Page 20

Chapter 20

Liam

Brodie and I had gone back to living in a bubble, we’d just changed locations. Part of me didn’t mind, but another part of me recognized that in order to have a life together, we had to build one. And we couldn’t do that by existing only in each other’s orbits and having copious amounts of sex.

We’d spent the past few days getting the rest of his things unpacked and I’d called to make arrangements to have my clothes express shipped here. They arrived last night and Brodie helped hang my clothes in his closet. If he thought I didn’t notice the way he smiled the whole time, he was mistaken.

I kissed the nape of Brodie’s neck. “Wake up, sleepyhead. I want to take you to breakfast.”

Brodie grumbled, but nestled in closer. The warmth of his body made me almost too hot to be comfortable, so I kicked the covers off despite his weak protests.

“What if I get cold?” Brodie rasped, still half asleep. I trailed my hand down his chest, flicking a nipple gently before sliding it lower. He let out a disgruntled sound when I avoided his cock.

“You’re a tease,” Brodie protested and wiggled his ass against my cock. “Lucky for me, I have the same playbook as you.”

I dragged my teeth over his skin in the promise of a bite. He sucked in a breath and let it out with a moan. God, I loved working him up like this. All loose and sleepy and warm, he felt malleable, like putty in my hands.

I’d woken up with a cock so hard I could pound nails like I did every morning I woke up next to Brodie. His ass pressed against my dick again and it was my turn to groan when he slowly ground his ass against me. I grabbed his hip and pulled him against me, trapping him there the best I could, but that didn’t stop him from writhing.

“You’re trouble,” I whispered against his skin.

“You started it.”

I twisted away and grabbed the lube off the nightstand.

“How do you feel? Are you sore?”

“Not if you’re nice. I don’t think I could take what we did last night, but I still need you.”

I planted kisses against his neck, peppered his skin with love as if I could heal him with my touch.

“We don’t have to. There are other ways I can make you happy.”

“I want you to,” Brodie whispered like it was a secret that he wanted me. That I wanted him back twice as much.

I handed the lube to Brodie and held out my open hand. He squirted a generous amount into my hand.

“Thank you, love. I’ll be careful with you, but you have to tell me if it’s too much.”

Brodie’s whole body went limp at the first brush of my fingers against his hole. As good as he was on top, he was even better on the bottom. It was his favored position, but he didn’t mind switching it up once in a while.

Despite having fucked him right before bed, he was tight as a drum again. Tracing the soft skin of his rim, I slicked him up, softening him with my touch before I dared to slide a finger inside him.

Brodie moaned and his body relaxed even further, welcoming me inside him.

“Don’t make me wait.” His voice was already choked with pleasure. The tips of his ears had turned pink. It made me wish I could see the look on his face. I loved the soft expressions he made when we were together, the way he looked at me like I was the only thing he saw in the whole universe.

Gently, I withdrew my finger from his ass and motioned for him to give me more lube.

He obliged, but grumbled at me about it. “It’s messy.”

“That’s what showers and laundry are for.” I kissed his shoulder as I slicked my cock. “I won’t hurt you.”

Entering him was an exercise in restraint. No matter how badly I wanted to line up and slam into him, unleashing all my desperation for him, I held myself in check. Brodie panted and pressed against me, like he also couldn’t get close enough to me.

“Liam.”

He said my name and nothing more like I was the only thing he needed. I wrapped my arm around him and held him tight. Brodie bent his leg to offer me a better angle and I used it to my advantage, slowly sinking deeper and deeper until we were as close as two people could get.

Brodie turned his head and we shared an awkward, messy, amazing kiss before Brodie broke away. His hand found mine, threaded our fingers together, and held our joined hands tight to his chest.

“How are you so perfect?” I squeezed my eyes shut and rested my head against his. We rocked together, slowly building toward an end that promised to be explosive.

“I’m not,” Brodie answered with a breathless laugh.

“You are.” I rocked into him deeper, driving a groan out of him. “Touch yourself.”

I was perilously close to finishing, but needed him to get there first.

“Want to stay like this forever,” Brodie said, not making a single move to do as he was asked.

I untangled our hands and reached for him myself. Taking him in hand, I stroked him the way he liked it, firm with a bit of a twist. He took a moment to squirt some lube onto his dick for me, then he reached behind and tried to urge me closer, faster, harder.

My pace didn’t change. I made a loose fist around his cock and let my slow pace drive his cock through it. It only took half a dozen strokes for Brodie to lose his mind.

“Liam, please,” he whined, his hips moving back and forth like they weren’t sure which direction the real pleasure lay.

There was no sweeter sound than my name on his lips. I rewarded him by tightening my grip on his cock and stroking him hard and fast. Thrusting forward, I buried my cock inside him and without pulling back drove forward again. Brodie let out a strangled gasp and then came, coating the sheets before even more cum leaked down and slicked my fingers.

My release hit me, unfurling all at once, driving my body forward faster as I gasped and moaned. I pressed my mouth against the nape of Brodie’s neck and tasted the salt of his skin as I jerked inside him.

Afterward, when my dick was done twitching and he’d gone still and boneless, we both lay there panting. Spent. Sated. It almost felt like a dream, how perfect everything felt in the afterglow. It had always been that way with him. The world could crash down around us and we’d still be wrapped up in each other, floating on our happiness.

Brodie’s stomach growling broke the silence and then the sound of his laughter, light and bright, quickly followed. He wriggled away from me, hissing slightly when my cock slid out of his ass. He turned over and threw his arm around me. Pulling me into a kiss, he ignored the way his stomach growled again, but I laughed against his mouth.

“Brodie, we need to feed you.”

“Food is overrated.”

My hand skimmed down his back. I understood how he felt. I didn’t want to be away from him for even a moment. If I could, I would stay in bed with him.

“Food is fuel. No food, no sex.” I kissed the tip of his nose then rolled out of bed. “I’ll start the shower.”

Once I was under the spray, Brodie joined me. His bottom lip was stuck out in an adorable pout. Drawing him close to me, I wrapped my arms around him. I’d never get enough of him. There wasn’t a moment that went by when I didn’t want to be near him.

“Someone’s sleepy.” I massaged my fingers through his hair. He purred like a satisfied feline and nodded.

“Someone thinks I need to get up and eat. I say that someone is mean.”

“I’m taking you for pancakes.”

“You’re addicted.”

It was true. We’d been to Bennett’s together the other morning and already I wanted to go again. I predicted a lot of business going their way.

“That’s only part of the reason. We need to leave the house, love. We can’t just hole up here and have sex forever.”

He tilted his head back and looked at me. Rivulets of water ran down his cheek and the tip of his nose. “Says who?”

“Says me. Says you. I don’t have a job, and I’m not entirely sure what I want to do, but I need to do something.”

Brodie tipped his head back and soaked his hair thoroughly before adding shampoo. “I thought rich people just played cards at the country club all day. Doesn’t your money make money?”

“I could, in theory, do that. But I want to be a man worth having. And you deserve someone who uses his time wisely. I want to be someone you can be proud to be with.” I hadn’t known those feelings were there until I unearthed them and I stood blinking at him while my heart caught up with my brain.

In my head, I had a specific image of the kind of man I wanted to be for him. I didn’t want to be just a body taking up space in his universe. I’d done that before at my old position at the family company. Carol, to her benefit, had tried to get me to branch out and explore life. To see what I wanted to do, but I’d been content where I was. It was familiar even if I never quite felt like I fit.

“I am proud to be with you.” Brodie’s assurance was a balm to my soul and it wasn’t that I didn’t believe him, but I wasn’t proud of myself.

“I know you are, but I need to find a purpose. Something outside of loving you. You mean everything to me, but if we’re going to make it, we need—I need—direction. I need a plan. A purpose.”

“We can figure it out together.” He kissed the corner of my mouth when he was finished rinsing his hair. “I’ll eventually have to get a job or something. I can’t mooch off my brother forever.”

“No, but you do have a wealthy boyfriend.”

He poked me in the ribs. “I could. But I won’t. You’re not the only one who has felt adrift lately. I’m just glad you’re here to help me figure all this shit out.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” Resting my hands on Brodie’s hips, I pulled him against me. “I’m crazy about you. I couldn’t breathe without you. Couldn’t think of anything else but you. Letting you go was the single most stupid thing I’ve ever done.”

“Don’t say you’re sorry. You’ve already apologized.”

A smile-ghosted across my lips. “I wasn’t going to. I was going to tell you that I love you.”

Brodie’s smile was sunlight. “You already told me.”

“I’ll tell you every day. Every hour.”

“I could live with that.”

I wasn’t sure who kissed who, but it was soft and sweet with none of the urgency behind it that tended to simmer below the surface waiting to explode. The kiss was gentle, patient, like we didn’t need to hurry it up because we had all the time in the world.

I pulled away and cupped Brodie’s cheek before kissing him again, but briefly. “Come on, love. Let’s get pancakes.”

“One-track mind.” Brodie rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t get the smile off his face.