Chapter 6

Reece

 

 

“I’ll get it, Dad,” LJ shouted as she ran to the front door. Reece didn’t even have enough time to scold LJ for answering the door, when he’d specifically instructed her not to, before she had it open and was pulling Tate in by the hand.

Damn, the man was hot. Even in a pair of beat-up Chucks, which he toed off in the small entryway, sweats, and a black T-shirt, the man looked like he’d stepped out of a streetwear fashion shoot. Like a cover model from a magazine in the stands at the grocery checkout line. And that was just the outside.

Reece adored Tate’s soft underbelly. The man tried to act tough, but he was a mass of silken thread—tangled and complicated, kind of hard to unravel, but silky and fine to the touch.

“Hey,” Reece greeted, walking out of the kitchen, wringing the dish towel he’d been wiping the counter down with.

“Hey, yourself.” Tate smiled at him, absentmindedly twirling a strand of LJ’s hair around his finger. Tate’s slouched posture and his lower-than-normal energy level gave away his exhaustion, but his eyes danced. Reece wanted to pull Tate close, grab him by the waist, and kiss his cheek. But he held back, something he couldn’t quite name stopping him. Maybe it was the fact that LJ was watching them, and despite the fact that she knew Reece liked both men and women, kissing Tate in front of her would make his bisexuality more real somehow.

And while Tate had been smiling when he’d walked in, his strained grin and stooped shoulders made Reece want to hold him. Hell, no one was stopping Reece from doing what his body and mind urged him to. Nobody but him.

Reece dropped the dishtowel on the cabinet and moved toward Tate, holding eye contact. Reece had about two inches on Tate, not much, but noticeable when the man wasn’t in heels, so Tate tilted his head back as Reece stepped into his space. He placed his palm against Tate’s hip and brought their lips together in a quick chaste kiss.

Tate sank into him, running his hands up Reece’s biceps. When they pulled apart, a breath rushed from Tate’s mouth as he looked up at Reece from beneath his lashes. “Exactly what I needed.”

Reece stood slightly taller at hearing that.

“Oh my god, are you guys done kissing? So embarrassing.”

Reece glanced down at his daughter who had one hand on her hip and the other covering her eyes as she peeked from between her slightly spread fingers. The grin on her face belied her words, and Reece chuckled.

“Why would you be embarrassed?”

She gave him a “duh” look. “Because it’s embarrassing when parents do that gross kissing stuff. But at least you didn’t do it in front of other people. Or open your mouths like my friend said his mom and dad do. Gross.” LJ shook her head in genuine confusion and disgust.

Tate winked. “Honey, you’ll be singing a different tune in about four years.”

“Four years?” Reece gaped.

Tate shrugged. “She’s on the cusp of tweenhood. Brace yourself. The hormones are going to be raging.”

Reece looked over LJ who wrinkled her nose, and he prayed Tate was wrong.

Tate and LJ sat at the table, LJ telling Tate all about dinner at Darlene’s house. It hadn’t been as unpleasant as dinner seemed to have gone at Tate’s parents’ house, but Reece had been glad when it was over, tired of his mama’s criticisms and digs.

He retrieved bowls and began scooping up the cobbler. After heating each serving in the microwave for about thirty seconds, they tucked into the warm tart dessert topped with vanilla ice cream. Tate seemed a little more relaxed than he was when he first walked in, but he was still more subdued than normal and Reece reined in his need to know what the hell had happened at Sunday dinner.

LJ talked Tate’s ear off. The man was engaged, but Reece couldn’t stop replaying his interaction with Tate in the parking lot earlier that day, and how dull he’d been while sitting out in his car. Not only dull in appearance—flat shoes, black slacks, and a plain white collared shirt—but also dull in spirit. His typical shiny personality had gone from a hundred watts to twenty-five. Seeing Tate at twenty-five watts bothered the shit out of Reece, because that wasn’t Tate. The man shouldn’t have to dull his shine for anyone.

Reece had been ready to pack up LJ and go with him to face down his douche of a dad, but then he’d stopped himself from making the offer. He’d been crazy to even consider it. They hadn’t been dating long enough to meet each other’s families, and they wouldn’t technically be dating at all until the upcoming Friday. But seeing the normally collected Tate so rattled at the thought of having dinner with his own family unsettled Reece. He wanted to be there for Tate without putting the man off by moving too fast and freaking him out.

“Okay, ladybug, you’d better finish your dessert if we’re going to watch a movie before you hit the sack,” Tate teased LJ, drawing Reece’s attention back to the present.

“Why do you call me ladybug, Mr. Tate?”

“What?” Tate’s spoon stopped midway to his mouth. “You don’t like it? I’m sorry if it bothers you, LJ.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t bother me. I like it. But why ladybug?”

Tate smiled. “Well, I really like ladybugs. They have this cool bright body that grabs your attention. And they tickle when they crawl all over you.” Tate reached over like he was going to tickle LJ, but she held up her spoon in a mock fencing position and the man relented.

“And”—he licked the last of the ice cream and peach syrup off his spoon—“they can fly.”

LJ tilted her head in confusion. “I can’t do any of that stuff, Mr. Tate.”

Tate snorted. “I know, but the ladybug is super cool and adorable and so are you, so that’s my nickname for you.”

“Do you have a nickname?” LJ asked Tate. Reece looked over at Tate, curious to know himself.

Tate leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Yeah, actually I do. My family used to call me TJ. My father is Tate Sr. and I’m Tate Jr.”

“Oh, cool! You have initials, just like me.”

Tate gave a weak smile. “Well, my family doesn’t really call me TJ anymore.”

“Why?” asked LJ.

Tate looked down at his empty bowl and lifted a shoulder. “They just stopped when I was about fifteen.”

Reece fumed as he guessed they’d stopped about the time Tate had come out. Tate’s dick of a dad had probably taken issue with his namesake being an effeminate gay kid.

“Well, I think we should call you TJ, just me and my dad, like our own special group. Now we just have to find a nickname for Dad.” LJ beamed and tilted her bowl to get at the melted remnants of her ice cream.

Reece’s heart squeezed at how excited his kid was to think of the three of them as a unit. He was reluctant to tell her that Tate might not be comfortable with them calling him TJ.

“Sure, but it’ll be our secret thing when we’re together, like an inside joke that no one else is in on, okay? Our own little special thing?” Tate asked.

LJ nodded before moving on to the next topic of conversation, while Reece tried to remind himself it was too early to feel this attached to someone he hadn’t even started dating, but Tate just kept being so damn awesome, making it hard for Reece to be rational.

***

After putting LJ to bed, Reece stood in the hallway, watching as Tate dozed on the couch, admiring the way his shirt rose to reveal a bit of his belly as he breathed. Reece loved how comfortable Tate appeared tucked into a corner of Reece’s second-hand couch. The fact that he’d been at home enough to nod off made Reece feel like Tate belonged in this space—in his life.

“So, how did it go this evening?” Reece asked when Tate stirred enough to look up over the back of the couch. He stalked over, plopping down close to Tate. “You, uh, looked a little stressed when you came over. What went down?”  

Tate bit his lip, his chest expanding with a deep breath before he let it out, laying his head against the back of the couch, his hands resting on the cushions and his body relaxed.

“I can’t say ‘what always happens’ ’cause that’s not exactly true.” Tate paused and Reece waited. “I arrived on a high thanks to you.” Tate looked over at him and smiled. Reece lay his hand over Tate’s which was still lying on the couch between them.

“I hear a but in there somewhere,” said Reece.

“I arrived on a high, but I left more humiliated than I usually do after those dinners.” Tate told Reece about his kid brother’s new girlfriend and about how she’d brought up the success Tate had been having running his shop and participating in hair shows. About how his father had dismissed his accomplishments, dismissed Tate, then exploded.

Tate rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “They don’t hate me or anything. They know I’m gay, and they don’t, like, condemn me to hell or anything like that. It’s just that I’m too gay. You know?”

Reece frowned, shaking his head. “No, I don’t.”  

Tate chewed at his lip before continuing. “My dad, he gets that it’s not a choice. He knows that. But he thinks the heels, the makeup, the hairdressing is a choice, and he fucking hates it. He thinks of it as me shoving my queerness in people’s faces and that’s the part that embarrasses him.”

Reece rubbed the back of Tate’s hand with his thumb. “Well, I think you look damn good when you sport your heels and makeup. That’s all you. That shit you wore earlier isn’t. To be real, it was unnerving.” Reece shuddered, remembering the boring stiff outfit.

Tate tried to his hide his grin. “You don’t know me,” Tate said, tossing a throw pillow at Reece.

Reece batted it down, laughing, but turned serious again as another thought struck him.

Tate’s father not disowning him and not calling him names wasn’t any better than making him feel bad about what he liked to wear. It wasn’t what Tate Sr. refrained from saying, but how he treated Tate that was terrible. Like Tate didn’t have a right to be who he was, or should be ashamed of who he was. Clearly the man had no idea how amazing his son was, in or out of heels. Didn’t value Tate’s success as a business owner who provided jobs for himself and others.

“Has your father ever been to your shop?” Reece asked.

“No. None of my family have. I don’t need that from them though.” Tate shrugged. “Never expected it.” Tate’s mouth said it didn’t matter, but his dull eyes said otherwise. “I should get going,” Tate said. “You and LJ have work and school in the morning. I’ve taken up enough of your weekend.”

Tate made to stand from the couch, but Reece stayed him with a hand as he remembered their commitment to do the unexpected. While Tate was right, it was late and Reece had work in the morning and LJ had school, he didn’t give a damn. He was going to do what wasn’t expected of him.

“Will you stay?” he asked Tate.

Tate hesitated before nodding and settling back down on the couch. Reece bowed his head, grateful that Tate would stay a little longer. Reece didn’t want him to be alone just yet.

Seeing how embarrassed Tate was, how clearly hurt he was just recounting what had happened made Reece kick himself for not following his instinct and offering to go with Tate, relationship status be damned.

He wasn’t naive enough to believe that he would have been able to stop Tate’s dad from acting like a jerk, but at least Tate wouldn’t have been alone. The best he could do now was be there for Tate, so he pulled Tate into his arms, their bodies slotting together perfectly against each other.

Tate relaxed against him as Reece let his hands rove over Tate’s back. Tate mirrored his actions, eventually snaking his hands up Reece’s belly, chest, then around Reece’s jaw to bring their lips together in a kiss.

It wasn’t long before Reece delved into the taste of peach and vanilla that still lingered on Tate’s tongue. There was nothing tentative about their embrace this time around. This time Reece sunk into Tate’s body, inviting Tate’s exploration of his mouth in response to Reece’s own.

While Reece was determined to get his fill of touching Tate’s smooth dark skin, he also loved the way Tate dominated him, setting the pace and leading Reece where he wanted him to go, which at the moment seemed to be on his back on the couch.

As he lay back, Reece spread his legs to allow Tate more space, the other man fitting his pelvis against Reece’s. Their erections pressing together, even with all the material between them, sent a surge of heat through his body. He moaned, his hips rolling against Tate’s of their own volition, seeking more pressure, more friction. Tate met his motion with one of his own, giving Reece what his body craved.

All the while, their lips remained fused and Tate’s tongue penetrated his mouth the way Reece wished Tate’s cock would penetrate his body. Reece slid his hands down to Tate’s taut ass, gripping the globes as he pressed against Tate, his body lighting up.

Reece enjoyed making love with women, and he’d been attracted to LJ’s mom. She was a beautiful woman with soft ample curves. But something about having the full weight of a man pressed down on top of him, the thickness of hairy limbs surrounding him and day-old stubble grazing his own bristly jaw—it just did it for him. It had him physically firing on all cylinders and made him want to open himself up.

Tate must have felt the neediness in Reece’s movements because he finally broke their kiss. “Baby, if you keep grinding on me like that, I’m going to pull both our dicks out and make us bust all over your couch.”

Reece met Tate’s heavy-lidded gaze and shoved his hand between them to cup Tate’s junk. He stroked Tate over his clothing, making him grunt. He rolled Tate’s earlobe between his lips then sucked it between his teeth. “What’s fucking stopping you?” he husked.

He couldn’t get enough of Tate’s smooth skin against his lips and tongue. Reece kept worrying the crook of Tate’s neck, so when Tate spoke, Reece couldn’t see his face though he felt Tate tense.

“I just don’t want to do anything you’re not comfortable with is all.” Tate had slid his arms under Reece’s torso and back and gripped his shoulders, then squeezed him in reassurance. Reece understood. Tate wasn’t rejecting him, just giving him space to slow down if he wanted to. While he appreciated that, he didn’t need it.

Reece pulled back to meet Tate’s gaze, sliding his hands back to Tate’s ass. “To be honest, it has been a minute since I’ve been with another dude, but”—Tate’s shiny, damp plump lips drew his gaze and he couldn’t resist flicking his tongue against them and then gently biting the bottom one between his teeth before releasing it—“I want to see more of you.” He hiked up his legs, making Tate sink against him. “Do you mind moving this to the bedroom, though? I don’t want LJ to walk in on us.”

Reece felt Tate’s dick twitch at his suggestion.

“No, I don’t mind.”

***

“Well, this is unexpected.” Reece’s cheeks heated at Tate’s close inspection of his bare groin and balls.

“Unexpected but highly appreciated. My mouth is grateful for the uninhibited landscape. All that golden skin, boy, yum.”

Reece chuckled from where he lay on his back on the bed, legs bent and spread, toes hanging over the edge of the mattress. A gust of warm air surged across the tip of his cock, and he looked down at the crown of Tate’s head between his legs just as that warm, slick mouth surrounded his glans.

“Ah! Baby, mmhh. So fucking good,” Reece grunted out.

Just like his kisses, Tate’s blow job was commanding and fucking masterful. The man quickly figured out that Reece loved to have his balls sucked, and that if Tate flicked his tongue against Reece’s frenulum, it made him beg.

Five minutes in and Reece’s balls drew close to his body, his cock throbbing against the lips wrapped around it. When a damp finger pressed against his ass, his control fled. He wouldn’t be able to hold back for long.

“Baby, fuck, I’m gonna come. I’m gonna come. I’m gonna—” His ass tightened around the digit as Tate deep-throated him and swallowed against the head of his dick. “Oh! Oh, fuck,” Reece hissed, spilling down Tate’s throat.

Tate didn’t let up until Reece begged him to stop; he was so sensitive. Reece trembled when Tate joined him on the bed. His fumbling encounters in club bathrooms and quick fucks with guys he’d met online paled compared to Tate’s sexy ministrations. They’d moved around each other in a carefully coordinated dance. Then, when Tate had taken Reece in his mouth, the man had paid attention to Reece’s reactions and intuitively found all of Reece’s sweet spots with ease. The care Tate had taken with him turned Reece on as much as the man’s ace cock-sucking skills.

“Open your eyes, Reece. I need to know you’re okay,” Tate said in a low voice. Reece hadn’t realized he’d closed his eyes, but when he opened them, he found Tate propped up beside him, head resting in one hand with the other on Reece’s belly, his brows furrowed.

Reece smiled. “I’m okay. Naw, actually, I’m great.” Reece saw the worry leave Tate’s face, and before the man could respond, Reece wrapped a palm around the back of Tate’s neck and pulled him down for a dirty, wet kiss, relishing the taste of himself on Tate’s tongue.

When Reece came up for air, his limbs were tangled with Tate’s and he was hard again. Tate spit in his palm and wrapped both their cocks in his hand, but Reece smacked that hand away and slid down Tate’s body, eager to taste him.

He wasn’t typically keen on going down on men or women, but tonight, his mouth nearly watered with the need to know the taste and texture of Tate’s skin against his tongue.

They’d knocked the pillows off the bed, and Tate spread his legs to give Reece room to go to work. He’d expected the man to be long after grinding against him on the couch, but he was surprised by how thick Tate was too. While Tate wasn’t bare like Reece, who just liked the sensation of being bare, he was well-groomed. Reece buried his nose between Tate’s groin and thigh, breathing in the heady scent of male body, pulling his knees under him, spreading his legs a bit for better balance.

Instead of getting right down to business like Tate had done, Reece explored Tate’s cock first with his lips then with the tip of his tongue. He placed small damp kisses all along the shaft, from the base to the tip, loving the texture created by the veins of the slightly curved, cut organ, and tonight, he was determined to feel it inside him.

Then Reece lavished attention on Tate’s glans, tracing the ridge with the tip of his tongue as he gently squeezed Tate’s balls in the palm of his hand. It wasn’t until Tate was moaning in broken whimpers, begging him to “put your fucking mouth on me,” that Reece took him deep, his lips locked firmly around Tate's dick, sliding his mouth down until the tip of his nose met Tate’s trimmed hairs. From there, he savored Tate’s flesh, doubling down on anything that made the man pant, beg, or curse.

Reece bobbed on Tate’s length, loving how the thickness stretched his lips and filled his mouth almost uncomfortably, loving how his position—bent over, knees spread, and ass high—allowed the cool air of the room to caress his fully exposed, grasping empty hole. And when Tate gripped Reece’s head with both hands, thrusting his hips with abandon, groaning about his impending orgasm, Reece pulled off, a trail of saliva dripping down his chin.

“Wait, wait, wait! Baby, what are you doin’?” Tate whined. “Get back on it, baby. Don’t leave me like this.” Tate gestured desperately down at his damp, weeping cock.

Reece ran his hand along the comforter until he found the lube that he’d fished out of his nightstand and tossed on the bed when they’d come into the room earlier. “Oh, I’m gonna get back on it all right.”

Sitting back on his heels briefly, Reece squeezed some lube on his fingers then dropped the bottle on the bed next to him. He leaned over Tate’s lower half on his knees, balancing on one hand then pushed a slick digit inside himself, shivering through the slight burn. When he had time to jack off leisurely, he loved to play with his hole and slip a finger or two inside himself. But lately, he’d been so busy with work, school, and parenting that any time he’d spent jacking off had been a cursory act to drain the pipes.

He looked up at Tate, giving him a smirk. “You want to help? The sooner I stretch myself, the sooner you can get in me.”

Tate didn’t hesitate to move from under Reece then behind him. Tate reached for the lube which had landed by Reece’s knee, and Reece heard the cap of the bottle click open. “Finger out of your ass. Put your face and chest down on the bed, ass high.”

Reece complied, and then Tate smacked his left ass cheek, making Reece jump.

“Hold your cheeks open.”

Reece’s cock leaked at Tate’s soft but firmly spoken orders, and he whimpered as he did what Tate commanded. Once he’d pulled his ass cheeks apart, Reece felt pressure at his ring then a sting as Tate penetrated him with two fingers.

“Ah!” Reece moaned into the comforter, grateful for the fabric’s ability to muffle sound. Even though he’d locked the bedroom door, he didn’t want LJ to wake up and come knocking.

After the initial sting, he relaxed and eventually met the thrust of Tate’s fingers only to have the man add a third.

“Mmmnh...ahh!” Reece clenched involuntarily around Tate’s digits, his thighs shaking. The burn didn’t recede as quickly this time, and sweat dotted his hairline.

“Breathe through it, baby.” Tate’s soothing palm smoothed across his back.

“I won’t move until you’re ready. If you’re not ready, I don’t need to fuck you to get off. We can wait.”

Something cool and damp brushed against Reece’s nape and goose bumps dotted his arms as his chute relaxed more around the digits lodged inside. He exhaled, pressed back, hissed at how the pressure, just on the good side of uncomfortable, rubbed him in all the right places. Reece squeezed around the intrusion, signaling Tate to move, and Tate responded, pumping his fingers once, twice, three times until Reece drove back onto them, his mouth opened in a silent moan, his arms shaking from having held himself open for so long. Then Tate crooked one of his fingers and glanced off his prostate, making Reece howl into the sheets.

“Fuck, me! Fuck me please, Tate? God, I need you in me now,” Reece pleaded.

Tate paused. “Condoms?”

“Top nightstand drawer,” Reece answered. Then his ass was achingly empty as he heard the drawer open and close, followed by the crinkling of foil. He clenched and unclenched his opening as he waited, releasing his cheeks and pushing his arms out in front of him.

Seconds later, he heard the snick of the lube cap opening then a liberal amount of the slick landed on his rosette right before the blunt tip of Tate’s cock followed.

Reece clutched the sheets in his hands, but instead of the sting he was sure he’d feel as he took Tate’s thick penis deep inside him, Tate’s broad body covered his back, hot breath against his ear.

“Breathe, baby,” Tate said, voice low and soothing. “Take a few deep breaths. Then, take one of those inhales real slow and squeeze your ass as tight as you can for as long as you can then relax when you release it.”

Reece followed Tate’s direction, the man’s voice hypnotic. And when he relaxed his sphincter on that last exhale, Tate slid the head of his cock into Reece with ease.

“Oh,” Reece sighed. The sting was there, but pleasure lay just beneath the surface. He wanted more of it. Reece spread his knees wider, tilted his hips as Tate rocked into him.

“Yes, baby. That’s it. Let me in. Open up that ass for me,” Tate murmured in his ear. Reece wanted to do exactly what Tate asked of him, so he tightened and breathed deep, exhaled and released again and again, meeting Tate’s thrusts, the two of them falling into a rhythm as Tate claimed him. Until finally Tate’s sac bumped against his own.

Reece’s hard-on had softened as Tate had worked his cock into him, but the graze of Tate’s trimmed but hairy balls against his own smooth balls had him almost painfully stiff and leaking. He wanted to feel the other man’s sac slap against his own. Wanted Tate’s wide palms gripping his hips as he fucked him from behind. Wanted Tate’s jizz sprayed all over his back and ass when the pressure of Reece’s asshole became so much that Tate couldn’t hold back anymore.

Reece looked back over his should as he lifted up to his elbows. “Move,” he said, and this time Tate followed Reece’s command. Tate straightened, pushing Reece’s head down into the sheets before grabbing Reece’s hips with both hands and pounding into him.

Reece got a mouthful of sheets as he groaned into the covers, doing his best to be as quiet as possible, which was tough with Tate filling him roughly. Reece squeezed his eyes closed, savoring the slap of their skin, the way the crown of his own dick leaked into the sheets, Tate’s grunts, and the mingled smell of their sweaty bodies. The ambient sound alone was enough to trigger Reece’s orgasm. He desperately wanted to take himself in hand, but once again anticipating his needs, Tate bent over Reece’s back, changing the angle of his penetration, fisting Reece’s shaft.

“Nnngggh—yes—Tate,” Reece hissed out quietly.

Tate’s deep powerful thrusts slowed and went shallow, rubbing against Reece’s prostate nice and slow, dragging out his pleasure.

“Ooooh,” moaned Reece as Tate followed each slow glide against Reece’s prostate with a tight tug on his dick, rolling his palm around the head on the upstroke, making Reece crazy in the process. Glide, tug, roll. Glide, tug, roll. Tate rhythmically worked Reece toward release until Reece lifted up onto his hands and knees, his pelvis rocking back and forth, alternately seeking Tate’s cock and firm grip. Then his orgasm edged closer as his balls drew up and his sphincter tightened. He barely had time to warn Tate before semen poured out of him onto sheets.

“Ahh! Fuck! Yes, yes, ahh, Tate.” Reece punctuated every exclamation by driving his ass back onto Tate’s dick, chasing every drop of pleasure. Tate met him thrust for thrust, finally pulling Reece back to his chest as he buried his cock deep inside Reece’s ass, quietly grunting as he filled the condom. Reece reached back, grabbing one of Tate’s flexing ass cheeks, pulling the man close.

The two were plastered together, back to front, and Tate’s cock was lodged inside Reece, but they continued to rhythmically press against each other until they both lost the tempo and slid back down onto the soiled bedding.

Tate nuzzled the back of his neck as the man gently pulled out of him. “Sssssh,” Reece hissed at the discomfort, jerking minutely.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry, baby,” Tate mumbled right before gently rubbing Reece’s damp tender opening with the pads of his fingers. A few seconds later, Tate’s arm curled around his waist and pulled him closer as he spooned behind Reece, his flaccid cock tucked against the crease of Reece’s ass.

He laid his hand over Tate’s, glancing down at where the man’s hand was possessively splayed against his abdomen. He smiled at the way their skin looked like ribbons of light and dark earth intertwined. Eventually the silence in the room caused Reece to doze off, warm in his lover’s arms.

Minutes later, a shuffling sound woke Reece and he blinked his eyes open. Tate’s warm body was no longer behind him, and Reece rolled from his side to his back to find Tate pulling on his sweats. Tate looked up, a small grin lighting his face.  

“Sshhh, go back to sleep,” Tate whispered.

“Wha—Tate?” Reece blinked, the memories of Tate plowing him roaring back, his ass twinging in protest as he sat up. Was it morning? He couldn’t have slept that long. He rubbed his eyes.

“How long have I been out?”

“About an hour,” Tate answered as he bent, scooping his shirt from the floor and slipping into it. He patted the pocket of his sweats for his keys. “Yeah, you didn’t even budge when I wiped you down and swapped out your dirty top sheet for a blanket from the hallway.

Reece ran a hand over his face, then looked around. The sheet he’d jizzed all over was gone and he definitely felt less sticky. He hated that he’d fallen asleep after Tate had fucked his brains out, that he’d missed an opportunity to savor the feel of Tate’s skin against his and have a little pillow talk. He hoped Tate didn’t hold it against him. 

“Shit, thanks, Tate. You didn’t have to do that.”

Tate walked over and sat on the edge of the bed next to Reece, cupping Reece’s jaw with his palm. “No, I didn’t have to, but I wanted to,” Tate mumbled before placing a soft kiss on Reece's lips.

Reece closed his eyes, ready to lean in for more, but Tate pulled back.

“You need your rest. It’s late, but…”

As Tate’s words trailed off, old anxieties floated to the surface. Would Tate call it off before things even really began? Had Reece been shitty in bed? Did Tate resent having to leave because LJ was asleep in the other room? Reece’s heart raced.

“I can’t wait to do it again.” Tate looked away shyly, shrugging. “Maybe after our date next Friday. If you want to.”

This time, Reece cupped Tate’s jaw, turning the man’s face toward his. “I want to, baby. I can’t wait to feel you again.” Then he took Tate’s mouth in a rough kiss that left them both semi-hard by the time Reece released him.

“Boy, let me go before I have you bent over this bed again.” He stood and headed toward the door.

“In your dreams,” Reece quipped, lying back.

Tate turned around, hand on a hip, “No, baby, in yours.”

Reece chuckled because the man was right. “Goodnight, Tate. Thanks…thanks for tonight. It had been a long time. It felt…” He looked down at his hands then back up at a wide-eyed Tate. “So fucking good. The sex, but the closeness too.”

Tate gave Reece a bashful grin, which was fucking adorable considering how extroverted and confident the guy normally was. “I liked being close to you too, Reece Christopher Evans. I really needed you tonight, and not just, you know, physically.”

I needed you too, Reece thought but didn’t say out loud. He was so open right now that, if he gave anything else away, he might float off. But then Tate deserved to know what he was feeling…at least some of it.

“Well, I like being a person who can give you what you need, Tate. You deserve that.”

As the two stared at each other for a moment, Reece thought that he’d never seen someone or been seen by another person so clearly. Then the moment passed and they wished each other goodnight. Reece waited a few minutes then tiptoed to the front door to lock up. For the first time in a long time, he felt sure of himself, he just hoped like hell he didn’t fuck it up.