That did not seem to lessen Mark’s confusion. “You have a toothbrush here.” A better toothbrush was left unsaid.
“Yeah, but this is my toothbrush. Not just a spare I keep in your bathroom.”
He knew what he meant, why he’d slipped the toothbrush in his pocket before leaving his apartment, but it obviously wasn’t getting through to Mark.
“Look, I couldn’t bring everything at once, so I thought, ‘What’s something important that shows you’re serious but is small, and you can take quickly?’ Toothbrush.” He waved it in front of Mark’s face, which put his erection and his toothbrush too close to each other for comfort. He pulled it back quickly.
Mark’s confusion melted into a wide grin. “This is proof that you’re going to move in with me.”
“Yep.”
“Even though you already have a toothbrush there.”
“Do you want to make fun of me or get fucked?”
“Hm.” Mark pretended to think. “Can’t I do both?”
“One at a time.”
Mark leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss to the crown of Gabe’s cock. “Fucking first, then teasing.”
“Thank God.” Hooking his hands under Mark’s arms, Gabe pulled Mark to standing. It was hard to kiss a man who was grinning uncontrollably, and maybe trying not to laugh, but Gabe did his damndest.
They wrestled a bit, trying to strip each other. Gabe ended up laughing as Mark got his sweats hung up on his erection and had to fiddle with the drawstring. Mark got his own back when Gabe had to hop and kick his pants away from his feet. By the time they fell, naked, onto the bed, they were both laughing, and any lingering anxiety from their disagreement was a million miles away.
Laughter deteriorated into sighs and groans when Gabe finally got Mark under him. Stretched out on his back with Gabe braced above him, Mark writhed, trying to bring their bodies into more contact. Gabe didn’t allow it. If Mark wanted Gabe to fuck him, that was what Gabe would do. He wasn’t going to be distracted by Mark thrusting and wriggling against him.
Mark stretched his neck, straining to bring his face closer to Gabe’s. They were kissing before Gabe remembered he was on a mission. He wouldn’t be distracted by Mark trying to turn their kisses passionate enough that Gabe forgot what he was supposed to be doing either.
But they could kiss for a few minutes.
When Gabe pulled back, Mark’s head hit the pillow with a thump. His chest heaved, and his arms stretched wide across the bed.
Gabe sat up and spread Mark’s legs over his lap. He skirted the palms of his hands over Mark’s muscular thighs. The hair there sent tingles up Gabe’s arm as he swept over it. Mark’s knees squeezed around his sides.
“Want any prep?”
Mark rolled his hips, and his cock jumped. “Nah, but start slow.”
Still rubbing across his legs, Gabe made no move to get started. Instead, he grinned down at Mark. He loved the moments when he had power over Mark. Power that was freely given and sometimes begged for.
“What if I want to take my time getting you ready?” Gabe’s hands dipped to the curve of Mark’s ass.
“Save it for the shower sex,” Mark groaned. Another hip roll had Gabe’s hands sliding even lower until he cupped Mark’s ass in both palms.
He kneaded Mark’s cheeks, fingertips dipping into Mark’s crack and gently stroking the sensitive skin along its edges. Mark seemed to forget for a few moments what he wanted. He thrust his hips, his cock searching for friction, and pressed his ass hard into Gabe’s hands.
Gabe was careful to stay away from Mark’s hole. He needed lube for that to be pleasurable for more than just a moment. It was more fun to tease anyway.
Mark was not a man to be distracted for long. “Fuck me. Or I’ll make fun of your toothbrush again.”
He gave Mark’s ass one last squeeze. To get to the nightstand, he had to stretch all the way across Mark’s body. Mark placed nibbling kisses and licks on any part of Gabe he could reach, making Gabe scramble blindly for a condom and lube.
If he raised up, repositioned his legs, he could slide back into Mark’s mouth… No, they were fucking. Because Mark wanted to, and Gabe would give Mark whatever he wanted.
Condom rolled on, Gabe poured a healthy stream of lube onto his cock. A few strokes had him fully hard, slick, and ready to go. Mark lay beneath him with hands hooked behind his knees to draw his legs back and out.
Gabe loved this position. He could see Mark’s face, and the strain on Mark’s body meant his lean muscles bulged and pulled as they fucked. It also brought as much of Mark’s body hair in contact with Gabe’s smoother skin as possible. Gabe loved a lot of other positions, too, but this one was five stars, for sure.
He rubbed the tip of his cock against Mark’s hole. “Ready?”
Mark huffed. “I’ve been ready for fifteen minutes. You’ve been lollygagging.”
“Lollygagging?” Gabe laughed. “That’s not even a real word.”
“Gabe, so help me God, if you don’t do something—”
Gabe cut him off by applying an easy, steady pressure to Mark’s hole. It opened slowly, stretching around Gabe’s cock. He leaned back to watch as much as he could. The view wasn’t great, but he could see his shaft move forward as he sank into Mark’s body.
He stopped part way in to add another squeeze of lube between them and reached down to spread it across their skin where he pushed into Mark. He might have spent more time teasing and rubbing the edges of Mark’s hole than strictly necessary, but Mark moaned instead of telling him to get on with it. After they were properly slick, Gabe braced himself on his hands above Mark.
Mark’s eyelids fluttered, keeping his eyes mostly closed, and his jaw clenched.
“All right?” Gabe asked. It was hard to tell sometimes if something was pleasure, or pain, or both. And if the narrow line between the two was welcome.
Mark nodded but kept his eyes lightly closed.
Gabe pushed in another fraction of an inch, making Mark moan. Definitely a good face, then. He picked up a gentle but steady rhythm, rocking in and out of Mark’s body, getting deeper and deeper until his balls were pushed against the curve of Mark’s ass.
He kept it slow—focusing on going deep instead of on speed—until Mark rolled and bucked with him. Mark liked it that way, at least in the beginning. And Gabe had no complaints either as he watched a bead of sweat slide from Mark’s neck, across his collarbone, and onto his chest.
A particularly hard roll of Mark’s hips drew Gabe’s attention. Mark’s eyes were wide open now, and his hands grabbed for Gabe’s ass.
“Come on. More.”
Gabe gave three hard, quick thrusts. “You ready for this to be over already?”
“The faster we get to the shower sex.”
Gabe laughed and lowered himself to give Mark a quick kiss. It was supposed to be quick, but Mark dragged it out with his tongue and teeth playing with Gabe’s bottom lip. It was hard to pull away.
Finally, Gabe pushed himself up and sat tall on his knees, gripping Mark’s thighs. He maneuvered one of Mark’s legs to his shoulder causing Mark’s hips to slide lower and Gabe to sink deeper.
“Fuck yes,” Mark moaned.
Gabe used that leverage to really start fucking Mark. Fast, hard, and deep. It wasn’t a pace he could keep up for long, both because he needed to do more cardio and because he would come within a few minutes.
That wasn’t a problem though. Mark’s hand fisted his cock, trying to keep up with Gabe’s erratic rhythm. His head was thrown back and a barely intelligible string of pleas and curses poured out of him. Gabe knew what he needed to push him over the edge.
“I’m not going to stop until you come. I want to see it. I want to feel you around me. I might not stop even then. I might keep pounding you until you can’t take it anymore. Come on, baby. Come for me.”
Mark’s back bowed, and he came with a shout.
“Oh, fuck,” Gabe gritted out through his te
eth. Mark gripped him so tightly it felt as if he would be pushed out. He waited until the pressure eased and the last spurts of come dripped from Mark’s cock before thrusting again. Gabe came deep inside Mark, collapsing on top of him as the last twitches of orgasm subsided.
He lay there, breathing heavily as Mark stroked his back. He might have dozed off a bit because Mark pushed at his shoulder.
“Move. You’re hot.”
Gabe gave an effortless, “Yeah, I know” as he flopped on his back next to Mark. That was a benefit of a king-sized bed. Another perk to moving in with Mark. He let his eyes close again.
The bed dipped a bit as Mark rolled away. Gabe listened to him move around the room, to water running in the bathroom, until Mark nudged him this way and that so the covers could be pulled up over both of them. The sheets stuck to his chest a bit. He should get up and shower, but it felt like so much work.
Mark’s arm rested heavily against his stomach. Gabe definitely wasn’t getting up now.
“Are you going back to sleep?”
Gabe hummed in response.
“You don’t have to move in here. We could get a new place together.”
Gabe grabbed Mark’s wrist and rolled so his back was to Mark. He tugged, urging Mark forward until Mark’s chest pressed against him.
“Later. I slept like shit last night.”
“Me too.” Mark kissed the back of his head. “I was worried.”
He kissed the back of Mark’s hand. “Me too.”
“More like scared shitless.”
So the emotional conversation was happening now whether he liked it or not. He owed Mark that after putting them through such shit.
“Hey…” Gabe rolled over so he could look Mark in the eye. “I’m sorry. I should have talked to you about it, but, I don’t know, I just avoided it until I couldn’t anymore and Christmas pushed me into a full freak-out. Not that your family made me freak-out. They were great. I really liked them. I just…yeah. I didn’t handle it well.”
Mark propped himself up on an elbow, giving him the leverage to lean down and kiss Gabe.
“I didn’t either. I should have had an actual conversation with you about moving in together instead of only joking, or implying, or pushing.”
Gabe huffed out a laugh. “I may not have handled that well either.”
“As long as you’re sure?” Mark asked again.
“I am. I promise.” Gabe didn’t know exactly how he had become so sure so quickly, but he couldn’t think of anything he wanted more. Another night spent in his own apartment would be torture. Even if Mark was with him, it still wouldn’t be their place.
Mark kissed him again and pulled back with a grin. “I’m glad you liked my family. Jess has been bugging me since we got back about how I better not fuck this up.”
Gabe stretched and snuggled deeper into the covers. “You can tell her we made up.”
“I might let her suffer for a while.”
“She’s your sister,” Gabe scolded. “So, are you going to take a nap with me or not?” He was about to fall asleep either way. He just needed an hour or two, and then he’d be good for the day. Just an hour…
The bed moved again, and a cool breeze touched Gabe’s side.
“I’m going to go for a run, and maybe we can have brunch for real when I get back.”
Gabe reached out a hand, reluctantly freeing it from the covers. “Come back to bed. The sidewalks are icy.”
Mark knotted their fingers together and squeezed. “After my run. I’ll be careful.”
Sex always made Mark energetic. Apparently, make-up sex even more so.
Gabe drifted off listening to Mark pull on his running clothes.
He grumbled and rolled over but didn’t really wake up when Mark crawled back into bed beside him, freshly showered and stripped to the skin. The next time he woke with Mark’s leg shoved between his own and Mark’s gentle breath on the back of his neck. His stomach rumbled, but their belated brunch could wait a little longer.
January 1st
“HOW DID YOU have so much stuff crammed into your tiny apartment?”
“Are you complaining about hauling boxes? Mr. I-Go-To-The-Gym-And-Have-Actual-Biceps?”
It wasn’t that much stuff. Mark was being a grump. Just because Mark had bought into the midcentury modern, minimalist, Ikea-but-expensive BS didn’t mean Gabe did.
“This is a box of books. Books are heavy.” The box thunked on the floor where Mark dropped it. Gabe was already unpacking another box of books. They’d have to get more shelves.
He shot Mark his sweetest smile. “You know what John Waters said. ‘If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.’”
Mark wiped sweat off his brow with the hem of his ratty old T-shirt. Gabe would not have been looking for books if he had come home with Mark that first time. But the point was still a good one.
“He said that before e-readers existed.” Mark flopped on the couch, just close enough to where Gabe was sitting on the floor so he could reach out and tangle his fingers in the kinky hair on the crown of Gabe’s head.
He tipped his head back to give Mark easier access. “Is that the last box?”
“Yep.”
There were boxes all over the living room, and Gabe had taken some into the bedroom too. Maybe Mark had a point. Gabe chewed on his bottom lip.
“This might not all fit.”
Mark gave a little tug on his hair. “You tell me that after I carried all the boxes.”
“Hey! You didn’t carry all of them. I helped.”
“You helped until the first interesting box hit the floor, and then you started unpacking.”
Gabe couldn’t argue the point. “I’m easily distracted.”
Mark tugged again. “Then come up here and let me distract you.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. Gabe straddled Mark’s groin as Mark stretched out beneath him. Mark’s hands settled on Gabe’s hips. He smelled musky—like salt and sweat.
Gabe bent and licked a trail up the side of Mark’s neck. He tasted like salt and sweat too. Taking his time, Gabe planted a few kisses under Mark’s jaw before sitting up.
He looked out over the boxes covering the floor. “Seriously, though, we may not have space for all my stuff.”
Mark rubbed his palms over Gabe’s thighs. “We might have to look for a bigger place.”
They had decided Gabe would move into Mark’s condo to start with; then, they could take their time figuring out what their next move would be. The towers of boxes made that choice feel more pressing than it had before Gabe had moved his stuff in. Mark squeezed Gabe’s thighs, drawing his attention from the boxes and back to Mark’s blue eyes.
“A bigger place closer to work would be nice.”
“Closer to work?” Gabe grinned and ground his ass against Mark’s cock. “But think about how much fun we’re going to have carpooling.”
Acknowledgements
Huge thanks to Haley who is the best brainstorming partner a girl could want.
About the Author
Gretchen Evans is a bisexual, cis woman living with her partner in North Carolina. Her day job involves figuring out the best way to ask people questions they don’t want to answer. In the evenings, she does hot yoga and watches any TV show that can be read as queer-coded. She only drinks beer disguised as root beer and her perfect Sunday involves half listening to an NFL game as she reads a book. She plans to continue writing queer romance with engaging characters, sexy times, and feelings.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @gretchen_writes
Other books by this author
Bumper to Bumper (Cruised, Book One)
Also Available from NineStar Press
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