Page 35

Aiden

W hat the fuck had just happened?

My body was stuck to the chair, and I could only stare at the empty doorway as the door swung open on its hinges. It wasn’t like Nathan to not knock. Then again, he didn’t have a reason to think he needed to give us privacy. We’d told him nothing was going on. Doing anything with a video in the house was stupid. Just like the first time I’d jerked off watching Joe online.

“Aiden?”

Air filled my lungs in a quick rush. I hadn’t even been aware I’d been holding my breath.

“Ye—yeah?” I blinked up at Joe, who was looking at me with so much concern. Fuck, that was his friend who had just walked in and seen a video of him plowing me.

“Are you okay?”

Was I? Probably. I’d recover. Maybe. Eventually. Sure, it was fucking horrifying that my brother had seen that, but there was no guarantee that Joe could save his friendship after this .

Without answering him, I stood from the chair and walked over to the camera that lay on the floor. I picked it up and started inspecting it. It looked to be alright still. The lens showed no cracks, and I saw no broken mechanical parts on the outside. They didn’t make cameras like that anymore, where even the smallest bump could shatter it. I’d always wanted something like this, so it had meant something that Mom had gone looking for it. Too bad it almost met its demise on my bedroom floor.

The front door slammed and my eyes pinched closed.

“Aiden!”

Mom never raised her voice at me. Out of the two of us, Nathan was the one who got scolded more often than not.

When I checked the desk, Joe had turned off the video. By the time I looked at the doorway again, Mom was there with her arms across her chest, and I was still kneeling on the floor holding the camera.

“What the hell just happened? I sent Nathan to give that to you and the next thing I know, he’s storming out of here.”

I blew out a breath, stood clutching the camera to my chest, and hoped it wasn’t broken. “He...”

I couldn’t say anything. How the hell did you tell your mom that your brother had walked in on you watching your own sex tape?

When words continued to fail me, Mom looked between me and Joe. “What were you two doing in here? This house is PG-13. Do I need to spell that out? I thought I made that clear when I told Nathan he couldn’t bring hook-ups here, and then I unfortunately witnessed more than I ever wanted to when Chase moved in.”

My eyes shot wide. “Mom. Please stop. We weren’t doing anything. And I thought you didn’t care about Chase since he and Nathan were in a committed relationship.”

“So this is serious, then? That’s what you’re telling me?” Mom motioned between me and Joe.

I choked on my tongue. Oh, fucking shit. She had thought something was going on. Okay, so something had been going on and we’d been shit at hiding it. At least with her.

“Mrs. G?”

We both turned to look at Joe, who looked uncomfortable, shifting his weight from side to side like a kid who’d gotten caught stealing candy from the convenience store.

“What is it, Joseph?” She uncrossed and crossed her arms again, leaning against the doorframe and waiting for him to speak up.

“You see, we haven’t exactly put a label on whatever this is. I mean...” Those piercing blue eyes stared into my soul and, fuck, this was happening now? In front of my mom and right after one of the most embarrassing moments of my entire life? Oh hell, no. Not happening.

I shook my head. Joe deflated, and maybe I was letting him down a little. He wanted a commitment. I wanted to give it to him, but that deserved a more delicate conversation. Not this train wreck .

At least Mom realized something was happening here that she didn’t need to be an audience member for. Both my brother and I were extremely lucky to have such loving and accepting parents. The moment she turned to leave, I pushed my door closed behind her, making sure it was locked this time.

“You stopped me?” Lines creased Joe’s forehead as his eyebrows lowered.

“I did. It’s not that I don’t want you to say it. Fuck, Joe. I’ve gone my whole teenage life thinking I was broken. What guy doesn’t want to jump and hump everything that moves? I sure as fuck didn’t. Then Nathan introduced us and... I don’t know. For the first time, I felt like someone actually saw me? You didn’t push or pressure me. We had fun just hanging out and even though I knew you had a reputation, it wasn’t like you rubbed it in people’s faces.”

Some of that tension in his face eased a little as I continued my speech.

“I didn’t know what to do. I was attracted to someone, and it wasn’t the type of person I thought I’d be attracted to. Most people don’t have someone to talk to about that, and I thankfully did. So yeah. I’m not broken. I just needed the connection that you were able to provide to me. The connection scares the ever-living fuck out of me because what happens if I lose you? What if you don’t feel the same?”

Before I knew it, Joe was across the room with his arms around me. The camera slid to the ground again, and I’d really have to do a thorough check of it later or at least get it into a repair shop somewhere.

“Damn, sweetheart. Don’t you get it? You’re the light of my whole world. What we do? I don’t do that shit with just anyone. Fuck, I’ve never done it before. Only one person has ever made me want to come back again and again. To keep pushing and trying to make them so damn happy. It’s you, sweetheart. It’s always been fucking you.”

Something about the moment screamed that hearts and rainbows should start shooting off around us. If that made it corny, so fucking what? All I’d ever wanted was for someone to act like I’d hung the moon and stars just for them. And now I was getting it.

As cliché as it was, Joe’s hand wrapped around the back of my neck, bringing me in for a hard kiss. The metal of his lip ring dug into my skin as our mouths pressed together and when I gasped into the contact, his tongue swept inside.

That was it. That was the beginning of Aiden and Joe. The official package deal. We weren’t just fucking around behind people’s backs and making sexy content for the internet. It meant we needed to be honest with our friends and family. We hadn’t treated Nathan fairly by blindsiding him.

When we broke apart, my face was hot. My eyes struggled to stay open, and I wanted to do nothing more than drag Joe over to my bed and keep going. As much of a fun idea as that sounded, we had other fish to fry. We needed to talk to people and make shit right .

“So, what’s the plan, sweetheart?”

A smile made its way across my face as I leaned into my boyfriend. Boyfriend. Fuck. I had a damn boyfriend.

“As much as I don’t want to leave this room right now. I think we have some people to talk to.”