that, I pulled my knees up and out of the way. Exposing myself fully to him.
His eyes darkened, the black of the pupils almost obliterating the dark brown of the iris. Then, he positioned himself at my entrance.
I drew in a breath and prepared myself. Or at least, that’s what I believed. As he breached me, though, a sharp sting of pain resonated through me. Anticipating it and actually enduring it were different things, and my breath caught.
“No…breathe. I can always stop—”
I shook my head. “No stopping. Absolutely no stopping. Keep going. I can take it.”
He grinned. “Yeah, I think you can, but it’s not a contest.”
“I’m already better. Just…” Then words escaped me as he sank deeper into me.
Slowly, centimeter by centimeter, he filled me.
My time with toys had, in one sense, prepared me for this.
The reality, though, was so much more. Need thrummed through my veins as he bottomed out.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, drawing him closer.
“Yeah, baby, that.” He gritted his teeth. Slowly, he withdrew. Then he pressed back in. He continued with this as my breaths became shallower and shallower. Each pass over my prostate had me seeing stars.
Then he grasped my cock, and to the rhythm of his thrusts, began jerking me.
I chased that orgasm, even as I tried to stave it off. I wanted to hang in suspension forever—caught in this perfect moment. I never wanted to let go. I never wanted this night to end.
Reality, and a really good prostate pegging, had me tumbling over the precipice. “I’m coming.”
“Thank fuck.”
Even as I spurted, he thrust twice more, then held himself still.
Our gazes locked.
My heart stuttered.
I tried to tell myself I wasn’t gazing into my future.
My mind refused to accept anything else.
We didn’t smoke cigarettes after fucking. He dispensed of the condom in the garbage can as I shut off the lights. Then he lay on his back and drew me into his arms.
“I have a confession to make, Mercer. And you’re probably not going to like it.”
I held myself still, plastered against him, my head resting on his shoulder. I cursed having turned off the light. “You just fucked me senseless and called me baby. I think I can take it.” Was that the right thing to say? To bring up the endearment? Maybe he hadn’t meant it. Maybe—
“I’m not Gawain.”
Oh shit. “Uh…”
“I’m Gio. Well, I try to go by Giovani these days.”
Shock held me still. “But, you said—”
“Not exactly. You called me Gawain, and I didn’t correct you. So, technically, I didn’t lie.” Only his expression, at once defiant and beautifully vulnerable, said he knew he’d crossed a line.
“Well, you didn’t tell the truth either.
” My mind tried to wrap around this. I’d avoided Gio—Giovani—in school.
He’d run with a rough crowd. He’d never gotten arrested, but he had skipped school, gotten detentions, and had generally been up to no good.
That hadn’t been my scene, and I’d gravitated to Gawain since he’d been more like me.
Focused. Dedicated to studying. “Okay, where is Gawain?”
“Living in Japan and teaching English in a small village. Pretty remote. He…doesn’t communicate much with my parents, and he hasn’t spoken to me in about five years.”
I stilled. “You didn’t go to college, right? You went off to… Southeast Asia?”
“Yeah. I traveled around a bunch of countries. I had a little money and found ways to make it last.” His gaze fell away, and flush of color filled his cheeks. “Not always legal ways.”
That stillness overtook me. “What did you do?”
“I got caught smoking weed with a group of young women in Indonesia, which got me sent to prison for five years.” He sighed. “I was lucky. If they’d caught me with my full stash, I would’ve faced life or even the death penalty.”
My fingers, trailing in his abundant chest hair, contracted. “Jesus.”
“Yep, pretty much.” He sighed. “I served my time, and they bought me a plane ticket back to Canada with a never come back admonishment.”
“And your parents?”
“They disowned me when it happened. Gawain wrote me a couple of times, but I only got the letters after I got out. I suppose I could’ve tried to switch my ticket to Japan, but I didn’t have a visa.
I’m Canadian, so I made it through immigration with an expired passport and a warning to get my life together.
I caught a ride with someone headed to Hope from the Vancouver Airport.
A nice lady even dropped me off in Mission City, which was out of her way. ”
“And you wound up at Fifties.”
“Yeah, about that…”
I glanced up at him, even though darkness permeated the room.
“I followed you from your store. I didn’t know you were going to be there. I thought maybe your parents would know where you were. That they might be nice to me since they’d loved Gawain…”
“So, you always planned on deception,” I whispered, wondering why I wasn’t angrier that this had been his plan all along.
“I’ve got enough money for two nights in a hotel. I didn’t have a plan, Mercer. I just didn’t want to wind up in a shelter. But I would’ve done it if I’d had to.” He sighed. “I want to go straight. To be a good boy. Like Gawain.” He ruffled my hair. “Like you.”
I considered what he’d said. Yes, I’d winced when he’d admitted that he hadn’t wanted to end up in a shelter. He’d used me, but thinking about it, I didn’t blame him. “You need a job?”
“Yeah.”
“I have a friend, Simeon. He’s a general contractor.
He was in the other day, and we got to talking.
He’s looking for a painter to help him with an enormous project.
And he might be able to set you up with more work.
He’s…a very quiet guy.” Actually, Simeon had a severe stutter and rarely spoke to anyone.
I was one of the few. “You have to be patient with him.”
“I can be patient.” Giovani sighed. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
I took in the tautness of his expression, his wary gaze. It all clicked. Gio had come back to the last place he’d felt safe. He was desperate and alone. And wasn’t I as well? If this wasn’t exactly fate, our meeting again after all this time, the connection I felt meant something…
I pushed up. “Did you really have a crush on me in high school?”
“Hell-fucking-yes.” He studied my expression, then grasped my chin and drew me in for a long, lingering kiss.
When I pulled back, I smiled. “And I had a crush on Gawain.”
“I knew that, too. I’m sorry I used that to my advantage.”
“I forgive you.”
He blinked and drew in a deep breath. “Really?”
“Yeah, but you’ve got a long way to go to make it up to me.”
If I had my way, it would take a lifetime.
Giovani