Chapter Thirteen
Adrián
“You think they saw something?”
The flame of the candle lighter was the only thing signaling Simeon’s location in the room. It’d gone from gloomy to pitch-black in the house not long after we’d returned from the long walk back to the apartment. With only the flashlights on our phones, we’d dug out the devotional candles my mother had stocked one of the cupboards with—all of patron saints. Jesus was literally showing us the way.
“I don’t know.” Simeon lit the entire twelve pack and picked up two. “Bedroom or living room?”
“Bedroom. I want to look outside.”
“You like storm watching?”
“Usually, but now I just feel like I need to see out the window in case the damn river floods.”
“Mmm . . .”
I trailed behind Simeon. He found his way in the dark better than I did, even though it was my apartment. I chalked it up to him being collected in an emergency whereas I was sweating the fact that a snotty kid had seen me macking on a dude. Neither Brayden nor Cheryl, his mom, had said a word, but I had the creeping feeling that they’d been gaping in shock and not just surprise wouldn’t leave me alone.
After awkwardly explaining we’d gone on the quest to find him at the urging of his dad, and our own concern, everyone had fallen silent. No eye contact, no smart comments from Brayden, and not even careful questioning from his mom. Total fucking zipsville.
“I think they saw us.”
Simeon exhaled through his nose. “Do you really think Brayden would have been able to keep his mouth shut had he seen anything?”
“Okay, that’s a good point.”
“I know. I’m much smarter than you. Just be pretty and look at the candles.”
The candles did look pretty cool. My mother hadn’t given them to me for the aesthetic, but stretching out on my bed with crashing waves and beating rain as ambiance and flickering candlelight all around was calming. I let the sounds wash over me and let my eyes unfocus while gazing into one of the flames. Or, I tried for a few minutes. Then I looked at Simeon, who’d settled beside me.
“What the hell would we do if he saw us?”
Simeon’s sigh was louder this time and less patient.
“Hey buddy, don’t forget you only got outed a few months ago. I bet you were shitting bricks when you first found out about the story.”
“Oh, I was. I was shitting bricks from the moment that asshole bragged that he was going to kill my career with that video.”
“Whoa, he told you to your face? I kinda figured you just caught them recording.”
“Nope.” In the shadows, I saw Simeon slowly shaking his head. “And you know what really sets my soul on fire? He did all that because he’s a Predators fanboy.”
I sat up straight. “No way.”
“Yup. That fool boy went through all that trouble to entrap me in a bathroom after finessing me all damn night just because he hates the Barons.”
“Ave Maria.” All I could do was shake my head and wonder what the hell was wrong with people. “Some people really take this rivalry to the next level, don’t they?”
“Yeah, they do. But we all kind of egg it on.”
“How you figure?”
Simeon laughed quietly. “Think about how we all act on social media. Even at games—how many times have both our teams been flagged for unnecessary roughness? Football is already a fanatical type of sport, but then you add in how much we hate each other? Shit . . .”
“At least it’s not like in Europe where fans be burning shit down and getting into huge brawls after matches.”
“Boo, our fans do that shit too. The media just acts like it’s no big deal because football is everything.”
I leaned against the headboard and returned my gaze to the candle. There was no wisdom to be found in Jesus’s illuminated face. When lightning once again struck outside, I told myself it was the Holy Ghost telling me to take responsibility for my part in this mess.
“You know, there was a time when I swore us playing up our hatred for you guys was directly connected to our rival games always selling out.”
“You’re probably right. They even make merchandise specifically for it. My mama owns a “Barons Own the Predators” jersey.”
“Oh man! My mother hates all that shit.”
Simeon shook his head, smiling. “Not mine. Joanne Boudreaux is queen of trash talk and loves her some rivalries. She makes big dinners whenever our teams play and throws a party. If we lose, the party upgrades to dancing and everyone pretends the game was never on.”
“That sounds pretty dope. If my team loses, especially if I screw up, my pops acts like someone died. He’ll send me long narratives via email explaining what I did wrong, why I did it wrong, or how he thinks the team as a whole could improve. He actually thinks the coaches give a fuck about his emails.”
Simeon stifled a snicker, but still came back with his sweet New Orleans-boy charm. “Some people would. He’s famous.”
“Yeah, he is. That’s why he thinks everyone should listen to him. Even about sports he doesn’t play.”
The laughter broke free of Simeon’s mouth, and I joined him.
“What do you think your parents would say if they knew you were into guys?”
“Into a guy,” I corrected, nudging his thigh. “It’s just been you.”
“You know what I mean.”
I did, but it was easier to avoid thinking about the “what ifs,” even though it’d been a constant question in the back of my head as we’d walked back from Judd’s. He’d been a salty mess even though we’d brought his kid home, but the jackass had acted like he hadn’t wanted to let Brayden’s mother into the house. Their divorce must have been a wreck, but it wasn’t any way to treat a human being, regardless of the bad blood. Luckily, she’d already paid for a hotel a few blocks away.
“Adrián?”
“Sorry.” I shook my head. “To be quite frank with you, I’ll probably never tell my father anything about my personal life. It was the same way the one time I seriously dated a woman. He’s suspicious of everyone, and I didn’t want to put her through the interrogation.”
Simeon’s eyes were heavy on the side of my face, the first indication that my words mattered to wherever this conversation was going.
“But my mom? I think I’ll probably tell her. She’s been doing a lot of Facebooking about queer rights and shit lately. If she came down on me for a little bisexuality, I’d never let her live down how much of a hypocrite she is.”
“A little bisexuality.” Simeon guffawed, sinking further into the bed and covering his face with one of my pillows. “You’re such a dumbass.”
“Hey, at least I’m owning it and not still claiming to be straight.”
“True.” There was a smile in Simeon’s voice, betraying his excitement and also his pleasure at my word choice. He rolled onto his side and stroked the back of my hand with his thumb. “I’ve met dudes who say they’re straight even after I turned them out with my ass.”
“Because they probably were just in it for the sex.” And that was a leading statement if I’d ever made one. Shit. Way to set myself up. I licked my lips, nervous and overly aware of how keenly he was analyzing me. There was no way I could end that statement there. “If I didn’t like you so damn much, I probably would be trying to claim the same thing.”
“Fortunately, it’s impossible not to like me. My personality is as pretty as my face.”
“And your head is getting to be about a million times the size of where it started back in August.”
“Ooh . . . now look who’s being a size queen.”
We laughed together, loud and bright in the midst of a storm that was doing its best to beat the city. But my bedroom had become a haven against the weather, and this bed was our cocoon. I felt safe here with Simeon, and the rest of the world seemed very far away.
His addiction to touching prompted him to slide his questing fingers up my arm and chest. In the past, the littlest brushes of our skin had sent me into lust mode, and this was no different. Except now, I listed forward with obvious yearning and scooted over until my knee was lodged between his thighs. His dick was already getting hard—a turn-on in and of itself. That he could have just about any guy he wanted and was choosing me, the asshole who’d spent years antagonizing him, was a gift.
I rocked my knee against him, my breath hitching, more so than his. He just drew me in and laughed quietly in my ear.
“You’re getting to be needy.”
“Yup.”
Simeon ran his tongue along the edge of my ear. “After all this time, why’re you so thirsty for it? Hard up in general, or is all this for little ole me?”
“It’s all you. And it’s happening now because I can finally admit how bad I want it.” I nudged my knee against his bulge and tried not to shiver when he nipped at my earlobe. “To you and myself.”
“That’s deep, boo.” He nipped then sucked to soothe the sting, but it was the sting that went straight to my already-aching dick. “Now tell me what you want to do to me. I have the feeling that reality is gonna catch up with us faster than we want, and then the fantasy of Adrián Bravo being comfortable with all this is gonna go out the window.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I grabbed his shoulder and flipped him onto his stomach, using more strength than I was used to exerting if I got a little rough in bed. His size was unfamiliar and exhilarating at the same time.
“You think I’ll ever get over wanting to fuck you?”
“I mean, I’m fine, but shit happens.”
It was hard to be serious with him sassing me left and right. I ground my cotton-covered erection against the seam of his ass to shut him up. After coming out of the rain, I’d changed into loose black shorts and he’d opted for keeping on his thin briefs. If the lights were on, they’d probably be see-through.
“Fine, I’ll play along. Let’s say this all fades away once we’re back with our teams and only seeing each other when we have to.” I kept rocking against him and braced the back of his neck with one of my hands. He turned his head just slightly so I could speak directly into his ear. “So that means I should be inside you as much as possible before that time comes, right?”
“That’s exactly what that means.”
If this turned out to be nothing more than an extended fantasy, I was happy to get as much out of it as I got before our number came up. And judging by the eager way he rolled his ass back on me, he felt the same way.
I dragged him up by the neck, forceful but not too rough, and turned his head to the side. It was darker with our backs to the candles, but I found his lips by searching the side of his face with wet wandering kisses. The sting of his stubble and the musky taste of rain, sweat, and his cologne set my heart to a steady gallop, more so than the crown of my dick cresting along his ass.
Maybe Simeon was right that those thoughts would fade once we were uprooted from this situation, but right now they prompted me to kiss him so hard he ran out of breath. Or maybe he ran out of breath because there was a two hundred and forty-pound man humping him while sucking on his tongue. I preferred to think it was the talent of my kisses.
There was a hardness and a sweetness to Simeon that intoxicated me with every touch. It made me pant for him, salivate for him, and think of nothing but my aching need to feel his body completely bared against my own.
“Take your underwear off,” I mumbled against his swollen mouth. “Lemme in that ass.”
“Lube,” he commanded hoarsely, writhing as my hands wandered all over his bare torso. “Especially if you do me like you did last time.”
“Last time I was too busy playing games to enjoy this beautiful fucking body of yours.” I sucked on his shoulder, hoping it left a mark. For the next three weeks, I planned to leave signs of my touch all over his body. “It will be different this time.”
“How?”
“First things first . . .”
I rolled over onto my back and lifted my own hips to shimmy out of my shorts. My dick sprang up, proud and needy, as I extended an arm to destroy the side table looking for my jerk-off lube. It was water-based, not the heavy-duty silicone shit he’d probably prefer for what I wanted to do to him, but it’d have to do.
“Put this on me,” I said, pressing the tube into his hand. “Please? Every time you touch my dick I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
Simeon straddled me. “How do you know you’re not? Maybe that first encounter launched you into an extended fever dream, and now you’re just plum crazy.”
He finished the sentence with a slow drizzle of the lubricant all over my piece. It strained against the liquid like it was a signal for more suction and tightness to come. Simeon granted me that promise by tugging on my dick with both hands. He twisted them in opposite directions, fingers tight around my shaft while one of his thumbs pressed against the slit.
“Oh yeah,” I hissed, bucking my hips up. “You’re so good, baby.”
“I know.” He moved his hands faster, twisting and tugging in coordination I’d never be able to mimic. “I can feel you pulsing. The blood rushing through your veins. Makes me want to suck the come out of you.”
“Fuck.” I tilted my head against the pillows, eyes rolling back. "You love the taste, huh?”
“I do love the taste. You should try it.” At my skeptical grunt, he leaned over and down to lick the side of my face. “One day I’ll swallow all yours and kiss you with it still in my mouth.”
“That’s gross,” I muttered unconvincingly. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“You’d love it because you’re as filthy as me.”
“Well, we got time to try it out, right?”
“We have a few weeks, which means we have to pack in a lot of fucking if that’s the deadline we’ve both chosen.” Simeon pumped harder, his breath hitching even though his own dick had so far gone ignored. “Right now I’d rather have you in my ass.”
I throbbed, my balls tingling, at the promise of what was to come. I’d been jerking off fantasizing about being inside of him every night for weeks, since he’d bragged about liking it, and especially after I’d gotten a taste. Except that had been part of a game, and this was something else.
“I want you to ride me,” I said. “Wanna see that pretty face of yours when you nut.”
“And I want to nut all over you.”
“Bet.”
I leaned against the mountain of pillows behind us, thighs spread and knees bent for leverage. He straddled me, grinding his round ass against my dick. I had a serious obsession with the muscular globes of flesh, and took the chance to run my hands along them, squeezing and probing his pucker with my finger.
“I thought you wanted to hurry up and get in me.”
“After I get my fill of touching you.”
Simeon’s hands tightened on my shoulders, and his fingers dug in harder once I mouthed at his chest. His nipples were pebbled, so I followed the lead he’d shown me weeks ago and sucked one into my mouth.
“I love a fast learner,” he breathed, writhing against me. “I guess you really wanna hear me get loud.”
I released his nipple just enough to growl, “I want to hear you fucking shout.”
The delight on his face was enough of a reward, but I wanted that delight to turn into desperate cries and pleas for more. If he was as vocal as he’d been the other day, when I hadn’t even been doing him exactly like I’d wanted, I had hope that we were about to have a real good time.
I tongued at his chest while playing with his dick, not quite jerking but more idly stroking. A few pumps here and there, but I used the kind of measured strokes and teasing touches that I did to myself when I was set up to enjoy a full hour of good porn without wanting to blow my load in the first five minutes.
Simeon writhed, tilting his head back and undulating while I stimulated his chest, his dick, and his tight hole all at the same time. If I judged by the way his ass clenched around my finger, the more turned on he got, the more he wanted to be nailed.
We made a mess of the lubricant. Both too eager and both trying to have control of the situation, we wound up squirting too much and getting stickiness everywhere. It turned me on more, and I was trembling by the time he leaned up so I could position the crown at his opening.
“I been wanting this so bad,” he whispered. “Even though sometimes I hated that I did.”
“You still hate it?”
Simeon yanked my head back and graced me with a harsh kiss as he seated himself fully on my dick. The force caused me to entirely fill him, pushing past the ring of his muscles, and going in deep enough for his ass cheeks to rest against me once I was in. My eyes rolled back, a smile finding its way onto my lips.
“You like that?” he asked, still kissing all over my face.
“God yes. You milking me that way is like an out-of-body experience.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet, boy.”
Simeon smirked, filthy and promising, before leaning back on his splayed palms. His entire body stretched out in front of me, naked and glorious, as he raised himself up and then slammed down onto my cock again. I lifted my hips to meet him and to drive it in deeper and harder. His decadent moan was all the encouragement I needed.
We fucked like it was going to be the last time, even though I knew there was no way I would allow that to happen. Pounding our bodies together too fast and hard and causing the slapping of our skin to echo throughout the apartment.
I gripped his waist with one hand and used the other to stroke his erection as it smeared messily against my torso. The infrequent tap of his cockhead against my stomach was almost as erotic as him clenching around me as I plundered his ass. I wondered how it would feel to have all of his warm come splattered on me while I filled him with my own. The thought alone propelled me to another plane of existence.
There was nothing for me but the grip of him around my girth, the flexing of his hips, the pounding of our bodies, and his agonized moans. I muffled them with my mouth, unable to stay away from his lips for long. All this time, I’d not only been starving for his body—I’d been deprived of his kisses. Now I couldn’t get enough.
Our lips were crushed together when he released on my stomach, and I cried out against his lips when I followed not long after.
He slumped against my chest, grinning. I responded by kissing him again.
“You’re so into me,” he said.
“You damn right.”
Simeon threaded his fingers through my short dark hair, sliding his chest against mine and making a bigger mess.
“Can we still pretend not to like each other in public? It will make for more sexual tension before you dick my brains out later on.”
“Ha,” I said. “Nah. I don’t think anyone would buy it from me now.”
Simeon whistled. “Damn. It’s like that?”
“Yeah. It is.” I bumped my hips up. “And you better get ready, because I’m going to fuck you through this storm.”
He laughed again, eyes twinkling. “Then you better make good use of tonight, Bravo. The clouds will be gone by tomorrow.”
I smacked his ass lightly. “Don’t worry. I will.”