Page 17 of Sour Candy (Sour Candy #1)

For the first time this year, Benji didn’t have to lug his art homework up eleven flights of stairs.

He still had to fit the unwieldy canvas into the newly repaired elevator, but he’d take that any day over squeezing it down the narrow staircase, shoving himself against a wall every time someone came up the other way.

He tapped his foot anxiously as he rode up the floors, holding the canvas awkwardly in both arms. The elevator was running smoother than ever.

Apparently, someone had called in a favor, and the next day, a maintenance guy had shown up and actually done a decent job.

Benji had no idea if they’d finally gotten a new maintenance guy, as Jerry had been saying they would, or if he had received some legal pressure to actually do his job for once, and he didn’t care.

He was too swamped thinking about all the homework he had to do. Not to mention Noah.

Noah had canceled their last two dates. He’d sounded sad about it, and Benji thought he was telling the truth about being swamped at work, but it didn’t set him at ease.

He’d been tentatively hoping that it would be a few months before Noah got tired of him—or at least, until Benji did something stupid that made Noah cut him off.

Even though Noah had been texting him a lot this past week and seemed eager as ever to have Benji around, it worried him.

He needed to do more than be a texting buddy, even if it was the most fun Benji had ever had texting someone.

Benji was paid to be a sugar baby; he had to actually provide sugar .

Noah wasn’t even asking for pictures. Not even sexting .

Benji had been looking up how to do it! He’d even got tested this afternoon, sitting with his canvas in the waiting room and feeling like an absolute idiot. He couldn’t do all of this for nothing.

His phone started ringing as he opened the front door of his apartment. He swore, fumbling his canvas onto the ground and almost catching one of the corners in the door.

“Shit,” he spat, grabbing for his phone. It was, predictably, Noah.

“Hey,” he said, trying to sound like he wasn’t nudging a canvas out of the door with his shoe. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” Noah said. He sounded winded, something metallic clanking in the background. “Working out at home. Thought I’d call and see how you were doing.”

“I’m great,” Benji said automatically, closing the front door. “I actually just got home from the testing place. They said there’s a bit of a delay, but they’ll get back to me as soon as they can. Whatever the hell that means.”

“Good,” Noah said, strained. “One day closer to having you bare.”

Benji’s cock stirred hopefully in his jeans. He started toward his bedroom, biting his lip. Was now the time? Was it phone sex time? They had a date later, but he could go a few times in one night.

Noah let out a grunt. “Sorry. Push day.”

“Totally,” said Benji, who had no idea what that meant.

Noah grunted again, and heat pooled in Benji’s gut as he conjured up images of Noah sweaty and panting over him.

God, why did even the sound of his heavy breathing turn Benji on?

He needed to get it together. He couldn’t just pant and moan for phone sex. He needed to be somewhat coherent.

“Sooo,” he started.

Noah cut him off. “Is your brother— Oh, sorry.”

“No, no. Continue.” Benji squeezed his thighs together as he sat down on the bed. He was pretty sure this wasn’t phone sex if he was bringing up Max.

“Is your brother enjoying the robotics book you got him?”

“Even more than the PlayStation,” Benji admitted with a grin.

The PlayStation had been a spur-of-the-moment thing when they went to buy him a new coat.

Max had offhandedly mentioned he wished he could play a new game that all his friends were playing.

Benji had opened his mouth to tell him to go suck eggs, but then he’d calculated the money in his savings account and figured… fuck it.

Max had been bewildered. Happy, but very bewildered. Especially after the new coat. Even after Benji explained that his new job paid him very well, he’d kept glancing at him like he expected it to be a joke.

You’re sure we’re okay , he’d said repeatedly on the bus home. I’m not gonna wake up tomorrow and find the hot water’s gone, right?

Then, when Benji assured him that they were fine, he asked if Benji was a drug smuggler.

Or a mafia boss. Or a hooker. Benji had laughed uncomfortably and told him he was all three, then noogied him until he dropped the subject.

Half of him wanted to be matter-of-fact about him doing sex work, like Daphne.

The other part of him really didn’t want to tell his little brother that he was having transcendent sexual experiences with the guy who lugged his robot up the stairs last week.

Noah asked, “Did you buy yourself something nice?”

Benji thought about it, staring up at his bedroom ceiling. “I got some new art supplies. And we had takeout from this really nice Thai place I’ve had my eye on.”

“Something bigger,” Noah said. “Something you crave .”

“I craved Thai.” Benji laughed weakly. He didn’t tell Noah about his gaze lingering too long on lingerie displays, watches, that fancy hair stuff Noah had ruffled through his hair when he was in the bath.

Perfume, oils, fancy chocolates. It felt strange enough buying that expensive Thai takeout for himself.

How could he justify buying himself something so useless, especially when he didn’t know if he’d have any money coming in a month from now?

He asked, “Are we still on for tonight?”

Noah paused. Benji’s heart plummeted.

“I have a dinner with an important investor,” Noah said apologetically. His voice was suddenly far away from the phone. “It’s a last-minute reschedule. I’m sorry, Benjamin. I’ll send something through to make up for it.”

“Oh,” Benji said, trying to squash his disappointment. “You don’t have to?—”

“Sent,” Noah said, his voice back to normal.

Benji wet his lips. He still felt guilty. Like he was getting away with something. No, like he was doing something. Like he was being shitty to Noah. Which was the last thing he wanted, especially after Noah had been so good to him.

“I didn’t even do anything to earn it,” he whispered.

Noah was quiet. No grunting, no metallic noises from a machine working. For a second, Benji thought he’d fucked up.

“Do you want to?” Noah asked softly.

Benji sighed, squeezing his legs against his half-hard cock. “ Yeah .”

Noah hummed. Something creaked in the background. Sounds of footsteps, a door closing. When Noah spoke again, his voice was husky.

“Have you touched yourself since we last saw each other?”

Benji laughed. “Uh, a week ago? Yeah , man—I mean Noah.”

“Tell me what you thought about.”

Benji shuddered. How did he say it so commandingly without making Benji want to turn tail and run? Benji hated authority figures. But Noah told him to do something, and he turned to putty in his hands.

“Benjamin,” Noah prompted.

“I know, one second.” He lay back on the bed, placing his phone on speaker next to him and wrestling his zipper down to pull out his cock.

Trying to remember back to this morning, humping his pillow and muffling his cries into the meat of his arms. What had he thought about?

A pretty pink babydoll bodysuit draped over his narrow frame while Noah plowed him.

Noah’s big hands slapping his ass so hard he left fingerprints. A collar …

“Um,” he said, cheeks already reddening. “I-I don’t know. I’m so sensitive. I keep jerking off. I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“Tell me.”

Benji wrapped a hand around his cock with a gasp. “You could wind me up. Not let me come, until it hurts.”

“Yeah? Do you want me to tell you how to jerk off again?” Noah was still breathless, a wet sound in the background that flooded Benji with heat. He wanted to see it, wanted to taste?—

“Or do you want me to tie you up?” Noah continued. “Tease you while you’re straining and helpless?”

Benji moaned, precum dripping down his fingers. He barely needed to use lube when he jerked off; he only used it when he wanted to finger himself.

“Shit,” he gasped. “Second one. I want… You could fuck me? You could come. And keep fucking me, w-with your fingers. Or a toy, until you get hard enough to do it again.”

Noah laughed, the noise turning into a groan halfway through. “Oh, baby . I’d love that. You have such good ideas.”

Benji whimpered, fisting himself faster. He wanted something inside him. He wanted Noah’s mouth on his nipple, biting down. He wanted so much . He never used to want this much. Noah had fucking ruined him. How was he going to cope when Noah got tired and left him?

“I thought about you today,” Noah admitted. “Bringing you into work. Fucking you on my desk to de-stress between meetings.”

“ Ohhh fuck .” Benji’s legs quaked as he imagined being stripped bare, bent over Noah’s desk with his legs splayed wide.

Noah coming in every hour to fuck him full again.

Load after load of come, dripping out of him.

Noah’s test had come back the day before, clean all around.

Now they were just waiting on Benji, who had to cover his lap with his painting so they wouldn’t know he was a freak who got hard in a sexual health clinic because he thought about his sugar daddy giving it to him raw.

“You want that?” Noah asked.

Benji heard himself whine. He hadn’t even known he could make such a pathetic noise until Noah came along. He closed his eyes, his bedroom melting away as he pictured it along with Noah’s words.