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He laughs again, but he’s not laughing at me. His cheeks are as flushed as mine feel, and he stares at me like a starving man in front of a feast. I gesture to my dick, and he grins wider before he gets to work.

He takes my dick all the way to the back of his throat. I feel him choke a little, his throat going tight around me, but he doesn’t pull back. He gives a long, hard suck like he’s trying to pull the orgasm straight from my balls.

My breath heaves in my chest, and my fingers fly to his hair. I must be making the most god-awful sounds, but it only seems to spur him on because he lets me guide his head in a sharp, fast rhythm. And he never breaks suction. I feel him breathing hard out of his nose, but his gaze keeps looking up to try and find mine.

He has spit pooling in the corners of his mouth, and he’s flushed all over. He looks fucking wrecked, and I did it. I did this to him. I took this pretty, pretty man and messed him all up.

My balls go tight, and I attempt a noise of warning. He must know because he braces himself, but he doesn’t pull back. He lets me come down his throat in hot pulses, swallowing every few pumps until he’s left suckling on the last dribbles coming from the head.

He licks me clean as he pulls away, then primly dabs the corners of his mouth. His lips are swollen, his eyes glazed over, his hair a damn wreck from where I pulled it. And for some unknown reason, he looks thrilled.

‘Okay?’

He laughs at that, and yeah, I probably deserve it. Climbing to his feet, Rhett shimmies out of his jeans, then lets his own boxers fall to his feet. He steps out of them with a grace I’m not sure I will ever have, and then he spreads his legs over mine and sits on my thighs.

I feel weak from having all my remaining sense sucked out through my cock, but I manage to hold him. He grins down at me, tipping my head back with a slight tug on my hair, and then he kisses me. He shares the taste of my release—sour and salty and musky. His tongue swirls around my mouth, and then he pulls back and kisses along my jaw.

His free hand moves between us, and he begins to stroke himself. For the first time ever, I understand when I see people type “fap, fap, fap.” I have never heard it. It’s one of those…fuck, I can never remember it—it’s a thing we learned in school that most of the kids in my class didn’t get because we were all either born Deaf or lost hearing early. Onomato-something. Where the written word is like how it sounds to the ear.

I get it now. I feel the hard slap of his hand on his dick as he drags himself over the edge. Bam bam bam.

Fap fap fap.

Skin against skin, almost violent in the way he wants to finish. I groan softly as he uses a firm grip to tilt my head to the side, and then I feel a sharp sting as he licks the wasp stings. I gasp, and his hand speeds up. His mouth gentles as it moves away from them. He tilts my head the other way, then sinks his teeth into my skin right over my pulse, and as I see stars, I feel hot ropes of come hitting me in the stomach and chest.

His groan drifts from his lips to my skin. It’s a whole-body experience, and Jesus, I think I might be in love. Which is nuts. There’s no way.

And then I pull back and look at him and think maybe not yet, but soon. This is something. He’s someone.

‘Hi,’ he mouths.

I laugh quietly, then pull him close and kiss him until I can’t breathe. Mine, I think to myself. Maybe if I’m brave enough soon, I’ll tell him that. And maybe, if I’m lucky enough, he’ll say it right back.

Epilogue

Rhett

Ayear ago, I was in a strange bedroom with a man I barely knew, coming all over his chest while realizing I was probably going to fall head over heels in love. At the time, I had almost no hope that it would go anywhere. Everything about me seemed all wrong for Mellie.

Except after I came all over him, he cleaned us both up and asked me to stay. I woke up in his arms, and we jerked each other off, then went to the store for condoms. We used the whole box by Saturday and had to buy another one.

One weekend turned into another, turned into another. We learned to get clever for midafternoon quickies when he was parked on campus, and Robbie started refusing to eat there, convinced there were traces of come in the food.

I met his family, and he met mine. Our friends groups were connected because of course they were. The town was small, and the Deaf community was even smaller. But the good news was they all trusted me, and that was something like a weight off because it was one less thing on my plate full of reasons that we weren’t going to work.

I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never did. We’re just…happy.

Tonight, we’re meeting after the gym for our anniversary. Normally we go together, but his truck blew a tire, and he was having it fixed, so I decided to go for a run. I needed to work out some of my nerves because I have a big question for Mellie, and I’m not sure if he’s going to say yes or no.

It’s not the kind with the ring that ends in I dos, but it’s a step toward that. It’s the kind with a small box and a key nestled in velvet. It’s an offer to make our lives a little more singular together.

“Are you going to vomit? Because I just bought these machines.”

I turn my head to see Thom standing a few feet away, a towel around the back of his neck, looking like a whole goddamn snack. He’s the co-owner of the gym with a reputation for being a bit of a himbo, but I think people tend to overlook him, thanks to his ADHD and dyslexia. His spelling is atrocious, and his inability to stay focused on a conversation for longer than two minutes is…a lot, but he’s a good guy.

And a lot smarter than people give him credit for.

“Why do you ask?”