by Anna Martin
“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 leas
t 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.
“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.”
No
w 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 his 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.
