“You don’t have to explain a damn thing. You and Chris broke up. End of story.”
She laughed again. “My parents will want more details than that.”
“Fine, you can give Nora and Ron the deets. But nobody else needs an in-depth explanation. They can mind their own business.” Natasha paused. “I really wish I could fly home and be there for you, do something to cheer you up.”
“You’ve already done a lot.”
“Well, I want to do more. I promise you, the second the plane touches down on the runway a couple of months from now, I’m picking you up, bringing you to my place and giving you an epic cheer-up session. We can get really tipsy, sing some awful karaoke and dye our hair blonde just like we did after Sandy dumped me. Deal?”
Claire grinned. “Deal.”
They spoke for a few more minutes, but it was nearly midnight in Sierra Leone, and when Natasha confessed she’d been up for the past thirty-eight hours working at the clinic, Claire felt so guilty she practically forced her friend to hang up.
Dropping the phone on the bed, she went over to her suitcase and unzipped it. Her plan was to take off this flimsy honeymoon dress, put on some comfy clothes, and reflect on this day from hell, but when she heard a clinking sound in her bag, the plan promptly changed.
She reached between the stacks of clothes and pulled out the bottle of Lagavulin single-malt scotch, which sold for three hundred bucks a pop. She didn’t normally buy such expensive liquor, but she’d wanted to surprise Chris on their honeymoon and toast to their marriage with his favorite brand.
As she traced the edges of the bottle’s label, she thought about the plan of action Natasha had just outlined. Getting tipsy sounded pretty damn appealing…but who said she had to wait until March? At the moment, she couldn’t think of anything better than getting a little wonky in the head and not thinking about this disastrous day for a little while.
With a decisive nod, she started to untwist the bottle cap, then froze when she heard muted footsteps coming from the hallway. She expected a knock on the door, but it didn’t come. Instead, another door opened and closed, and then there was nothing but silence.
Her face grew hot as she pictured Dylan and Aidan alone in a bedroom together. Embracing. Or maybe doing more than embracing…
She quickly banished the wicked thought before it put down roots and sprouted a whole bunch of dirty images in her head.
But as she opened the Lagavulin bottle and brought it to her lips, she couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in the other room.
Chapter Three
Aidan followed Dylan into the master bedroom, noting the rigid set of his roommate’s shoulders—and was that guilt in those deep green eyes? Clearly it was, because the second the door closed, Dylan lobbed an apology in his direction.
“I’m sorry, man.”
Aidan wrinkled his forehead. “For what?”
“For bringing Claire here without warning.”
Dylan dragged both hands through his dirty-blond hair before shrugging out of his black suit jacket. He tossed it on the king-sized bed, then loosened his slate-gray tie, yanked it off and threw that aside too.
Aidan’s gaze tracked the movement of Dylan’s long, callused fingers as they unbuttoned the top two buttons of his white dress shirt. Then the SEAL let out a weary groan and stretched his arms over his head, causing the muscles on that broad chest to flex in the hottest possible way.
The sudden, all-consuming arousal that seized Aidan’s body no longer startled him. He’d been attracted to both sexes for as long as he could remember, but his attraction to Dylan surpassed anything he’d ever experienced. He was addicted to the man, craved him on a whole other level, and no matter how many times he fed the addiction, no matter how many mind-blowing releases they gave each other, he constantly wanted more.
Snapping out of it, he leaned against the tall dresser and watched as Dylan flopped down on the bed. “You don’t have to be sorry. You did the right thing getting her out of town.” He hesitated. “Did Chris seriously just leave without telling her the wedding was off?”
“Yup.”
“Wow.” Aidan searched his vocabulary for an adjective with some tact, but in the end, he couldn’t control what came out. “Your brother’s a fucking asshole, man.”
“No kidding.” Dylan shook his head a few times, looking both angry and amazed. “He just left. I get that he was panicking—”
“No excuse.”
“—and that he didn’t want to hurt her—”
“No excuse.”
“—but that’s no excuse,” Dylan said, rolling his eyes.
Aidan offered a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I should have let you finish. But yeah, your brother needed to man up and talk to Claire. He planned on marrying the girl, for fuck’s sake. He owed it to her to tell her what was on his mind instead of dumping her via messenger and running away.”
“I know, but I couldn’t stop him. He pretended he was going to see her, and then he took off and left me holding the bag. And the messed-up thing? I think he made the right call. Not the running away part, but canceling the wedding. He and Claire were all wrong for each other.”
“Regardless, she didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”
“Of course not.” Dylan’s green eyes darkened with displeasure. “But that doesn’t mean I want to spend the next few days holding her hand and wiping her tears and telling her everything’s gonna be okay.”
“You don’t want to, but you will.”
The SEAL’s eyebrows lifted in challenge. “Oh, I will, huh?”
“Yup. Because unlike your brother, you are not an asshole. You’re a good guy, and we both know you have a major hero complex. So no matter how much you dislike the woman—who, by the way, is smoking hot, bro—you’re going to be there for her, just like you were this morning.” Crossing his arms, Aidan slanted his head to the side. “Am I wrong?”
After a moment, a defeated sigh rumbled out of Dylan’s chest. “No, you’re not wrong. Claire can stay for as long as she likes.” He faltered. “That is, if it’s okay with you.”
“How many times do I have to tell you? This is your place too. You can invite whoever you want over.”
“But this is much more than me inviting a chick over for an evening of dinner and fucking. She’d be a houseguest. A snooty, bitchy, annoying houseguest.”
“She doesn’t seem that bad.”
“Trust me, she is. She’s a snob.”
Aidan furrowed his brows, slightly perplexed by the note of scorn in Dylan’s voice. He’d known the man for a couple of years, had been living with him for more than a month, and this was the first time he’d heard Dylan speak about someone else with such distaste.
It made absolutely no sense. Dylan loved everyone. And everyone loved him right back. Men, women, children, pets—every living creature that came into contact with Dylan Wade adored him within minutes. Aidan had never met anyone more charming or likable, not to mention genuine, so to hear Mr. Congeniality throw insults Claire’s way was more than a little bewildering.
Dylan must have picked up on the cloud of doubt in the air, because his tone grew defensive. “You don’t know her the way I do. She’s obsessed with money, for one. Every time I’ve seen her she’s taken bitchy cheap shots about how I’m not rolling in the dough, or she’s gone on and on about Chris and his corporate job. Oh, and she has zero respect for my mother.”
Aidan frowned. “What makes you say that?”
“She made some shitty comments last year about how housewife doesn’t count as a real job. We argued about it.”
“I see.”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’m just wondering…are you sure your animosity toward her doesn’t stem from the fact that she caught us making out?”
“What? Of course not.”
The look of surprise on Dylan’s face made him laugh. “I’m not judging you, man. I know you don’t want y
our family to know about us, and Claire knowing makes her somewhat of a…a threat?”
“Trust me, she’s not a threat. And it’s not that I don’t want my family to know,” Dylan said in a tired voice. “I’d just like to figure out what this is before I attempt to explain it to someone else.”
Aidan totally seconded that. He had no idea what “this” was, either. Yeah, Dylan turned him on like nobody’s business, but they were also friends. Best friends. And that’s what troubled him the most. Sex always complicated matters, and the last thing he wanted was to lose Dylan’s friendship. He valued it way too much to give it up.
At the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to give up the sexual nature of their relationship, even when the practical side of him knew they couldn’t have a future. A real one, with the whole happily-ever-after part.
As much as it sucked, they weren’t enough for each other and they both knew it.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t take advantage of the time they had left.
“I missed you,” he said gruffly, moving away from the dresser.
“I was only gone for a day.” The teasing look gave way to a sheepish smile. “But I missed you too.”
Dylan got to his feet at Aidan’s approach, and a second later, their mouths found each other without hesitation. It was a fleeting kiss, a feather-light brush of their lips—or at least it was before Dylan angled his head and deepened the contact.
The moment that hot, wet tongue slid into Aidan’s mouth, he was a goner. No stopping this kiss, no controlling the way his dick turned to granite and tried to poke right out of his sweats.
“Fuck, I totally missed you,” Dylan muttered.
Their tongues tangled, breaths mingled, and it wasn’t long before Aidan clapped his hands on Dylan’s trim hips and jerked the man’s lower body to his. At the feel of a telltale erection pressing into his thigh, he let out a hoarse moan, then slid one hand to cup the tantalizing bulge.
“Mmmm, probably not a good idea,” Dylan said ruefully, but the way he thrust into Aidan’s palm told a different story.
“Great idea,” Aidan murmured back.
He stroked the hard outline of that long, thick cock, chuckling when the SEAL’s head lolled to the side in pleasure.
“Always feels so good when you touch me,” Dylan mumbled.
Applying more pressure, he palmed that stiff erection, then brought his mouth to the other man’s neck and sucked on that hot male flesh.
Dylan jerked in surprise before groaning with approval. His hips continued to move, seeking contact, but Aidan abruptly dropped his hand.
“Seriously?” Dylan choked out. “You initiate a handjob and don’t follow through? Cocktease.”
“Oh, come on, we both know you want a lot more than my hand.”
With a mocking smile, he pushed the other man toward the bed. When the back of Dylan’s knees hit the edge of the mattress, Aidan gave him a shove and forced him into a sitting position.
A second later, he dropped to his knees.
“Aidan…what are you doing?”
“You really need to ask?” He reached for Dylan’s waistband, and then the metallic sound of a zipper opening echoed in the room.
“What if Claire knocks on the door?”
“Then we tell her we’ll be right out, you tuck your cock back into your pants, and we finish this later.”
With that said, he yanked on Dylan’s trousers and boxer-briefs, and grinned at the erection that eagerly sprang up to greet him.
“You know, you don’t have to give me a BJ to cheer me up,” Dylan rasped. “I wasn’t the one who got left at the altar.”
The bead of precome glistening on the mushroom head of Dylan’s cock made Aidan lick his lips, but he didn’t make a move to claim his prize just yet. “You want me to stop?” he challenged.
“God, no.”
“Okay then.”
With a grin, he wrapped his fingers around the root of that hard shaft and gave it a leisurely pump.
A shudder rocked Dylan’s body. “More,” he ordered. “Give me your mouth.”
The husky demand sent a dark thrill up Aidan’s spine. Same way he didn’t understand every other aspect of their relationship, he also didn’t get their sexual dynamic. With his past male lovers, he was the one making the demands, the one taking control of the encounter. With Dylan, they both took the role of aggressor, a fact that confused the shit out of him. He didn’t like letting anyone else call the shots in the bedroom, yet for some reason, he allowed Dylan the privilege.
Of course, he got to call the shots right back, which meant that Dylan’s commands often went unanswered.
“You’ll get my mouth when I decide to give it to you,” Aidan replied.
To punctuate that, he continued to jack Dylan off in languid, borderline-bored strokes that soon had the other man swearing in frustration.
More moisture bubbled at the tip of that stiff cock, which was pulsating in Aidan’s hand, throbbing in time to Dylan’s erratic heartbeat.
When he tipped his head back and saw the sheer agony reflecting in Dylan’s eyes, he decided to have some mercy. Keeping their gazes locked, he leaned in and wrapped his lips around the engorged head.
“Oh Jesus,” Dylan croaked. “Oh, that’s good.”
Good was a fucking understatement. Good didn’t even do justice to the way Aidan felt when he was sucking this man’s dick. He loved every second of the act. Loved feeling that thick cock pulsing in his mouth. Loved the way Dylan’s hands tangled in his hair. The way Dylan moaned right before he came all over his tongue.
“I need it hard and fast. Let me fuck your mouth, Aid.”
“Not yet,” he said with a chuckle, and then he licked the salty drop pooling at the tip of Dylan’s cock.
He flicked his tongue over the little slit for a few seconds, then licked his way down the length of the rock-hard shaft, eliciting a harsh curse from the man he was in the process of teasing.
Sure enough, Dylan had caught on to what Aidan was doing. “Fucking tease,” the SEAL grumbled.
He rolled his eyes. “Right, like you don’t do the same damn thing to me every time you suck me off.”
“I don’t tease. I just take my time,” Dylan protested. “Can you blame me for being thorough?”
The man raised a valid point. Aidan had a great appreciation for Dylan’s thoroughness in the bedroom, that was for sure.
As lust seized his groin, he ignored his painfully hard erection and refocused on the task at hand. This time he didn’t torment. Didn’t go slow, didn’t build up to anything.
He simply took Dylan’s cock into his mouth and sucked hard.
“Fuck. Fuck, just like that, man. Faster.”
Aidan quickened the tempo, moving his mouth up and down, tightening the suction with each upstroke.
“Goddammit, more.”
His soft laughter vibrated against Dylan’s dick. He brought his hand into play, using his fist and his mouth to pump and suck Dylan to a new level of pleasure, while the fingers of his free hand found the man’s tight sac and squeezed it hard.
A sharp pain jolted through him as Dylan fisted his hair and brought his head closer, thrusting so hard and so deep Aidan suddenly had a cock prodding at the back of his throat. He relaxed his jaw and went into deep-throat mode, loving the taste and feel of this man’s dick consuming his mouth. His own erection ached inside his sweatpants, pleading for relief, craving release.
“Yeah, that’s it. Like that.” Dylan rocked his hips, fingers tangled in Aidan’s hair, tugging much harder than usual.
It was rare to see the man lose his cool like this, the hair-pulling and the desperate noises and the frantic thrust of his hips. Aidan knew today’s wedding fiasco must have upset him much more than he’d let on, and so he ceded control and let Dylan fuck his mouth, giving the man what he wanted, what he needed.
“Play with my ass,” Dylan moaned. “Now, Aid.”
Without hesitation he d
ipped his finger into the saliva dripping down the shaft and pushed it into Dylan’s ass. The second his finger breached that tight ring of muscle, Dylan let out a strangled cry and went still.
“Fuck. Fuck.”
The first jets of come spurted in the back of Aidan’s throat. A tidal wave of lust, combined with a hefty dose of male satisfaction, coursed through his blood. He swallowed heartily as Dylan shuddered in climax, while his own cock throbbed with pent-up need and angrily demanded attention.
Twenty seconds and several ragged breaths later, Dylan pulled out of Aidan’s mouth and fell back on his elbows. “Damn,” he mumbled. “I needed that.”
Aidan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before getting to his feet. “I know you did.”
A pair of green eyes suddenly focused on his crotch. “You haven’t asked me to return the favor.”
He shrugged. “Because this wasn’t for me. It was for you. And now I’m going to stop you before that hero complex of yours kicks in and tries to rescue me from a case of blue balls, because I really think we should check on our guest.”
The reminder immediately killed the mood, bringing a gloomy expression to his roommate’s face. “Crap, I totally forgot she was here.”
“I didn’t.” Aidan hesitated. “I mentioned that she’s smoking hot, right?”
Dylan’s jaw tensed. “Yeah, you did, but you can forget about it, man. She won’t be the filling in a Dylan-and-Aidan sandwich, so get that idea out of your head.”
He masked his disappointment. Dylan’s outright refusal was definitely not the response he’d been looking for. Today was the first time Aidan had met Claire McKinley, and when he’d walked into the living room and finally laid eyes on the woman Dylan had been bitching about for months, he’d been floored by how gorgeous she was. With her smooth flawless skin, rosy cheeks and enormous brown eyes, she looked like a porcelain doll. But below the neck, she was a different kind of doll. The kind you found at a sex shop, all tits and ass and endless curves.
“Aw, shit, I know that look,” Dylan chided. “I mean it, Aid, banish the thought. Forget the fact that I don’t like her, okay? She almost married my brother this morning. Think of how frickin’ incestuous that would feel if I took her to bed.”