Luke and Adam cleaned up as best they could. It had been a long time since Luke had done something like this. Honestly, the last few times he’d done it, it had been a lot rougher. He hadn’t felt the tenderness the way he had with Adam, that desire to, even though this was kind of a quick fuck in a public place, take care of Adam.

Hell, last time he did this, Luke didn’t think he’d even bothered to lock the bathroom door. He’d just shoved his partner into a stall and they’d gone to town.

The idea of anyone else hearing or seeing Adam like that though had made his blood boil. He knew that this wasn’t Adam’s usual playground, so to speak. He had admitted that he’d never even really gone to clubs—so he definitely hadn’t done anything as crazy as near-public sex. It made Luke want to protect Adam. He wanted to give Adam the fun of that experience without the seedy side of it—the other men jeering and yelling either insults or encouragement as they saw them, or the jostling of bodies when the dance floor got too crowded, or too much alcohol making everything spin sickeningly, or the way fights almost always broke out.

No, he wanted to give Adam the pleasant side of things. Plus, he was a little worried that he’d actually murder anyone besides him who got to see Adam shaking apart like that.

The mirror was a fucking godsend, allowing him to see the way Adam flushed all over, the way that his mouth fell open, his eyes sliding closed as he’d moaned. Luke was going to remember that forever, keep that image locked tightly away so that it was seared into his memory and he would never forget it.

The sight of himself, as well—or rather the sight of him looming over Adam like that, dominant, standing while Adam was bent over, almost but not quite on all fours—that had been pretty damn amazing as well. Luke was certain that he was going to be beating off to the memory of all this for a very, very long time.

When they were as presentable as they could be, wiped up and tucked in and all, Luke unlocked the door. He ignored the line of men glaring at him, arms folded, and threw an arm around Adam to keep him pressed tight against Luke’s side. He wouldn’t put it past someone to try and start a fight, and Luke wasn’t about to let any of them take a swing at Adam. If somebody wanted to complain about them basically stealing the bathroom, then they could do it to Luke.

Adam was flushing, looking like he wanted to apologize to everybody. Luke chuckled in spite of himself. Such a goody-two-shoes, this boy. Ironic, considering that Adam had told him he’d grown up in a not-so-good neighborhood in the city while Luke had grown up in a small town in the Midwest. On paper, people probably would have assumed their positions were reversed.

He helped to guide Adam back through the dance floor and outside, where the cool night air smacked the last traces of alcohol out of them. Adam shivered, pressing himself more firmly against Luke’s side. Luke definitely didn’t mind.

“Did you enjoy that?” Luke asked. He thought so, but he wanted to be sure.

“I suppose the two orgasms weren’t enough confirmation for you,” Adam replied, deadpan.

Luke laughed. “I was talking about the club part of it.” Orgasms were orgasms, they were always good. He wanted to know if the entire experience had been worth trying out.

Adam thought about that for a moment. He seemed to be genuinely mulling the entire experience over. “Yes,” he said at last. “I think it might be something I’d like to do every once in a while, so long as I had a partner to go with, like I did tonight.”

Luke’s throat closed up just a bit at the thought of Adam doing this with someone else, of someone else taking Adam out. Would they take care of him the way that Adam needed? Would they notice when he was getting nervous and when he was getting overwhelmed by the people?

The idea of someone else getting Adam loose and bold enough to let them slide a hand down his pants on a crowded dance floor made Luke want to punch something.

Then Adam tucked his head into the crook of Luke’s neck, breathing in deeply, like he wanted to inhale Luke’s scent and imprint it in his mind forever. Luke was glad that Adam couldn’t see his dopey grin.

“I had more fun tonight than I ever remember having before,” he admitted, before he could stop and overthink what he was about to say. “I think it made it better, going with someone I already knew and wanted to be with.”

Adam made a humming sound of confirmation. “So I’m better than all those anonymous lays?”

“Oh, much better,” Luke assured him. He suspected that Adam wasn’t just joking, but was honestly a little insecure. Luke rubbed Adam’s arm soothingly. “I haven’t wanted one of those for a while, honestly. I was just having fun, sowing my wild oats, y’know, while I was in college, but I was planning on seriously finding someone and settling down once I graduated.”

“The universe likes to fuck with our plans,” Adam observed.

“It does,” Luke agreed. “Sometimes I think this is all cosmic punishment for being reckless and stupid when I was younger.”

Adam pulled away so that he could look into Luke’s face. “You’re serious?”

Luke shrugged.

Adam rolled his eyes. “That’s ridiculous. We all have crazy things we did when we were younger.”

“Not you.”

“Well, maybe I should have been a little crazier. Before my mom died I had times where I didn’t do what I should, or I was lazy or whatever. Don’t beat yourself up about something that wasn’t your fault. Besides, it’s not like you were, what, dealing drugs or beating people up or anything.”

Luke shrugged. “I suppose.”

Adam’s hand came to close over his, where Luke had it wrapped around Adam’s side. “You’re a lot more than you think you are, and you’re doing a lot better than you think you are,” Adam said. “Most people would have fallen apart after what happened, but you didn’t. You stayed strong and you’ve managed to keep yourself and Seth above water all this time.”

Then, Luke once again got the pleasure of seeing Adam blush. “And for what it’s worth, I think you’d make a great boyfriend.”

Luke knew he was smiling like an idiot, his grin stretching his face until it hurt, but he couldn’t for the life of him stop himself. “You’re not too bad yourself, city boy.”

Adam quickly ducked his head back down, like he was embarrassed or didn’t believe what Luke was saying. After a moment he said, “If that were true, you’d think I’d have had at least one serious relationship before now.”

“Maybe it was because you were looking in the wrong place,” Luke replied. “You were looking in a place where people wouldn’t see all that you are.”

Adam couldn’t tuck his head into Luke’s shoulder fast enough to hide the smile that Luke saw peeking out of the corners of his mouth.

They walked in relative silence until they got to the truck, where Luke immediately blasted the heat. It was fucking freezing out and neither of them had brought jackets. Not that he was complaining, when the cold of the walk had allowed him to keep Adam plastered to his side the entire time. Adam’s face had ended up pressed against Luke’s neck, Luke’s arm around him, and although they didn’t talk he could feel every shiver, every gust of breath, that Adam gave, and that was almost like a conversation in and of itself.

He hated that Adam was only here for a couple of days. He hated that Adam was going to go back to New York, and work for the Harpers.

Adam had mentioned something though about his bosses wanting to transfer someone to Chicago. Maybe—maybe Adam would be the one they offered it to? Adam seemed to think it was why he was given this case. Maybe Adam could say yes? Maybe this… this growing thing between them, didn’t have to end.

They kept up idle chatter on the drive back, nothing particularly serious. They got into a bit of an argument over baseball teams, but it was a friendly one, and ended when Luke couldn’t resist anymore and started making jokes about pitching and catching. It was so easy to see the rhythm that was already developing between them. Luke would crack jokes, often inappropriate ones. Adam would respond with a deadpan, often sarcastic comment. Luke would then remark about how Adam was adorable, or build off of the sarcastic remark to make another joke, or even just laugh.

It was easy—almost too easy, considering the circumstances, but Luke clung to it. He finally had something just for him, and if it was the relationship he’d been hoping on building with someone when he graduated, if it was happening in such odd circumstances, if he couldn’t keep it… well, then he would just make the most of that moment.

When they got back to the house, they had to be quiet. Seth was asleep—or supposed to be asleep, anyway, although he might have been indulging in video games since Luke was gone. He didn’t do it very much since the crash. Seth had been really into video games, another thing that he and Dad had always fought about.

It was kind of annoying, the predictable song and dance that Seth and Dad would go through. Seth would do something that Dad didn’t approve of, like playing video games or saying he wanted to be a lawyer and live in the city, or saying he preferred hockey to football (that had been a fight for the ages). Dad would be upset that Seth didn’t want things the same way that Dad wanted them. He’d also usually have a problem with Seth’s attitude or the way he said things. Seth, of course, would rebel against being made to be someone he wasn’t. Cue fighting. They’d yell, then there would be sullen silence for a few hours, and then Lyla would talk to one or both of them, and one or both of them would approach the other with the offer of a hug and a sort-of apology.

Not that either of them had really apologized, not properly, but they’d loved each other despite all of the fighting they did—or maybe that was why they fought in the first place—and so they’d accepted the hugs and had wanted to make things right again. It was just that neither of them had wanted to give any ground.

Luke hoped that Seth didn’t feel guilty about any of that. He and Dad were both proud, stubborn people. It was natural that sometimes kids and parents would butt heads. It didn’t make Seth a bad son and it didn’t make him a disappointment in any way to Dad.

Still, Luke wondered sometimes.

When they parked, Luke unlocked the door and they tiptoed inside. “I feel like I’m a high school kid all over again,” Luke whispered. “I was always staying out past curfew.”

“Speak for yourself,” Adam replied, also in a whisper. “This is officially the first time I’ve had to sneak in anywhere.”

Luke couldn’t help himself. He backed Adam up against the nearest wall, glad that he knew this house so well that he could move through it in the total darkness. He was so glad that he wouldn’t have to sell it. The giddy relief of it washed through him and he just had to kiss Adam then, for helping him to keep his childhood home.

Adam sighed into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Luke and responding eagerly. Luke could feel his body stirring again. It had been an hour’s drive home, and he really, really wasn’t finished with Adam yet. He was going to drag him upstairs and lick him open until he was sobbing and—

The light flicked on.

Luke jumped, startled, and Adam gave out a rather undignified yelp of surprise that had Luke stifling laughter.

Seth was standing in the doorway that led to the kitchen, the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. “You two have a good time?”

“Fuck off,” Luke growled, slipping for a moment out of the parent role he’d assumed the last six months and back into his annoyed older brother mode. Seth had been too young to witness a lot of Luke’s shenanigans, especially when Luke had been at college in Chicago, but he’d been old enough to hear the gossip.

Seth just kept grinning at them. “So, is he gonna stay the night?”

Adam was beet red and looked like he was about to bolt for the door, but Luke still had his hands braced against the wall on either side of Adam’s head, so he couldn’t get away unless he wanted to try ducking down low and then making a dash for it.

“Yes,” Luke replied. He reminded himself that he was the parent here now, not just the older brother, and he had to think about Seth’s wellbeing as well. “If that’s okay with you.”

Adam nodded, apparently too embarrassed to speak, but agreeing with Luke.

“Depends,” Seth said. “Do I get pancakes in the morning?”

Twelve years of age and still angling for pancakes. “Sure.”

“And can I take a picture?”

“No!” Luke saw Adam flush even more red. “You have enough blackmail material already, now scoot up to bed. It’s way past your bedtime.”

Seth stuck his tongue out at them, but scampered back up the stairs. Luke rubbed at his eyes. Goddammit, that was not exactly the welcome he’d been planning on giving Adam when they got back to the house.

Adam, to his surprise, chuckled. “Kid’s gonna be a good lawyer someday. You said he already had blackmail material on you?”

“You don’t want to know,” Luke mumbled.

“Ah, but as your current consulting lawyer—unofficially, of course,” Adam said, a wicked glint coming into his eyes as he pressed himself up against Luke again, “It’s important that I know of anything… untoward in your past.”

“Well,” Luke said, glad to know that Adam wasn’t planning on running out the door, “There is a rumor floating around that I’m great at giving head.”

“Please tell me Seth doesn’t know about that one,” Adam replied dryly. He grinned at Luke, surely knowing how embarrassed that comment was going to make him.

Luke groaned and leaned his head against the wall with a thunk. “I’m not going to live this down for months.”

“Well, I can see what I can do to help soften the blow a bit,” Adam said, and Luke could feel him grinning against the skin of Luke’s neck as Adam began to run his teeth and tongue over the sensitive skin there.

Part of Luke was rather worried about traumatizing his little brother, so he only held Adam’s hand as they ascended the stairs, turning off the lights as he went and peering into Seth’s room to make sure that his brother was actually asleep.

Seth was sprawled out on his bed, apparently having exhausted himself waiting up for Luke. Luke smiled helplessly, seeing how young Seth looked. It was kind of reassuring to see that he wasn’t all that used to staying up late and could still fall asleep at the drop of a hat in the way that it seemed only kids could.

He closed the door, then led Adam to the master bedroom, locking the door behind them, just in case.

“Paranoid, much?” Adam teased, standing in the middle of the room.

It felt kind of like a gut punch. This was the first time Luke had brought someone home since his parents had died. Since he’d moved into the master bedroom of his childhood bedroom, he’d felt like he was invading what was rightly Dad and Lyla’s space. Now it actualły felt like it was his space, for the first time, with Adam standing there all rumpled and messy and waiting for him.

“You okay?” Adam asked, his voice going soft. He walked back over to Luke, his hands sliding up to rest on Luke’s shoulders. “You looked a little lost for a second.”

Luke shook his head. “It’s just—nothing. I’m just really glad you’re here.”

Adam smiled, something that managed to be both sly and shy in its nature. “Did you think this morning that you’d be saying something like that?”

Luke huffed out a laugh. “No, this morning I thought I’d be saying something along the lines of fuck off and maybe punching you.”

“Well, lucky me it didn’t pan out that way.”

“When a guy is man enough to apologize when he messes up, it goes a long way,” Luke replied, those last words mumbled against Adam’s mouth as they started to kiss again. He clung to Adam a little desperately, wanting him to stay, wanting this to not be the last night. He’d just started to get to know Adam, and he wanted time to do all of that, to keep unwrapping him like a present.

Luke walked Adam backwards until the back of his knees hit the bed, and then Luke slid down to kneel in front of him. “Now we can finally get these ruined pants off of you.”

“This suit is definitely done for,” Adam acknowledged, but then his breath hitched in his chest as Luke took him in hand and began to nose around, licking at his thighs and nuzzling at his half-hard cock.

“Fuck.” Adam’s head tilted back and his mouth dropped open. “Oh, fuck, Luke—”

Luke chose that moment to swirl his tongue around the head and then take as much of Adam into his mouth as he could. Adam swore again, his hands scrambling to dig into the sheets around him. Luke had to suppress a chuckle as he slid a hand down his own pants, working both himself and Adam up to a proper rhythm.

“Wait, what—oh hell no.” Adam grunted, seeing what Luke was doing, and the next thing Luke knew he was being shoved back onto the floor and Adam was crawling between his legs. “I’ve wanted to suck you off from the second I saw you, asshole. You don’t get to have all the fun.”

Adam then demonstrated what appeared to be a total lack of a gag reflex.

Luke’s head fell back against the floor and he panted harshly, all the wind knocked out of him as he was enveloped in the tight, hot, flexing heat of Adam’s mouth. “Holy fuck.”

Adam pulled off. “I’m a bit of a perfectionist,” he admitted. “I bought a dildo and practiced until I could deep throat, because I was paranoid about being bad at blowjobs.”

Luke wished to high heaven that he’d been around to get a look at that, but then Adam, with a cheeky grin, was sliding back down around him and Luke couldn’t find it in him to think about anything else anymore. It had been so long since he’d had sex of any kind, and now after being inside the hot clench of Adam’s ass he was inside Adam’s equally hot mouth, and he couldn’t even fucking think. It was like his brains were starting to leak out of his ears.

Adam worked him over slowly, planting his hands on Luke’s hips so that Luke couldn’t drive up into the heat of his mouth like he wanted to, and had to settle for breathing heavily through his nose to keep himself from finishing too soon. He wanted to end the night joined with Adam again, but that wouldn’t happen if Adam kept sliding his tongue up the underside of Luke’s cock like that.

He slid a hand into Adam’s dark, curling locks, which were only getting curlier now that he was sweaty and had been out on the humid dance floor, and tugged gently. “C’mon, c’mon, I don’t want this to be over yet.”

Adam made a noise that sounded an awful lot like a petulant whine, but he pulled off and let Luke manhandle him back onto the bed. It had been long enough—he wanted to see Adam naked.

They made short work of one another’s clothes, but the moment that he got Adam’s shirt off of him, he could tell that Adam was uncomfortable. “What is it?”

Adam swallowed, apparently not expecting Luke to be able to tell. He looked from himself to Luke and back again. “Just—you.”

Luke looked down at himself, noticed the muscles from working out and playing football with the guys every weekend, and then looked at Adam. There was a large difference in their frames, and Adam… Adam, Luke realized, was self-conscious.

“Hey,” he said, pushing Adam until he was completely sprawled out underneath Luke on the bed. He kissed Adam’s chest. Then did it again. And again. “When I said you’re gorgeous, I meant it.”

Adam smiled up at him, a little bewildered but happy about it, and let Luke kiss his way slowly down until Luke was mouthing at Adam’s inner thighs, pushing them farther apart.

“Do me a favor,” Luke rumbled, putting his hands on Adam’s knees so that he was forced to keep his legs parted, “Try not to squirm too much.”

Adam looked like he was going to ask what that meant, but then Luke was nosing down behind and licking around and into his entrance, Adam gasping in surprise and pleasure. Luke worked him over, until he felt the muscle completely relaxing and he could slide in a finger, keeping at it until Adam was gasping and crying out above him.

It was all that Luke could do not to yell in triumph. He pulled back only when Adam made a noise that was close to a sob, his whole body trembling around Luke. Luke sat up, realizing only then how hard he was breathing.

“You ready?” He asked, just to be a bit of an asshole.

Adam reached around behind him, found a pillow, and threw it at him. “What do you think?”

Luke laughed, reaching into the bedside drawer to grab supplies. He felt almost dizzy with how turned on he was, desperate to get back inside of Adam and feel him coming around him.

Next time, he thought, he’d have them so that Adam was on all fours and Luke could drape himself over Adam’s back, without an inch of space between them. He wanted that closeness, that blending between where he ended and Adam began. Right now though, he wanted to see Adam’s face again when he came.

The thought of ‘next time’ being strange didn’t actually register until later. At the moment, he was too busy carefully lining himself up and sliding inside. He didn’t hesitate as much as he had the first time, knowing now how well Adam could take it and feeling for himself how relaxed Adam was after rimming him.

“Perfect,” he sighed, bending Adam almost in half so that he could kiss him. Adam didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, reaching up to anchor his hand around the back of Luke’s neck and kiss him properly.

The pace was rougher than in the bathroom but also not as hard, the angle different. Luke couldn’t quite slam into Adam in the same way, but he didn’t care. It was just as amazing as before, and he wanted it to last forever so that he could keep feeling this sensation of tight heat and slick, perfect grip and ownership. Although who was owning whom was hard to say—was it him, entering and looming over Adam, or was it Adam, drawing him in and enveloping him?

In the end it didn’t matter. It felt amazing, and he could tell by the way Adam was all but begging him, that it was amazing for him as well. Luke drove in again and again, grinning with savage pride as Adam had to clap a hand over his mouth to keep the noises in and prevent them from waking up Seth.

“That’s it,” Luke growled at him. He’d personally never been very vocal in bed, except for the dirty talk, because he loved how said dirty talk got his partners all riled up. Adam was wonderfully loud though, full of grunts and moans and gasps, and Luke loved it.

He reached between them and pulled on Adam’s cock. Adam let out a final cry, and then—oh fuck, that was hot—bit down on his hand as he came, his body jerking. Luke could feel Adam clench around him and that was it, he was gone too, all but collapsing as he was overtaken by the rush of pleasure he’d missed so badly.

Luke rolled to the side as his orgasm faded, reaching out to take Adam’s hand away from his mouth. “Careful,” he said, his voice sounded rough and raw. “You don’t want to hurt yourself.”

Adam’s teeth marks stood out on the pale skin of his palm and Luke ran his thumb soothingly over it. Adam made a noise of contentment and turned, burrowing into Luke’s side the way he had when they were walking in the cold.

That was when Luke remembered his thought of ‘next time.’ Right then, as he wormed his arm underneath Adam’s body to tug him in closer, like it was nothing, like they did this all the time.

“Stay,” Luke whispered into Adam’s hair. He wanted it so badly. He wanted to keep exploring this dynamic that they were building, one that felt so natural and powerful. He’d never had this with anyone else. That was part of why it had been so easy to break hearts and play around. He’d never truly felt connected to someone in that way, the way that he felt with Adam. “Please, stay.”

There was silence in response. For a moment, Luke thought that Adam was ignoring him, but then he heard the lightest of snores breathed into his shoulder.

He chuckled. Adam had just completely passed out on him.

Luke slid out from beside Adam and padded into the bathroom, getting a washcloth so that he could quietly clean them up. As he pulled the covers up over them and got back into bed, Adam immediately rolled towards him, seeking him out for heat and comfort even in sleep. Luke wrapped his arms around him and tucked Adam back into his side.

He’d just ask Adam tomorrow morning.