Page 16

Chapter 16

Liam

The disparity in our upbringing had never been so obvious. I’d had love, but I’d also had financial security. Money came with a lot of privilege. I’d never had a closet as small as the room Brodie described as being his for his formative years, barely large enough for a single bed. I had a hard time wrapping my head around it.

None of my hardships had anything to do with money.

“How did you lose your parents?” Brodie traced the lines in the palm of my hand with the tips of his fingers

We’d gone back to his place, which was still a sea of boxes and unorganized furniture. I offered to help him unpack, but he’d laughed at me and tugged me down onto his couch.

“Mom to a heart attack. She’d been unwell for a while, but kept brushing it off as indigestion. Dad was older than her by about fifteen years, and he just kind of faded away after she died. Within a few months, he was gone too.”

“Shit. That sucks.”

“It did, but I came out the other end okay. Eventually.” I loved the way Brodie kept wanting to touch me. Breakfast had kicked down one of the walls between us and every moment we spent together after it drew us closer together. “What about your dad?”

“Gone. Died. I don’t even remember him. He did some bad shit that put my family in a tough spot for a long time. So it’s probably good that I don’t remember him.”

“That sucks.” I echoed Brodie’s words back at him.

Brodie dragged his fingertips across my wrist, then up higher, tracing the veins that showed through my pale skin. “I don’t want to talk about that anymore.” His hands trembled against my skin. A sign that he was as nervous as I was.

We hadn’t been together since the morning of the day I got that stupid phone call. And while it wasn’t that long in the grand scheme of things, a lot had happened between us in that time.

“What do you want, Brodie?” I had to know in words, not assumptions. I’d give him anything he wanted, but nothing he didn’t tell me he was ready for.

Brodie rolled his eyes and shuffled closer, pressing our knees together. “Isn’t it obvious?”

He was a beautiful temptation. Light brown hair that was the perfect length to always be in his face, to always need me to push it off his face. He looked at me with his hooded eyes and his teeth pressed into his bottom lip.

“I don’t want to make a single mistake with you. Not again.”

Brodie moved slowly, telegraphing every motion as he rose to his feet. He put his hands on my shoulders, then sat in my lap, one leg on either side of me, straddling me. Caging me in.

“Not kissing me right now would be a mistake, Liam.”

I wondered if Brodie could feel the way my heart slammed against my ribs. Did he feel the way I shook when I put my hands on his thighs and slid them toward his hips? Did he know how terrified I was of fucking this up again? He’d given me a second chance, but it also felt like a last chance. One more shot to get it right. And if I fucked up, it would all go away. His smile. His voice. The way he looked at me—like he was looking at me now.

“Liam.” He leaned in, bumping his nose against mine. Warm breath washed over my face. “What’s a girl gotta do to get a kiss around here?”

I kissed the trace of a smile off his face. Our mouths came together. I moved first, but he moved faster. He grabbed my face and rose up on his knees, making him taller than me for a change. The angle pressed me backward, so I leaned against the back of the couch, letting it take my weight. I wound my arms around Brodie and kissed him like I hadn’t kissed him for a thousand years.

Our hours apart had been weeks. Eons. A desert of loneliness and regret vanished as Brodie licked his way into my mouth. His hands slid into my hair and he held me like he wanted to punish me for leaving. For not explaining better why I had to go. For being stupid and almost ruining everything.

Kissing Brodie never got old. It never would. He kissed deeply. Passionately. With his whole body.

He lowered himself down and plastered his body to mine. Hips swiveled, grinding our cocks together. God. There weren’t words for how badly I’d missed him. Needed him. I’d been so fucking stupid and I still hated myself for it. I’d never forgive myself for hurting him.

All I could do now was try to make it up to him.

We kissed for an eternity. Until my lungs screamed for air and my face ached from it, and only then did I let him pull away. But he didn’t go far. He grabbed the hem of my shirt and rucked it up, urging me to raise my arms so he could tear it off over my head.

Once my shirt was gone, I wrapped my arms around him and lifted him up in one swift motion. I flipped him onto his back and pinned him between me and the couch.

A laugh tore out of him and it was like music. And suddenly everything was okay. He wrapped his arms around me and gazed at me with those liquid brown eyes, like melted chocolate.

He didn’t have to ask before I kissed him, but it was just a taste this time. I wanted to ravish him. To spoil him. Lick every inch of his body until he squirmed and begged and sobbed with need for me.

I shoved his shirt up his body then tugged it over his head. His arms I left tangled in the fabric as sort of a makeshift bondage. Laughter pealed out of him as he wriggled his arms.

“Do you think this will seriously hold me?” His eyes danced with humor and another brick of regret fell away.

“I think you’ll like what happens if it does.” Tenderly, I dragged my hands down his bare torso, softly catching his nipples with the pads of my fingers as I went. He hissed in a breath and stopped wriggling. Well, his arms did. His hips thrust, seeking friction I wasn’t yet providing.

Holding his gaze, I leaned over him and took his nipple in my mouth. In a lot of ways, we were starting over. But in some, we were picking up where we left off. I knew Brodie’s body already, but explored as though it was my first time with him. I toyed with his nipples. Sucking and licking. Nibbling made him yelp and laugh and get too squirmy, so I shelved that for another time. I kissed my way up to his armpit. Underneath his deodorant, he smelled like himself. It was an achingly familiar scent, all skin and salt and musk and man. I wanted to bury my face there and breathe him in until every cell in my body smelled of him.

My mouth caressed the curve of his neck. The delicate hollow of his throat. I kissed the pulse points on his neck, then mapped my way slowly down the center of his chest. Brodie was a panting mess by the time I got to his belly button. My fingers were clumsy from excitement and arousal, but I managed to get his pants open and free his cock.

Brodie let out a sigh of relief as if he doubted for a moment that I was going to put him out of his misery. Our gazes met and I found myself smiling up at him and the way he was still tangled in his shirt. Vulnerability flashed in his eyes, a glimmer of fear, hesitation. Uncertainty.

I tore my stare away from his and kissed the spot under his belly button that always made him shiver. Then lower. I dragged kisses down his treasure trail.

“Liam, you’re killing me.” Brodie’s voice was thick and full of anguish.

I looked up again and flashed him a smile, then finally I gave in to what we both wanted. I took him in hand. His dick was perfect. I’d always thought so. Wonderfully average in both length and girth, with a stunning curve when he was fully erect. He kept his pubes trimmed down to a nice manageable length without getting rid of them completely. Brodie was a work of art.

I licked a bead of precum off the tip of his dick. Brodie’s cock twitched in my hand. When I took him in my mouth, teasing the head of his cock with my tongue, he made the most delicious sounds. He’d always been vocal and my dick liked a vocal lover. He whimpered my name and I knew I’d tortured him enough. For now.

I took him deeper, down to the base of his cock, a skill I’d only recently acquired. My gag reflex threatened to make me choke and I shed a few tears keeping it at bay. I swallowed around his cock and Brodie cried out, writhing with pleasure. I wanted him to come apart in my mouth.

Releasing his cock from my mouth earned me a surprised gasp from him, but then I was up and untangling his hands from the shirt I hadn’t removed earlier. Yanking it off his wrists, I tossed it aside and crushed our mouths together, letting him taste himself.

“Take what you need.” I kissed the corner of his mouth, his cheek, then I wriggled back down. My tongue followed the thick vein that ran up the underside of his cock and I took him into my mouth again.

This time Brodie buried his hands in my hair. A knot in my chest loosened when he anchored himself to me that way. I wanted him to claim me. As if he read my thoughts, Brodie pushed my head down, making me take all of him. I did gag that time. There was something about him taking the lead that made me lose all ability to control myself.

Tears sprang to my eyes and I didn’t know if they were from choking on his dick or from the sudden relief that wrapped around me like a warm blanket. I thought I’d lost him. I was sure he’d never forgive me. And yet here I was and it felt right. It felt like home.

Brodie let me ease back and take a breath, and when he pushed my head down a second time, he was gentler, like the first time was an overabundance of frustration coming to a head.

I tried to make it as good for him as I could, sucking and teasing the head of his cock with my tongue when I could. Brodie whimpered and moaned and sometimes he’d talk, letting little bits of encouragement slip out.

Then suddenly he was pulling me off him and gathering me into his arms. He brought me to his mouth and kissed me deeply, licking his way past my teeth. He kissed me like he was trying to steal all my secrets. I had none, but he was welcome to try.

Hands scrabbled at my waist.

“Off. Clothes off,” Brodie commanded, his lips still pressed against mine when he spoke.

I stood and undid my jeans, shoving them and my underwear off at once, making sure the socks went with them. Brodie watched me with heat in his gaze. He’d had more experience than I did when we met. He was aware of this from the beginning and he was always gentle with me when we tried things I hadn’t done before. I’d topped and bottomed, but now more than anything I wanted Brodie to make me his. I needed him inside me with a desperation I’d never felt before.

He looked me up and down, raking his gaze over every inch of my skin. Slowly, he got to his feet and undressed the rest of the way. We stood like that for a minute, bare to each other in every way two men could be. Standing so close the heat of his body radiated out and seeped into my skin. I leaned into it like a moth to a flame. My fingers brushed over his cheek. Asking him what he wanted was on the tip of my tongue, but then we were kissing again. Slower, like we knew now we had time.

Plastering his body against mine, his hands roamed my back, mapped the length of my spine. My breathing changed when his fingers trailed down the crease of my ass, then dipped inside. He spread me open and I realized I’d stopped kissing and had already been reduced to a panting, needy ball of want.

“Make me yours, Brodie. Please.” My voice didn’t sound like mine. It was shaky and desperate and ruined.

He kissed me again, soft and sweet. I was already his. I’d been his from that first moment I saw him rain soaked and laughing, full of joy and life. But I needed to feel him inside me so bad I trembled, my whole body shaking.

Brodie let go of my ass to cup my cheek. His thumb smoothed along my cheekbone and he gave me a sweet smile. “Let’s take this to the bedroom.” He tangled his hand in mine and led me through the sea of boxes that stood between us and his bedroom.