Page 33 of Summer Skin

“ARE YOU GOINGto fuck me?”

“Yeah,” Aven tells him. “I am.”

It may be slightly selfish to ditch Tyler’s birthday party in order to drive Chase home for sex, but here they are, tucked into Aven’s car and zooming away from the bar. And he can’t even be bothered to care. Can”t think of anything besides the all-consuming desire, the need, to touch Chase. To be buried inside of him.

He doesn’t want to wait any longer. He’s been waiting for years.

“What are you going to do to me?” Chase asks, his voice just above a whisper.

Aven’s hands tighten around the steering wheel. Now that’s a question he’s been fervently imagining the answer to for weeks. His voice drops half an octave. “First I”m going to get you on your hands and knees so you can show me that pretty pink hole I’m dying to fuck—”

“Oh, god.”

“— and then I”m going to open you up on my fingers and tongue.”

“You’re going to make me come right here in your front seat.”

Aven’s dick gives a little twitch at his words, heat coiling through his insides. He breathes deeply and tries his damnedest to keep from pulling the car off the road and taking Chase here and now.

“Get us home, Aven. I need you to touch me. Like you know me, like you remember exactly how my body loves to be fucked.”

“Hold on, hold on, we’re almost there,” Aven assures him. His heart is racing so fast it’s altering his vision of the road. He tries to focus, the blurry lines of the road in his headlights leading them home.

“Did you miss it?” Chase asks. He’s reclined the seat and Aven can see the movement of his hand rubbing over his erection, still tucked inside his pants. “Did you miss fucking me?”

“You know I did.”

“What did you miss the most?”

Everything.

Everything.

Everything.

But more than anything …

“I missed kissing your mouth.”

Of all the ways he’s imagined being with Chase these last few weeks, the thought, in particular, of pulling Chase close and kissing him breathless has taken up an entire universe’s worth of space in his head.

“I want you to,” Chase confesses. “I want to kiss you for hours, wanna kiss you for days.”

He can’t bite back the soft sound that comes from his mouth.

Their house appears from the dark at last and Aven finds an open space nearby to slam his car into park. They stare at each other, wild desire stretching between them in a way Aven can feel all the way to his core.

“Chase …” But he can’t even finish his thought, and fumbling with his seatbelt, Aven hurriedly clicks it off and he’s on Chase in an instant, finally, finally, tasting his mouth. Some of his best memories of the two of them together were made from sharing soft, gentle, soulful kisses. But this kiss … this kiss is all sultry, demanding heat.

They moan into each other’s mouths, straining even closer. Aven’s fingers tangled in Chase’s hair, his taste so familiar. Still so sweet. A sense of urgency is ramping to a near impossible need to slip off Chase’s clothes and touch his skin. Trace his freckles, and explore new marks. New pieces of Chase to worship with his tongue.

The kiss breaks for air, their chests heaving, blood roaring through Aven’s head.

“Say it again,” Chase tells him, voice wavering. “My name. Please, Aven.”

It’s a simple request but it makes his stomach flutter with an emotion he can’t name. “Chase,” he says softly, letting the name pour through his chest. “Chase.” A kiss to the underside of his jaw. “Chase.” A kiss to the side of his mouth.

“Aven,” Chase responds, pulling back to meet his eyes. “Let’s go inside now.”

Aven swallows, nodding. One quick kiss on the lips and then Chase reaches for the door handle, Aven joining him on the other side of the car.

It’s not a lengthy walk from the sidewalk to their front steps, but they’re barely halfway across the lawn before Aven feels a near-compulsive need to get his hands on Chase’s body. Getting to the door is torture.

The key won’t fit in the lock on the first or second try, and Aven curses under his breath. “Lemme,” Chase tells him, but he doesn’t even get an attempt in before Aven’s pressed up against him, rocking his straining erection against the muscle of Chase’s ass. Reaching up his shirt to grab his pec, thumbnail scraping against a nipple.

His other hand skates up to Chase’s throat, holding him in place as he rubs against him from behind. And all at once, Aven gets the whole thing with Justin and Tyler’s public displays at the bar. He could fuck Chase right here on the porch, show him off to the whole neighborhood, and wouldn’t give a flying fuck at all who saw.

“Oh, god,” Chase breathes. “Aven. Stop. Stop it. Let me get us inside.”

Once the door opens, they stumble their way to Chase’s bedroom. It’s the closest, and Aven can’t wait a second longer to get him undressed.

Hurriedly tossing their clothes aside, they stand naked in front of each other for the first time in years. Aven ticks off the changes, making a new mental map of the body he used to know by hand. There’s a scar below Chase’s ribcage Aven’s never touched before, new definition in his abs Chase didn’t carry as a teen. A black-ink tattoo shaped like the sun covers his heart. Aven quickly scans his body for any other ink but finds none. He’s different—more muscle, more toned.

But he’s still Chase.

“Aven?”

“You’re so beautiful.”

“No.” A small shake of the head. “Not like you are.”

Aven glances down at himself. Wondering what differences Chase sees when he looks at him now. But when Chase says, “Do you wanna …?” he doesn’t need to ask twice.

Climbing into bed, he gestures for Chase to join him. “Come here,” he says, and Chase quickly scrambles into his lap, his hard cock pressing against Aven’s, his arms linking at the back of Aven’s neck.

And oh, damn. It feels good to hold him again. Aven runs his hands over the other man’s thighs, up his ribcage, all the way up until he’s cupping Chase’s face, staring into those hypnotic brown eyes.

His thumb rubs across Chase’s mouth.

“You taste the same,” he tells him. “Sweet.”

“You think I taste good?” Chase asks, rocking his hips lightly.

“I could kiss you for hours.”

Leaning forward, he whispers into the shell of Aven’s ear. “I wish you would.”

Aven shifts positions and bites at Chase’s lower lip, sliding a hand into his hair. And then Chase is kissing him like he might never stop. Like he’s trying to make up for lost time, for every kiss they could have had but missed out on.

And Aven kisses back with the same intent, deep and longing, trying to convey all the things he can’t say out loud. With Chase in his arms, it’s easy to forget he was ever gone.

Chase’s lips move down his jaw, and then he’s nipping at that place below Aven’s ear that he knows drives him absolutely wild. Pulling away slowly, he pins Aven with a look that lights his whole world on fire.

Leaning back, Chase keeps their heated eye contact, running a hand down his lean, tanned abs to take his dick in his hand. He’s breathtakingly hard, aching for it, thumbing at the head. And it’s a good fucking thing the rest of the house is at the bar tonight. They can be loud, and, god, they’re gonna be loud. This has been a long time coming.

A real long time.

“Get on your hands and knees for me,” Aven tells him, low and sweet as honey.

Chase stares at him for long seconds, and if they’re going to back out, this is it. But a slow, seductive smile spreads across his face and he clambers off Aven’s lap, doing just as he was told.

He is …

Sexier than anything Aven’s ever seen.

Chase turns around and looks back at him. His pupils are all black pools of desire and Aven can’t bear to wait any longer.

“Where do you keep your lube? Top drawer?”

A nod as those fuck me eyes bore into him.

Fumbling around in Chase’s nightstand, he finds what he’s looking for. “There’s no condoms.”

“Next drawer down.” A pause. “But do we need them?”

Aven’s eyelids flutter at the thought. To be in Chase bare. To come inside of him. And even though going condom-less is something he’s never done with anyone since Chase, he still gets regularly tested, so. “I don’t. You?”

Chase shakes his head, eyes still burning with anticipation. That plump lower lip pulled into his mouth. “I want you to come inside of me.”

Aven groans, his dick twitching.

“I just want you to fuck me until I can’t take it anymore,” Chase says, his eyes going down to Aven’s hard-on. “Then cream in me so hard you’re dripping out of me all night.”

Oh, fuck. Aven gives the base of his dick a hard squeeze. “If you don’t shut up about what you want me to do to you, I’m going to come before I can even touch you.”

“Then get over here,” Chase tells him, tilting his hips higher in the air. “And touch.”

No idea is more appealing than that. Sinking to his knees, Aven complies. Chase is laid out beautifully before him. All long limbs, the strong muscles in his back flexing as he lowers himself to his elbows. There’s a flush to his skin, a certain glow. It’s almost certainly a dream—how extraordinarily perfect Chase looks right now.

His head turns, giving Aven a fairly desperate look. “What are you waiting for? Come on, fuck me.”

“Shh,” Aven quiets him. “Just let me look at you for a minute. Your beautiful body.”

“You could try touching me instead,” he says dryly, then his tone goes breathy as Aven molds them together, letting Chase feel the eager fullness of his cock. “Yeah, like that.”

The first skin he caresses is over Chase’s shoulder blades. The other man shivers under his touch. His hands caress down Chase’s body, massaging the globes of his ass, spreading his cheeks open to get a peek at his puckered hole.

“Fucking pretty here,” Aven tells him, brushing his thumb across the opening, and Chase’s breath hitches in his throat. “I love seeing you spread out like this. Like you’ll let me do anything I want.”

“I will. Anything. Please touch me,” Chase begs, “please, come on,” and Aven has never come close to forgetting how needy Chase is in bed, and how loudly his own need for the other man echoes in response.

Urging Chase’s hips wider, Aven lowers himself to get his first taste. Licking a stripe right up his center, causing Chase to let out a strangled noise as he pushes his ass back towards Aven.

“You’re gonna eat me?” His voice is a whisper of breath.

“I love doing this for you,” he tells him. “The way you beg for it, all the little noises you make.”

He gives Chase’s ass a light squeeze before spreading him open. His hole is a pretty pink pucker, twitching under Aven’s gaze. He watches for a moment, stroking the skin with a fingertip before his tongue finds the tight ring of muscle, tracing around the edge of Chase’s hole before thrusting deeper inside, opening him up with tender licks that fill the bedroom with drawn-out moans.

Aven tongue-fucks Chase until he’s begging incoherently, ass pushed back in Aven’s face. Body trembling, and pleading, “Please, fuck me. Fuck me, Aven. Please, fuck me now.”

A few more flicks of the tongue and Aven pulls back, a little drunk on the musky taste of Chase, dizzy with want for more. He fumbles around on the sheets for a moment, searching for the lube, and when he finds it, he pours a large dollop right down the crack of Chase’s ass. Squirts more into his own hand, slowly pushing two fingers inside of Chase, greedily watching his hole suck them up like it’s dying to be stuffed full.

Chase makes a choked noise and tilts his hips, guiding Aven to that spot that always made him see stars. And as another finger is tucked inside, Chase keens for it, his breath desperate, his forehead dropping to the mattress as he mindlessly begs Aven to stop fooling around and put his cock inside. He’s a trembling, whining mess, and Aven can’t imagine waiting any longer to put his dick inside of him.

“I”m gonna fuck you so good,” he swears, and the other man groans, wiggling his ass around in invitation.

Chase’s hole is rosy from all the attention, and Aven lines his cock up against it, rubbing the head against his sex-flushed skin. “You want this?” he asks, just one more time.

A short intake of breath. “I want you, Aven,” he promises. “I do.”

His hole is loosened and ready for cock, and Aven slides inside with a few gentle thrusts. He bottoms out to the sound of Chase’s hitched breath, waiting as he lets the other man adjust to the fullness.

And, fuck, it’s so fucking good, maybe even better than he remembered. The feel of Chase gripping his cock, the stretch of skin where they connect, the thin glow of sweat painted across Chase’s body. It’s perfect. He’s perfect, and Aven bites back a moan, watching himself fuck in and out.

Hips arching, breath rough and ragged, Chase pushes back for more, and Aven wants to see his face. Needs to see that intoxicated, glazed look he gets when he’s drowning in pleasure.

He pulls out, to Chase’s curious protests, and adjusts them so Chase is lying on his back, Aven climbing over him to push right back inside.

“There,” he murmurs, brushing the hair from Chase’s eyes, “I wanted to see you.” His hips move slowly, a love story, not a quick way to get off on a Saturday night.

“Aven,” Chase says, breathing his name out into the air. His hands are tangled in Aven’s hair. Eyes locked on him with an expression Aven doesn’t want to even guess at. “I’ve missed this.”

A bolt of emotion Aven has been trying so hard to block out travels like lightning down his spine. Dropping his head, he breathes into the soft, warm skin at Chase’s neck. His sweat and shampoo and that woodsy lotion he’s always slathering on mix together to create a lush scent.

He lines wet kisses along Chase’s jaw, sucks an earlobe into his mouth and nibbles it between his teeth, then pushes up again to find Chase intensely studying his face. “Please,” he says, “Aven, please,” and Aven somehow knows he’s being asked to let go of the past and be with him now.

Pausing the motion of his body, his hand cups Chase’s face as he studies the other man and sees him all at once—the boy he was, etched with time, and the man he is now. And Aven becomes unshakably certain that he wants to please every version of Chase Matthews. Wants the warmth and connection they’ve always found in making love.

Fingers threading through Chase’s hair, clutching tight, he takes Chase’s mouth in a deep, dizzying kiss that answers every question carried in his eyes.

Yes, I’m here with you. Yes, I forgive you. Yes, this feels just as good with you now.

His hips begin to pick up speed and Chase lets out a needy, noisy moan, as if this was the first time they’d joined their bodies together, rather than the hundredth.

Aven pours all of the tenderness, and craving, and devotion crashing around his chest out through his movements. Pleasuring in the wild pace of Chase’s breath, the way his legs hook tightly around Aven’s back, the unrestrained sounds he makes, and the incomparable feeling of being buried inside of him.

The heady rush of their connection takes over and he lets himself fall under Chase’s spell, pushing Chase’s knees up to his chest and giving him everything he promised—everything Chase has been asking for.

Chase’s hips lift to meet his own, gasping, pupils blown, his fingers digging into Aven’s flesh in a way that means he’ll see passion-light bruises in the mirror tomorrow morning. And, oh, it feels good, fucking fantastic, really, and he shifts to find the best angle because he wants Chase as equally blissed out.

“Aven,” Chase rasps over the sound of their bodies colliding, “Aven, that’s so fucking good.”

Aven’s name on those familiar lips, this beautiful body pressed against his own, the simple and unthinkable act of being with Chase Matthews like this again, it’s released all at once in the way Aven’s movements turn rough, desperate, losing rhythm as he plunges into Chase.

“I’m gonna come, I’m gonna come,” Chase tells him, whining high in his throat. He grabs frantically for his dick, tugging it once, twice, and then dissolves into pleasure, and Aven doesn’t last more than a few seconds longer, creaming in Chase’s tight, quivering hole.

It takes him a long minute to come down enough to pull out, flopping beside Chase on the bed. He’s sweating, chest heaving, and his vision’s gone a little blurry, but his body is literally tingling with satisfaction.

When the rhythm of his breathing is just starting to even out, Chase turns towards him, lifting himself up on one elbow.

A small smile flits over his lips. “Are you alright with what we did?” His fingers trace an infinity pattern over and over across Aven’s chest.

Alrightprobably isn’t the best word to describe how Aven’s feeling right now. There’s a reason why ‘it’s complicated’ is a socially acceptable way to describe a relationship. A part of him always knew better than to have this again. Hooking up with Chase isn’t something that could ever be easy, no matter how blissful it makes him feel to lie with him in bed.

The seriousness of what they just did takes hold in his chest. This isn’t some rando from the bar, or a friend with benefits, or any of the other casual sort of sex partners Aven’s had in the years since Chase left. Unlike those sorts of lovers, he can’t separate his emotions from Chase. Tonight, what happened between them was something real.

Real, and intense, with raw feelings attached.

For both of them.

And maybe it wasn’t the smartest decision. Possibly it was the worst thing he could have chosen, but he can’t stop himself from having this again, even if only for the small blink of summertime. He wants this. He deeply, heatedly, uncontrollably wants Chase Matthews.

So Aven gives an answer by pulling him even closer, kissing his mouth sweet and slow, so thoroughly that Chase goes like jelly under his hands.

When it ends, Chase looks at him with a self-satisfied grin that could rival a Cheshire cat. “After the cabin, I thought you might never kiss me again,” he says. “Like in Pretty Woman.”

“What’s that?” Aven asks, brushing Chase’s slightly sweaty hair behind his ear.

“Julia Roberts movie from the 80’s. My mom loved it. Played it all the time.”

Chase’s mom. Aven’s wondered about her for a while now. He hadn’t been sure if it was okay to ask, but … “How’s she doing?”

There’s a pause, and Aven wonders if maybe he should have kept his prying mouth shut. Then, “She gets out soon. I want to rent her a studio. Like, you know, for her art?”

“That would be really generous of you, Chase.”

There’s someone else he’s been curious about. The last time he talked to Brooklyn, it ended in a fairly shitty way. The sort where she told him to never speak to her again. He can’t say he blamed her, he was hopped-up on mindless adrenaline, near-delirious in his need to figure out what the hell had happened to Chase, and all she would say was that he was fine. That he’d contact Aven when he could. It had taken a year before Aven finally figured out that wasn’t ever going to happen.

Well, until now, anyway.

“What about Brooklyn?”

A hint of a crinkle appears at the corners of Chase’s eyes. “Guess?”

“She’s in prison too?”

A light slap against Aven’s chest.

“Fuck!” he cries, huffing out a laugh. “I’m kidding, god!”

Chase lowers his voice, his eyes taking on a serious expression. “No, you’re right. Turns out she was Jake the football player’s murderer all along.”

“Knew it,” Aven solemnly tells him. “Mr. Edwards was always a red herring.”

“Guess what she’s doing for real.” He squints over at Aven like a grain of sand has blown into his eye. “I’m sending the answer to you in my head.” He makes a dull humming noise while he waits. “Well,” he says after a few beats, “did you pick up anything?”

“All I see is you squirming on the end of my dick,” Aven tells him.

“Whoops, I sent the wrong brain reel, try this one instead.” His eyes blink shut again.

Aven closes his own eyes and gives it a go. “She’s a police detective?”

“Close.” Chase snaps his fingers together. “Private investigator.”

“Get it, Brooklyn! Good girl. And she’s happy?”

“I think so.” Chase scratches at the heading towards midnight scruff on his chin. “As much as any of us can be.”

“Are you?”

“A private detective?” Chase looks over at him with twinkling eyes.

“No, clown, are you happy?” It seems important all of a sudden. That he is. That leaving Aven was worth it all along.

Chase nudges closer, his hand snaking up to clasp onto Aven’s forearm. “I’m happy when I’m with you,” he says in that tone of voice that typically drops waves of butterflies into Aven’s stomach, but instead the room suddenly starts to feel thick with heat, the smell of sweat and jizz a little too much.

“Did your attorney negotiate the terms you wanted?” Chase never did say, but Aven knows he should take the deal either way. Slither Fox is a big deal, this will keep Chase relevant, make him money. Let him build up his name until he’s ready to go out on his own. In no way should he let a sentimental trip down memory lane pause his rise of stardom.

He’s earned this. He’s a goddamn legend at guitar.

Chase tenses beside him. “She was able to negotiate what I asked for,” he says, all of the joy sucked from his voice.

“And you signed it, right?”

“Yes.” He hesitates, and Aven can feel all the way to his bones how badly he wants to say more.

“Okay, and?”

“But I still have all summer. For … you know. Closure?”

Always beating around the bush. “Chase, are you saying you want to spend the summer together?”

His lips find the smooth skin of Aven’s shoulder, pressing a kiss there. “Every moment we can get.”

Alright, okay.

One summer.

It was more than Aven thought they’d ever have together again.

Chase props himself up to look Aven squarely in the eye, the corner of his mouth lifting in a cocky grin. “We’re probably going to have to fuck a lot more to really get closure, don’t you think?”

“Oh, for sure.” His eyes go to the champagne pink ceiling Veena painted once upon a time. “If we really want to get over each other.”

Chase shifts a little. “And is that what you really want? To get over me?”

“I …”

Yes. Maybe. Never. Not ever. It’s fucking complicated.

“’Cause you could also get under me,” he says with a snicker, and Aven holds back a groan.

You’re leaving, Aven thinks. You’re going away and you’re gonna break my heart all over again, even with a goodbye.

He knows that. Feels the truth of it deep in his gut. But he doesn’t care, not even a little. There’s not a chance he won’t take this. He wants to have this man for as long as he can. His heart is never getting over Chase Matthews either way, so he may as well take every offered inch he can get.

More time with Chase.

One long goodbye.