24. Will
TWENTY-FOUR
WILL
The next morning, while I’m helping the equipment crew unload for soundcheck, Zane eyes me warily.
“You’re in a good mood.”
“It’s a nice day.”
His eyes narrow. “Did you murder him? Because I need to know if I need an alibi or something. And please don’t ask me to help you hide the body, I haven’t been here long enough for that. Maybe ask Cory or Eric.”
“I’ll help,” Scott calls as he walks by with a large bag of something that smells sweet.
“You’re not even going to ask who?” Zane yells at his back incredulously.
“They probably deserved it!” Scott yells back.
Zane looks at me. “He’s only saying that because he thinks it’ll get him on Naz’s good side.”
“Pretty sure he’s already on Naz’s good side,” I snort. “And who is it that I’ve supposedly murdered?”
“I dunno. Probably your brother’s boyfriend? You get a creepy blank look on your face whenever anyone mentions that guy, I’ve kind of been expecting it.”
I roll my eyes. “Ari doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
“Okayyyyy,” he says, unconvinced, but I don’t bother pressing the matter because he’s right, I am in a damn good mood this morning.
I made Ari come two more times last night and once this morning, and I finally got to know what his mouth feels like around my cock. I swear to every deity, the old gods and the new, that was the best goddamn blowjob of my life. I came so hard I nearly blacked out.
Is it a man thing? Do men give the best blowjobs because they have dicks and know what feels good?
Or maybe it’s just Ari. All I know is I couldn’t stand up or see straight for at least ten minutes afterwards.
It’s a fucking miracle I lasted more than a minute, and that’s probably only because I’d come recently.
Just the sight of Ari’s puffy, glossy pink lips wrapping around me was enough to send me to a very early, very happy grave.
More than that, I got to wake up with him in my arms again.
The way it felt to wake up with his warm, pliant body next to me was soul soothing.
Then Ari nuzzled against my neck sleepily, his hips shifted, and I was reminded of how torturous these moments used to be.
He’s always been responsive to touch, and even outright handsy, in his sleep.
I never once touched him or encouraged him, but I never discouraged it either, even when I knew I should have. But now I don’t have to pretend.
We moved closer together until there was no space between us, and Ari rolled slightly on top of me, straddling my thigh.
We moved like water, fluid and slow, an easy give and take as we writhed against each other.
In the past I would have just laid still and let him be the one to move, but this time I was an active participant.
Every part of me came alive, even if my brain was a little numb with leftover sleep and lust. My hand brushed down his body to cup his ass, and I pulled him harder against me.
His breath hitched, and he released a slight, sleepy moan, muffled into my throat.
The sound of it, the vibration of his breath on my skin, made me bold.
I rolled us so I was the one pressing into him for the first time, and fuck if his body didn’t fit against me better than any woman ever has.
I’m not sure when we escalated from easy, gentle rocking to a frenzied thrusting against each other.
But it took almost no time at all for us both to be riding an edge we couldn’t turn back from.
Both of us were panting, moaning, gripping each other tightly.
My thigh where Ari’s cock rubbed against me got wet with his release, and my throat has a small bruise from where he bit down when he came.
“Uh, Will?”
I shake my head out of my memories from this morning and realize that Zane, two roadies, and our equipment manager are all standing around me, staring.
Clearing my throat, I adjust my hold on the box I’m carrying and walk it to the backstage area.
I like helping unload and setting up before shows, and show up to pitch in more often than not.
This morning, I thought it would be a better idea not to spend too much time around the rest of the band, worried that the tension between Ari and me would be too obvious.
I figured some space and clarity might be helpful for us both, but I am quickly realizing there is no such thing.
Last night, things went from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye.
I went to Ari’s room with the intention of apologizing.
Which I did, but I never expected Ari to respond the way he did, or for things to escalate like that.
In fact, I think I expected to walk away with Ari hating me more than ever.
How he could accept my apology and the things I’ve done so easily is beyond me, but I meant what I said.
I don’t want him to let me get away with my bullshit.
Ari deserves for me to make it up to him, and I will in any way I can, in a way that doesn’t also benefit me, preferably.
I really shouldn’t have let things go that far. I shouldn’t have touched him like that, or at the very least I certainly shouldn’t have let him touch me. I don’t deserve it. But now that we’ve broken through that boundary, I don’t think there’s any turning back.
I was haunted by my feelings for my foster brother before the walls fell. Now I’m obsessed. Completely and irrevocably possessed by everything that Ari is and could be to me.
As if conjured from my thoughts alone, Ari walks through with Blake, Naz, and Eric.
They seem to be discussing if Jesse will show up on time for sound check, given that he hasn’t come up for air since retreating into his room with Luc last night.
I can’t contribute to the conversation at all, too focused on trying to act normal.
Ari’s eyes catch mine, and his cheeks flush prettily.
Oh yeah, I’m fucked. Totally and completely fucked.
Despite Blake’s worries, Jesse is able to pull himself away from Luc and shows up to soundcheck on time.
Everything goes off without a hitch, which bodes well for the show later.
I manage to maintain a healthy distance from Ari until after a lunch meeting with Blake about our upcoming studio time, when we head back to the suite to hang out and rest before the show.
The moment we walk through the door, Jesse’s eyes ping-pong around the main living area before he makes a beeline to his room.
His door slams, followed by an audible thud of a body hitting the surface just after.
Considering he chose the room farthest away from anyone else, I can only imagine one of them is going to have a bruise later.
Naz snickers and plops down on the couch, pointing a remote at the giant television screen. Ari meanders to the fridge and pours himself a glass of water, eyes burning a direct hole in my psyche. It takes everything in me to keep my gaze averted from him.
“Meh,” Naz says, throwing the remote down. “I’m going to read for a while, maybe take a nap.”
“Yeah, alright,” I say nervously. “I, um—I think I’ll do the same.”
Ari doesn’t say a word. Unlike me, he knows how to be cool and not attract attention to himself with weird behavior.
Naz shoots me a strange look on his way to his room but doesn’t say anything. As soon as he’s out of earshot, Ari snorts.
“What?” I say incredulously.
“You know what,” he says, then imitates me stuttering.
“Shut up.”
“Make me.”
The gleam in his eyes is dangerous. Playful, but daring—taunting me to do something about all the tension we’ve been tamping down all day.
All the lust that’s built up over nearly a lifetime and has finally been released.
It’s like letting air out of a balloon, but instead of a slow leak, it pops and explodes.
And that’s how I end up in the butler’s pantry, with my pants down around my ankles, fucking Ari’s face hard enough the back of his head thuds against the cherrywood cabinets.
I’ve never felt so feral. So primal.
Ari takes me so well, taking me way farther back in his throat than I ever could, swallowing around me. Every gag comes with a moan, his fingernails digging into my ass, urging me forward. I come faster than I think I ever have before, growling as I spill down his throat.
“Fuck,” I pant, slumping against the counter to catch my breath as the room spins. “You are way too good at that.”
I don’t care to consider what kind of practice he must have had to take someone that hard and deep. Instead, I focus on the shape of his throat as it bobs, swallowing down every drop of what I give him.
I step back enough to let him stand, then crowd him against the ledge of the countertop, capturing his mouth and licking inside to taste myself on his tongue. My cock twitches, unsure if it wants to continue deflating, but not quite able to reach full hardness again.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” I pant as I palm his bulge through his jeans. Before I can open his fly, a sound stops me in my tracks.
We freeze, our heads cocked toward the small hallway that leads to the kitchen and open-concept communal areas of the suite. The refrigerator door shuts, and the sounds of footsteps fade as someone presumably walks out of the kitchen.
Ari and I hold each other’s gazes for a long, tense moment before we both start righting our clothes.
I pull my pants up and tuck my now softening cock away before looking Ari over to check how he looks.
There’s a tiny smear of something on the corner of his mouth.
It probably wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone else, but just in case, I lean forward and lick it away, slowly dragging my tongue along Ari’s lips.
He lets out a slow, breathy moan that reminds me we need to get out of this pantry and into one of our rooms before we get ourselves caught.
Grabbing Ari’s hand, I creep to the arched doorway and peek out. I don’t see anyone, so I pull him behind me, only to halt abruptly three steps into the kitchen. My heart thuds harshly in my ribcage.
Oh, shit.
Scott is standing on the other side of the kitchen island, holding two water bottles and looking down at his phone. His eyes slowly lift to mine, a knowing glint of amusement sparkling back at me.
“Can’t say I expected it to be the two of you stepping out of there,” Scott says.
“We were just, um?—”
“Oh, I know what you were doing back there.” He leans to look around me, where Ari is pressed against my back. “Respect, dude.”
Did he just compliment Ari? Did he see what we were doing, and that’s how he’s so sure? Was I really so out of it I didn’t notice someone peeking in three feet away?
“Little advice,” Scott offers. “If you don’t want anyone to know you’re messing around with each other, you should probably keep to your own private spaces. I could hear what was happening the second I stepped into the suite.”
His phone pings, and he looks down to check his messages. Then, with a wink, he tells us to stay hydrated, gesturing to the bottles in his hand, and makes his way down the hallway.
“Where is he even going?” Ari whispers.
I made an educated guess. “Naz’s room,” I say.
Ari forgets to be afraid that we just got caught and lifts his eyebrow. “Naz? Really?”
“I know, right?”
“Did you know?”
“Sort of.”
“Do you think he’ll tell Naz?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “But he’s right. We should be a lot more careful. I shouldn’t have?—”
“Stop,” Ari says firmly. “You are not the only responsible adult here. I’m just as guilty as you are if we end up getting outed because of this.”
I concede his point, trying to consider all the pros and cons of just telling the guys and Blake.
I’m sure there will be some backlash, but it’s not as if they’d disown us or kick us from the band.
It’s probably better if they find out from us telling them than getting walked in on one day, but I’m not ready.
There’s a lot we need to work out before we can even think about next steps.
It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours, for fuck’s sake.
“Come on,” Ari coaxes, tugging on my hand. “Let’s go somewhere we can't so easily be interrupted.”