Page 22 of Sunrises & Salvation

ADAM

T he movie finishes, but I can still feel the high from the adrenaline coursing through my veins. There aren’t many ways I can get that same feeling, but action movies and kissing the man beside me are two of my favorites.

Hunter’s parents announce they’re going to bed while the credits roll in the background. I’m about to be alone. All alone with Hunter, and I won’t be able to keep my hands off him.

Him and his soft lips, pretty brown eyes, and rosy cheeks. Everything about him is beautiful.

The silence in the room is deafening after they leave, both of us sitting on the couch with our sides pressed together but not moving.

We’ll have to unfold the couch at some point, but I’m content to sit close to him until he’s ready to move.

It’s his birthday, so if he wants to keep celebrating with just the two of us, I’m more than willing.

Fuck, I’m eager.

The feelings he draws out of me aren’t ones I’m used to, and I’m slightly terrified by how much power he has over me.

I can’t wait to spoil him with gifts and experiences. All the books his heart desires, trips to places he wants to see.

“We can’t do that anymore,” Hunter finally blurts out, disrupting my thoughts.

“What do you mean, we can’t ?”

“Exactly what I said. We, me and you, cannot do that again. I won’t do that to Danielle.”

“Danielle won’t care, she’ll understand.” She has to understand, because she knows exactly what position we’re in.

“So you’ll break up with her? To be with me,” he clarifies, and I have to swallow past the lump in my throat.

“It’s not that easy, Collins.” I need him to understand, I need him to know that if I were given the choice, I would pick him. A million times over, I would pick him.

He rolls his eyes and stands up. I grab his arm, pulling him right back down, but this time into my lap. His back is to my front, and I try to maneuver him around to face me. It’s not easy when he’s resisting. But finally, I get him turned around so I can look into his eyes.

“Please, Collins. I will tell you everything.” One day , I mentally add because I’m not ready to spill all my deepest, darkest secrets yet. “And I promise you, Danielle will be okay with us.” We just can’t be out in public or let anyone know.

He shakes his head, and I’m losing him before I’ve even truly had him. I’m feeling reckless, and the road my thoughts are going down isn’t good for either of us.

There’s an appeal to kidnapping him, keeping him with me at all times, and never letting him get away from me. I’ve always been selfish.

“No. Adam. I can’t. I won’t.”

I refuse to give up this easily, but I can’t push him too hard. He needs to be guided, not shoved, into new territory.

“Can we at least have tonight?” I lean in close to him, his eyelashes fluttering closed and then snapping open. He looks hesitant, but I can see the longing in his eyes as well.

Just say yes.

He bites his lip, and the combination of the dimple and the scar on his lip has me throwing caution to the wind. The need to show him that I can be good for him, strong.

I take his lips in a brutal kiss, pushing my tongue into his mouth when he gasps. He grabs the front of my shirt to anchor himself, turning his head to force our mouths closer together. It will never be close enough. I want him to swallow me whole so I can stay inside him forever.

Hunter grinds down on my lap, his hard dick rubbing against mine, and I have to back off.

We’re both panting loudly. “We need to be quiet. Can you do that, baby?” The pet name slips out, but the slight thrust of his hips lets me know he’s into it.

Noted, Hunter likes pet names. Maybe he likes nice words, too. I’ll have to practice that.

He nods quickly, leaning back in to take my mouth with his. I’m ravenous for him, I want to devour him.

He gasps as I fumble with the button on his pants, the tight material making it hard, but I love a challenge. His eyes are boring into mine, the brown irises bold in the fading light, with his pupils blown wide.

“Wait, Adam,” Hunter says. I immediately freeze, and he scrambles off my lap.

I feel his missing heat like a void, cracking open my chest and cutting out my heart.

His chest is rising and falling in a staccato rhythm, his nerves present in the clenching of his fists in front of him.

He bites his lip, abusing the poor skin and making his dimple appear. “I’ve never…”

“I know, baby, and that’s okay.” I should tell him it’s my first time. My first time to feel this need inside of me. The want to be this close to another person.

“Can we… maybe…” He looks around, his eyes not focusing on me now.

“Can we what? We can do whatever you want to do,” I reassure him. I don’t know if this is coming from nerves about his first time or from the worry about Danielle. “Just feel me, Hunter, don’t worry about anything else. It’s only me and you.”

He exhales a deep breath, closing his eyes and tipping his head back.

“What do you want?” I ask him, knowing that he doesn’t have enough confidence right now to tell me what he wants from this, from me, from us.

“We can keep making out on the couch, that wouldn’t be a hardship for me.

” I soften my words with a gentle chuckle, and when his body breaks out in goosebumps, I realize I’m probably still sitting way too close to him if I can see the shivers raking across his skin when he said to wait.

I sit further back, putting more distance between us, and he reaches out, grabbing the back of my head in his palm and tugging on the hairs at the base of my neck.

“Can we go slow? And if I don’t like something…”

“I’ll stop, whenever you say. If you don’t like it, don’t want to continue, it will be fine with me. I only want to do what you want to do.”

He exhales in relief, and now I know his problem.

“I don’t want to disappoint you, you know if?—”

I cut off his words with a slight nip to his bare stomach. “Nothing, and I mean nothing, you do will ever disappoint me.”

His smile is sweet and holds more confidence now as he lifts his hips off the couch to help me get his fly unbuttoned and pushes them down enough for me to reach into his boxers. I feel his hard dick in my hand, his swollen length is hot, and the tip is wet.

“Oh fuck, baby. You’re so wet for me,” I whisper against his lips. He scrambles onto my lap, resuming our prior position, and his ass resting on my thighs is a comforting weight.

I wrap my hand around him. The heavy weight of his cock is different, but it’s hot. He’s shorter than I am, with a slight curve to the left, and he’s thick.

We don’t have lube, so I’m not sure how good my rough palm feels, but I’m dedicated to making this good for him.

“Tell me what you like. Tell me how you want me to stroke your cock.” He’s panting, biting his lip, and his eyes are staring down where my hand is in his boxers. The risk of getting caught is high, but that makes my adrenaline fly higher.

He moans, loudly, and I cover his mouth with mine, swallowing down the sound and keeping it for myself. Nobody else gets to hear him like this.

His dick throbs hot and heavy in my grasp, and his release coats my hand and the inside of his boxers in thick pulses. I keep my grip tight, milking out every drop I can.

Hunter’s eyes are hazy and half closed when I finally pull my hand out of his boxers, my palm covered in him. I keep our eyes locked while I lick my hand clean, taking in the bitter taste and savoring it.

“That was so good, Collins. You did so good for me.” I pepper his face with kisses, and he leans his head against my shoulder, gulping down deep breaths.

I smooth his hair off his forehead and hold him to me, enjoying the afterglow of his release, with my hard dick still tucked uncomfortably in my pants.

But I don’t care. I’ll be uncomfortable every day if that’s what it takes to make him happy.

He leans back, his lower body still tightly pressed against mine.

His brown eyes burn into me while he opens his mouth.

“Tonight was a one-time thing, there will be no more. I’m not risking my friendship with Danielle for you.

” Ouch, I’ll just have to prove to him that I’m good enough so that he keeps coming back to me.

“Deal.” I lie through my teeth; he’s never going to get away from me. There will be nowhere in this world that Hunter Collins can go that I won’t find him.

Waking up with Hunter wrapped around me and his head tucked into the space between my neck and shoulder is what dreams are made of.

His little puffs of breath hit my neck, cooling the overheated skin.

It’s hot under the blankets with both of our body heat in the enclosed space, but I’ll be damned if I accidentally wake him up.

I take my time soaking him in while he snoozes away. The dark hair on his head has a tint of red to it from this angle, the thick strands falling artfully across his forehead. The smooth skin of his rosy cheeks is flushed and slightly pushed out from how his face is pressed against my shoulder.

His lips are parted, just barely enough to allow a trickle of breath to flow in and out, the pink pout marred by the small scar that I’m obsessed with. What happened? Curiosity is burning in my gut to ask him, but in time, I’ll know everything about him.

Hunter smacks his lips together and I close my eyes quickly, trying to steady my breath so he thinks I’m still asleep.

I don’t care if he wakes up and sees me staring at him with admiration, but it might be a little soon for him.

Especially after last night, and I’m not going to push my luck.

Not after he let me break him apart and put him back together.

My dick throbs in my pants, wanting in on the action, but I will it to go down.

“Adam?” his voice croaks, deep and gravelly with sleep. I keep my eyes closed, trying not to squeeze them tight when he starts to trace his fingers over the exposed skin of my arm. Goosebumps break out, and I hold back my shiver.

I expect him to turn over, to move away.

To follow the stupid one-time thing rule he made last night.

He’s pushing me away because he’s worried about Danielle.

And I understand it, to a point. They’re friends.

But what he and I have doesn’t concern Danielle.

I just wish I could make him understand that.

He doesn’t turn away. I hear a deep exhale, and he scoots closer to me, resting his head on my heart. The loud thudding under his ear can’t be comfortable, but I lay quietly while I listen to his breathing even out as he falls asleep.

I lay here, indulging in the physical contact between us.

I thought I would never be a person who enjoyed cuddling and holding someone, but with Hunter, it feels right.

I’m supposed to be the one to wrap my arms around him and hold him tight.

Protecting him from the world. If only there were someone to protect him from me.