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brODY

“ Y ou have a surprise for me?” Isaac gaped at me, managing to look as suspicious and angry as he was perplexed.

“That’s what I said.” I laced my fingers through his as we walked back to my truck in the parking lot of the bowling alley. Isaac was such an atrocious bowler we’d had to put up the gutter rails for him—after a whole game of him arguing that he would definitely, one hundred percent manage to keep his ball out of the gutter on every turn.

Spoiler alert: he didn’t. Not once.

“What is it?”

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you what it was, Isaac.”

“I can pretend to be surprised,” he argued, and I heard the pout in his voice. Saw it on his face when I glanced at him. He looked so fucking adorable that I couldn’t help but laugh and drag him into my arms. Couldn’t help but kiss that pout right off his face until he was moaning. Until we were both hard and panting and wishing we weren’t in a public parking lot.

“Come on,” I said, dragging him toward the truck. “Now I really need to give you your surprise.”

“Oh my god, it’s your dick, isn’t it? Oh my god ! Is it gonna be your dick in a box? Brody, say no more. Let’s go. Hurry up, you’re really dragging your feet, I swear you were practically sprinting two seconds ago,” he said, trying to pull me along faster. I was laughing so hard I could barely see in front of me.

My whole life, all I’d ever wanted was to find someone special. Someone who felt like they were made just for me. Not once did I picture a beautiful little spitfire with so many different layers and levels that I’d never get tired of being with him. Not once did I imagine someone so strong and enduring and brave. Not once did I think I’d ever get as close as I’d gotten to Isaac in the short time I’d known him. It was spine-tingling. Hair-raising. Being with him constantly felt like that moment right before lightning was about to strike. He made me feel alive .

Finding him felt like kismet. That was Bri’s favorite word, and now, it was mine.

I was head over heels, ass to the pavement, flat on my back, irrevocably and undeniably in love with him. I wanted to give him fucking everything. I wanted to carve the heart from my chest, stick it in a box, don it with a bow and give it to him for safe keeping. Forever.

But it seemed he’d prefer my dick for right now, so…I guess I could compromise.

“You bring a change of clothes like I told you to?”

He eyed me as he slid his seatbelt into the buckle, then eyed the backpack at his feet, then returned his gaze to mine and lifted an eyebrow. “What do you think’s in the bag, babe? Did you think I brought homework? On a date?”

My heart started pounding at the endearment. It was the first time he’d ever used it, and it had to mean something. Ever since I’d dropped him off a week and a half ago, I’d felt like a part of me was missing. It wasn’t the same, not having him in my space anymore. Not waking up with him wrapped around me. Not getting to hear him talk about anything and everything, or feel his eyes on me, or smell his scent that was uniquely his. I’d missed him. Well and truly missed him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked softly.

“I just…missed you,” I admitted. Then I started the truck and focused on getting us back to my place, willing myself to keep those three little words tucked safely in my chest. I didn’t think he was ready for that. Not yet. But I had a lot of hope that he would be, one day. That maybe he’d return the sentiment in kind. God, I hoped he did.

He was quiet for a few minutes, and then I felt his fingers tugging my right hand from my lap, slipping through mine. “I missed you too,” he whispered. I almost didn’t hear him over the sound of the engine, but when I did, my heart began to beat double-time. I tried to take a few breaths to calm it down, tried to focus on just getting home.

Isaac’s knee started bouncing at the halfway point. He was staring out the window, his hand squeezing mine, his other hand drumming nervous fingers on his bouncing thigh. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

He turned his head to look at me, teeth digging into his bottom lip. “Hm? What do you mean?”

“Is something bothering you? What have you been thinking about?”

All movement ceased, as if he’d just realized he was doing anything at all, and he wiped his open palm over his knee. “Oh—uh, I was just…thinking about a lot of things, I guess.”

“Like…?”

A resigned sigh. “I talked with Sam the other day. We sat down and…well, it was a really good conversation, actually. With Jordan eavesdropping around the corner the entire time,” he said, his tone laced with affectionate annoyance.

“How did that go?” I asked. I didn’t know he’d spoken with Sam. Isaac and I had been talking on the phone every night and texting almost all day long, when we weren’t in class or working. He hadn’t mentioned it at all, though that was probably because he was taking time to process it. The whole situation was a lot for him, and he told me he’d been seeing his therapist twice a week to try and get things settled in his own mind. I was proud of him.

“I mean, Sam is…he’s his own person, that’s for sure. And although they look similar, it’s the difference in character that sets him apart from his brother. But I can’t turn my brain off about it, because it sees the blond hair and blue eyes, the dimple in the chin, and says, ‘There’s the person that hurt you, run!’ So I stared at his neck a lot, honestly, but Jesus, Brody, he’s really broken up about what happened. Like, it really shattered something in his mind, to walk in on what he did. And now he’s battling against his entire family to get justice for that poor guy. For—for me, and all the other people Ethan’s hurt.” His fingers flexed in my grip. “He told me that the trial is going on right now and that it’s looking like Ethan will get twenty years. Twenty fucking years . I wished they would put people like him away for life. But, you know, it’s better than him being out, destroying other people’s lives. I thanked Sam. For what he did. Anyway, I’ve been talking about it with Dr. Varu and she’s been helping me process everything. Slowly. Because that’s just how I do it.”

He turned back toward the window now, tapping his foot against his bag, so I said, “I’m really proud of you, Isaac. Really fucking proud. It doesn’t matter how slow you need to take it, it’s the fact that you’re choosing to do these things at all that makes you fucking incredible. Not a lot of people would be able to do what you’ve done, had they been in your shoes. So you should be proud of yourself, too. I hope you are.”

He was quiet for so long, I thought that might be the end of the conversation. But when he turned to me again, his eyes were glistening and he had a small smile I wanted to nibble gently on. “I’m getting there,” he said.

That was all we could hope for. My chest felt close to bursting with tenderness for this beautiful man, and I brought his hand to my lips and pressed a delicate kiss to the back of it.

When we pulled up to the house, he’d completely compartmentalized his pain and slid a wry—fucking sexy—look my way. “This better be an amazing surprise, Brody. You better blow my mind.”

“I guess you better come judge it for yourself.” I really hoped he liked it. I had a feeling he would, but knowing everything he’d been through, I figured there might be some apprehension involved as well.

We only separated our hands long enough to get out of the car, and then joined them again as we walked into the house. I had Isaac’s bag slung over my shoulder and a rising sense of anticipation as we made our way downstairs. I locked the door behind us, and he just raised one blond brow at that.

“Come on,” I said, tugging him into the bedroom. “Go sit on the bed.”

He slipped his shoes off and lowered himself onto the bed, and that feeling of rightness—of having him back where he belonged—returned. I set his bag down by the dresser and opened the top drawer, pulling out two boxes. Isaac was watching me expectantly when I turned to face him, and then his gaze slid down to the boxes in my hands, and his expression changed to confusion.

“What’s that?”

“Well, it’s not my dick in a box,” I started, laying them both next to him on the bed. “Open them.”

“Uh…” His fingers glided along the smooth black top of one box, his wary eyes flitting between me and the box. Gingerly, like he was expecting there to be a snake inside, he lifted the lid. His cheeks flushed a deep red as soon as he saw the pink silicone dildo with a widened base, his lips parting on a soft sigh. When he looked at me, there was a cautious hunger in his gaze. “You got me toys?”

I nodded, watching every little micro-expression on his face. There was fear, yes, but mostly there was need and excitement and—there. He smiled, pleased with the gift, and opened the second box. It was another dildo, blue, and a bigger size than the first. I wanted him to gradually get used to having something bigger than my fingers in his hole.

“Brody, this…fuck,” he gasped. “Does this mean you think I’m ready?” He sounded so hopeful it made my chest tighten.

“Yeah, baby, I think you’re ready,” I said softly, settling myself down beside him and sliding my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. His eyes, as he looked up at me, were so, so green, and they stole my breath. “I thought we could use these first, and if at any point you want to stop, we stop.”

He nodded, his pupils dilating, his breathing picking up. “Okay,” he said. “Fuck yes. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever.”

I laughed at that, because I felt the same way. But in no world was I about to rush this with Isaac. He deserved to have someone take their time with him. To make sure he was truly ready for something like this. “Do you want to try the pink one?”

“Right now?”

“Whenever you want.”

“Yes, right now, Brody,” he rushed out, setting the blue toy on the floor and yanking his socks off. I laughed again at how eager he was, and my heart was damn near about to explode.

“All right, sweetheart. Take your clothes off and lie down on your stomach for me.”

He didn’t move, just stared at me with a wealth of heavy emotions in his eyes. When he swallowed, I watched his Adam’s apple bob on the slim column of his throat, and then he said, “I think you’re the best surprise the world has ever given me.”

He yanked my beating heart right from my chest with that line. Knocked all the air from my lungs, too. With a groan, I dragged him into my arms, held him as close as I could, and said in a rough whisper, “God, you’re so beautiful and perfect that it kills me to think about what happened to you. I’m so sorry for everything you’ve had to endure. And I’m sorry you had to endure it alone. But I promise you, Isaac, I’m gonna replace those memories. This, right here, is all I ever want you to think about. All I ever want you to remember. Because you deserve something good, baby, and I’m gonna give it to you.”

“I know,” he whispered back. “I trust you, Brody.”

I rained a thousand tiny kisses down onto his head, nuzzled my nose against his cheek, and kissed those perfect lips. It was slow. Deliberate. Delicate. And when we parted and opened our eyes, those three little words tried to spill from my lips. Instead, I kissed him chastely, and said again, “Lie down for me, baby. Let me make you feel good.”

He nodded, cheeks flushed, lips parted, and let me pull his shirt off. Let me unbutton his jeans and pull them off, along with his boxers. His cock was hard, precum glistening from the slit, the head a dark pink against all that pale flesh. And then he let me maneuver him onto his stomach. I could feel his eyes watching me as I grabbed the lube from the dresser. I set it with the pink dildo near his hip on the bed, yanked my shirt and pants off but left my boxers on, then climbed up behind him. “Up on your knees,” I instructed, placing my hands at his hips and helping him up. “Rest on your elbows. There, just like that. Fuck, look at you, baby,” I murmured, unable to stop myself from nipping at the soft, round flesh of one cheek. Soft everywhere. He was a goddamn dream. I slid one hand down his spine in a firm stroke, splaying the other over his waist. “I’m gonna start with my fingers, just for a little bit. Okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, his head turned to the left. He was biting his bottom lip, and his hips were moving back and forth, slowly, and when I poured a little lube onto his exposed hole, he bucked.

I grazed two fingers down his crease, palming his left cheek and pulling it over, opening him to me even more. My breathing was ragged from watching my own fingers circling his rim, watching the skin pucker and flutter, and as I sank one finger inside, as he clenched around me and then relaxed, as he sucked my finger further in, I groaned. “So damn pretty,” I breathed, mesmerized by the sight. He whimpered, his back arching even more as I slid my finger slowly in and out. He started moving with me, trying to fuck himself on that finger, moaning as it slid deeper and deeper. When I removed it completely, he let out a strangled sound of frustration until I pushed two fingers inside, evoking a long, broken moan from him. “Does that feel good, baby? You like my fingers in your pretty little hole?”

“Yeees,” he gasped out as I started to pump them faster. “Oh, fuck—” He broke off on a startled cry when I curled them and found his prostate, his entire body trembling now.

“You feel so good, baby. So warm and tight for me,” I rasped, my other hand squeezing and kneading his ass as I held him open. “Are you ready for something bigger?”

“Yes, Brody, yes,” he wailed, shoving back onto my fingers every time I pulled them out. He was so fucking needy and eager and I loved it. I loved him . And I was so fucking hard it was painful.

I slid my fingers out slowly, listening to his pants, and picked up the dildo. I lathered it with a generous amount of lube, then poured some more down his crack, pushing it inside him and spreading it around his entrance. “Okay, baby, tell me if you need me to stop. At any point, you tell me, got it?”

He nodded, spreading his knees a little wider, exposing himself a little more. Letting me know he was ready. Letting me know how much he needed this.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart,” I murmured, massaging his ass. I positioned the tip at his entrance, then slowly—so fucking slowly—started to push it in, twisting it back and forth. When I’d gotten it in about an inch, he cried out, and I stopped. “Is that hurting you?” I looked down at his neglected cock between his legs, still hard.

“No,” he whined, “keep going. Please .”

I pumped it in and out in slow bursts, going a little deeper each time, and Isaac was moaning now. Long and loud and broken and needy. And then he pushed his hips back without warning, his hole sucking the entire thing in one go, making him clench the sheets and wail. I dragged the dildo out slowly. “You okay, baby?”

“You were going too slow!” he complained, and I huffed out a laugh. Fuck me, I loved him so much. “Come on , Brody,” he whined, squirming. “I can take it. Please, please, please,” he begged softly.

I thrust into him halfway, the lube making an obscene squelching noise that sent sharp bursts of pleasure throbbing in my dick. But Isaac’s moans and pants and small cries as I pumped in and out of him were so arousing that I could feel the exorbitant amount of precum leaking from my cock and dampening my boxers. When he kept pushing back to take more of the toy, I finally pushed it all the way in, fucking him just like that until he was writhing beneath me and I was about to come just from watching him lose his mind.

“Okay, fuck, Isaac,” I said, lust clouding my thoughts and making it hard to speak. We were both out of breath as I slid the dildo out of him and set it aside on my shirt to clean later. “You ready for something bigger, baby?” I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle actually fucking him for any length of time when just doing it with a dildo was enough to take me to the edge. I was so keyed up, I wasn’t going to last long.

“Yeah,” he panted. “Holy shit, yes.”

I reached over the edge of the bed, grabbed the other dildo, smeared it with an excessive amount of lube, and kissed his lower back. “It’s a lot bigger. Not as big as I am, but tell me if it hurts, okay?”

“I will,” he said. “Just do it, Brody.”

“Fuck, I love how goddamn eager you are,” I murmured, slotting the toy at his hole. When it started to push in, Isaac clenched when he felt the size and let out a small whimper, so I slid my hand up and down his lower back. “Relax, baby. I’ll try to go slow.”

His legs were shaking, his hole still clenched too tightly, so I wrapped my hand around his cock and started to stroke. “Oh god,” he choked out, thrusting into my hand. The dildo started to slide in further. “Oh my fucking god ,” he cried. I pumped it slowly into his hole, still stroking his cock, and he let out a pained whimper that made me pause. “No, don’t stop—please don’t stop, please,” he begged.

But I had to know if I was hurting him, if he was just trying to get through this to prove something, so I said, “Baby. Are you in pain or do you like this?”

He shook his head. “No, it feels good— fuck , I promise, Brody, just please— please don’t stop!”

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, I was going to blow before I even got inside him. My chest was heaving as I continued to stroke him, as I continued to thrust the dildo in and out in short pumps, as it slid deeper inside him every time. Isaac was moaning and gasping so loudly it was invading every atom of my being, filling me with nothing but desire and a need to give him pleasure like he’d never, ever experienced in his life. His hole looked so fucking good, swallowing the dildo, and every noise he made resounded in my balls and slid down the length of my aching cock.

I let go of his dick when his legs started shaking and his sac began to draw up—I wanted him to come when I was inside him, not a piece of silicone. His frustrated whine let me know he wasn’t pleased with that, but I slotted the toy in until it bottomed out, just letting it rest there so I could get myself ready.

“Why’d you stop?” he asked, trying to turn his head enough to look back at me.

“Stay just like that,” I said, sliding off the bed to get a condom. But first, I lowered my head and took his lips in a desperate kiss, even though the angle was a little difficult. When I pulled back, I watched his face carefully. “You think you’re ready, baby?” His pupils were so dilated, they practically swallowed the green, and his eyes were hooded. All that pale skin had been replaced by the prettiest blush, and I wanted to lick every inch of him.

“Yes,” he whispered. “Are you finally gonna fuck me?”

The smile that stretched along my cheeks couldn’t be described as anything but wicked, I was sure. “Yeah, sweetheart. I’m finally gonna fuck you.”