“That is better than okay. Now get over here.”
He grinned, those hazel eyes smiling at me. He shucked off his coat and put his hands to the buttons of his oxford shirt.
“Let me do that,” I said, my voice husky. “Take off your jeans, though.”
His long fingers manipulated his belt, and I felt myself growing hard. I’d always wanted this man, and here he was, taking off his clothes for me. I yanked my T-shirt over my head, but it got stuck on my fucking cast.
“Let me,” he said, kneeling on my bed, easing it off. “Oh, yeah,” he said with a sigh, straddling my thighs. He tossed the T-shirt away and leaned down to kiss my chest.
I tipped my head back against the pillows and sighed with happiness. He tongued my nipple and I groaned. “Best idea you ever had, Caxy.”
“One of ’em,” he agreed, kissing his way up to my neck. “I want you to fuck me. I’ve been thinking about it all day.”
The words drew a moan from my lips. “Damn, I like hearing you say it almost as much as I like doing it.”
He lay down beside me, taking care to avoid my broken arm. He put his lips beside my ear. “Spent my whole life being careful what I said,” he whispered. “But now I just want to shout it from the rooftops.”
“Go for it,” I breathed. My body was humming with arousal as Cax let his fingers drift across my belly. “Tell me more of what you want.”
“Mmm,” he said, and my dick twitched at the breathy sound. “You’re going to lay on your back, and I’m going to ride you while you fuck me.”
“Jesus,” I whispered as an electric current of lust ran straight from my ear to my balls. “What else?”
“You’re going to come in my ass, and I’m going to come all over your chest while I suck on your tongue.”
“Ungh,” I gasped. “Get the lube. Quick.”
He chuckled and dove toward the bedside table. How was this my life? Cax, the man of my dreams, had somehow become acquainted with his inner dirty-talker. I lubed up my fingers as he turned toward the foot of the bed and presented his ass to me. “I don’t know what’s got into you,” I said, stroking my fingers into his crease. “But I like it.” I penetrated him gently with my forefinger, and he gave a happy gasp.
“Just needed you,” he panted as I began to prep him. “I don’t want to be quiet anymore. Because…ahh.” He dropped his head to the bedspread. “Fuck first, talk later,” he mumbled.
“Deal,” I ground out. Fingering him was making me hard as a board. The number of times we’d been naked together was still quite small, but it didn’t feel that way. At that moment, I could swear we’d been lovers for years. The trust we had for each other was like a cocoon surrounding the bed. I sat up straighter and leaned forward so that I could kiss the muscles on his beautiful back.
“Yeah,” he breathed. “Want you so bad.”
Holy…all the amazing dirty talk was going to be hell on my self-control. I concentrated on the matter at hand, stretching him until he was pressing back on my fingers. Until he was ready for me.
“Spin around, baby,” I said, fixing the pillows behind myself, sitting up a little bit.
He turned his body around and rose up on his knees on either side of me. The view up his gorgeous chest was breathtaking. And his perfect, hard cock was almost close enough to taste. I looked away to hunt for the condom and to calm down for a second, too.
“Ax, you know you’re disease-free, right?”
The question halted me in my tracks. “Yeah. I’ve been tested. Why?” I looked up into his hazel eyes.
He smiled down at me. “I don’t see how we need that condom. You’re safe and I’m a monk.”
“Wow.” I let out a whole lot of air. “Except I’m going to last about thirty seconds if we go bareback.”
Cax grinned. “Sounds like fun.” He reached for the lube, opened the top, then drizzled some right onto my dick. He slicked me up while I practically passed out from anticipation.
I closed my eyes, just trying to survive it. “Not kidding, babe. This won’t be my most impressive moment. You’re fucking killing me right now.”
His grin turned evil. He walked his knees forward until he was in position.
Then? He lined me up and sank down slowly onto my dick.
The most beautiful tight heat enveloped me, and I found myself panting through the incredible sensation. “Oh…sweet Jesus,” I huffed. “So tight.”
He dropped his elbows onto the bed, and covered my mouth with his. We kissed hungrily. Desperately. As if this were the last kiss we’d ever have.
It wouldn’t be. And that made it even sweeter.
“Oh fuck,” I moaned into his mouth. “Fuck yourself on me, baby. I want it.”
He gave his hips a little push—just enough to remind me how good it was going to be.
“Oh please oh please oh please,” I chanted between kisses. “Want to fuck you. Need to come.”
He straightened up a little bit, smiling down at me. “Not just yet, babe. But soon.”
With a giant groan, I tried rolling my hips. That gave me something, but it wasn’t quite enough.
Finally, Cax took mercy on me. With his hands on the bed, he began to fuck himself on me in short, slow strokes. After a few of these, he gave a giant groan. “Oh, Axel. I love you inside me.”
“I love you everywhere,” I sighed, giving myself over to it. I slipped a hand onto his cock and stroked once, and he gasped.
“That’s…ahh.” He sighed, picking up his pace. “This is…I can put you right where I need you.” His eyes squeezed shut with pleasure. “It’s perfect.”
It was. I stroked him again, my thumb brushing his cockhead, trailing through the slickness where he was leaking for me. I relaxed for a minute, breathing deeply while he rode me. But I wanted it too badly to wait much longer. There was nothing between us—no condom, no troubles. This was mine to enjoy, and I couldn’t hold out anymore. “Come for me, hon. Kiss me and come for me.”
On a moan, he dropped his eager mouth onto mine. I pushed my tongue inside, and he sucked on it. Once. Twice. I felt all our troubles drop away on his lusty sigh. I squeezed his cock, and that’s when I felt it starting. He shuddered on a thrust. Then his ass clamped down on my throbbing cock, and he began to erupt in my hand and moan into my mouth all at once.
With a growl, I wrenched my hips up. My balls hitched and tightened and then it was all over but the crying. My climax roared through my veins as I unloaded all my tensions into his hard, willing body.
A few moments later we lay side by side, and I tried to pull him closer.
“Your ribs,” he mumbled.
“They’re fine. Get over here.”
Clumsily, he heaved himself partly onto my sticky body. “We need to take that bedroom over the garage,” he panted. “So the boys can’t hear us when we fuck.”
“You mean…” I lit up inside with excitement. “In the house down the street?”
He nodded against my face. Then he kissed my cheek.
“I can’t wait to live there with you,” I said.
“Me too. Doesn’t mean I’m not still worried about the money.”
I gave him a little pinch. “It’s only money. I know we don’t have quite enough of it. But I don’t have enough of you in my life, either. And that’s the bigger problem.”
“Agreed,” he said quietly. “I kind of hinted tonight that you might be part of our future. Mark took it better than I thought.”
Stroking his hair, I pulled him a little closer. “I don’t know Mark very well. But your brothers love you so much. And if they’re living in a house where nobody’s yelling, they’re going to notice that life is pretty good.”
“Hope so,” he said. “I’m going for it either way, though. Even if Mark has trouble with it. I just don’t want him acting like a dick to you. That’s what worries me.”
I thought about that for a minute. “He might. But I’ve been an out gay man for years, and I don’t think
there’s anything he could say to me that I haven’t already heard. And he’s got scared kid written all over him, babe. I can handle him until he forgets to be scared.”
Cax smiled against my face. “One more thing? I may have mentioned that you’re a fabulous cook. And he liked the sound of that.”
This caused me to hoot with laughter. “You’re pimping out my chicken with garlic, feta and lemon?”
“Yes.” Now we were both laughing. “Sorry. I’m just really desperate to have this work.”
“Uh-huh. I see how it really is.” I pinched his ass. “Kidding aside, I’ll cook a feast for that kid if it will win him over.”
“It might. It’s true what they say. The path to a man’s heart…”
“Is with blowjobs.”
Cax snorted. “The path to a boy’s heart is through his stomach. If I’m living in your house, you have to let me buy all the groceries. Those boys can eat.”
“Our house,” I said softly.
“Our house,” he repeated. “In the meantime, can I use your rented shower?”
“Go for it.”
Cax got up and disappeared for a couple of minutes. He came back wearing my towel and carrying a washcloth. Sitting beside me on the bed, he lowered the warm cloth to my chest. And when I tried to take over, he pushed my hand out of the way. “Let me. Any day now you’ll be all healed up, and you won’t need my help anymore.”
“I’ll always want your help,” I said, running a hand down his strong arm.
He leaned over to kiss me once on the belly. “Good. How was your first day back, anyway? I was too busy sexing you up to ask.”
I closed my eyes as the washcloth made another pass. “Don’t remember now. Too tired. Too sexed up.”
Cax chuckled and kissed my clean skin once again. “Sleep. I’m going to borrow your toothbrush and come to bed.”
“’Kay. Love you.”
“Love you.”
He clicked off the bedside lamp, and I dozed until a warm, comfortable body pressed in beside me.
Then I slept, knowing everything was finally going well.
Epilogue
NINE MONTHS LATER
Cax
“The doorbell is ringing,” Mark said. My brother lay flat on his back on the floor, a paperback thriller held over his head.
“Then get it, you lazy oaf,” I prompted. “I’m up to my ears in potato peels, here.”
“I’ll do it,” Axel’s mother said, wiping her hands on her apron.
“You shouldn’t have to, Ann,” I protested, but she was already on her way to the door. I took two steps away from the kitchen island so that I could give Mark a little kick at his ankle. “Nice manners, kid. Way to go.”
His only response was to turn the page.
I went back to the task at hand—prepping potatoes. This past year Axel had worked hard to teach me to cook. And I’d worked hard learning. Cooking was fun when it involved following my hot boyfriend around the kitchen.
And while I wished Mark would have slightly better manners, I wasn’t going to make a big deal about it. Because his comfort level with our new family situation had drastically improved since the early days. He regularly invited his friends over now. And last week I’d heard him introduce Axel to his wrestling teammate as “Cax’s boyfriend.”
It had been tempting to say, “See, did that kill you?” But I didn’t do that, and I’m sure he was grateful.
“Hey guys! Happy Thanksgiving!”
I turned to see Jason enter the kitchen, carrying three bottles of wine. “Hey, man. Thanks for bringing those.”
“It’s the least I could do.” He set them down on the island and looked around. “I love what you’ve done back here. This is looking great.”
“Thanks. Caleb did a lot of it.” Our friend and neighbor had helped us tear down the wall between the kitchen and the den, so the floor plan could be more of a family space, like the old house.
“Will we see them today?” Jason asked, shrugging off his coat.
“Not until later,” I said. “He and Josh are having dinner with their family in Cheshire. But they might stop by for a drink this evening.”
“Where’s Axel?”
“In here!” Axel yelled from the dining room. “I’m trying to figure out if the fireplace flu works, or if I’m just going to smoke us out.”
“Need a hand?” Jason offered.
“Nah—I think I got it.” He appeared a minute later, smiling, smelling a little like smoke. “Happy Thanksgiving, man.” He shook Jason’s hand. “Glad you could join us.”
Axel’s mother joined us in the kitchen again. “Boys, we need to get those potatoes boiling. This turkey is almost done. And Axel has to put his famous pretzel rolls into the oven.”
Suddenly, Mark sat up. “Axel made pretzel rolls?”
My eyes drifted over to Axel, who winked. “He sure did.”
“Awesome,” my middle brother said, putting a hand to his stomach.
“You get one only if you set the table,” Axel’s mother said. “And Cax—we need those potatoes.”
“Sorry.” I went back to the task at hand. “I’m a good worker, but I’m not fast.”
Axel held out his hand. “Can I take over? There’s only one peeler and…” He grinned.
“I’m not offended.” I handed it over. “I’ll quarter them.”
In the time it took me to say those three words, Axel had seized a potato and peeled half of it. “Deal.”
* * *
Thirty minutes later, Ann had managed to get the boys to set the table. Jason and I were pouring drinks. Ann and Axel moved around the kitchen like a pair of skilled dancers, always anticipating each other’s moves.
“Wow,” Jason said, watching Axel cook. “I knew he was a catch.”
That made me blush. I’d never say so out loud, but I didn’t like knowing that Jason had once asked Axel out.
“When are we going to catch someone for you?” Axel asked as he whisked gravy. My eyes were glued to the muscles flexing in his forearm as he did this. There was nothing sexier than a hunk of a man making dinner. Nothing.
“I don’t know…” Jason raised a hand to the back of his neck, and I thought I saw his cheeks heat.
“Really?” Axel cackled. “Who is he?”
“I’ll tell you later,” he muttered. “What else can I do?”
“Wrangle the boys to the table,” Ann said. “I’m done carving.”
“I’ll do that,” I said. “BOYS! FOOD!”
There was an instant pounding of feet toward the table in the other room.
She laughed. “I’d forgotten how hungry boys are when they’re growing.” She lifted the platter of turkey, which looked amazing. “Okay, let’s eat.”
We all sat down, and miraculously my brothers waited for Ann to say a thirty-second prayer before they lunged for the food.
I scanned the contented faces at the table and got a lump in my throat. A year ago this scene would have been impossible for me—a friendly meal with family, my boyfriend at the table.
“Cax?” Axel touched my arm. “Aren’t you eating?”
“Um, yep,” I said, taking the bowl of stuffing he handed me. “Just got a little distracted there for a second.”
His mother shot me a warm look from across the table. “I have an important question. What does the Williams clan do about dessert? Do you eat it right away, or should there be a lull in between?”
“Oh, there’s a lull,” Jared said, passing the mashed potatoes. “But this year we can skip the part where Dad makes Scotty cry because he can’t throw a spiral.”
“I can too throw a spiral,” Scotty argued.
Jared smirked, but Scotty failed to notice, luckily.
“Do they, um…” Scotty’s eyes darted to mine. “Is there Thanksgiving in prison?”
“Yeah,” I said softly. Truly, I had no idea. But probably, right? “He’s okay, Scott. He’d rather be here with you than in there. But that’s ju
st the way it is.”
“Shouldn’t have beat up Axel, then,” Jared said before shoving a giant bite of turkey into his mouth.
Axel raised his eyes to mine, as if wondering whether I’d pursue that line of discussion. But I just shook my head. “Which football teams are we rooting for today?”
“Patriots. Duh,” Mark said to his plate.
“Duh,” Jason echoed, and everybody laughed. Even Mark.
* * *
Hours later we were sitting around the table again. It had been cleared of food and then dessert. Jared and Mark were out at the movies with friends, and Scotty was either asleep or playing with his iPod in his sleeping bag on the floor of Jared’s room. He’d given up his bed for Ann while she stayed with us.
Axel’s mom had turned in already.
That left Axel and me, Jason, and Caleb and Josh. We sat there with fresh glasses of wine trying not to groan from eating too much food.
“Maggie sent us home with a pile of leftovers,” Josh said, swirling the liquid in his glass. “It’s the best of both worlds. We don’t have to cook Thanksgiving dinner, and we still have turkey sandwiches for three days.”
“You really have cracked the code,” Jason said, lifting his glass to Josh. “I salute you.”
“Do we get to hear about your mystery boyfriend now?” Axel asked. “I’ve waited, like, hours.”
Jason propped his head in one hand. “There’s no mystery boyfriend. But I do have a really hot neighbor. He lives next door to the new house.” Jason had just moved—finally—to Merryline to be closer to his office and clientele.
“How much do we know about the hot neighbor?” Axel inquired.
“Well…” Jason laughed. “There was an incident.”
“A naked incident?” Caleb asked.
“Yeah.” Jason sighed. “Much fun was had. But when I picked him up at The Shaft I sort of left out the fact that I lived next door. And afterward he was kind of pissed off about that.”
“Why?” Josh asked.
“Not sure.” Jason frowned. “I guess it could seem sort of stalkerish. But we were both on the same page. It was just a hookup. A really awesome hookup.”