by Anna Martin
“So, Seattle?” Jared asked as Adam patted his pockets, checking everything, then pulled the door closed behind himself.
“Yeah. Let’s do it.”
They held hands on the drive down to the city for their long overdue date out dancing, finding enough to talk about to fill the entire journey, despite seemingly spending all their spare time together. Jared was settling into this relationship like it was an old, comfortable sweater. Everything fit perfectly and felt right. Even the man next to him, despite all the odds.
When they approached the city, Adam sat up a little straighter and squinted at the dark streets, giving directions rather than letting Jared set up a GPS.
“We should go to Stars first,” he said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “It’s a good place to start the night.”
“Sure.”
“And you should be able to find a space to park close to there.”
Stars turned out to be more of a bar than a club, and security at the door barely gave their fake IDs a second glance before waving them in. Rather than booths, the place was littered with small, low tables that had even lower stools set around them, and the ceiling was lit up by fairy lights. To make it look like stars, Jared assumed.
“Beer?” Adam asked when they had wound their way through the groups of people to the bar. “Or something else?”
“Could I get a Jack and Coke?”
Adam nodded once and turned to the bar to wait his turn. Jared rested his hand on Adam’s lower back and looked out over the busy room.
It was definitely a predominantly gay crowd, although there was a group of girls he assumed were college age in one corner. It seemed far more relaxed than previous gay bars he’d been in, where the music was deafeningly loud and the atmosphere electric. Here, things were much more laid back, with a small platform in one corner he assumed was for live music.
“Here,” Adam said, passing him a short glass.
“Thanks.”
Because he could, Jared leaned in and attached his lips to his boyfriend’s. It was a soft, slow, dry rub of lips against lips, and for some reason, doing it here sent a thrill down Jared’s spine.
“I think you’re a secret exhibitionist,” Adam murmured, his eyes full of mischief and laughter.
“Maybe.”
A table vacated and Adam slid into the space before anyone else could snag it. The bar was fairly dark, and the table was lit with a small candle in a mason jar. Adam stuck his finger in the pool of melted wax, letting it dry before peeling the second skin off.
“Sorry,” he said, blushing in the dim light when Jared caught him staring. “I used to do this all the time when I was a kid. Weird old habit.”
“I was just thinking how sexy you look.”
Adam huffed an amused laugh. “Thanks. I think.”
A few minutes later, the lights above the small platform flashed on and a youngish guy with a guitar took up residence on a short stool.
“I didn’t know there was live music tonight,” Adam said, reaching across the table to take Jared’s hand. “Awesome.”
Jared had to agree. The musician was clearly talented, playing a combination of covers and original songs the patrons seemed to enjoy. His easygoing, all-American charm won over the crowd, and they gave him rapturous applause at the end of each song.
“Thanks,” he murmured into his mic. “Gonna take a short break, then I’ll be back.”
Jared looked over and was surprised to see Adam looking at him intently.
“I have a confession to make,” he said slowly.
“Oh?”
“I really don’t want to stay for the end of the set.”
“All right,” Jared said, grinning. “We can go somewhere to dance now if you want.”
“I was thinking,” Adam said and brushed his thumbs back and forth across the tops of Jared’s hands, “we could go and get a hotel.”
“You want to take me to bed?”
“Yeah.”
Adam looked up with a vulnerability Jared wasn’t used to seeing in his eyes. He quickly squeezed the hands that were laced with his own.
“I can get down with that,” he said slowly. “Where do you have in mind?”
“Right now I don’t care. I just want to get you alone.”
There was a Hilton a few blocks away, and Adam put the room on his credit card without any hesitation. They took the elevator up to the fifteenth floor, and Jared used the key card to access a painfully generic room. On the way they’d stopped at a drugstore, buying condoms, lube, and snacks to get them through the night.
“You should let your mom know we’re staying out. I don’t want her to worry.”
An expression Jared couldn’t read crossed Adam’s face, but he sent off the message anyway, then switched his phone to silent mode.
“Come here,” he said in a low voice.
Jared crossed the room with swaggering slowness, wrapping his hands around Adam’s hips where they fit most neatly. Adam tilted his chin until their noses were touching, and this close, Jared couldn’t look into sweet, smoky gray eyes without his own crossing.
Reaching up, Adam took Jared’s face in his palms and drew their mouths together. They kissed unhurriedly, knowing they had all the time in the world for this. Jared couldn’t help but smile as their lips brushed back and forth, back and forth, a kiss that spoke of not just love but friendship, the intimate knowing of each other.
Adam arched his back into Jared’s measured thrusts and groaned loudly. His arms were pressed against the bed’s headboard, toes curled against the aching pleasure of Jared’s dick mashing against his prostate.
“Fuck,” Adam moaned and Jared licked up the side of his sweaty neck.
They hadn’t fucked in this position before: Jared behind Adam, clutching his slim hips with sticky fingers as his cock relentlessly pounded a desperate, begging hole. Jared hadn’t known he could be this… this wanton, this needy. This much of a fucking power bottom.
Jared purposefully slowed his frantic movements and leaned forward, pressing his chest to Adam’s back, giving him the whole of his neck and shoulders to explore with his tongue.
“This okay?” he murmured.
“Yeah. So good.”
“Mm. Good.”
The thrusts turned into a slow, aching grind, teasing and eking out the pleasure. Jared couldn’t help the soft moans that fell from his lips, the gasps and groans and murmurs of “baby” and “oh god” and “please.”
At first, Jared was reluctant to take Adam like this, making it so overtly sexual. When they’d been together before, it had been close, face-to-face, nose-to-nose, sharing each breath with each moment. This was wild.
Reaching up, Jared flattened his hands over Adam’s nipples, then used his thumb and forefinger to roll them gently. The careful tugging made Adam buck again, cock thrusting into nothing.
“You are so”—Jared sank his teeth into tender neck flesh, surely leaving a mark—“so fucking beautiful.”
Adam laughed breathlessly and twisted his head, bringing their lips together for a breathless kiss.
“Make me come, Jared,” he said. “I want to come with you.”
Now that was something Jared could get down with. He tweaked and pulled at one of Adam’s nipples and trailed his other hand down a defined chest, feather-light, then took Adam’s aching, straining cock into his fist.
There was enough clear fluid seeping from the tip to provide delicious slickness to Jared’s expert milking, and Adam humped and groaned, clearly lost in the sensations that were assaulting his body.
“With me,” he gasped again, and Jared pressed his forehead between sweaty shoulders.
“So close.”
“Me too.”
There was a twisting heat deep in Jared’s groin that threatened to spring loose at any moment. All he could do was keep moving, keep angling his thrusts against the sweet spot deep in Adam’s body, ride it hard until Adam’s body bowed back, baring h
is throat to the sky, and he shuddered all the way to his bones.
Jared almost lost purchase on the trembling body beneath him and flattened the hand on Adam’s chest, riding the waves of pleasure that spasmed from his own body into Adam’s.
“I love you,” he said, his voice surprisingly calm and steady. “I love you.”
They showered together in a cubicle that was far too small for two people, then collapsed into a soft, luxurious bed and turned on the TV. It was still early, for a weekend, though there was nowhere else Jared wanted to be.
Naked, curled up in Adam’s arms. Because he could, Jared leaned in and took a deep breath of Adam’s musky clean hair. Adam twisted, kissed the corner of Jared’s mouth, and smiled.
Things were easy for a few weeks, and then suddenly all anyone could talk about was college, and a strange sort of tension settled between Jared’s shoulders. He was fairly confident now that he’d get into one of the colleges he’d applied to; between Dylan’s tutoring and Adam’s help with French, Jared’s grades were excellent, and he’d put together a solid application.
They had agreed to open their college acceptance letters together, but Jared knew that Adam was possibly the most impatient person on the planet and only felt a little guilty when he ripped the envelope to shreds the moment Hadley passed it to him across the island in the kitchen. She was smirking slightly while sipping her coffee, and Jared didn’t care. He didn’t have the energy to play it cool right now.
His eyes met hers across the counter, and he breathed “I gotta go,” before running out of the house to the car, Hadley’s laughter following him.
When he arrived at the Hemlock house, Jared’s heart was beating so hard he thought there was a genuine possibility it would escape his throat, a bloody mess of sinew and tissue running down the front of his body. When he slammed the truck door closed, the front door of the house swung open and Adam stood there, barefoot, clutching his own open letter.
“Well?” Adam demanded.
Jared swallowed hard. “I got into Brown,” he said, his lips dry, throat raw.
For a moment Adam didn’t say anything. Then, “I got into Harvard.”
The words didn’t carry any of Adam’s usual swagger and arrogance. He’d been saying he was going to Harvard for years. The words barely held meaning any more. Now it was real, though. Now it was actually happening.
“That’s like, less than an hour away.”
Adam nodded. “More like thirty minutes if I’m driving. I looked it up earlier.”
They were still talking across a space of a hundred yards or so, Jared standing by his truck, Adam framed in the doorway to the house. All the things they hadn’t dared to say crossed that space, back and forth, back and forth.
We don’t have to split up.
We can still see each other all the time.
Hell, we could live together if we want.
Maybe in our second year. First year we have to do dorms. It’s part of the college experience.
You’re not going to be on the other side of the country come September.
After everything we’ve been through, I get to keep you.
Jared’s fingers twitched, then Adam ran out of the house, still barefoot, and hurled himself into Jared’s arms.
Jared caught him neatly and hauled him up, supporting his boyfriend by that very nice, very tight ass and buried his face in Adam’s neck. They didn’t need to say all those things aloud. For once Jared knew they were thinking the same thing. In a few months, they’d both move to the East Coast and start at Ivy League schools, and they’d be close enough to keep this still new, still fledgling relationship alive.
Thank God, he thought as he squeezed Adam tighter. They had a future together. Thank God.
Chapter 22
The Murano was one of the nicest hotels in the area. And even though it was only a high school prom, the hotel had gone all out, decorating the modern building with thousands of twinkling fairy lights and gorgeous displays of flowers. No balloons. New Harbor Academy was far too classy for that.
Jared had thought he was going to rent a tux, but it turned out there was no way his boyfriend was taking a date to prom in a rented tux, and they spent a very tense afternoon together in Seattle shopping before Jared picked something out to wear.
Apparently not all tuxedos were created equal. Who knew?
So, when he and Adam stepped out of the Caddy, Adam was wearing a Givenchy suit, and Jared was in Dolce & Gabbana. He’d nearly gone with Alexander McQueen, but D&G had won in the end.
They were dressed to perfection with the very definite goal of impressing. Jared tossed the car keys to a waiting valet and linked his fingers with Adam’s before they walked into the hotel.
Signs on large pieces of white paper directed them to the ballroom where the prom was being held—not that they needed directions. They could just follow the noise.
“Wait,” Jared said and pulled Adam into an alcove before they got to the main room.
“Hm?”
“I just… you look really amazing tonight.”
They’d already gone through this at Adam’s place. Juliette had insisted on taking a hundred pictures of them together before she let them go, and they’d promised they wouldn’t get drunk and drive home. Adam told her they had a room, and she’d relented. A little.
Because they’d both gotten dressed at Adam’s place, Jared knew his boyfriend wasn’t wearing underwear tonight, and on the whole ride over he’d been thinking about how fun it would be to peel the tight, glossy black pants off Adam later.
Later.
Adam reached up and cupped Jared’s face in his hand, then pressed their lips together lightly.
“I know,” he murmured, making Jared smile. “I love you.”
They walked into the ballroom holding hands, heads high, looking fucking good. Both of them.
It was, Jared decided after a few moments, like every other high school prom in the country. Just with more expensive outfits.
Someone was busy spiking the punchbowl, and he would bet his life savings everyone in the place had a sterling silver hipflask concealed somewhere on their person, ensuring the liquor kept flowing even when all the bar would serve was soft drinks. Except he’d been turned off bets recently.
Clare had selected, or possibly ordered, a table that sat on a slightly raised platform, giving her a view out over the whole party and the whole party a good view of her. She was wearing a tight gown that sparkled with crystals, more sparkle at her throat, wrists, and ears, and her hair piled up on top of her head in an elaborate twist. Next to her, Chris reclined in a black velvet suit, and although other minions fluttered and buzzed around them, Jared didn’t recognize them with more than a passing familiarity.
Ryder and Mia were dancing, wearing brightly colored dresses that made them look like elegant birds-of-paradise. Around them, other girls were dressed in Dior and Versace and labels movie stars wore on the red carpet to movie premiers, and no one thought twice about how ostentatious it was to put an eighteen-year-old in a twenty-four-hundred dollar dress.
“Come on, I’ll get you a drink,” Adam said, and led Jared to the bar with a hand on his lower back.
He ordered two Sprites with a smirk on his face that told the bartender the soda was about to get dirty very, very soon. The bartender didn’t seem to care and took the tip with a friendly nod.
At the head table, Adam pulled out a seat for Jared before reaching into his breast pocket and retrieving a slim silver flask. Chris nodded at them.
“Lookin’ sharp, gentlemen,” he said with exaggerated sophistication.
“You too, bro.” Adam held out the flask but Chris declined.
Between them, Clare sniffed.
“You look nice too,” Jared said condescendingly.
“I know.”
She couldn’t know that she’d echoed Adam’s words from earlier, or why Jared let out an amused snort. Adam swatted him on the thigh.
&nbs
p; “So, what’s been going down?” Adam asked.
“Well, princess here”— Chris gestured to Clare again, and Jared had to try really hard not to laugh again—“has been giving scores to the best dresses.”
“Anyone ranked over a five yet?” Adam said to Clare with a grin.
“Not yet,” she said.
Under the table, Jared groped for Adam’s hand, then linked their fingers together.
“Not even us?” he asked her.
Clare looked them slowly up and down, taking in the crisp suits and expensive accessories.
“Fine,” she relented. “Combined, you get an eight.”
Instead of bitching back, Jared laughed.
Jared wasn’t sure what started it, or who. He and Adam were making out in a corner when he heard a shriek of horror from the dance floor, and he almost bit Adam’s lip in his haste to look over and see what was going on.
“Fuck,” Adam gasped, then turned to look over his shoulder. “Bitch fight?” He turned back to Jared, his face bright and excited. “Aw, yeah.”
Jared laughed and pulled his hand back from where it had been gratuitously groping Adam’s ass. “Wanna go watch?”
“Oh hell, yeah.”
They stumbled away from their dark corner and out to the dance floor where pools of light pulsed pink and yellow and green. There was a crowd gathered in a tight circle, and Chris was barging his way to the center of it, his thick elbows shoving people out of the way.
Adam quickly followed in his wake, and they found themselves in the middle of cat fight hell.
For three young women who’d been raised with poise and class, when they were fighting, Clare, Mia, and Ryder looked deranged. Clare’s carefully styled hair was loose around her shoulders, and her dark red lipstick was smudged across her face. Mia’s lip was bleeding, and Ryder was crying even as she snarled and clawed at Mia’s dress.
“Aw, fuck this shit,” Chris crowed and grabbed the girl closest to him—tiny Mia—and hauled her away. As Adam grabbed Ryder and threw her over his shoulder fireman-style, the crowd parted and Jared was left with Clare.
