“Yeah, kinda. We’re a pair,huh?”
“Wearea pair. But maybe now instead of being a pair of dumbasses who are scared shitless, we can be a pair of…” I trailed off because Julian put his hand on my thigh and metaphors failedme.
“Dumbasses who laugh in the face of fear?” he suggested,grinning.
I laughed. “Just as long as we’re a pair, baby. The rest is alldetails.”
This time, it was Julian who kissed me, pushing up so he was kneeling on the seat, wrapping his fists around my hair like he wanted to make sure I was real and couldn’t get away. But there was nowhere else in the world I wanted tobe.
“We don’t have to talk about everything right now, right?” Julian said, breaking away from the kiss with a gasp. “We can discuss things as they comeup?”
“Yeah,” I breathed. “As they come up. Good plan.” I put my hands on his waist and slid up under his sweater—that oversized sweater I fucking loved—on a path to hischest.
“Oh, fuck,” he said. “Yes.Thatrightthere.”
“It’s tricky when I can’t see what I’m doing,” I teased, moving my mouth to nip at his jaw, inhaling the fragrance of citrus and soap andJulian. “You’re gonna have to guide me.” I scratched his nipples lightly with myfingernails.
“Oh, motherfucker. I think you’re doingjustfine.”
“Language, Julian,” I teased, and Julian’s hands in my hair tightened when Ilaughed.
“Don’t youdare,” he said. He let go of my hair and tore the sweater over his head, then let out another harsh string of expletives when I replaced my fingers with mymouth.
“Oh, fuck, that feels good. Daniel,Jesus…”
“Yeah?” I said, my voice coming out as a harsh rasp. “You think I’m doing okay with all these new skills?” I pulled Julian over to straddle my lap and shifted my hips to rub my cock against his. “Oh,fuck.”
“You’re a fucking prodigy,” he breathed. Then, “More.”
I laughed, because I couldn’t help it. “It hasneverbeen like this for me before, Julian. Never. Not with anyone. Maybe all this time I’ve been waiting foryou.”
“Daniel—” he said helplessly, tucking his face into myneck.
But now that the words were flowing, it seemed like I couldn’t shut them off. “I worried at first that this wasn’t real. Like I was confusing friendship for sexual attraction.” I groaned at the feel of him moving against me. “I’m such an idiot, Julian. Does this feel likefriendship?”
“Ngh.”
I took that as ano.
“I actually said to myself,maybe this is loneliness. Maybe this is just because Julian is the only person I care about anymore. But then I went out with those guys the other night, after the parade. And all I could think about was how much I missed you.You, Julian. Not people. Not friends.You. You’re what Iwant.”
I pushed Julian the other way on the couch, planning to crawl over him. But I’d forgotten the stupid laptop I’d left there until Julian’s elbow slapped the keyboard and the machine elicited a shrill, outraged noise at theabuse.
“Shit! What did I just land on?” Julian did an ab roll that would have been impressive under other circumstances and twisted to look behind him, like he was worried he might have landed on somethingliving.
“It’s nothing. Just my computer.” I grabbed for the machine to move it aside—at that moment I would have happily thrown the fucking thing out the window so we could get back to what we were doing—but Julian stopped me with a hand on myarm.
“What the heck isthis?”
Oh.Shit.
I sat back on my heels and blew out a breath as he read the words on thescreen.
“MacBryde?” His blue eyes searched minecuriously.
Shit. Damn. Fuck. Was it still talking time? Because my dick was so not onboard.
I had the feeling that if I deflected or promised to tell Julian all about it later, he’d have agreed. After all, his eyes were still dark with lust and his cock was straining at the fly of his jeans. But postponing important discussions was a bad habit, so I told my dick to calmdown.
