There You Stand

by Christina Lee

Wariness filled his gaze. “Are we still going to meet at the competition next week?”

  “For sure,” I said and he seemed relieved.

  After another long stretch of quiet, where the only sound was the dull thud of rain battering the rooftop, I pulled the needle away from Jude’s skin and shut off the machine.

  “All done.” I reached for the hand mirror. “Let me show you.”

  When he sat up I positioned the mirror behind him.

  I pointed to the section where I’d worked in the letters. “What do you think?”

  “Your work is incredible,” he said, shutting his eyes and visibly trembling. “It’s as if you took something dreadful and turned it into something . . . something . . .”

  He didn’t say anything for a long stretch and shit, I thought maybe I had done the wrong thing. That the memories would be too strong for him.

  My hand slammed over my mouth and I wasn’t sure what to do, if he even wanted me to touch him right then.

  “Fuck,” I finally said, reaching for his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to upset you. Maybe I shouldn’t have . . .”

  But when he opened his eyes they were watery, the corners creased with happiness. His fingers gripped my neck and his thumb swiped against my throat.

  “It’s brilliant,” he said, gulping in air. “The loveliest thing anybody’s ever done for me.”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  I borrowed my grandmother’s car to drop off Chopper, along with his dog bed, food bowl, and favorite chew toys.

  There was a large pit in my stomach because it felt like I was abandoning him. But even Gram assured me that I was simply giving him to another good home. That Patch might be a better match for me and Ace anyway.

  After I pulled into the driveway, I hopped out of the car with Chopper, who seemed to remember Jude’s place and tugged me straight to the door. I had a feeling he wouldn’t even give two shits about me after today.

  Jude stepped out on the landing to greet Chopper with a stunning smile draped across his cheeks. He was taking a small piece of his life back and right then, he was so self-possessed and beautiful.

  “You sure about this?” I asked, standing in front of him with my hands shoved deep in my pockets.

  “I’m sure,” he said, opening the side gate to allow Chopper on the small strip of grass in the backyard. He immediately pissed on the first flowerbed he saw, already marking his territory. “I haven’t had anything permanent in a long time.”

  “And Chopper is permanent?” I asked, watching the damn dog sniff and mark along the entire fence line of the property.

  “You don’t agree to care for somebody and then throw them away the next day,” he said, smiling at Chopper, apparently happy that he was making himself at home. “Not on purpose anyway.”

  My knees wobbled as my heart battered around my chest. He stared hard into my eyes and I got that he was saying many things at once. That he was not only giving us a chance, but giving his new life a chance as well.

  “And what if you have the impulse to run away?”

  It was a fear I wasn’t sure I should’ve voiced out loud, but there it was in all its brilliance.

  “It wouldn’t be an impulse,” he said, steadying his gaze on me, unflustered by my twenty questions over a dog. “Maybe an instinct. And it would only be likely if there was real danger.”

  “What would happen to . . . to . . . Chopper?”

  He raised his eyebrow, knowing full well I wasn’t only asking about Chopper.

  “I’d find some way to protect and care for him.”

  I kicked at a stone on the ground, unable to meet his gaze. “Would you come back . . . if you thought the threat was gone?”

  “Always.” He reached for my hand before looking to the street and then allowing it to fall away. “Come inside, please.”

  I followed him through the door, telling myself it was only to get Chopper acclimated. But Chopper seemed right at home as he bound to the kitchen and lapped at the water in the dish that Jude had set down.

  “I can’t stay long,” I said, feeling almost shy, like it was my first time at his place. “I have a shift at Raw Ink.”

  He nodded. “I just finished my morning at the Board Room, but I’ll be heading to the skate park.”

  “What was that one trick I saw you practicing the other day?” I asked, watching Chopper sniff around the room.

  “Hmmm . . . the one-eighty pop shuvit?” he said, shrugging. “The one I really want to trick out on someday is the upside-down three-sixty loop. But I need a pipe for that. They’ll have one at the arena for the upcoming games.”

  “A pipe?”

  “A curved wall with a lip so that I can hang upside down.”

  “Holy Christ, you’re going to maim yourself,” I said.

  He laughed. “It’s a difficult trick but I’m definitely up for the challenge.”

  Suddenly he grabbed my face and backed me against the wall, kissing me hard and deep and desperate. Like he was releasing it all—giving it all to me. “I don’t want to talk right now. I want to taste you.”

  I groaned and wormed my body closer, reaching behind him to grab his ass. We were both instantly hard and he ground his hips against me.

  “Every damn night I’ve dreamt of you,” he said against my lips.

  I pulled back to look at him. “You have?”

  “Oh yeah.” His gaze fastened on mine. “I knew I couldn’t have you, so the next best thing was the fantasy of you.”

  “Same here,” I said. “I’d lay in bed and jerk off to thoughts of you.”

  He panted against my mouth. “What did you think about?”

  “This,” I said. “Your hands on me, your lips all over my body.”

  “God,” he groaned. “And here you are. Right in front of me. And I want nothing more than to have all of that and more with you.”

  He backed me down the hallway, yanking off my shirt and unbuttoning my pants.

  It felt so urgent, like we were running out of time. Not only because I had a job to get to, but also because I never felt certain of how many more days we might have left.

  “I need to touch you,” he said, hemming my thighs against the bed, forcing me to lean back. After he tugged my pants down my legs, his hands roamed all over my chest and shoulders.

  “This one means something, doesn’t it?” he said, placing his fingers over the black crane tattoo on my heart.

  “Yeah,” I said in a pant as he pressed his lips there, too. We had never discussed my ink before but I could tell each time we were naked he took notice. “It’s for the people I’ve lost in my life. In Japanese folklore, a crane is the carrier of souls to the afterlife.”

  His gaze melted me and I shut my eyelids to quiet my thrashing heart. I was in Jude York’s bed, he was touching me, and it felt like a goddamn gift.

  He feathered kisses along my ear and collarbone and throat.

  “Your skin is so soft,” he said and swiped his knuckles across my nipples. I moaned because it felt so good. When he drew one into his mouth, sucking it into a stiff nub, all the blood in my body rushed to one area.

  I grasped his head as his tongue circled and then dragged down the center of my chest to my happy trail. “You’re perfect,” he said.

  “Far from it,” I said and then gasped as he nibbled on my thigh.

  “You’re perfect for me,” he said and I sighed into his words. “I could stay right here and kiss you forever.”

  His breath caught and his cheeks splotched with color as if he couldn’t believe he’d used such a permanent word.

  “Me, too,” I said because it was true but also because I didn’t want him to regret anything.

  He pushed me down into the mattress and arched over me. I tried to remove his shirt, but he batted my hands away.

  “At least let me look at you,” I said.

  He conceded by grasping the material behind his neck and pulling off his shirt.

  I touched him
everywhere I could reach on his smooth chest. I curved my head to lick his nipples, one side, and then the other. His eyes rolled back as he groaned.

  My hands trailed lower, unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans, and then prodding them all the way down his legs. He took a step back as if he’d lose his mind if I continued touching him right then.

  A long and large bulge tented his boxers as he caught his breath and scrutinized me.

  “You’re gorgeous, Jude,” I said as my gaze lazily slid over his body.

  His fingers tunneled through my hair as he moaned his appreciation into a scorching kiss.

  He drew my boxers down, deposited them on the floor, and then knelt in front of me. My shaft was dripping with pre-come and my balls were throbbing for release, and him looking at me with hungry anticipation was nearly my undoing.

  “Fuck, Cory.” He kissed my abdomen and then nuzzled the patch of hair right below as if savoring me. “You drive me wild.”

  Curling his fingers around my hardness, he seemed to marvel at my cock. When he sucked the tip into his mouth, I groaned loudly and he rewarded me by inserting his tongue inside the slit, now that he knew it drove me insane.

  “I don’t know how long I’ll make it if you keep that up.”

  His mouth appeared to swallow me whole and I felt myself hit the back of his throat. His eyes sprang open and he stared me down as his tongue massaged the stem. It felt so damn perfect, I nearly cried out at the sensation.

  His lips released me and he tenderly sucked the head before licking along the underside of my shaft. As he moved down to bathe my balls with his tongue, he pushed up on my knees to spread me wide open.

  “When you fuck me, I want you to be facing me like this,” he said in a jagged voice. “So I can watch you the first time.”

  “I want it that way, too,” I said, my eyes squeezing closed as I attempted to rein in my harsh breaths. “To see your eyes when I make you come.”

  He groaned as he drew my balls into his mouth one by one as if they were a delicacy. I was so close to release that the base of my spine began prickling.

  When his mouth trailed down and tenderly kissed my hole, I nearly saw stars. Jude tasting me was the most erotic sensation. The tip of his tongue probed at my ring of muscle, breaching with only the tip, before he thrust, sucked, and licked me into oblivion.

  “Oh God, Jude, I’m going to blow,” I said as his hand moved up to clasp tightly around my hardness.

  And then I couldn’t take it any longer. I forced my feet down on the mattress to gain leverage. I yanked at his arms to pull him on top of me. I needed to feel him, so I urged his hips down against mine. When our dicks met and rubbed together lengthwise, he gasped.

  “I want you to come with me,” I murmured.

  And then his mouth came down on mine and our arms and legs tangled together. I wrapped my hand around both of our cocks and found a rhythm, both of us panting and groaning as I jerked us off in unison.

  “Feels too good,” Jude ground out, his eyes glazing over.

  “Are you close?” I grunted.

  “Yeah,” he said into my mouth and then thrust his tongue in time with my hand.

  I mixed the pre-come from both of our tips together to create friction and then reached around to his crease with my other hand. My finger made it halfway inside when he erupted all over his stomach.

  “Christ.” The noises he was making along with the roughness from our lengths slicking tightly together made me shoot off immediately afterward.

  We lay on his bed, staring dreamily into each other’s eyes, hoping never to rouse from this reverie.

  “Stay for a little while longer,” he said after he got a washcloth and wiped us down. “It’s hard to let you go.”

  My heart ballooned in my chest. I fucking loved hearing that.

  Jude had left the bedroom door open this time, and I heard Chopper hurtle noisily down the hallway. I threw the covers over the top of us right before he struck—licking our faces and clomping in heavy circles on the bed.

  “I knew you’d be a bed hog if Jude was anywhere near it,” I said as he found a cozy spot and lay down near our legs.

  Jude laughed and tugged me closer, kissing the side of my head.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Jude: Bring Ace to see his old friend Chopper? They can piss around in the yard.

  Me: How about tomorrow after work?

  Jude: Looking forward to it.

  I heard Chopper bark as I approached Jude’s place and my shoulders finally unwound. He was already in protective mode. And Jude could definitely use somebody else on his side.

  I had only brought Patch home from the shelter two days before, and he and Ace had gotten along fine, with some minor adjustments. There was some territorialism over the food bowl, but Ace had quickly established himself as the alpha and Patch fell in line easily.

  Patch was a pretty needy dog. Anytime I was home, he’d crawl onto my lap. I didn’t think he knew what to do with all the space he had free reign over, so he curled himself into a tight ball and seemed more comfortable that way.

  Jude smiled when he opened the door and it halted the breath in my lungs. Ace saw Chopper and practically bolted through the entryway.

  Chopper’s tail was wagging a million miles an hour and I bent down to pet him. “How do you like your new home?”

  “He says he’s thrilled to bits,” Jude said, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “We should eventually get Chopper used to Patch as well. Especially if we ever walk them or meet you at the park.”

  “Not a bad idea.” I stared into Jude’s eyes, trying to convey how happy his plans made me. Also how thankful I was that he was trying to make a life for himself.

  I removed the treat I’d brought Chopper from a bag I’d placed on the counter. It was one of his favorite flavored bones, so his nose nudged at my knees. Jude made him sit before he was allowed to take the snack from my fingers. What a difference a couple of days had already made.

  Chopper made his way to the dog bed in the corner of the living room, already comfortable here. Ace was busy exploring Jude’s house, so I saved his bone for later. It gave me such immense relief that Chopper would have Jude to look after him. And vice versa.

  “I was just ordering Chinese takeout; sound good to you?”

  “Great,” I said, realizing how famished I was.

  After he placed the order, he sat down next to me on the couch. I slid my arm around his shoulder and pulled him against me, relishing all of his warmth.

  “Cory,” he whispered into my hair and hell, I wished I could hear him say my name like that every single night.

  The delivery was quick, so we ate and drank a couple of beers. Then we let the dogs out in the yard where they lay down together on the grass with their bones, chummy once again.

  After he shut the door, Jude pressed me up against the wall.

  “I bought supplies,” he said, breathless.

  I arched an eyebrow. “Supplies?”

  He bit his lip in a shy yet sexy way. “Condoms and lube.”

  My heart thudded in my chest. Just because Jude said he wanted to have sex didn’t necessarily mean he was ready to do it right now.

  “I need you to fuck me,” he whispered.

  I shut my eyes. “Goddamn.”

  It was as if all the pleasure receptors in my brain had swelled and then shot rapidly to my groin.

  “No pressure, if you don’t want to.”

  “Believe me, Jude. I want to,” I said. “It’s just . . . are you sure—”

  “It’s all I can think about anymore,” he said.

  “Hell.” I rolled my head back. “Me, too.”

  Jude was entirely lips and hands and raw desire the whole way down the hall to his bed. We paused at the entrance to his room, and my hands were rough as they rushed down his body and grabbed at his ass. “Tell me you want this.”

  He paused to study my eyes and there was a fierceness in them I hadn’t see
n before. He flattened his body against mine and his mouth devoured me. His lips fastened around my tongue as he sucked it hungrily. I gasped for air and clutched at his shoulders.

  I flipped him around and relaxed my hold, slowed my hands, and gentled my lips. I slid off his shirt and kissed his collarbone, dragging my mouth across his throat, licking his ear, and murmuring his name. When I unsnapped the button on his jeans, his breath caught.

  It was then that I realized how huge this was for him.

  He’d told me it’d been years since he’d been intimate with a man and now he was choosing to make a connection with me. I wanted to make it good for him. More than good. I wanted to make it earth-shattering if I could.

  “I want this so bad.” His eyes met mine with intense determination.

  I drew his pants to his knees, as his elbows sank down on the bed.

  I undressed quickly while he watched me from his sheets.

  The look in his eyes was almost feral, as if he was merely hanging on to the last shred of his control.

  And then I was on top of him, sucking on his lips, biting his neck and shoulders, allowing my hands to roam all over his body. When my fingers enclosed around his cock he was already leaking.

  “Where are the condoms and lube?”

  He reached to the side drawer, tore off a condom, and threw it with the lube on the bed.

  “I need to stretch you.” My fingers were shaking as I reached for the bottle. I knelt in front of him on the bed and his face flushed with anticipation. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  I squirted some lube on my fingers and then my hand trailed over his thighs, to his balls, and then down below to his crease. “Lift your knees. Open up for me.”

  Jude lifted his legs toward his chest and he looked so damn sexy right then, I couldn’t help leaning over and drawing the tip of his cock into my mouth.

  I dragged my tongue around his head as my finger found his puckered hole. I slid partway inside and he grabbed at my biceps. “Oh God. Feels amazing.”

  I waited until his muscles relaxed before pushing all the way inside. I added a second finger and worked them both, scissoring back and forth, until Jude was practically whimpering.