It was settling in on me that the degree to which I had misjudged Max Stephens was approaching the truly astronomical. I wasn’t sure how to come back from this.

The restaurant was some overpriced place with dim lighting and reviews on the back of the menu. We were sitting side by side in a corner booth, our knees knocking. He was sitting next to me, frowning at a menu, and all I could think was: Holy shit, I was wrong. We could have been doing this years ago.

The confession, if you could call it that, weighed on me heavily. I had known Max since we were both eighteen—this accident must’ve been a year before. And I’d had no idea.

Knowing it now, knowing how it had affected him—everything I knew about Max made more sense. As if things had shifted over a spot, and now everything was lined up in place.

I’d thought that Max was careless, carefree. When I was feeling generous, I thought it was an act. I never considered that it was a response to caring too much. That it could be genuine and honest, but not from a place of naïvety.

I could practically taste the guilt on my tongue. I grabbed a glass of water from the table and drank half of it in one go.

“I want to order everything on the menu,” Max said decidedly, setting his menu down. He turned, his elbow on the table, and propped his chin on the hand. Wrinkling his nose, he watched me. “For the love of God, tell me you’re not going to order another salad.”

“I eat more than salad.”

“You eat a lot of salad.”

“Salad…” I sat my menu down and mirrored his position. His smile widened when my chin hit my hand. “Is good for you.”

“It’s not enough,” Max disagreed.

“For what?”

He grinned wide. “For the energy you need tonight.”

My mouth fell open and I felt my face burn. “Shut up.”

He laughed. I swatted at his elbow until his hand fell. “Just, seriously,” he said. “Order something good.”

I ignored him, but when the waiter came and Max ordered a steak, I ordered one too.

The food was good, and the beer that Max had suggested was pretty good. The restaurant was nice, but Max’s moan every time he had a good bite, and his foot rubbing up against my ankle every few minutes, was much nicer—and much more distracting.

When the waiter asked if we wanted dessert, I asked for the check. Max’s eyebrows rose; I ignored him.

He signed the credit card receipt while I thanked and tipped the waiter.

As soon as we were outside, Max threw me against the wall. He lips crashed on mine and he kissed me hard. “You’re a tease.”

“You’re the tease!” I argued.

Max narrowed his eyes. My body tingled with anticipation.

We made it back to the hotel room nearly in one piece. Max’s hands were everywhere, tugging at my shirt, my hands, my pants. He stripped me in quick flashes between hard, biting kisses and unimaginably delicious swipes of his hands across my bare skin.

He slammed me against the closed motel door, sliding to his knees and taking my pants and boxers with him. I was fully naked, pressed against the door, and Max licked a hot stripe up my bobbing cock.

“Oh, fuck.” My eyes squeezed shut, and my hips canted forward without my permission.

Max swirled his tongue around my tip. “That’s the idea,” he murmured.

I looked down at him, a whimper falling from my lips. Max had stripped from the waist up; his hair was standing up in a fuck-me mess, his normally bright eyes now dark with swollen pupils. He caught my eye, smirked, and lowered his mouth over my red cock, carefully sucking me down until I was a writhing mess.

“Max, Max, fuck, oh, God!”

He licked around the base, pressing kisses just this side of too hard around me. He sucked me all the way down until my dick pressed to the back of his throat, and then he swallowed, once, twice, fuck, and then relaxed his throat, bringing his hands up to my hips to encourage my movements. Gladly, I let my hips rock to him, feeling the wet slide of his mouth against me.

I could feel myself speeding up, too fast, too hard, hips fucking against his face, but Max just moaned around me, fingernails digging into my skin hard enough that the skin was probably splitting. He used his lips and tongue to get me as wet as possible as he bobbed his head up and down, my rotating and jerking hips seemingly not preventing his movements at all.

He tore off of me after a second, leaning back on his heels and pressing a hand to his own straining erection.

I was breathing too heavily, blood pounding too hard, for me to come up with something coherent to say. Sweat dripped down from Max’s hairline, his cheeks a bright red, as he heaved out breathes.

“Fuck, you’re so hot,” he groaned out after a minute.

Heat filled my veins so hot that the room felt nearly cold. The hand that I still had in his hair tugged hard. His eyes rolled and he stood up, all the while stringing curses out of his swollen red lips.

I yanked at his pants, sloppily and desperately trying to get Max stripped. He caught on quickly and shimmied out of them, toeing out of his jeans and socks easily.

I pushed against his chest until he moved backwards. When the back of his knees hit the bed, I knocked him onto it.

Max fell hard enough to bounce a little. He grinned. “Bossy.”

“Shut up.” I followed him down and kissed him hard enough to bruise. I could feel the sharp pleasure-pain burn through the kiss, and from Max’s low rumble in his chest and the fast, circular motions his hips were rocking against mine, he felt it, too.

I moved down his jaw, biting at the skin there, before sucking slow and hard on his neck. Max let out a long, filthy sound that had my hips jerking forward and my teeth sinking into his skin. He whimpered, and I licked over the spot.

I continued my way down his chest, licking over his nipples and gently flicking them with my tongue. Max cursed, loudly, and did it again and again until he was writhing against me, our cocks rutting against each other with only the wet cotton of his boxers separating us.

“You’re,” he gasped out and started again. “A fucking cocktease.”

I nipped at his hipbone, and pressed a tender kiss to the bruise I had just sucked there before sliding down lower.

I swallowed hard when I came face to face with the straining, twitching cock trapped in Max’s boxers. The other night … a hand job was one thing. This was something unfamiliar, something—

My own dick twitched in response.

I licked tentatively against the wet material there.

“Oh, fucking hell.” Max’s hands fisted in the sheets. Encouraged, I did it again before slowly taking the black material in my mouth, sucking a little around the cloth-covered tip. Max mewled out a reply I couldn’t quite process.

My hands shook a little, but I managed to get the boxers slid down his hips and off of his body without too much trouble.

And fuck, I knew what this night was, but I was starting to have doubts.

Max’s cock was fucking incredible—I hadn’t seen any in real life before, save mine and the occasional, accidental glance in a locker room; but even with a lifetime of secret gay porn in the bank, nothing could have prepared me for Max’s dick.

Long and curved, Max was huge—his tip was a scarlet red, the beads of precum dribbling out over the ridges as they slid down him. Without thinking, I reached out and slid my thumb through it. When I had enough covering my thumb, I popped it into my mouth and sucked.

Max cursed again.

I moaned around my thumb.

“You’re such a cocktease,” he cried again.

I lost my breath looking at him. Spread out across the blanket, his eyes closed, lips still swollen and wet, his chest heaving as he fought to stay in control — I wanted to take everything he had to offer.

I wrapped my lips around him.

He tasted—sharp. Sharp, and salty, and unfamiliar enough that my first instinct was to pull off, but then Max let out the most incredible sounds I’d ever heard, and I forced myself to breathe through my nose and sink further on him.

I only lasted a few minutes of gentle pressure, licking and kissing my way down him, when I realized I couldn’t relax my throat enough to get him all the way down, but then Max was pulling me up to him and crushing our lips together, chasing the taste of himself all across my mouth.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, Luke.” Max said my name in between kisses, his hands sliding down my arms, across my chest, over the ridges of my hipbones. He was everywhere, and not anywhere near close enough.

I wound my legs around him, tightening to keep him close, and he moaned loudly. “Fuck, Luke, can I—can we—what do you want?”

I couldn’t breathe; I kissed him again.

He tore away. “No, Luke, man, you gotta—fuck, oh, shit, do that again!”

I rotated my hips and ground down against him. He fucked his hips up to meet me halfway before remembering he was saying something. “You gotta tell me what you want.”

I didn’t know what I wanted. I wanted to be burned, and to put the fire out, and to let it consume me entirely, and I wanted—“More.”

“More? What—that’s so vague!” Max bit at my bottom lip, and we fought for dominance in the kiss for a few moments.

“Please,” I begged. “Please, just—more.”

Max pulled away and looked at me. His eyes flickered across my face. “I could—I have stuff in my bag.”

“On a work trip?” I blurted out.

Max’s lips quirked. “You never know.”

I let out a laugh that was too breathy to be anything concrete. He slid out from under me and went to the corner where his bag was, rummaging around before coming back with a small tube and a condom.

“Do you want to—or do you want me?” Max swallowed hard, schooling his face to casual indifference, even as his cock jumped eagerly.

I sat up and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him back on the bed with me. “I want you to.”

His eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I said firmly. He surged down and kissed me, and then asked again. I nodded. “Yes, please, Max, please.”

He nodded quickly. “Turn around.”

My heart skipped a beat in my chest and I quickly threw myself around. I shook with anticipation as his hands pressed down on my ass, gently massaging me for a minute. I could feel myself relax under his hands.

Then, just as suddenly, he was gone. I heard the wet pop of the lube being opened.

His fingers were cold against me, and I squirmed as I got used to the new sensation. I had done this to myself a few times, but someone else was an entirely different ballgame.

Max leaned over me and murmured softly in my ear. “Tell me if you want me to stop or—do something else. You’re in control here, Luke.”

I nodded against the pillow. He kissed gently the outside of my ear and slid one finger against me, the wet friction of him forcing a gasp out of my lungs. He circled my hole, keeping me breathless, before slowly gliding in.

I gasped. He froze as my muscles locked and I tried to get used to the feeling.

I forced my muscles to unlock and relax. “Move,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

“Max, move.” I wiggled against him, gasping at the way his fingers brushed over me.

Max moved one finger inside of me before slipping a second one in, pressing and opening me up. I couldn’t help my hips moving, setting a slow and steady pace as he fucked me with his fingers. He slid against me easily, curling into me. When he slid a third in, my vision whited out and I saw stars.

He moved slowly, and then—

“Oh, shit, oh, fuck there, yes.” My hips slammed back onto his hand, my ass rotating and desperately grinding. My cock was caught between my stomach and the bed, and I struggled to find a pace that let me fuck against Max’s fingers and the bed at the same time.

“Fuck, fuck, Max, I—please, more.”

Max paused. “Are you ready?”

“Yes!” I cried, fucking back against him once more, hard, for good measure.

Max kissed the back of my neck as he slowly pulled out. He tapped my hip. “Roll over.”

I moved quickly.

Max looked absolutely wrecked. His eyes were nearly all black now, his dick a painful-looking red. I reached out and curled my fingers around it.

He hissed. “Luke, let go before I ruin this night before it’s even gotten started.”

I let go immediately, hiding my smile in my shoulder. Max gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as he rolled the condom onto himself and then poured more lube over him, carefully stroking himself.

“Are you ready?” he asked in a murmur.

I nodded eagerly and pulled at his shoulder. He used one hand to prop himself up, the other to lift my leg high. I moved the other one in tandem and wrapped them around him.

Slowly, Max lined himself up and pushed into me.

I gasped as the breath was knocked out of my lungs.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Max chanted, eyes locked on him disappearing inside of me. He had a pinched look on his face, as if it was painful for him to slide inside of me so slowly.

I concentrated on breathing deeply. After a second, I got used to the weight and relaxed.

Max waited until I started to move against him. I moaned, loudly, as the hard line of his cock brushed up against me and bright fireworks danced across my eyelids. He felt so good inside of me, better than I’d ever thought anything could feel.

Max began to pump faster, his hips moving steadily as he slowly slammed into me, rotating his hips in an exaggerated circle inside of me. I couldn’t stop the litany of moans coming from me, couldn’t stop the way I was desperately trying to fuck down onto his cock, chasing the feeling of him.

“You’re so good,” Max murmured, his head falling to my shoulder. “You feel so amazing, god, Luke, you’re so good.”

The praise was dizzying when accompanied by the slow drag of his hard cock inside of me. I could feel the familiar buzz underneath my skin already.

It was building quickly; every time Max fucked against that one spot inside of me, it grew brighter and brighter, until my fingernails were digging into Max’s shoulders, my hips desperately thrusting against him.

“Oh, fuck, yes, Luke, yes, you’re so good. Use me however you want, oh, God, yes.” Max was fucking me in earnest now, his hips snapping as he ground into me faster and faster. Sweat was dripping down his chest, his face, and I could feel it on me. My cock ached between our bodies, the drag of its head against our abdomens too much, and then—

Max bit down on my shoulder, sucking a bruising kiss into it, and I moaned loudly.

I came hard, my breath catching and heart stopping as my cock twitched, long ropes of cum shooting out to paint both of our chests. I could feel myself tense around him, my muscles tighten and holding him close as my abdomen spasmed.

“Max!” I called his name, too loudly, and then I felt him freeze, his body tensing, and then the warm feeling of his thrusting cock still as he came inside of me. His head fell lower on my chest, and another hot burst shot out of me.

When I managed to open my eyes again, Max was looking down at me. Some of my release had gotten on his chin and cheek. A bit of it was close to his lips. My eyes widened.

Max slowly pulled out of me, both of us wincing as he did so. His tongue swept out of his mouth and licked at the mess near his lips. I nearly passed out at the sight.

Breathing heavily, Max rolled to the side of me. I blindly reached around on the floor until I grabbed a piece of clothing and wiped down my chest and stomach, carefully cleaning off my spent cock with what one glance had me thinking were Max’s boxers. Then I rolled to my side and gently cleaned Max off.

I started with his face, and then cleaned his chest, slowly taking the condom off him and throwing it in the trash can beside the bed. I very carefully wiped him with the clean corner of the boxers and, after a satisfied glance to make sure he was actually clean, threw his boxers away, too.

Max watched me as I did this without saying anything. When I was done, he reached over and tugged me to him. We laid side by side, facing each other, our hands intertwined between us.

“So. That was something,” Max said quietly.

I felt myself smile, even as I tried to fight it. “Apparently.”

“Do we talk about it?” he asked, looking about as awkward as I felt.

I considered it. “We could talk about who does it next?”

Max grew a slow, wide grin. “See, I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

“My ass,” I replied deadpan, raising an eyebrow.

He laughed, the sound almost jarring with how loud it was now that our pulses had settled down.

He scooted closer to me. We shifted until his head was on my chest and my arm was around him. I could feel his head move up and down as I breathed.

I wasn’t sure who fell asleep first, or when it happened, but I did know that for the first time in a long time, things finally felt like they were how they were supposed to be.