Chapter 26
NOAH
Ace had called a team meeting, and I had a really bad feeling we weren’t just getting the next Clik Games challenge. The tense way he kept glancing at me suggested he had something else on his mind and that something concerned me.
“Where’s Torin?” Ace asked with a frown as we all gathered in the living room.
August shrugged. “In his studio. I told him about the meeting. He said he’d be done in five minutes. But that was fifteen minutes ago so…”
Ace hissed a frustrated sound, and I immediately volunteered to go get him, desperate to escape the uncomfortable tension of the room.
I didn’t wait for a response, either, just hauled ass out of the living room faster than a cartoon character and took the stairs two at a time as I went in search of my favorite artist.
Music playing from the studio told me he either forgot about the meeting entirely, or he didn’t give a crap because he was in the zone. Either way, it made me smile as I slipped through his door and closed it firmly behind myself.
Tor glanced up from his work, hands and arms coated in slip, a perfect vase on the wheel in front of him. His lips curved with a smile and his eyes lit up as he locked eyes with me and I gave a little wave.
“Are you filming?” I asked, gesturing to the camera on his tripod.
He shook his head, wiping his sweaty forehead on his left arm and leaving behind a streak. “Nope. I stopped it a while ago, but then realized the balance of this part was all wrong, so I kept trying to fix it and—-ah, I’m late for the team meeting, aren’t I?”
“Yes, but I don’t see why Ace can’t wait until you’re done.” I came closer, inspecting the vase that he seemed to think was unbalanced. It looked perfectly symmetrical to me.
Torin hummed thoughtfully. “Can you hand me that rag over there?”
I grabbed the cloth he motioned toward, bringing it back over for him to presumably wipe his hands or—-
“Tor!” I exclaimed as he grabbed me around the waist and hauled me into his lap.
Any further protests were silenced by his lips on mine and his tongue delving into my mouth as I held on to his strong body for balance.
Sneaky? Yes. Sexy? Also yes. I groaned as he kissed me harder, his strong grip on my waist shifting me so I straddled him completely and rocked forward until I could feel his growing erection through our clothes.
What had I come up here for again? Couldn’t have been important.
His hands slipped under my loose T--shirt, and he gave a frustrated groan when he encountered my binder. “I hate this,” he confessed between kisses, sounding genuinely upset about it.
I laughed a little as his lips moved to my throat, and I slipped my fingers into the back of his short hair. “Why, because you want to see my boobs again?”
He huffed a short laugh, pulling away to meet my eyes with a heated yet serious stare. He’d stopped wearing colored contacts unless we were actually filming, and I loved his natural eye color. It wasn’t just brown; it was almost copper or burnt orange. Tiger eyes.
“Yes, that too,” he agreed with a sexy smirk, “but I actually hate it for what it represents. I hate that you’re hiding who you are.
I hate that you need to be so careful and that we have to hide this thing between us because it physically hurts not to touch you sometimes.
And this binder feels like the physical representation of everything standing between us right now, and I hate it. ”
My eyes widened as he spoke, not expecting such a deep and honest response. He seemed to realize he’d rendered me speechless because his lips curled in another sexy smile a moment later.
“And I really want to see your boobs again, Short Stack.”
“Cute,” I murmured, leaning in to kiss his lips once again. “I like both answers.”
He hummed a happy sound as he kissed me back. “Good,” he said between deep, drugging kisses that had me losing all track of time. “Because I like you, Noah.”
The things those words did to my heart… Fucking hell, it was really hard to remember what I had come up to his studio for in the first place, because all I could think about was how good his hands felt on my ass as he slipped beneath my waistband and pulled me closer.
I only wore baggy sweatpants, and he was in jeans, but it’d be easy enough to—-
A loud knock on the studio door jerked me violently back to earth, and I leapt out of Torin’s lap—-or I tried. Instead my foot caught on his and I tripped, tumbled, and clattered to the hardwood floor like a ton of bricks while Tor stared in shock.
“What—-?” His words dissolved into laughter right as the door opened and August entered the room.
“Are you guys okay?” Augie asked, frowning in bewilderment at the scene. “I heard a crash…”
“That was me,” I replied, my face flaming with embarrassment. “I tripped.”
“Clearly,” Augie said with dry sarcasm. “You were supposed to be reminding Tor about the team meeting, but you’ve been up here ages. Ace is acting all anxious and weird about it.”
Torin shrugged and replied, “Ace can kiss my ass,” right as I muttered, “I bet he is.”
Augie cast a surprised look between us and scratched his head. “Uh, what’s going on with you guys and Ace? Shit’s been weird lately. I thought it was just the camp, but it’s definitely still weird. Skye and Min have been snapping at him too. Did something happen?”
“No, it’s nothing,” Torin smoothly answered, using the rag I’d dropped to clean some clay from his hands. “I’ll be down once I’ve washed up.”
August shrugged. “All right, whatever. You coming, Noah?”
I bit my lip, glancing at Torin once more. “Nah, I’m just going to help Tor finish. Speed up the process, you know?”
Augie didn’t question my response, just mumbled something about not taking too long because everyone else was also waiting for us, then he left and politely closed the door behind himself.
As soon as it clicked shut, the air whooshed out of my lungs and I collapsed back onto the floor with my hands over my face. “That was so close,” I groaned. “Do you think he suspects?”
Torin snorted. “Yes, absolutely. Do you care?”
Alarm shot through me, having expected him to soothe my fears. Tor wasn’t one for false reassurances, though.
“I…” Did I care? Not really. My main concern was what kind of drama it would cause if the team reacted badly to our more--than--friendly connections. “Will he say anything to the others?”
Torin shook his head firmly. “Definitely not. And honestly, I don’t think he has the slightest clue that you’re…you. He just knows that I’m infatuated.”
He said it so matter-of-factly, with zero hesitations or self--doubt. It was incredibly refreshing. “You are?” I asked, despite how utterly sincere I already knew he was. What could I say? I wanted to hear it again.
He rolled his pretty copper eyes, grinning widely. “Yes, and you know it. Now can you please go so I can think unsexy thoughts and not end up sitting through another team meeting with a massive boner?”
“How massive are we talking?” I teased, getting up to my knees and moving closer to where he still sat on his pottery stool.
He quirked a brow, shaking his head slightly. “I really, really want to tell you to judge for yourself, Short Stack, but that is the polar opposite of the unsexy thoughts I’m supposed to be working on right now.”
“You know, there’s a much quicker way to deescalate the situation…” I moved even closer still, until I was on my knees between his spread legs, my hands on his clay--streaked thighs.
Torin’s brows hitched, his lips parted in shock. “There is? Gosh, I don’t think I follow what you’re suggesting, maybe you could demonstrate. For, um, artistic reasons?”
“Artistic reasons?” I repeated, fighting the urge to laugh as I slid my hands up his thighs, reaching for his waistband. His black jeans were old and worn, and he didn’t have a belt on, so it was almost comically easy to pop his button open and then the zipper basically lowered itself.
“Uh--huh,” he replied, barely moving, like he was worried he might scare me off. “Feeding the muse, some might sa--ay--y!” His words pitched high as I peeled his boxer briefs away and exposed his hard cock.
“Well, shit, when you put it like that,” I chuckled, wrapping my hand around him and testing my grip.
He was a decent handful, that was for damn sure.
Weirdly, the first thought that popped into my brain was that it was a shame he wasn’t smaller because Torin and Minho together might tear me apart.
It was a problem for another day—-hopefully.
Torin sucked a sharp breath as I licked his tip, glancing up to make eye contact as I did so.
“That’s…that’s something I need to sketch later,” he murmured, like it was meant to be an inside thought, but it filled me with all the warm fuzzies nonetheless.
Warm, hot, tingly… Crap, I was all worked up now, too.
At least my arousal wouldn’t be so glaringly obvious during our team meeting, though.
Which reminded me, we needed to hurry. I wrapped my lips around Torin’s broad crown, flicking my tongue across his slit as I did so and pumping my hand down his shaft.
The door to his studio didn’t lock, and Augie had already nearly caught us already.
Literally anyone could walk in and catch me with Torin’s dick in my mouth. Then how would we explain ourselves?
Adrenaline rushed through me, making my head spin as I lowered my head to take him deeper into my mouth and throat, my cheeks hollowing as I sucked.
Then I unlocked the old me for a moment and let Peaches take the lead.
After all, Rich had made me practice enough; I knew how to make a man come in under a minute when necessary.
“Fuck,” Torin moaned, and it was one of the sexiest sounds in the whole world. “Holy shit, Noah, you’re going to make me blow like a horny teenager. I don’t—-argh, shit! This is embarrassing, but I’m gonna come.”
He made as though to pull away and not finish in my mouth, but I just took him deeper still, relaxing my throat and pushing through the pain until I physically couldn’t take any more.
Then when he came, his hands in my hair and his tanned abs flexing, I swallowed hard.
There was no way he couldn’t have felt me doing so, and his long, drawn--out groan confirmed it.
“Holy shit,” he gasped when I slowly released his cock from between my lips, holding eye contact as I did so. “Holy fucking shit. You’re… I’m… Fuck, Noah, how the hell am I supposed to function now?”
Before I could respond, he crashed to his knees and grabbed my face between his hands, kissing me so hard it made my head spin and my stomach dip. I liked him so much it was actually scary.
“I want to return the favor so freaking bad,” he murmured against my lips, his hands already questing down my body, and I needed to grab his wrists to stop him with a laugh.
“That would entirely defeat the purpose, Torasaurus, and we would almost definitely end up with Ace walking in on us. Or worse.”
He met my eyes, and we both cringed.
“Xavier.” We said it in unison, then grinned like lovesick fools at one another for a moment.
“I guess we should go and get this meeting over with then,” Torin huffed, running a hand through his hair before noticing how dirty his hands still were and wincing.
“Shit, babe, I’ve put clay handprints all over your shirt.
Talk about getting caught out. Grab one of my spares from the hook beside the door? ”
I glanced down and snickered. Yeah, it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that Torin hadn’t got me that dirty with friendly touches.
“Good thinking.” I pushed to my feet and grabbed one of the half dozen T--shirts from Torin’s stash, noticing when I pulled it on that it wasn’t clean either.
There were no obvious signs of what we’d just done, so it was an improvement, but it smelled distinctly of Torin: bergamot, pepper, lavender, cedarwood…
maybe a little bit of vanilla. I was never giving this shirt back.
“Okay, let’s—-” I had just turned back to tell Torin we needed to go when I laid eyes on the unfired vase he’d been working on earlier. The formerly perfect vase that was now horrifically deformed. “Tor! Your vase! Was that me?”
He smiled at the ruined piece, rocking his head to the side as he cleaned his hands on the damp rag. “Yeah, when you fell off my lap, your foot clipped it really lightly, but wet clay is fragile.” He shrugged, seemingly unconcerned.
I felt sick. “Tor, I am so sorry. I ruined—-”
“Shush, Short Stack. Nothing to apologize for. I actually love it just as it is. You watch, I’m putting this into my art exhibition, and I’m calling it…hmm…A Massive De--escalation.”
A shocked laugh bubbled out of me, and I finger--combed some tangles out of my hair. “Don’t even joke about that. I am sorry. What can I do to make it better?”
Torin shook his head, gesturing for me to exit the studio ahead of him.
“No apologies, Noah. Anytime you want to help me in the studio again, I am 100 percent there for it. I promise, I usually last a lot longer than that.” His cheeks pinked ever so slightly as I peered up at him, and I licked my lips at the lingering taste of his cock.
I wasn’t exactly going to tell him at this stage of our relationship that I was an unpaid, unwilling pro, so I just shrugged it off and changed the subject to safer topics before we walked back downstairs.