Chapter 22
Theo
Ireread the paragraph for the sixth time, no closer to understanding it than I had been ten minutes ago.
Fuck my sadistic Sociology professor for giving homework the first week of classes. I hope his coffee is never the right temperature and his khakis fucking wrinkle.
I slammed the book closed with a huff, trudging into my kitchen. I opened the fridge and stared at the contents longingly. I was starving after waiting the last two hours for Dawson’s Friday evening practice to end so we could eat together.
Since last weekend when he’d come over and agreed to give me another chance, we’d been inseparable outside of classes and his practices.
We reconnected effortlessly as though no time had passed, two halves becoming whole again.
We fell into an easy routine of texting all day, having dinner at my place, watching TV, and just enjoying each other’s presence.
We also made out like a couple of horny teenagers every day, but we hadn’t made each other come since the last time on the couch.
It was like we had a tacit agreement not to rush things, to wait until it felt right again.
It was strange since we knew each other’s bodies better than our own, but four years was a long time.
In a lot of ways we were relearning one another, discovering new things that had grown in the other’s absence.
But each day we were growing more impatient, more eager, that unquenchable desire that had always been there bubbling just below the surface.
Dawson’s need radiated from him and I wanted nothing more than to spend hours worshipping his body like it was our first time. All he had to do was say the word.
I would be as patient as I needed for him to be ready though. I considered myself on probationary status with him, so his comfort was all that mattered. All might have been forgiven, but it wasn’t forgotten and I had to prove to Dawson that his heart was safe with me this time around.
I wanted to sweep him off his feet again, to show him that my world started and ended with him.
I used to love doing the most romantic shit I could come up with when Dawson and I were dating in high school.
I took great pride in the deep blush that would steal over his skin, darkening those beautiful, pale freckles that I’d catalogued with my tongue over and over.
A loud knock startled me out of the memories and I almost tripped over my feet racing to the door. I threw it open to Dawson’s bright, wide smile and my pulse sped up dangerously. I fisted his shirt, hauling him inside and shutting the door before pinning him against it.
I grabbed his face and kissed him fiercely, his lips parting on a gasp and giving me easy access to his addictive mouth.
Dawson sucked on my tongue like a fiend, tearing a deep groan from my throat as he feverishly kissed me back.
Goddamn, I missed him so much. How the hell did I function without him for so long?
I snuck my fingers under the hem of his shirt to rip it off, needing to feel his skin on mine, but he swatted me away.
“Is this you playing hard to get or something?” I pouted as he pulled away, chuckling at my pitiful expression.
“No, we just don’t have time for that. We’ve got somewhere to be.”
“I hope you mean my bedroom...”
“More like game night with my friends at Bash and Micah’s place,” he explained, sidling around me to drop his gym bag by the couch.
“That’sss…one option, sure. Or we could tell them I had a medical emergency and just stay here. Naked. In my bed.”
“And what emergency would that be?”
“Acute ejaculatory deprivation.”
Dawson barked out a laugh. “Is that medical lingo for orgasm denial?”
“Who the fuck knows? I made it up,” I muttered, snatching him around the waist on his way to the door. I licked a path up his neck, my breath ghosting over his ear and eliciting a violent tremble from his muscled frame. “I missed you. You have no idea how much I thought about you today.”
“Oh y-yeah?” he breathed shakily. “What did you think about?”
“I thought about tearing off your clothes and spending an hour mapping your body with my tongue. About making you come apart and marking every inch of your skin with my fingerprints. About drinking you down and seeing if you’re just as sweet as I remember.”
“Oh, fuck,” he gasped as I nipped his earlobe, sucking on it hard enough to pull a helpless whimper from him. He melted into me, his hips thrusting into me lightly. I went in for the kill.
“Doesn’t my beautiful boy want to shoot down my throat? You’re so fucking pretty when you come for me, Mercury.”
A ragged moan vibrated from Dawson’s chest. He attacked my lips, frenzied and greedy, his fingers tangling in my hair to pull me closer. His back hit the wall and I pressed against him, my erection dragging along his slowly, both of us groaning at the feeling.
“What do you need? Tell me and it’s yours,” I said between swipes of our tongues.
“Suck me,” he pleaded roughly. “I need your mouth, Theo.”
My fucking pleasure.
My knees hit the ground so fast, the impact rattled my bones. I jerked his joggers and boxer briefs down in one swoop, freeing his rigid length quickly.
Fuck me, Dawson had a gorgeous cock. He was just above average length, but thick and smooth, with a dark blue vein running underneath that made him leak like a faucet with the right stimulation.
His swollen pink head peeked out from his foreskin and saliva flooded my mouth as memories of how it felt on my tongue made my own dick harden to the point of pain.
“Sweet hell, you have such a perfect dick, baby,” I purred, lapping up a pearly drop of precum. His taste exploded on my tastebuds and I growled appreciatively. “God, you taste even better than I remember.”
I ran my hand slowly up his shaft, coaxing out another pump of his flavor.
I slipped my tongue into his foreskin, circling the velvet head and Dawson hissed in pleasure, pulling on my hair hard enough to unhinge me.
Fuck it, I couldn’t wait any longer. I swallowed him down, taking him to the back of my throat until I gagged.
“Holyfuckingshit,” Dawson cursed, curling over my shoulders as his legs quaked.
I slurped up and down his cock noisily, relishing in the helpless grunts and whimpers he couldn’t contain. I only made a few passes before he let out a sharp cry as his balls drew up close to his body and his grip on my hair tightened.
“Shit shit shit…I c-can’t—baby, I can’t stop it. Oh my fuck, I’m gonna come. I’m…oh god!”
Hot, thick ropes spurted down my throat, and I swallowed it down like a man dying of thirst. I milked him for every drop, his hoarse cries driving me out of my mind.
His head thudded back against the wall as his soft cock slipped from my mouth.
I sat back on my heels, looking up at his gorgeous, sated face, but he refused to make eye contact.
“Dawson, what’s wrong? Are you alright?”
His face was red with more than just a post-orgasm flush, and my stomach fluttered anxiously, my own release forgotten. I stood up fast and cupped his cheek, forcing him to turn back to me.
“Was it not good? Did I push you too fast?”
“No! No, it was amazing and I wanted it, I promise,” he rushed out, but he looked anxious, a vulnerability in his eyes that I wanted to soothe away. “It’s just…I know it was really fast, and I…”
“That’s okay, it happens to everyone. You don’t ever have to be embarrassed about that, babe.” I stroked my thumb against his warm cheek, loving how he leaned into my touch.
“I know. It’s just been a long time,” he mumbled, a weird inflection in his tone that gave me pause.
“How long has it been exactly?”
He blew out a sharp breath. “Since our last time together…”
“Well duh, but I meant before we dry humped each other’s brains out last weekend,” I chuckled, but Dawson wasn’t laughing.
“No. I mean our last time together.”
The words clanked around my head, refusing to make sense. There was no way I was understanding him right, but dear God, I wanted it to be true.
“You really haven’t been with anyone else since I left?”
Dawson shook his head stiffly, but his eyes stayed pinned to mine, embarrassment giving way to something softer.
“I don’t feel things like that for other people,” he explained, his brows furrowing. “Not before you and definitely not after. I tried to look at others and feel…something, but it never happened.”
I drew his face to mine, my lips ghosting over his and inhaling his shaky breath like a drug. “Never? You haven’t let anyone else touch what belongs to me?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed and shook his head, trapping his bottom lip between his teeth. I tugged it free, running my thumb over it lightly.
“No one has kissed these plush, soft lips?” I rumbled in a husky whisper. Another shake of his head. I ran my hands slowly down his torso.
“No one has held this strong, gorgeous body in their arms?”
Another shake. I snuck a hand back to his still naked ass, feathering over his crack.
“And no one has taken this sweet hole and filled it like you need?”
He keened softly, thrusting his ass back against my questing finger. “No. Only you.”
I grasped his jaw to push him back just enough to look into his eyes.
“Are you truly only mine, Dawson?”
“You own every piece of me, Theo. No one else ever stood a chance after you. There was never a time that I wasn’t yours.”
He leaned forward and kissed me gently, tenderly, infused with so much meaning it made my eyes sting. I poured all my love and devotion into the kiss, wanting it to soak into his skin and stain his soul so that he never doubted that I was his. Wholly. Irrevocably.
We finally came up for air, breathless and clinging to each other like we could stay frozen in that moment while time moved past us. Dawson eventually pulled back, a shy smile on his face that unleashed a swarm of butterflies in my gut.
He opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by someone pounding on the door next to us, making us both jump an inch in the air. A loud, muffled voice came from the other side.
“Stop sucking face or whatever body parts you’ve chosen to defile and get your asses upstairs! Micah won’t let any of us eat the pizza until you’re both there and I’m so hangry, I’d murder someone for their crust!”
“Give us five minutes, Fin!” Dawson called out.
“You’ve got two or I’m pulling the fire alarm and blaming you!”
Dawson cursed under his breath and started yanking up his pants. He stood and coasted his gaze over my body longingly, my cock twitching in response.
“You didn’t get to come,” he said apologetically. I reached out and cupped his jaw, his barely there stubble scratching my palm.
“You gave me something so much better, beautiful,” I promised, stealing a quick kiss from his frowning mouth.
He graced me with a smile that was pure sunshine, chasing away all the shadows that lingered in my soul. It filled me with light until I overflowed with it. My hand found its way into his and I brushed a kiss over his knuckles, never looking away from those soulful blues.
“Let’s go before our escort out there gets trigger happy with the fire alarm.”
Dawson led us out of the apartment to where Fin was waiting impatiently in the hallway. He griped to Dawson about how hungry he was as we made our way to the elevator, but I barely heard their conversation.
My mind was still spinning with the knowledge that Dawson hadn’t been with anyone else since me. I wished more than anything I could say the same, but I couldn’t change the past.
Loneliness and heartbreak were a potent cocktail that my disease fed on, fueling poor decisions that I’d regretted as soon as I could remember what I’d done. I didn’t have a lot of other partners, but even one was too many. They may have had my body, but only Dawson had my heart.