* * * *
With 20/20 hindsight, Simon could see how selfish Greg had been the whole time.
And now he didn’t want to think about the guy at all.
He wanted to focus on Victor, and what this might—hopefully—be turning into.
Victor rolled him onto his back and turned around sixty-nine to go down on him. Being pinned in place by the other man’s body made Simon’s cock throb, even as he started sucking on Victor’s.
Then Victor’s mouth closed around his cock and made him moan.
Like that, it didn’t take long to get Victor hard again. And it was obvious Victor had meant what he’d said about Simon not coming yet.
Finally, Victor rolled off him and grabbed a towel out of the bathroom, and a bottle of lube and condom from the bedside table. Then Simon stayed him with a hand on his chest.
“What if I wanted to fuck you?”
“Right now?”
But Victor spoke it as a question, not a statement of disbelief or negation.
“Any time.”
That damn sexy smile returned. Victor leaned in and kissed him. “I like getting fucked. Under my terms, though.” He sucked on Simon’s lower lip. “Maybe I’ll make you earn me riding your cock. Might make you trade something for it.”
He slanted his lips over Simon’s and nearly took his breath away when he whispered, “Or I might come home from work exhausted and ask you to hop on and fuck me silly to put my brain in neutral for a while.”
Simon whimpered, nodding.
“Is that the answer you wanted to hear?”
“Yeah. All of them.”
“Something else that didn’t happen?”
He shook his head.
Victor sat up. “I don’t see getting fucked as a ‘bottom’ or ‘Top’ thing, although it can be. If I’m the Top and I lay back and order you to fuck my ass, who’s in charge?”
“You.”
“Exactly. Me. Just like some Tops swear they never go down on their bottoms because it’s a ‘bottom’ thing. I think that’s stupid and selfish and a piss-poor excuse for being a bad lover. I like giving a blowjob. I might tie you up for it, or like tonight, I might want to feel you really get into it and grab my hair and hold on tight. But just like sometimes I’ll want you to blow me, and sometimes I might want to tie you up and fuck your mouth, it’s all about the mood. I might want to come home, cuddle, kiss, and sixty-nine. Or come home and ride you on every horizontal surface there is in the house. I don’t have one set way to do anything. And I’m always open to suggestions and opinions.”
Simon blinked when he felt the prickle of tears in his eyes.
Victor leaned in again, nuzzling his nose against Simon’s. “Any special requests?”
“Yeah. Please fuck me hard and make me come again.”
Victor’s eyes studied him. “You want to wait to come and fuck me after, or want me to make you come?”
“Make me come with you inside me, please.”
That smile would be his undoing. Simon knew it already. “Sounds good to me, baby.”
Victor quickly got him lubed up, the sensual, teasing way he probed his ass with his fingers already telling Simon this would be a far different fucking than he’d ever felt before.
With a well-lubed condom rolled down his shaft, Victor slung Simon’s legs over his shoulders and leaned forward, pressing the head of his cock against Simon’s rim.
“You want it, baby?” Simon asked.
“Yeah. Please.”
Victor took his time, teasing, slowly pressing first just the head, then his gorgeous cock an inch at a time, withdrawing before pressing forward, until finally he felt Victor’s balls brushing against his ass.
That’s when Victor reached around and slowly started jacking Simon’s cock at the same time.
“Keep your eyes open, baby,” Victor said. “I want to watch you.”
It felt like their souls were plugged into each other, not just their bodies. Simon picked up the rhythm Victor set and started rocking with him as much as he could.
“That’s it,” Victor whispered. “Give it to me, baby. Give me what I want.”
He wanted to. He wanted to give him everything, and more. How could he trust this guy so soon after the emotional scorching he’d just endured?
He didn’t know, but he didn’t want it to end, either.
Then Victor changed angles a little, every thrust rubbing right against his prostate and driving him hard into orbit.
Victor felt it. “That’s it, baby. That’s what I want. Give it to me. Now.”
Simon wasn’t sure if it was Victor’s commanding tone that did it, or one too many thrusts in the sweet spot, or the skilled hand jacking his cock. But he felt his balls tighten and load two erupted, coating Victor’s hand with slick, hot cum as the man started pounding away at Simon’s ass.
“Yeah. Just…like…that.” Victor finished deep inside him and paused for a moment before withdrawing and going to dispose of the condom and clean up.
He was back a moment later, pulling Simon into his arms, cuddling with him.
There.
Right there.
Not just physically—emotionally.
“How late can you stay, baby?” Victor asked, nuzzling Simon’s forehead.
Simon closed his eyes. “All night.”
Victor sighed, sounding content. “Good.”
Chapter Ten
At least Wednesday morning, Victor managed to sleep in until six a.m. on his day off, no doubt due to Simon’s comforting presence. No matter what, they slept touching each other. Starting out drifting to sleep with Simon in his arms, then him spooning Simon, and at another point them both rolling over and Simon spooning him.
Sleep.
Good, solid, comforting sleep.
He drew Simon into his arms. “It’s six, baby. Do you need to get up for work?”
Simon’s eyes popped open, and Victor chuckled at the momentary disorientation he saw there before his gaze focused on Victor. A sleepy smile replaced confusion, and he raised his head to kiss him.
“Yeah, I do. I should get moving. I can grab a shower at home and head to work. I have time.”
“Can I make you coffee or something?”
“I don’t want you to have to get up. It’s your day off. I’ll pull into a drive-thru.”
Victor rolled on top of him, pinning him to the bed. “Come by for lunch and I’ll feed you.”
Simon smiled. “We talking food or sex?”
“Yes.”
Simon’s smile widened. “I’ll be here at noon.”
Victor kissed him, then sat up. “Excellent. Damn, I slept good last night, for a change. I might have to make you sleep here every night.”
“Not that I’m complaining, but what’s going on?”
“Probably a car or garbage truck or something waking me up early. Every damn morning. I just cannot seem to sleep. It’s killing me. Never had this problem before.”
“Well, you don’t have to work tomorrow, right?”
“Right.”
“Spend the night at my place tonight.” Simon reached up and traced shapes across Victor’s pecs. “See how you sleep in my bed.”
“Might not get me out of it if I can sleep well.”
“Maybe that’s part of my cunning plan.”
Simon finally got up and moving, dressed and out the door twenty minutes later.
Victor hated to see him leave.
Fuuuck. I got it bad for him.
Then he brightened.
I get to feed him lunch.
And he wasn’t just thinking food.
* * * *
That night, by the time the two men fell into an exhausted sleep in Simon’s bed, they’d fucked at lunch time, Simon bending Victor over the kitchen counter at the apartment, and they’d fucked twice since getting to Simon’s—once while trying to finish dinner and the other after going to bed and spending a long time sucking each other’s cocks.
/> When Victor awakened Thursday morning in Simon’s bed, he’d had an even better night’s sleep than the night before.
Simon rolled over, draping an arm across him, and that’s when Victor realized he smelled coffee.
“I preset the coffeemaker,” Simon said, reading his mind. “Helps wake me up and force me out of bed.”
“Mmm. Well, something else we have in common. I’m grouchy before coffee.”
Simon kissed him. “Where do we go from here?”
“Shower?”
Simon tweaked Victor’s right nipple. “You know what I mean.”
“I have a busy weekend. I need some sleep. How about you stay at my place Friday night? We do Sigalo’s with everyone Saturday, then back to my place to watch TV and snuggle Saturday night. And Sunday night, if you want to. Bring stuff to take a shower and head to work from my place Monday morning.”
“What about tonight?”
He reached down to play with Simon’s hair. “I could use another good night’s sleep in this bed.”
“Then it’s settled.”
Victor caught his hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it. “Not going to push this hard yet, but we should start talking about some other stuff.”
“Like what?”
“BDSM. Before we get so deep into this that it breaks both our hearts if you hate that side of me.”
Simon stared up at him for a long moment. “How about next weekend we have that discussion? I want to get settled into this weekend first. No offense, and it’s nothing you’ve done, it’s me. I’m trying to get rid of that ‘other shoe dropping’ feeling.”
Victor smiled and leaned in to kiss him. “That sounds like a workable plan.”
They took a shower together before Victor headed home and Simon headed to work. When Simon went to look for his car keys, he couldn’t find them at first. He’d thought he left them on the kitchen counter, but then he finally located them on the coffee table.
Must have been more distracted by Victor than I realized.
He smiled at that thought.
Yeah, Victor was good at distracting him. Damn good.
* * * *
Friday morning, Lara smiled as she leaned against Victor’s office doorway. “How’s it goin’?”
Victor grinned, leaning back in his chair, hands laced behind his head. “I’d kiss you if I was straight and you were single.”
“I’ll settle for a hug or a handshake. Or lunch.”
“He’s amazing.”
She walked in, closing the door behind her. “Everyone around Venture seems to like him.”
“We’re taking things slow because of what he went through with his ex, but next weekend we’re going to talk about playing.”
“You haven’t played yet?”
“Been too busy burning off some energy first, if you get my drift.”
“Ah. Drift gotten.”
“Damnedest thing, I sleep so freaking good with him in bed with me, and at home alone, I can’t. I might beg him to marry me just for that, except the rest of him is so good I can’t decide what the best part is.”
“I’m glad I could help. If you ever need an ear, I’m here.”
“What I need is a place of my own. Except now, with things going so well with Simon, I want to hold off, I think.”
“Why?”
“Because if we eventually end up moving in together, that’d be another move.”
“Ah. Smart thinking.”
“Right. And if we decide to get a place together or not. All of that. I guess the inconvenience of the apartment is minor for now.”
“Except you can’t sleep there.”
“I can’t sleep alone there.”
“Maybe it’s a neighbor? Coming out early for work? Or their alarm going off or something?”
“Duplex. And they’re not there right now.”
“Oh.” She shrugged and turned to go. “That’s all I got.”
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
He slowly nodded. “Thank you. I mean it. Not just a passing thing, either. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I…I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about him.”
She smiled. “I can see it on your face. You’ve looked so damn happy lately. Even Tawny was asking me about you.”
“Oh, gawd. What’d you say?”
“I just smiled and said I had no idea what she was talking about.”
“Bet that drove her nuts.”
“Yep.”
Alone again, Victor checked his phone and found another text from Simon. They texted as they could throughout the day.
Another nice change.
Peter was always too busy—his excuse. Couldn’t even be bothered to send Victor a text when he was leaving work and heading home.
Only in retrospect did Victor realize that was another symptom of the things Peter was hiding.
Simon was an open book, no hesitation at all. No red flags.
No drama.
* * * *
Saturday morning, after grabbing an early breakfast together at a place near Victor’s apartment, Victor headed to work while Simon headed home. Even though Victor had given him a key, Simon felt weird being alone at Victor’s place when the man wasn’t home.
And not because their relationship was still so new. There was something…odd there. A weird vibe at the apartment that Simon couldn’t overlook. He didn’t know what or why, though.
Maybe Victor’s poor sleep had more to do with that.
Maybe it was an EMF problem or something. There were high-tension power lines nearby, just behind Victor’s duplex.
But if things kept going as well as they were going, he was going to give serious thought to asking Victor to move in with him.
He knew they had to get through the BDSM stuff first.
Next weekend.
When he got home, he hesitated when he walked in the door. It felt…weird.
Then he realized the air was on when it should have been off.
Dammit. I could have sworn I turned the temperature up.
He checked, and apparently he’d been a massive dumbass and cranked it down to sixty-eight instead of up to eighty-two to save money.
He bumped it up to seventy-two and continued on in. He needed to do laundry today. He’d offered to bring Victor’s home with him and do it for him, but Victor had politely declined with the reasoning that he wasn’t going to expect him to do that kind of stuff for him when he couldn’t reciprocate yet since he didn’t have a washer and dryer of his own.
He loved the man for being like that, but in this case, he’d wanted to do a little something for him.
He went to clean some leftovers out of the fridge and realized he must have done it already. They weren’t there.
Huh.
Maybe getting well-fucked nearly every day for a change was diverting blood flow from his brain cells and making him forgetful.
Or maybe it was just that he was thinking about Victor instead of other things.
Or other people.
He’d blocked Greg’s number, so it was blissfully quiet on that front. He’d started telling their friends, both the fucking and non-fucking kind, about the breakup, and he was actually shocked to realize Greg hadn’t been saying anything to anyone about it.
He’d thought for sure Greg would have shacked up with someone by that point, or at least made it known he was on the prowl again. At least he hadn’t received any more mail for the guy.
Guess that was one benefit of him being a minimalist—electronic billing for everything.
He and Victor had gone out with some of Simon’s friends one evening—the non-fucking kind—and they’d all seemed to love Victor.
Not that he needed the outside validation, but Simon took smug satisfaction in knowing that news of his new guy would eventually get back to Greg through the grapevine.
Sunday night, both men felt exhausted. They settled on a horror movie on the bedroom TV and snuggle
d together to fall asleep, the timer set to shut the TV off.
“I hope this isn’t a mistake,” Simon muttered.
“What? Being together?”
Simon lifted his head. “What?”
“What?”
Simon pointed at the TV. “I meant watching a horror movie before going to sleep. You think being together is a mistake?”
“No! I was hoping you weren’t thinking that.”
Simon rolled his eyes and leaned in for a kiss. “Damn, man. You really are exhausted and not braining tonight, aren’t you?”
Victor looked horrible. He’d slept good, except he’d awakened an hour earlier that morning than he needed to and couldn’t get back to sleep. “Yeah, sorry.”
Simon snuggled Victor against him tonight. “It’s okay. You go to sleep. I got you.”
“Gonna protect the Dom from the bogeyman?”
Simon kissed his forehead. “I’ll protect you from whatever the hell I have to. I’m feeling pretty protective of you.”
“I love you, Simon.”
Simon’s heart raced as he stared down into Victor’s beautiful but exhausted blue eyes. “I love you, too.”
They stared at each other for a long moment.
“What now?” Simon asked.
Victor patted his hand. “This coming weekend, you need to meet the full-on Dom. Then we can decide.”
Chapter Eleven
Simon awoke Monday morning to the feel of a warm man and a hot cock pressed against his ass. Fortunately, the scary movie they’d fallen asleep to didn’t seem to have a negative effect on either of them that night.
Victor’s arm snaked around his waist and pulled him even closer. “No fair getting up yet. It’s not even six.”
“Sorry. I should have mentioned I’m sort of a morning person on weekdays.”
“Red.” But when Simon looked, Victor wore a sleepy smile. “I guess I can forgive you if you bring me some coffee. I preset it last night. Just hit the button. Black, please.” He kissed the nape of Simon’s neck.
“That’s easy.”
“I try to be easy.” His eyes finally opened as Simon snickered. “Wait, that sounded wrong. Sorry. See? Me no brain before daybreak.” Victor sighed. “I cannot fucking seem to get into a rhythm living here, though. Every fucking morning, I’m awake at like four a.m. and not really able to get back to sleep unless you’re with me. I cannot get a good night’s sleep. Weird. I slept like a damn rock at your place or when you’re here.”