I filled Hudson’s water bottle that he’d left drying on the rack, made a detour to my bathroom cabinet, then stopped in his bedroom. Immaculate as always with his matching cherry wood furniture and smooth white duvet without a single long black cat hair in sight. I wanted to make sure he hadn’t passed out on his bed because he would be cranky tomorrow if he crashed without brushing his teeth first. I chuckled when I heard Hudson humming “Thong Song” from the bathroom over the hum of his electric toothbrush.
After placing the water bottle and pain pills on his nightstand, I snuck General Ledger a treat. She munched happily from her perch on the bedroom cat tree.
The toothbrush turned off, and I turned away from the cat.
Hudson exited the bathroom and smiled when he spotted me, toothpaste on the corner of his mouth. He shuffled toward me. “Seriously, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
My heart thumped as I recklessly swiped away the toothpaste. Hudson opened his mouth like he wanted to say more, but nothing came out. I should get out of there before I did something I would regret.
General Ledger jumped onto a lower platform, rubbed against one of the scratch post pillars in the cat tree, then stretched her front legs out with her ass in the air. I reached out to scratch her ears, but she dodged my hand. Oops. At least she’d remembered we weren’t supposed to get along in front of him.
“She’s a daddy’s girl, aren’t you?” He roughly patted her head as her ears flattened while she glared at him, begrudgingly accepting his affection. “Don’t worry. Leo will grow on you like he did me.”
“Does that make me a wart?”
“More like a skin tag.”
“Gross. Get some sleep.” I clapped Hudson on the shoulder and ignored the warmth in my hand. I needed to sleep the day off so things would return to normal in my head tomorrow.
At the doorway, I turned to ask if he wanted it open or closed. Hudson clumsily pulled off his shirt, and my attention snapped to his thick love handles. I always appreciated cushion on a person. Why am I staring at him? I forced myself to turn away.
After getting ready for bed, I couldn’t sleep because I was too wired. Instead, I opened TikTok and scrolled through comments on my latest video. I usually glossed over them, but now I read them with a fresh perspective and new questions, thanks to Ollie.
While reading comments on older videos, I heard a moan. At first, I wondered if Hudson had fallen off his bed, but there hadn’t been a thump. The next one that came through the thin wall was clearly not a sound of pain.
I usually saved my jerking off for the shower or when Hudson was out, and I’d assumed he did the same because I’d never heard him. Until now. When a longer, huskier moan came through the wall, I reached for my dick instead of grabbing my headphones like a good person would. I gave myself a stroke. If I held my breath and strained my ears, I could almost hear Hudson’s heavy breathing. I itched to know what he was thinking about. How he liked to touch himself and if it was how I liked to be touched. How he would touch me.
My dick was rock hard. It’s just from sex sounds. Don’t overthink it. Those were always hot, no matter who made them. I’d learned that in college when my boisterous neighbors seemed to go at it a half-dozen times a day.
It didn’t matter that it was Hudson. It didn’t matter that it was a man. When I watched porn with a man and a woman, it was as hot when the man groaned and grunted as when the woman made sexy sounds. That was normal, right? My stomach tightened as I stroked faster. I grew almost light-headed from taking quiet, shallow breaths to hold my moans in.
When I heard a broken-off groan, that was it. I bit the inside of my cheek as I spilled onto my stomach. I lay there, spunk cooling on my skin, staring at the dark ceiling with thoughts racing so fast I couldn’t capture a single one. I’d jerked off to my best friend. That, on its face, wasn’t a big deal. But the fact I’d pictured us together, imagined what I could do to cause those sounds? That I couldn’t ignore.
I managed to pull a dirty shirt off the floor to clean myself. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but eventually, there was a familiar scratch at my door. I let in General Ledger, and like clockwork, she jumped on my bed and curled up on my second pillow.
Another secret. I had more of those than I realized.
CHAPTER 4
HUDSON
I unstuck my tongue from the roof of my mouth as I rolled over and groaned. My body was stiff from sleeping so hard, and the headache didn’t help. I must not have moved for hours. Everything hurt like I’d hiked a mountain yesterday.
I smacked my lips together, then remembered I’d forgotten to fill my water bottle before bed. Crud. I looked over at my nightstand to check the time and saw my water bottle next to a glass with two pills in the bottom. I hadn’t grabbed the bottle from the drying rack last night. Leo? I smiled at the thoughtful gesture.
I sat up, swallowed the pills, and chugged my water. My eyes landed on the small pile of tissues on the floor, and I flushed at the memory of one of the hottest jerk-off sessions I’d had in a while. I rarely masturbated when Leo was home, and when I chose to, I did it while showering like a civilized human. Leo and I were close, but we didn’t need to be that close.
I squirmed uncomfortably when I remembered how “close” we’d been in my thoughts while I’d touched myself. Goodness gracious, I had no clue what had gotten into me last night. I’d expected to crash the moment my head hit the pillow, but my mind had wandered. Bouncing from one thing to another and eventually landing on a porn video I’d recently watched. The most vivid thing about it was how I’d swapped the hot brunette on her hands and knees with Leo and replaced the buff guy thrusting into her from behind with…me.
I’d come so hard I nearly blacked out, and it was all Ollie’s fault. All his nonstop jabbing at Leo and me like we were relationship goals and bemoaning that he wished he could find someone to have a relationship like ours. Except we weren’t in a relationship.
I dropped my head against the wall. I should brush off last night’s debauchery as residue from Ollie’s words in my head mashing with my tipsy brain to produce a surprisingly sexy image of Leo and me. Sexy? What the hell?
Saturday mornings weren’t the time for deep thoughts, so I dragged myself out of bed to get ready for my ceramics class. After brushing the nasty taste from my mouth, I went in search of coffee and found Leo on the couch watching TV as he did most weekend mornings.
“Mornin’.” I forced myself to smile normally and pretend like I wasn’t picturing him naked. Because I definitely wasn’t.
“How are you feeling?” He picked up his coffee without looking away from the TV, although his cheeks looked flushed.
