19. Chapter 19 #2
Frankie’s scent was everywhere, as inescapable as the feelings brewing like a fucking storm in his chest, demanding to be released. Demanding everything from him. And yet the last time he risked that, he nearly lost him.
The heat of his body enveloped him, his thick cock rocketing inside him.
His black hair was cut in silky waves and Sam had dreamt about sinking his fingers into them for years.
And now he could. He had dreamt about all of this.
His best friend. He would rather die than have this taken from him.
He wasn’t built like Papi. He couldn’t live without Frankie—couldn’t exist in this fucking world if the man that he loved didn’t love him back.
“I can’t,” he suddenly hissed, trembling under the impossible weight of this realization. “I can’t love you.”
Frankie’s eyes snapped to his.
“I’m not supposed to love you,” he continued. “You’re my best friend.”
“Sam—baby…”
“I love you, Frank. I’ve always loved you.”
The confession felt as if it were torn from his soul.
It hurt more than anything he had ever felt before, and yet miraculously, the weight from his chest shifted, making him gasp in relief.
The storm he’d been holding back, that he thought would devastate him once he released it, had disappeared.
Now, he wanted to vanish into nothing. Into bliss.
Into what had to be his last minute with him.
Frankie sat up, capturing his jaw and stilling his movements, bracing a strong hand on his hip. He tried to look away, but Frankie’s fingers tightened, forcing him to look at him.
“I know,” he murmured, surprising him.
He knew?!
Shame and tears clogged Sam’s throat. “How long have you…?”
“Papi’s letter.”
Sam stared, blinking through the tears that were somehow already there.
“Maybe sooner—I dunno—fuck—I think I’ve known all along and just didn’t see it,” Frankie said, his powerful hold keeping Sam pinned in his lap, straddling him.
“I was so blinded by my fuckin’ bullshit.
Shit that didn’t matter. You matter, baby.
All you gotta do is fuckin’ look at me, and I am a full man.
Not some half-man that my father taught me to be.
It was your friendship, your love that changed me.
And I thank God every damn day that you had the courage to kiss me.
Because I would’ve never known this. I would’ve never woken up.
I would’ve never allowed myself to love you back. ”
Frankie’s fingers brushed away the tears on his cheeks.
“I love you. Not some best friend bullshit, Sam—this is love. This is what we got. You’re mine, and I’m yours.
I want a life with you. I want it all. I can’t let you go another day with you believin’ I don’t love you.
” He kissed his lips tentatively, “You’re my fuckin’ Superman. ”
“Are you sure?” Sam asked, still not believing his heart, not believing that this was real and happening.
“Am I fuckin’ sure?” Frankie pinched the curve of his naked hip, growling. “Baby, I bought you a bracelet that might as well be a fuckin’ handcuff, cause you ain’t goin’ anywhere without me.”
Tears flooded him, and he dropped his temple into his. “Then you should’ve bought two, because I feel the exact same way.”
Frankie smirked, yanking open the bedstand and revealing another black box. “That one’s for me. We now have matching best boyfriend bracelets.”
Sam let out a weak, happy laugh, letting Frankie wipe the tears from his cheeks, then smiled up at him and held him close.
“Boyfriend.” He repeated the word, shock being washed away by the love in his heart.
“A boyfriend who loves you.”
Filled with pure fucking joy, Sam kissed his boyfriend hard and thoroughly, feeling the sudden renewed vigor in Frankie’s cock.
“Say it again,” Sam heard himself demand, thrusting up and down on his boyfriend’s massive dick and getting his softened cock hard again, which wasn’t difficult.
“I fuckin’ love you, baby.”
Oh God. Thank you.
He wanted to weep. Shout. Fist pump in the air like he had just won the gold medal. Except he had won something far more valuable.
Frankie groaned, hands fisting over the curve of his hips, slamming him down onto his cock, ruining him.
“I love you,” Frankie whispered against his chest, sucking in his nipple. “Fuck me, I love your fuckin’ titties.”
Another laughing cry burst from his lips, followed by a gasp as Frankie wrapped a strong, calloused hand over his unattended cock, pumping him.
“I love the way you cum for me. I love the way you boss me around in bed. Fuuuck, it gets me so damned hard when you call me your good boy,” Frankie confessed. “You’ve ruined me in the sweetest fuckin’ way, baby. Now fuckin’ cum on me. Make a mess on your good boy.”
He shuddered, dick spasming.
Sam couldn’t hold back, not with Frankie talking to him like this, not with love and joy filtering through his veins like a drug. Legs trembling, balls tightening, he was already close to an orgasm that would surely annihilate him.
“That’s it,” Frankie murmured, his strong fist pumping him. “Christ, look at you.”
He shuddered.
Love, blinding and powerful, swept over him, and he unloaded pulsating ribbons of cum between them, smearing Frankie’s stomach and his.
Frankie groaned at the sight, mouth opened, eyes black with need, rutting wildly into him.
Sam slipped his fingers into his hot cum, smearing it over Frankie’s plump lips.
His tongue instantly darted out, greedily sucking his slick fingertips into his mouth.
“My boyfriend is such a cum slut,” he cooed as Frankie growled, then groaned, climaxing inside him.
He shivered at the sensation of being filled. He loved it. He loved him.
Frankie jerked against him before dropping back into the pillow, gasping for breath. Sam slid off and reached for the black velvet box, opening it to reveal an identical bracelet to the one on his wrist. Frankie watched him with a hooded gaze as he put the bracelet on him.
“Looks good on you,” Sam murmured, mimicking what Frankie had said about his.
He smiled. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“You look good on me, too.”
Sam blushed, sinking into him, delusionally happy.
His eyes caught sight of Nona’s bed in the corner of the room and his chest warmed. “We should get another dog.”
“We?” Frankie hummed. “I like the sound of that.”
He nuzzled his face into him. “Too soon?”
“For us or the dog?”
“The dog.”
Frankie’s fingers stroked through his hair. “I dunno. It’s gonna be hard to replace our girl.”
“I know.”
“But our next dog would be lucky to have two dedicated daddies.”
“Yes, she would,” Sam smiled, realizing he couldn’t stop smiling. “She would be loved. That’s all that matters.”
Frankie kissed his temple. “Can I tell you somethin’?”
“Anything.”
“Papi and I had a conversation a week before he died.”
He hesitated before pulling out of Frankie’s embrace to look at him. “You never told me that.”
“Yeah, well, it was between us at the time, and I wasn’t ready to tell you.
I thought it was just gonna be another visit.
Bullshittin’, talkin’ about baseball or some shit.
But I think…” Frankie cleared his throat, emotion tensing around his lips.
“I think he knew he was going. So, when I walked in, he had a lot to fuckin’ say to me. ”
Sam sat up, waiting.
“He told me he loved me. And that I was a fuckin’ jackass.”
He snorted, hearing Papi say it in his mind to Frankie. “A jackass, huh?”
“Yeah, he thought I was makin’ a big mistake with you.”
He stilled.
Frankie reached out and drew his hand into his, their fingers tangling.
“At the time, I didn’t understand what the hell he was talkin’ about.
But now I do. And I couldn’t agree with him more.
I didn’t see what was right in front me.
The love that was freely given, and how I thought it would always be there.
Then you kissed me and left, and my world didn’t make sense anymore. ”
He kissed his knuckles, sighing. “He said soulmates look a lot like best friends. But they ain’t. Their bonds are formed from the grit of the earth, from the shine in the stars. And if you’re lucky, you find yours in time to have a life together.”
Sam squeezed his fingers. “We did have a life together. Just as best friends.”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t enough. I see that now.”
“Except it was,” he breathed. The soft, intimate way Frankie looked at him made him feel safe to be vulnerable now.
“I needed your friendship more than I needed a boyfriend. I needed to know what it was like to be with the guys—the boys. To be a part of something bigger than my tiny, lonely little world. You gave that to me on day fucking one. Joking around, teasing me, making me come out of my shell. I didn’t waste a single day being your best friend, Frank.
I don’t look back on the last fifteen years and regret it.
I needed it. I was so alone before Papi.
My mom…” He swallowed, anger rising. “I just thought it would be safer to be alone. I was never enough for her, even when I did everything. She taught me not to trust people. And that led me to not trust myself.”
Frankie grazed his fingers over his wrist, over the bracelet, and the anger softened in his body. All from a simple kiss.
Sam stared at him in amazement, finally making the connection. “You said that all I had to do was look at you to make you feel whole. It’s the same for me with you when you touch me. You remember the first day we met?”