Tied to Trouble (Gamers)

by Megan Erickson

  Chad’s smirk fell from his lips. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Okay, O. I’ll drive safe.”

  Owen glanced in his rearview mirror at the motorcycle behind him. Chad was following Owen to his apartment, and the guy hadn’t once done anything daring or speedy or illegal.

  He was driving safely. Like Owen had asked. And he wanted another shot. Owen gripped the steering wheel and tried not to grin as he thought about getting Chad under him again. Beside him. He wanted the whole deal—reading on the couch while Chad worked on his laptop, fights over what was for dinner, who stole the covers.

  He hoped that was what Chad wanted, too.

  Owen parked and waited for Chad to park beside him. They walked silently to Owen’s front door, which he opened, and he gestured for Chad to walk in ahead of him. Chad did, with his helmet dangling from his fingers, neck craning, eyes wide as he took in Owen’s apartment.

  He made a slow circle and scratched his head. “Your place is pretty boss, O.”

  Owen stood awkwardly in front of his door. “Thanks.”

  Chad set his helmet down on a table in the foyer then took his leather jacket off, along with the harness. He dropped it all on the table and stood there, shirtless, his hands in his pockets. Owen had taken off his harness in the car and pulled on a T-shirt.

  He felt overdressed.

  He wanted to pull Chad into his arms, rub his hands all over that skin, but there was still this barrier between them, a barrier that could only be brought down by the truth.

  “Tell me about the job at the Peach Pit,” he said.

  Chad stared at the floor. “I wanted to go back to school. But it costs money, you know?” He lifted his head. Owen nodded. “So I asked my boss at Blue Moon if I could pick up extra shifts or something, and he said I could work a night at the Peach Pit. I told him I’d consider it and that was before”—he waved a hand between the two of them—“you know.”

  “Okay…”

  “And then we talked about me going back to school, and you seemed so stoked about it, and I wanted to… Fuck, it’s so dumb, but I didn’t want to let you down. And then I felt all this pressure, and the money thing freaked me out. So I thought I’d work one night at the Pit. I didn’t want it to be this big discussion between us, because we were still so new. I figured if it became steady, I’d come clean. And I know it seems so stupid now, but…” Chad shrugged. “I wanted to do this on my own. I didn’t want you to resent that you had this boyfriend who needed your help to get a degree. I wanted to be goddamn mature about it. And instead I was immature and stubborn.”

  “Chad, I wouldn’t have resented you,” Owen said.

  “Yeah, well, I can’t change what I did now. And while I was there, I was freaking out the whole time, wondering what you’d think. Which made me pissed off that I cared, and that was when it kinda hit me while I was holding a tray of drinks made by a girl named Candy that I was into you. Crazy into you.”

  Owen’s breath hitched at the raw honesty of the other man’s words. “Chad—”

  “And so then when I saw you there with that guy, I overreacted. I was mad at you for making me care so much about you.”

  Owen was still stuck on the previous sentence. “You’re really into me?”

  Chad shoved his shoulder. “Shut up, you know I am. No one ever gets a rise out of me like you do.”

  “I’m into you, too. You know?”

  Chad looked at him from under his lashes. “Of course you are. I’m awesome.”

  It was Owen’s turn to shove Chad. “I want you to know I wasn’t judging you for the job. I was angry you didn’t tell me. I know we’d only just been a thing for a couple of days, but I felt like you should have told me.”

  Chad nodded. “I should have. I knew it was wrong, in my gut. Anyway, I’m not going to do it anymore. It wasn’t my favorite thing.” He looked away then eyed Owen with a small smile on his lips. “I don’t want anyone looking at me but you.”

  Owen swallowed, his throat suddenly dry at the lust in Chad’s eyes. “I don’t want anyone looking at you but me. Call me a possessive bastard.”

  “Possessive bastard.”

  Chad glanced down the hallway of Owen’s apartment. “You, uh, got a shower? Because I want to touch you and have you touch me, but I really need a shower first.”

  Owen smiled. “Sure. There’s a drought, though, so we should conserve water. I’ll get in with you.”

  “You’re such a liar.” Chad laughed.

  Owen snaked out a hand and grabbed the waist of Chad’s pants, tugging Chad into his body. “You going to protest?”

  Chad’s smile was huge. “Never.”

  Then Owen kissed him.

  …

  The kiss was everything Chad hadn’t known kisses could be.

  It was full of want and need and pure, egoless so glad you’re mine. Owen licked into Chad’s mouth, completely owning the kiss, and Chad didn’t fight, didn’t want to fight. He enjoyed the taste of Owen along with a hint of bubbly champagne. This was it, this kiss. It was a promise of more, of a future. And it was a lot of savoring the now.

  He wasn’t sure how they got undressed, because they did it all with their lips locked together. Tongues were involved, and teeth, and then they were stumbling into the large, tiled shower, and the water was beating down on them, and Chad was in heaven, pure fucking heaven.

  Owen was a wet mess beneath Chad’s hands, his blue eyes bright and his blond hair in spikes. His lashes were wet and clumped, water ran down his face in rivulets, and he was so fucking sexy, all wet and glistening and fucking clean.

  They touched while they soaped up and shampooed, nipping skin where they could, until Chad had enough and dropped to his knees, taking Owen’s big dick down the back of his throat.

  Owen groaned and dropped his head against the wall. His lean body undulated, all wet skin and straining muscles.

  His head was back, eyes closed, as Chad sucked fast, his own cock hard between his legs where he knelt on the floor of the shower.

  He could have stayed there all day, worshipping Owen’s dick, but the man tugged on Chad’s hair and said breathlessly, “Up.”

  Chad pulled off so the head of Owen’s cock still rested on his lips. “But I’m not done.”

  Owen’s nostrils flared, and Chad knew it was taking effort for him to stop this. Owen shook his head. “I want to come together.”

  “Together?”

  Owen smiled. “Yeah, together.”

  Chad rose to his feet and pressed himself against Owen. “But how fun was that first time when we competed?” He smirked. “I won.”

  Owen smiled and ran a thumb over Chad’s lips. “Mmm, you might have thought you won.”

  “What d’ya mean? You came first!”

  “Yeah,” Owen said softly. “But I got to watch you. You are so fucking hot when you come, Chad. And I got to see it all, right there in front of me, with all my concentration. So I’m thinking I won.”

  Chad hadn’t thought Owen was romantic, but he was wrong, clearly. “Shit, don’t ever buy me something when you fuck up, just say shit like that and let me suck you. That’s all I need in life.”

  Owen slapped Chad’s ass. “Get out and dry off so I can fuck you.”

  Chad stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. “That’s probably the only way to get me to follow orders.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Owen threw his towel in a basket by the door, and Chad did the same. They stared at each other for a minute. And then Chad took off on a run into the bedroom, Owen hot on his heels.

  Chad flung himself on the bed Superman-style, and Owen wasn’t far behind, landing on his back, nearly taking the wind out of Chad, but he didn’t care. Not at all. Because he rolled them onto their sides and latched all four limbs around Owen and hugged him so goddamn tight, he was pretty sure neither of them was breathing properly.

  Owen’s hands clenched in Chad’s hair, and when Chad finally loosened hi
s hold, Owen pulled back to look in his eyes. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you, too, Bow Tie.”

  Owen kissed him, slow at first, his hips thrusting gently between Chad’s legs so their hard cocks rubbed together. Chad enjoyed the kiss and the touches and the nips of Owen’s teeth. He was marking him everywhere—his neck and shoulders and chest—like he’d promised all those weeks ago in the bathroom at Austin’s.

  Chad loved it.

  He didn’t know when he started begging, but it was somewhere between the time when he sucked on Owen’s fingers and those fingers slowly circled his hole while Owen sucked his balls into his mouth.

  But Owen just smiled wickedly and continued working him, until Chad was babbling and his cock was smearing precome all over his belly, and damn it, he just wanted to be fucked.

  When he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, Owen flipped him over, rolled on a condom, and entered him.

  Chad gripped the sheets. “Fucking finally, O,” he gasped.

  Owen still didn’t speed up the pace. His fists were planted in the bed under Chad’s arms, and he thrust slowly, changing the angle until Chad cried out.

  “There it is,” Owen said softly. “Now you’re ready.”

  “Ready for what?” Chad could barely breathe with that big dick taking up all the room.

  “Now you’re ready for me to fuck you,” Owen said.

  And then, with one powerful thrust, he picked up the pace. The room filled with the sounds of skin slapping and Chad swearing and Owen moaning.

  Chad didn’t even have the coordination to reach down and stroke his dick, so he didn’t bother, just lay there and let Owen completely destroy him for anyone else ever.

  Then Owen’s chest was on his back, and his voice was in Chad’s ear, and there were fingers around Chad’s dick, fingers that were squeezing and stroking in time to the dick plowing his ass.

  “Same time,” Owen whispered. “Remember?”

  “Unf,” Chad grunted.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Owen said.

  Chad smiled against the pillow as his balls drew up tight. He was close and tried to make some sounds to let Owen know, but the guy knew anyway. Somehow. Because he was murmuring things like, “Yeah, I’m there, too. Let’s do this. Come on, Chad.”

  And then Chad was coming, and Owen was making a strangled sound behind him, and the room was just one giant ball of light and nerves.

  As Owen panted in his ear, telling Chad he was beautiful and amazing and perfect, Chad thought maybe everything that had happened needed to happen for them to get to this point. So he sighed to himself and let Owen clean up after them and drifted into sleep with a smile on his face.

  When he woke up, the sun was setting. Chad rubbed his eyes, frowning when he saw the bed empty but grinning when he realized the room wasn’t. Owen was tucked into a chair in the corner of the room, reading from his ereader, the small backlight of the device reflecting off his glasses.

  “Hey, dork,” Chad said softly.

  Owen looked up and smiled. “Hey, sleepyhead.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  “Nothing to be sorry about. I napped, too. Just not as long.” He put down his ereader and took off his glasses, then crawled into bed beside Chad. “So.”

  “So.”

  Owen’s expression sobered. “I don’t know if this is going to work.”

  Chad stared at him, frozen. “What?”

  Owen sighed. “We’re clearly not compatible in bed anymore.”

  Chad blinked, realized he was being teased, and pulled out the pillow from under his head so he could clobber Owen in the face. The jackass started laughing and weakly defending himself from the plush assault. “You’re a dick!” Chad yelled.

  “But a dapper dick!” Owen yelled back.

  “I hate you!” He landed a great shot right to Owen’s forehead.

  “No, you don’t.”

  Chad stopped hitting him, tossed the pillow back onto the bed, and flopped on top of it. “No, I don’t.”

  Owen propped his head in his hands. This time when he spoke, his voice was hesitant. “I want this to be for real.”

  Chad folded his hands behind his head. “Me, too. We’ll work on communicating better so dumb shit like what happened before doesn’t happen again.”

  Owen nodded and ran his fingers over a fold in the sheet. “I hope you know that I don’t need you to go back to school. I mean, for me. I want you to go for you, if you want to. I’ll support you either way.”

  “I do want to go for me.” Chad turned his head. “I applied for this internship-type thing. If I get it, they’ll help me with tuition. Not all of it, but enough that I won’t feel like I’m drowning in loans.”

  Owen stared at him. “Really?”

  “Really. The dancing thing was a quick fix. This would be a great opportunity, so cross your fingers. And toes.”

  Owen crossed his eyes. “And eyes.”

  Chad laughed. “Don’t do that for too long, you’ll stay that way.”

  He kept his eyes crossed. “Will you still love me if I have crossed eyes?”

  “Yeah,” Chad answered automatically.

  Owen uncrossed his eyes, and they stared at each other. Chad wasn’t quite ready to say those three words all together. But it was there now, in front of them, that word.

  Owen swallowed. “I’d still love you, too, you know, if you had crossed eyes.”

  “I guess we’re on the same page then,” Chad said softly.

  “Yeah,” Owen said, his hand brushing a hair off Chad’s forehead. “I guess we are.”

  Epilogue

  Chad stared at his computer screen. He was on the couch—which used to be Owen’s couch in Owen’s apartment but was now their couch in their apartment—with his feet propped up on the coffee table.

  Owen had bought him this fancy lap desk thing, because Owen had grumbled about overheating and breaking his laptop when Chad used to just put it on a pillow on his lap. He had to admit the lap desk was nice. But he wasn’t going to tell Owen that.

  The door opened, and Owen walked inside. Chad took off his reading glasses so he could get a good look at his man. He loved how Owen dressed for work, in those dress pants that made his legs look long and his ass tight. The shirt showed off the breadth of his shoulders, and of course that damn bow tie always did things to Chad’s dick.

  Owen paged through the mail on the table at the front door, a frown on his drawn face. Chad should offer the guy a back rub later or something. Marley had been working him hard lately. Owen said he was happy, though, that more people at work were noticing him, commenting on how well he handled his job, and that mattered to him. So in turn, it mattered to Chad.

  Then Owen glanced up, caught Chad looking at him, and smiled, all tension draining from his limbs as he walked over to him and sank down on the couch beside him. He kissed him, sighing into his mouth. Chad kissed back, slipping his tongue between Owen’s lips, tasting him.

  When he pulled back, Owen’s eyes were half closed. “Missed you,” he said quietly.

  “Sorry,” Chad said. “Been busy with class and work and—”

  “Shh, I know,” Owen said. “I just wanted you to know you were missed.”

  Chad fucking loved that. “I missed you, too.”

  “How’s the job?” Owen loosened his bow tie and ran a hand through his hair.

  “It’s good.” Nixon Design had hired him as a paid, part-time intern. His paycheck wasn’t going to buy him a brand-new bike any time soon, but he was learning a lot, and best of all, they helped with his tuition. “My future brother-in-law, on the other hand, is driving me crazy.”

  Owen laughed. “Oh, yeah?”

  “He’s a groomzilla.”

  “Oh, come on.”

  “I’m serious, man. Everything’s gotta be perfect. He bitched out the florist today.”

  “What does Marley say?”

  “She’s in dream world. She barely has to plan a
nything. She says she wants something, and Austin magically makes it happen. She doesn’t see behind the scenes where he’s whipping me bloody.”

  Owen rubbed the back of Chad’s neck. “Poor Chad.”

  “It’s fine. I know he just wants to make Marley happy. And she is.”

  Owen pressed a kiss to his temple. “I’m going to take a shower. Why don’t you order us some takeout?”

  “I want pad thai,” Chad said.

  “Whatever you want, princess,” Owen called over his shoulder on the way to the bathroom.

  …

  Owen pulled on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, then towel-dried his hair.

  It never got old to come home and see Chad busy with his schoolwork. Owen was so damn proud of him.

  He walked out to the living room to find Chad on the phone ordering dinner. When he hung up, he motioned for Owen to lie down on the couch on his stomach. He did, and then Chad proceeded to massage his back until he was melted jelly.

  Then Chad flipped him over, lowered the waistband of his sweatpants and gave him a slow, perfect blow job until he wasn’t sure of his name or what year it was.

  Shortly after Chad kissed him, smirking the whole time at Owen’s boneless state, the doorbell rang.

  Owen didn’t move as Chad paid and collected the food. “I need to return the favor,” he muttered as Chad set the food on the coffee table and began ripping into the bags.

  “Later,” he said.

  “But that was really good.”

  Chad stopped his rummaging and raised an eyebrow. “Really good?”

  “Amazing. Mind-blowing. Life altering.”

  “That’s better,” Chad said. He lifted out a container and immediately dug in with a plastic fork. “Want some?”

  “Later,” Owen said, unable to even move his limbs.

  This was their life now. Work and homework and blow jobs on the couch and pad thai while watching baseball.

  For months, Owen had lived in fear that Chad would grow bored of this life, that he’d decide he wanted more fun, more adventure, just more.

  But Chad never wavered. He remained devoted to Owen and to the life they were building together. He went to school and work and remained Chad in every way. Just a little more settled.