Page 42

41

Paul

A ll day, I’ve caught myself staring at my wedding ring. The black band is simple, but it represents everything I grew up wanting and ended up terrified of. I’m still a little scared, but I can’t let that fear control me. Loving Brendon is worth the risk.

After a long day at the lake, we’re all exhausted but content. Jeremy, Brendon, and Seymour passed out in the car on the way back to school. Preston is a lot more relaxed when Brendon is asleep, I’ve discovered. We dropped off the puppy, and Brendon didn’t even stir.

Now we’re back at the dorms, slightly sunburnt, exhausted, and I’m waiting for Brendon to come cuddle me so we can go to sleep. The lights are off but the curtains are open, allowing the moon to light his way, and I’m already down to my underwear, lying in bed.

“Come on! I’m tired!” I call to my husband who is taking his sweet-ass time.

The bathroom door opens, and the light from two lit candles casts his face in shadows in the dark room. He’s holding two cupcakes, each with a single candle.

I sit up, confused, and wait for him to come to me, a little nervous that he’s going to drop one and catch something on fire.

“Two?” I ask when he stops in front of me.

He lifts one with a blue candle. “This one is for your birthday. Make a wish.”

I wish to love you for the rest of my life.

I blow out the candle and look up at him, waiting for whatever he has to say next.

“This one,” he holds up the cupcake with a pink candle, “is for your mom.”

That sentence is a punch in the gut. I don’t know what I expected him to say, but that was definitely not on my radar. A knot forms in my throat as I stare at the flame.

I miss you, Mom.

I blow out the candle but can’t take my eyes off the wick. It’s been eight years since Mom passed—since my life was flipped upside down—and not once has anyone thought to include her in my birthday. Every year, my grandparents and friends would try to distract me, not that I blame them, but no one tried to include her.

Every year, the closer it gets to my birthday, the more I worry about forgetting her. I can see her smiling in my mind, but her face isn’t as clear anymore. The edges of my memories are blurring, the sound of her laugh is just out of reach.

I didn’t know I needed someone to remember her on my birthday until this moment.

Closing my eyes, I lean my forehead against Brendon’s stomach and let the tears gather and fall. Not shuddering sobs, just the release of being reminded that she existed.

“She loved you,” Brendon says, putting the cupcakes on the bedside table and running his hands through my hair. “The way you love shows me that.”

I smile and press a salty kiss against his skin before looking up at him. I can’t really see him, but I know every centimeter of his flesh so I can picture it in my mind.

“Thank you for celebrating her today too.” My words are rough around the knot in my throat, but I don’t care. I’m not embarrassed to show this emotion to him.

Brendon cups my face and slides onto my lap, straddling my thighs and deepening the kiss a little. Our chests are flush, arms holding each other close, and fingers spread to cover as much as we can.

Our kiss is slow but deep, powerful, and meaningful. It’s comfort, a promise, and understanding all wrapped up in a hug.

“I love you so much,” Brendon says against my skin and wraps his arms around my shoulders to pull me close. I kiss his neck and inhale his scent. Sunblock, sweat, and deodorant, but under it is Brendon. My husband. My best friend. My person.

“I love you too, baby, so much more than I thought was possible.”

We sit there for a while, just existing. Breathing together and feeling our heartbeats until he starts to squirm.

With a smile, I lean back on my palms and wait. He’s itching for those cupcakes, I know it. I can picture his face if I told him I wanted to eat both, and it makes me chuckle. He would let me, but he would not be happy about it.

“Can I eat this frosting off you?” Brendon picks one up, pulls the candle out to lick clean, then tosses it over his shoulder.

Called it.

“We should just eat them. You can have one,” I tell him, reaching for one of the cupcakes. “What flavor did you get?”

“I got red velvet for your mom ’cause Grandma said it was her favorite.” He points to the one I’m holding. “And something with Oreo cookies in it ’cause it looked amazing.”

I didn’t think I could love this man any more than I already did, but here he is, making me fall harder. It warms my heart to know he cares. That he went out of his way to make this special means the world. He cares so much, but people don’t see that. It’s their loss.

“You can have the Oreo one,” I say, pulling the wrapper down and taking a bite of the red velvet cake.

Brendon is almost vibrating with his excitement over this treat. I don’t know where he gets the energy from to be that excited after the long day we had, but here he is, damn near dancing in my lap over a cupcake.

He takes a bite and moans, dropping his head back on his shoulders.

“Damn, I thought I was the only one who got you to moan like that.” I smirk at him.

Brendon circles his hips over mine, grinding his ass over my dick.

“Oh my God, sex while eating this would be a hard one to beat.”

I finish my own cupcake and toss the wrapper in the trash.

“I’m way too tired for that. Come cuddle me so I can sleep.” I sit up and taste his lips. The cookie-cake mixture mixing with my own is delicious.

Brendon starts to pant, rolling his hips in a sensual glide.

“Even if I do all the work?” He pants against my mouth, a shiver making him tremble.

My cock is definitely taking notice, thickening under him, and my skin is starting to heat.

“You want to fuck me, baby?” I bite his lip and pull on it until he whines. “Fill me with your cum while you lick mine off my skin?”

The pitiful whimper he lets out is the only convincing I need.

“Get the lube.”

Brendon shoves the rest of the treat into his mouth and scrambles off my lap to find the lube and take his balloon underwear off.

I take mine off too and stroke myself lazily with one arm behind my head. He finds the bottle he never puts away and holds it up victoriously before climbing between my legs. He nuzzles my trimmed pubic hair and licks my balls. I hold his head still with a hand in his hair and continue to stroke myself.

The cap on the lube clicks open, and I spread my thighs to give him better access. His slick fingers slide down my crack and swirl around my hole. I groan when he pushes against it and sucks my ball into his mouth.

“Fuuuck, I love the way your mouth feels.”

Tingles of electricity dance along my skin as I start to pant. It feels so good to have all his attention directed at my pleasure.

One finger quickly becomes two as he stretches me and worships my body. He sucks on my tip, drags his tongue along my balls, and rolls them around his mouth all while fingering my ass. It feels so fucking good. I could come just from this, but I want more from him.

“Fuck me, dirty boy. Make me come.” I release my dick and pull on his hair to drag his mouth to mine. I own his mouth, fucking into it and taking control with my free hand gripping his jaw. He moans into the kiss, panting and hungry for more.

“Please,” he begs, and I let him move just enough to slick up his cock and press his head against my hole. He looks up at me, waiting for me to give permission with every muscle in his body strung tight. “Do it.”

He pushes forward, the thick head of his cock stretching me in the best fucking way. It’s a continuous thrust until he’s bottomed out, his hips flush against my ass.

“Hard, Brendon.” I bite out his name, demanding him to obey. He doesn’t hesitate, just does what he’s told. The thrusts are deep and hard, exactly the way I like them. Precum dribbles down my cock, and I wipe it off with my finger to shove it into his mouth. He sucks my fingers deep, hammering into me.

Gripping my dick, I stroke myself and watch Brendon try to hold on.

“Fuck,” he whimpers. “Please.” He’s trembling, losing the smooth thrusts from a few seconds ago as he walks that fine line between needing to come and too far past it.

“No, hold it,” I demand. I love watching that panicked determination cross his face. He wants to do what I told him, but he doesn’t think he can. He’s desperate to come but desperate to please.

Brendon grips my hips and leans over me, sucking on my nipple, then biting it.

Pleasure shoots to my balls, and I arch against him.

“Oh fuck,” I groan, cum shooting onto my belly and taking me by surprise. My body shakes as the chemicals overload my brain and makes me shudder.

“Please!” Brendon almost shouts. The veins in his arms are standing out at the strain of holding himself back, and it’s fucking delicious.

I scoop up some of my cum and shove two fingers into his mouth for him to suck clean.

“Come for me, fill me up, give it to me.”

He shudders and twitches inside of me, only a few more thrusts before he stills and drops down onto me while breathing hard.

“Edging is the fucking worst, but fuck, that payoff is always good,” he complains into my shoulder.

We lay in a sticky, sweaty heap for a few minutes before he bounds off to the bathroom for a wet cloth to clean us up.

I scoot over, and he climbs into the bed once we’re clean enough, and I lay on his chest with his arms around me.

“Thank you for a perfect birthday,” I say as I nuzzle into his neck.

“It was okay?” he asks as anxiety tenses his body. “I wasn’t sure if bringing your mom into it would be a good idea or if it would just make you sad.”

“It was perfect. Thank you for including her.”

Brendon kisses my forehead, and we fall asleep wrapped up in each other. It doesn’t matter what the future holds because we will weather it together. There is nothing I can’t do without him.