41. Tree-huggin’ hippie at heart
Tree-huggin’ hippie at heart
The apartment smelled like dust and stale, warm air, but it didn’t bother Colby because he had his nose buried in Hunter’s neck, inhaling his familiar spicy-sweet cologne and Vanilla-based shampoo.
The ends of his hair at the base of Hunter’s neck behind his ear tickled the bridge of Colby’s nose as he tongued behind his earlobe, making Hunter arch his back off the bed. “Come to my house.”
“Now?’ Hunter whispered back.
They’d been curled up on the old bed in the older apartment for maybe an hour.
They hadn’t gotten naked, or anything, just curled up together and lay there enjoying the heat of each other’s embrace.
They could hear the neighbors and the emergency workers in the courtyard, past the living room windows.
There were swirling lights seeping through the dining room window overlooking the street.
The same window where Hunter had seen a tree limb lying on top of a van way back when. The police must be here too.
“My garage kind of got destroyed, and my equipment is in there. I think I should go make sure I’m not getting looted,” Colby replied softly. “Plus, I want you to see the place and sleep in my bed. And christen my house.”
“Christen it? Like throw a bottle of champagne against it?”
Colby pressed his body tighter into Hunter’s, kissing him along the column of his neck. “Like throw a bottle of lube on your dick. I haven’t had sex there yet.”
“Have you had sex with anyone anywhere?” Hunter asked, and Colby’s stomach swirled uncomfortably.
Hunter’s wide hand pressed into the small of Colby’s back, holding him tighter.
“I’m not asking because it will change a thing about this.
I love you, and I didn’t expect you to be celibate.
I’m asking because I want to ditch condoms. I’m on prep now too, and I’m clean.
I get a full panel every new movie as part of the insurance physical. ”
“I’ve had some wank sessions on an app. Exchanging faceless videos jerking it, but that’s it,” Colby confessed.
“Briar and Kenner broke up, and he drunkenly hit on me. Like nothing romantic. Just a let’s fuck away each other’s sorrows thing, but I declined.
He’d keep it secret, but like the band is messy enough, you know? ”
“Yeah. I know.”
“You?”
Hunter’s pregnant pause told Colby everything he needed to know.
It was easier for Hunter because he was bisexual.
He could have a fling that would take away the loneliness and look outwardly permissible.
“It was Mikayla, and it meant absolutely nothing. I was just so fucking sad and lonely, and I gave up before I came. She actually offered to stick her dildo in my ass if it would help.”
Colby laughed, surprising them both, and then Hunter joined in. “Did you explain to her you’re a top?”
“Well, I said I hadn’t bottomed yet.” His emphasis on the last word made Colby’s dick start to grow.
“And then she offered to let me fuck her that way, but I declined, and we kind of gave up. Luckily, because she’s cool, we’re not awkward.
And I haven’t talked to her because she’s in Australia filming something, but I heard she’s dating someone now and it’s serious. I’m happy for her.”
“Me too,” Colby said, and he meant it because Mikayla was an ally and a good egg and he couldn’t blame her for being attracted to the hottest man, inside and out, on the planet. He lifted his head and used his knuckles to tilt Hunter’s chin so their eyes met. “But you’re mine now. Only mine.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” Hunter winked and craned his neck until their lips connected.
A knock at the front door pulled them apart.
They rolled off the bed and padded through the apartment.
Hunter pulled open the oak door and took in the police officer on the other side of the metal storm door.
“I’m Officer Hernandez with the West Hollywood department.
Sorry to bother you both but…” Colby reached over and opened the storm door so they could see each other more clearly, and that’s when Officer Hernandez’s sentence stumbled.
“Sorry. I just wanted to let you know we’re clearing out the building for the night. ”
“What? The whole thing? Because of the tree?” Hunter asked, eyebrows raised.
“Yeah. I… the city needs to inspect the place,” Hernandez explained.
“I’m fairly certain the building itself is intact, but we need to make sure the tree didn’t crack the pool structure.
If the pool is leaking into the rest of the courtyard underground, it can create a sinkhole risk so…
I… I’m sorry, but you look just like Hunter Law.
And you look like the singer from Tidal. ”
“That’s because we are Hunter Law and the singer from Tidal,” Hunter replied simply. “So where are all the tenants going to go?”
“City hall, I think. It’s still being worked out, but if they have no friends or relatives, the city can open a community center or a school gym for a night in a situation like this,” Hernandez kept staring wide-eyed. “Which one of you lives here. And, why?”
“I used to live here,” Hunter explained. “I kept the place.”
“And I used to live here with him,” Colby added. “Poor starving LA artists. You know the drill.”
Hernandez nodded, but his eyebrows stayed sky high, and his eyes darted between the two of them. “And you kept it?”
Hunter nodded. He turned to Colby. “Mrs. Yoon can’t sleep on a gym floor. She’s got hip problems, and Bob and his wife won’t leave Mickey here by himself.”
“Who is Mickey?”
“Their cat,” Hunter tells Hernandez. “He’s twenty and blind and deaf. They’ve had him since he was eight weeks old.”
Hunter stepped out into the open hallway, past Hernandez, and looked down at his neighbors milling about the courtyard, trying to avoid the tree. “Hey everyone! Raise your hand if you have nowhere to go for the next twenty-four hours.”
There were seventeen units in the building, and in addition to Mrs. Yoon, Bob, and his wife, five other tenants raised their hands. “I got you. Start packing up but don’t leave.”
Hunter looked at Colby, and Colby spoke before Hunter could. “Which hotel?”
“We’ll call around and see what’s available. Pull strings if we have to,” Hunter said, and Colby nodded.
After twenty minutes, Colby and Hunter had secured bungalows at Chateau Marmont for each of the tenants.
They loaded everyone, including Mickey, into Hunter, Colby, and Officer Hernandez’s cars and got them all safely to the Marmont for the night.
Officer Hernandez asked for a selfie before they parted, and Colby and Hunter flanked him, smiling brightly.
They looked at each other before they got back into their respective cars. “Will that bite us in the ass when he posts that? What if it gets everyone talking about us again?”
Hunter shrugged. “What if?”
And then Hunter followed Colby back to his house in Laurel Canyon.
From the moment he walked up to the front door, Hunter was enamored with Colby’s little house in the hills.
It was so exquisitely Colby. The oversized windows, the dark wood, the swirl of retro colors like avocado-green curtains, burnt-orange shag throw rugs, and goldenrod couches.
Hell, even the tree across the garage roof felt like it was classic Colby.
He pulled Colby’s back to his front as they entered Colby’s bedroom as the final room of the tour.
“I’m never walking in a forest with you. Trees are not your friend.”
“Crazy because I’m such a tree-huggin’ hippie at heart, you’d think they’d show me some respect,” Colby murmured and turned in Hunter’s arms.
They both moved to bring their lips together.
Their tongues collided and explored as their hands drifted, tugging at clothes to find their way to skin.
They didn’t move slowly, but they weren’t moving with urgency either.
There was no need to rush. For the first time in their long, confusing, stilted version of a relationship, Hunter and Colby weren’t hiding, and there was no worry.
This was exactly where they were meant to be—naked, in Colby’s bed, kissing and touching and loving each other.
After long languid foreplay of sucking and kissing and licking, Hunter leaned over Colby and told him he loved him as he pressed into his body with no barrier. They started slow, but Colby’s dirty little mouth made Hunter’s restraint fold like a bad hand of cards.
“Your dick fills me up so good, Hunter. Fuck. I can barely breathe. Look at my dick leaking everywhere because of you. Now make me see stars. Please.”
Hunter started moving his hips, sliding in and out of Colby, as Colby wrapped a hand around his cock and copied his rhythm with his hand.
Hunter came fast and hard because Colby was too beautiful and too hot and too tight and too perfect.
Without giving himself a chance to catch his breath, Hunter slipped out of his lover and sucked Colby’s tip into his mouth.
Colby’s hand fell away, and Hunter swallowed all of him down for the five seconds it took Colby to spill into Hunter’s mouth with a guttural groan.
As they lay tangled together, an aftershock hit. A slow, almost lazy roll of the earth underneath them. But it stilled quickly as aftershocks usually did. Hunter didn’t even lift his head off the pillow. No matter what happened, he no longer had to worry. He was exactly where he needed to be.
It was one thing to declare their love for each other.
It was one thing to promise that they were done hiding.
Done pretending. But it was entirely another when your first official boyfriend was still asleep in your bed with your cum on his belly, and you opened your front door to find your mother and brother standing on your doorstep. Shit.
“What are you guys doing here?”