by Anna Martin
“This is really happening, isn’t it?” Adam murmured. “I really get to have this.”
“Mhmm.”
“I so thought I’d fucked it up.”
Jared nudged Adam onto his back and twisted so he was lying at a ninety-degree angle, his feet hanging off the edge of the bed. Like this, Adam’s belly was once again his pillow.
“Sometimes… I don’t know. There’s a journey involved. It took us a while to get here but it was worth it, right?”
“Yeah. I’m going to be apologizing to you for what happened for the rest of our relationship.”
“Do that and it won’t be very long,” Jared said easily. “I’m over it, Adam. In a weird way, I don’t blame you.”
“But it was my fault.”
“Well, yeah,” Jared said with a laugh. “I get the circumstances now, though. I can’t blame you for acting the way you had always acted before you met me.”
“I’m different now.”
“In some ways, yeah. That’s why I’m with you.” Jared turned his head and grinned up at Adam.
“I just thought of something.”
“Oh?”
“We never went out to the club. With your fake ID.”
“And it was so nice for Clare to get it for me.”
Adam tugged at Jared’s hair lightly. “We should go out. Like, dancing or whatever.”
“You want to be seen in public with me? Why, Mr. Hemlock. I’m honored.” The fingers in Jared’s hair tightened. “Fine! Fine. I’d love to go out with you. Set it up, I’ll go.”
Adam sighed in apparent happiness. “I love it when I get what I want.”
Waking up in Adam’s bed, in Adam’s room, in Adam’s arms… it wouldn’t be a given for much longer, so Jared tried to savor it. His partner was no longer the covers-stealer he used to be; it seemed he preferred to drape himself over Jared’s back as he slept, cheek pressed between Jared’s shoulder blades.
Time seemed to be moving too fast. Spring was already creeping in around the edges of winter, stealing some of the chill out of the rain and nudging flowers up out of the ground. Jared imagined summer would come before any of them was ready for it, bringing finals and the last few months of their adolescence before the whole gang split, heading to different corners of the country for college.
For now, though, there was a weak band of sunlight falling through the drapes, and Jared felt more relaxed than he had in a long while.
Of course, the blaring of Adam’s alarm ruined his peaceful reflection as well as a foghorn would have.
“I really wish you would change that,” Jared mumbled, shifting onto his back and opening his arm for Adam to snuggle back into his side. “It’s fucking annoying.”
Noises came from Adam’s lips, but none of them were any language Jared understood. For a few moments he was content to hold onto his lover, the two of them still clinging to sleep and each other as the realities of morning made themselves known.
The school day was beckoning. Both boys kept their eyes closed and ignored it.
Adam was making the reality of his erection known, and Jared was trying to decide if he was going to do anything about it when Adam ducked his head and licked Jared’s nipple, then pulled it between his teeth.
They’d learned a lot about each other sexually, and Jared’s nipples were pretty much his number one hotspot to getting turned on quickly. He groaned and arched his back, and Adam just chuckled.
“Come get in the shower with me,” Adam said, rubbing his hand over Jared’s belly.
“Yeah,” Jared croaked. “Okay.”
They stumbled out of bed and into the huge bathroom, dominated by the walk-in shower, and kicked off the underwear they’d slept in. Jared loved it in here. It was cocoon-like, the wall of glass blocks turning everything outside the shower cubicle into an impressionistic nothing. The tiles were stone colored—probably real stone, considering the scope of the rest of the house—and covered the walls and floor of the bathroom. It was clean and modern, very Adam.
He let Adam fiddle with the dials until steaming water poured over them both, then Adam was in his arms again and Jared puzzled over why they’d never shared a shower before.
Too intimate, he thought as Adam ran slick palms over his chest and kissed up his neck. Jared loosely wrapped his arms around his lover’s waist and rocked them together under the water. Their erections strained up between their bodies, pressing together, the trickling water down their chests an erotic tickle on sensitive skin.
Jared reached farther and pressed two fingers between Adam’s cheeks, seeking out the puckered hole and teasing it gently. Adam would deny it if Jared ever commented, but he was so sensitive here, which made the whole area ripe for teasing.
Struck with inspiration, Jared leaned down and kissed Adam’s neck.
“Hey,” he murmured. “You trust me, right?”
“Mm. Yeah. Why?”
“Can I try something?”
Adam nodded, and Jared kissed him again, on the mouth this time, firm and promising.
He took hold of Adam’s shoulders and turned him to face the wall. Standing behind, he lifted Adam’s arms and braced his hands against the smooth tile, then took hold of slim hips and pulled them back.
“You’re gonna need to get lube if you want to fuck me,” Adam said. He didn’t sound opposed to the idea of sex, maybe a little wary of doing it dry.
“I’m not going to fuck you,” Jared murmured. He kissed down the length of Adam’s spine, crouching to get to the last vertebra.
When he licked at the very top of Adam’s ass crack Adam realized what was about to happen and groaned. He reached for his cock, and Jared smacked the hand away.
“Hands on the wall,” he said firmly.
Adam whimpered and complied.
This was new territory to Jared. He’d seen it before, in porn, but had never felt comfortable enough with a partner to do it in real life. That was all about to change.
He used his palms to spread Adam’s cheeks and flicked his tongue over his bottom lip as he looked at the tiny pink hole. A drop of water from the shower ran down Adam’s crack, and Jared leaned forward without thinking about what he was doing and licked it off.
The sound Adam made was possibly inhuman, and Jared grinned to himself. He watched the pink pucker twitch, then licked it again, and again.
Since this was new to the both of them Jared didn’t mind experimenting, from quick flicks of his tongue to slow, sensuous laps from the back of Adam’s balls all the way up to the base of his spine. Adam’s hips rocked back and forth, thrusting into nothingness as Jared ate at his hole.
Soon Jared’s confidence was skyrocketing, and he worked his tongue inside, pressing it hard enough to pierce through the ring of muscle, and Adam howled.
“Please,” he begged, voice raw and needy. “I’m about to come, baby.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I need to touch my dick, please, Jared.”
“Okay,” Jared growled, then dove straight back in between the soft cheeks, determined that if Adam was going to stroke himself to orgasm, it would be with Jared’s tongue in his ass.
Adam must have been closer to the edge than Jared realized because it was only moments later that Adam’s back arched and he yelled, spurting come at the tiles. Jared reached for his own cock and, while still licking at Adam’s twitching hole, brought himself to orgasm in less than three strokes.
While they were both still panting and breathless, Jared kissed back up Adam’s spine and stretched his aching knees.
“Holy fucking shit,” Adam gasped as Jared kissed his neck, under his ear.
Jared chuckled darkly. “Oh, yeah.”
“That was insane.”
“You liked it?”
“Fuck, yeah.”
“Good.”
Adam turned in Jared’s arms and kissed him passionately, tongue stealing straight into Jared’s mouth as he pushed his hands into Jared’s wet hair.
“You want me to….” Adam asked, a clear offer in his words.
Jared laughed again. “Oh, I came about three seconds after you did.”
Looking down at Jared’s softening dick, Adam frowned, like he’d been denied something. Then he shrugged.
“That was hot. Want me to wash your hair?”
“Sure.”
Despite being shorter, Adam could still get his hands into Jared’s hair and wash it with something that smelled expensive—spicy and woodsy, not the stuff Jared had picked up when he was at the drugstore. When Adam was done, Jared spun him around and proceeded to return the favor. What he didn’t expect was Adam’s reaction.
“Oh, fuck,” Adam groaned. Sex noises. Jared’s exhausted dick perked up immediately.
“Down, boy,” Jared murmured to himself. Or, a part of himself, at least. “You like that?”
“Mm.” Adam hummed in deep contentment. “This is why I always go to women’s hairdressing salons. I love getting my hair washed.”
Jared smiled to himself. It was so typical—the prince liked to be pampered. It shouldn’t have surprised him.
He rinsed Adam’s hair, then quickly washed his body with products that probably cost more than what he spent in a year on shower gel, then ducked out of the shower. There were two towels hanging up, one for each of them, and Jared wrapped one around his waist.
“I need to shave,” he lamented as he looked in the mirror and ran a hand over his jaw.
“ You know where the spare razors are. Help yourself.” Adam was still in the shower, rubbing silky stuff up and down his body. Jared had been forced to step out before he ravished the man all over again.
They were going to be late for school. There was no way of getting around that now, and Jared was oddly at peace with the idea as he carefully shaved, then brushed his teeth. Adam joined him and loaded up his toothbrush, and Jared kissed his wet shoulder quickly before moving back into the bedroom.
The alarm clock blinked at him accusingly from the nightstand: 08:16.
Shit.
“We’re late, Adam,” he called, quickly drying his hair and dressing in the uniform he’d brought with him. Boxers, undershirt, shirt—unbuttoned—pants, socks, shoes.
Adam walked out of the bathroom naked, the towel slung over his shoulder, apparently not bothered that they were going to be late for school. Very late.
“I think I need a cigarette after that,” he drawled as he wandered to his open closet.
“No time. Get dressed, and you can smoke on the way.”
“Baby, you’re killing my buzz,” Adam said, tossing the towel on the floor and stepping into his black Calvins. “You can’t eat me out like that, then rush me. I want to ride this high all day.”
“I’ll give you something to ride in a minute,” Jared muttered, vaguely threatening as he sat down on the edge of the bed to tie his shoes.
“I heard that.”
Despite his grouching, Adam dressed quickly and didn’t take too long at the mirror styling his hair. When he caught sight of Jared fiddling with his tie, he gave a tiny, bemused smile and turned, stepping right into Jared’s personal space.
“Look, you’ll have to learn how to do this on your own sooner or later,” Adam said affectionately. “You need the thick end to be longer than the skinny end….”
He tied a perfect Windsor knot, calmly explaining the process as he went, then pressed a soft kiss to Jared’s lips before stepping away.
“Thanks,” Jared said quietly.
“Any time.”
Jared drove to school too fast in Adam’s car because it was faster than Jared’s, and Adam insisted on smoking on the way. They shared the cigarette, making the twenty-minute journey in ten due to the traffic gods smiling on them and because the early morning student rush was already over.
They stumbled into homeroom class after roll call was over, both giggling a little.
Ms. Bowen gave them a dirty look.
“Sorry we’re late,” Adam said, attempting to look contrite. “We were having sex in the shower.”
There was a combined intake of breath from the rest of the class, and Jared forced himself not to blush. Then someone snorted with laughter, and their teacher was definitely blushing, and it was okay.
“Take a seat, gentlemen,” she said drily.
Jared sat in his usual space and knew everyone was looking at them. Adam sat on his lap, draping himself languidly with one arm around Jared’s shoulders.
“Your own seat, Mr. Hemlock.”
“Fine,” Adam sighed heavily, and kissed Jared’s cheek before getting to his feet and sitting at his own desk.
Jared pulled out his notebook and started to flick through it, aware they’d just given every kid in the school permission to talk shit about them the rest of the day.
“Did you really tell Bowen you were late because you were having sex?”
Mia was in a different homeroom class than the rest of the Scooby gang, something that annoyed her greatly.
“Yeah,” Adam said indifferently.
“Were you?” Ryder asked.
“What, having sex?” Adam was teasing her, and she blushed. “Yeah. It was totally worth it, too.”
Jared laughed and squeezed Adam’s thigh. Adam was so full of shit sometimes, it didn’t matter whether or not his stories were true. He pulled it off with such aplomb that little things like accuracy were irrelevant. He continued to peel his orange in silence, concentrating on the movement of his fingers and not the gossip that swirled around the table like mosquitoes.
Biting.
Chris leaned over the table, and Jared offered him a slice of the orange. He took it and nodded his thanks.
“You a’ight?”
“Yeah, man, I’m good,” Jared said with a grin.
“You quiet.”
Jared shrugged. “Sometimes it’s better to say nothing. I’m trying to teach Adam that, but he’s not listening.”
Chris laughed and leaned back in his chair. “You seen Dylan recently?” It was an innocent enough question, but Jared felt Adam stiffen next to him. Chris didn’t know it was still a delicate topic between them. “Tell him I said hi next time you do.”
“I will,” Jared promised. “And yeah, he’s still tutoring me. Hell, my father is paying, and it’s working out—my grades have gone up.”
Chris nodded sagely. “Good. Gotta get you into a decent college.”
“I’ll be all right,” Jared said with a laugh. “Where are you going? Have you decided yet?”
“MIT,” Chris said. “Just waiting for them to send me my fuckin’ Hogwarts letter.”
Jared laughed again and held his hand out for a fist bump. “Good luck, man.”
“You too. You too.”
“So, you two are going to prom together, I take it,” Ryder said, cutting through the moment Jared was sharing with Chris.
Adam rolled his eyes. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah,” Ryder said. She was, too. Her eyes held no hint of humor. “Everyone keeps asking me, and I hate telling them I don’t know.”
“I’ve booked the Murano in Tacoma,” Clare said, sliding into the conversation. “It’s gorgeous. Very modern art inspired.”
“You’re on the prom committee?” Jared asked. He smirked at her.
“Psh. Bitch, I am the prom committee.”
Adam laughed and threw his arm around Jared’s shoulders. “You wanna go?”
Jared shrugged. “Sure.”
Adam turned to Ryder. “We’re going,” he said simply.
“Aw!” Ryder squealed and clapped her hands together like a little girl. “You two are so adorable.”
On their way out of school that afternoon, Jared hugged his books to his chest and frowned. He’d spent the last classes of the day bitching in his head about Ryder and how she acted around them.
“What crawled up your ass and died?” Adam asked as he took the keys and got into the driver’s seat of the Audi. Jared didn’t
even blink, just got in the passenger side and tuned in the radio.
“Ryder.”
“Bitch pisses me off.”
“Thank god,” Jared said with a sigh. He pulled his feet up onto the seat and let his head fall back.
“That’s just how she is, though. She barely paid me any attention until I came out, then I was her gay best friend. Mia’s the same—those girls always want me to go shopping with them or go out on girls’ nights, or go dancing… I suppose they mean well, but it grates sometimes.”
“Am I really your prom date?” Jared asked, teasing now.
“Fuck you.”
“Later. Are you going to pick me up? Will there be a corsage?”
“Well,” Adam said, signaling to take the road that led to his house, “Clare let slip a while back which hotel it was going to be held at. And prom’s the same weekend every year. So I called and booked their presidential suite just to really annoy her.”
Jared laughed. “That’s awesome.”
“Mhmm. And I bought your ticket already.”
“You really are taking me to prom.” He said it not teasing this time, actually, strangely… touched.
Adam shrugged. “If you like.”
Leaning over the divide in the car, Jared pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you.”
“Hey,” Adam said softly. “It was the least I could do.”
Chapter 21
Black jeans. Gray shirt unbuttoned at least halfway. Black boots.
He wanted to look good for Adam, for his boyfriend to look at him and think, fuck, that guy’s with me. At the same time, he wasn’t going out with the intention of hooking up, so there was a line to walk.
Adam’s low whistle when he opened the door and looked Jared up and down made him smile. Mission accomplished.
“Hey,” Jared said, grinning.
“You look hot,” Adam told him emphatically.
“So do you.”
It wasn’t an empty compliment. Adam was wearing dark blue jeans that hugged his ass deliciously, and a soft jersey long-sleeved tee that showed off the definition in his arms. They would look good together, Jared decided.
