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NICK
Once we catch our breath and towel off the puddles of cum, Adam pulls me closer until I’m nestled between his massive chest and brawny right arm. I press my ear against his warmth and listen to the steady cadence of his heart. It feels dreamlike to be so still and quiet after the heat and passion of the last two hours. There’s something in his embrace that feels unfamiliar and treasured at the same time. I close my eyes and imagine that I’ve finally found the sanctuary that I’ve been searching for all these years: safety and shelter and acceptance.
The longer we lay together, the more the exhilaration and hope that I felt in the moments after first meeting Adam begin to melt into doubt and hesitation. As he holds me tightly, my brain clicks through the usual list of reasons to run the other way. Don’t be delusional. You just met this guy. It’s a roll in the hay and nothing more for him. He’ll forgot your name as soon as—
“Tell me a secret,” Adam suddenly whispers, cleaving my jumbled thoughts.
I manage a smile. “A secret?”
“Something that no one else knows.”
I think for a few seconds. “I once ate an entire pack of Little Debbie strawberry shortcake rolls while watching Dancing with the Stars.”
He laughs before reaching around with his left hand to swat my ass. “A real secret, boy! One junk food binge doesn’t qualify as a skeleton in your closet. I’m looking for something mysterious and clandestine.”
“Fair enough,” I say. “But why don’t you go first? Then I’ll know what kind of thing you’re talking about.”
His eyes widen a bit at the challenge. “Oh, yeah?”
I reach up and trace the contour of his jaw with one finger. “Yeah, definitely. I want to hear about your mysteries.”
“Ah, well that’ll take much longer than we have this evening,” he replies.
I get the impression that he’s hedging, so I take the tip of my finger, press it against his lips and then gently ease it into his mouth. He sucks on it hungrily until my knuckles are wedged against his chin.
“There must be at least one deep, dark secret in there.” I open my mouth, lean in and swirl the tip of my tongue around his right nipple. “If you’re not man enough to tell me, then maybe we should get back to doing things that don’t require that kind of courage.”
I glance down. His cock is starting to swell, so I flick my tongue against the nipple again. Then I open my mouth wider, press down and suck slowly until he’s moaning in my ear.
“That feels so good,” he rasps. “The friction from your wet tongue and heat from your breath on my skin is like…hmmm…it’s like fucking paradise.”
I swivel my gaze toward his face. He’s leaning back into the pillows, mouth slack and eyes closed.
“You like that, Daddy?” I whisper in a breathy voice. “You like me teasing and taunting you?”
His answer is a throaty grunt.
“What about this?” I slide my hand slowly from his chest to his stomach. “You like the way that feels?”
Another hoarse rumble rolls past his parted lips. “I do, boy. I like the way—”
Adam stops murmuring when I suddenly grab the base of his rock hard dick. As I increase the pressure, squeezing tightly and lapping at his chest again, he growls and lifts his hips from the bed.
“That’s it,” he whispers. “Slow and steady, boy. I want to be inside of you again before I leave.”
After squeezing his cock for a few more seconds, I quickly pinch his engorged nipple between my teeth and bite down hard.
“Whoa, whoa there!” Adam cries. “What the fuck is that?”
I lean back. “Now that I have your undivided attention,” I say, snickering at the look of surprise on his face, “what was that you were saying about secrets?”
I wasn’t exactly sure that Adam would appreciate the jokey move, but he grins as I start massaging between his legs again.
“I won’t be able to concentrate if you keep doing that,” he says, flexing his bicep and forcing me closer to his side. “Although I’m certainly not going to complain if you do.”
I shift again so I can see his face. “Just one,” I say softly. “Please?”
His smile is electric. “I love how you can do that, boy!”
“Do what?”
“Switch from playful and sweet,” he answers, “to sexy and seductive.”
“Anything’s possible with the right inspiration,” I tell him, lightly pulsing my hand around the base of his cock again. “And this monster is inspiring in ways that I’ve never known before.”
He frowns. “Oh, c’mon. You expect me to believe that you’ve never enjoyed the things that we just did?”
“That’s not what I said.” I pause to raise one eyebrow. “I’ve never done them with someone so fucking…handsome and sweet and…well, so truly genuine.” I take a breath, hoping it will calm my thundering heart. “When you touch me, I actually feel it. Do you know what I mean?”
He smiles. “Tell me more.”
I suddenly regret taking my mouth from his chest. When I glance down at his cock again, he reaches over and uses his left hand to turn my gaze back to his face.
“Up here, boy,” he says with a soft laugh. “I want to hear the rest of what you were going to say.”
“Oh, really?” I flash a quick grin. “Need your ego inflated, old man?”
He pinches my cheek. “There’s something that’s not a secret with my friends,” he says with a suddenly sharp change in tone. “Don’t call me anything but Adam or Daddy, okay? I hate being called old man, granddad or any of the other nicknames some boys think are so amusing.”
“Okay,” I murmur.
“Okay what?” he teases, giving my face another tweak with his finger and thumb.
“Okay, Daddy,” I whisper. “And thank you, Adam.”
He laughs again. “For what?”
I’m suddenly seized by the panic that always follows rare moments when I’m tempted to open my heart to another man.
“It’s no big deal,” I mumble.
“Go on,” Adam says. “I want to hear what that’s all about.”
While he watches me intently, I take another deep breath and assess my options. If I’m honest about how I feel, I’ll end up exposed and vulnerable. Since the last time I had this type of conversation was with Taylor, I’m beginning to regret the idea of sharing anything truly meaningful with this stranger. On the other hand, maybe I should just make up some bullshit to move past the moment and—
Adam nudges me with one hand. “Do you always take this long to answer basic questions?”
I shift slightly against his side. “That’s the problem; these don’t seem like basic questions.”
He nods, pressing his lips into a watery grin. “You really consider things, don’t you?”
“Some things,” I tell him.
He taps one finger against my forehead. “I’m beginning to suspect that you, my handsome friend, are one of those deep thinkers.”
I shake my head. “Just trying to be careful.”
“About how you feel?”
“More or less,” I say. “And this will probably sound like a cliché, but I had my heart broken not that long ago.”
His eyes narrow. “Join the club.”
“You, too?” The words rush out of my mouth. “How’s that possible?”
“How is what possible?”
“You,” I say. “Someone broke your heart?”
The corners of his eyes crinkle when he smiles. “It was earlier this year; one big break, one less significant crack.”
I mull over his answer, wondering if he’s telling me that he’d been romantically involved with two different men at some point since January. As I try to decide whether I should ask more questions or change the subject, Adam moves to his left and then turns onto his side so we’re facing one another directly.
“I never told my parents that I was gay,” he says in a hushed voice. “And now they’re both gone. That’s a secret that nobody knows.”
I blink at the revelation. Seriously? Mr. Confident? Mr. Sleeve Tattoos? He was afraid to tell his mother and father that he’s gay?
I focus on Adam’s face as my mind floods with hazy memories from a dozen years earlier. After a boy from school and I realized that our interest was in one another as opposed to the two girls we’d been attempting to date, I raced home to tell my mother and father while my newfound love was supposedly doing the same. It wasn’t until the next morning that I learned Carter had denied everything after our mothers spoke about the inexplicable news. Although my parents never wavered in their love and support, the other kids at school made the rest of that year a living hell. Luckily, my family moved to another district before the next term began, so I was able to start all over again and slip back into the closet until I moved to New York for college.
“Nick?”
I push away the hazy memories when Adam says my name.
“You okay?” he adds.
I swallow hard to stop the swelling tears in my eyes. “I’m good.”
“You sure, bud?” His hand feels soft and warm when he slides it down my arm.
“Totally,” I say with a smile. “I guess that hearing you say that sort of blew my mind.”
“Really?” he asks. “Why would it have that effect?”
“I’m not sure,” I say, leaning in to kiss him. “I guess that maybe it—”
The alarm on his phone is impossibly loud when it starts clattering on a table near the door.
“Holy shit!” He jumps up and races across the room. “I completely lost track of the time.”
I push up on my elbows. “Why? Do you have to be somewhere at…” I glance at the clock on the nightstand. “Ten o’clock on a Friday night?”
He scrolls through messages on his phone as he returns to my side.
“I’ve got a flight,” he says. “There’s a client in Miami that I need to see tomorrow. She’s sending her plane up to get me. We leave from Teterboro at midnight.”
I quickly throw back the covers and roll out of the bed.
“Okay, I’ll hurry and—”
“No need for that,” Adam says. “I’ll put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. Take your time.”
Instead of slowing my stride, I keep going toward the dressing area. But Adam cuts me off before I get there.
“Seriously,” he says, hooking my arm with one hand. “My friend owns this place. I’ll shoot him a text and tell him that you’re still in the suite. You can relax for as long as you’d like. Take a shower, watch a movie, order a bottle of wine. Whatever you want, okay? And it’s all on the house. Devon and I have been friends for a very long time. I worked on the renovations of this place as a favor to him. The least he can do is let my sexy, handsome…” He pauses to wink. “…new friend hang out here for a while before he heads home.”
I look around the room. It’s plush. It’s quiet. And I wouldn’t mind the time alone. After Oliver buzzing around for the past week, it’ll be nice to have a brief respite of calm, soothing silence before I head back downtown to the apartment.
“What do you think?” Adam asks, brushing the hair out of my eyes. “I can see the wheels spinning in your brain. You must be considering it.”
I nod. “I am. And thank you. My friend’s been staying with me for the past few days. It will actually be really nice to maybe climb back in bed and watch a movie or something.”
He surrounds me with his brawny inked arms. “That makes me happy, Nick. I’m glad that you’ll be able to enjoy the suite even if I can’t be here with you.”
“Thank you so much,” I say. “I really do appreciate the generosity.”
Adam pulls me closer. Then he kisses me again, deep and long and slow. When he pulls back, we’re both gazing at one another with the same lopsided grin.
“And I appreciate you,” he says. “I’m really glad that we met tonight.”
I start to reply, but he covers my mouth with one hand. Then he leans in, kisses me lightly on the cheek and wraps me in a long, lingering hug.
“Get back in bed,” he says, heading for the shower. “It’ll just take me a minute to clean up and get dressed. Then I might want another kiss or two before I leave.”
“I think we can make arrange that,” I tease. “But I’d hate to make you late for your flight.”
He spins me around, slaps my ass and then pulls me in for another embrace.
“You think?” he says in a low, gravelly voice. “How about you know we can make it happen?”
For the next few minutes, while Adam hurries through a shower and slips back into his shirt and jeans, I sit propped up in bed, waiting for each fleeting glimpse of him through the open bathroom door. When he finally emerges, my heart quivers at the sound of his voice.
“Okay, then, Nick,” he says, coming toward the bed. “I hope that you’ll forgive me for racing out the door. But I’ve got to swing by my place and get a few things for the trip. As they say, without work, we cannot play. Isn’t that right?”
I smile. “I heard something similar,” I say as he sits on the edge of the bed. “All work and no play makes—”
The rest of the adage is lost as he presses his lips to mine. For a few fleeting moments, I close my eyes and revel in the feeling of our tongues twining together. But then he’s up and on his feet, blowing me one last kiss and heading for the door.
“You’re amazing, my friend,” he says. “It was absolutely fantastic meeting you tonight.”