Jeremy
I could still hear Kevin cursing me under his breath and coming up with more creative ways to get back at me than I’d heard in a long time as he finished getting dressed in the bedroom. It probably would have helped if I’d let him calm down and shower by himself. But I’d been waiting months to plug him like that, and letting him out of my sight while he was naked wasn’t going to happen.
Deciding that going in to talk to him would be a bad idea, I stepped away and headed back out to the living room. He was too tempting when he was frustrated with me—and plugged was even better. Yup, going in would be a bad idea.
But damn, what a way to go.
The knock on the door saved me from myself. Glancing over at the clock on the stove, I silently cursed. Where had the afternoon gone? After he’d finally given in to his need for sleep, I’d sat down to get a bit more work done, then bam, the day was over. Heading to the door, I opened it and tried to look innocent.
Maddox started laughing. “It sounded like you were killing him.”
Bryan sighed, rolling his eyes. “You weren’t supposed to mention it.”
“I never promised that.” Maddox grinned. “Besides, we’ve even learned some new curse words in the last half hour. I couldn’t leave it alone.”
Laughing, I let them in. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Bryan gave me a disbelieving look as he started walking over to the couch. “We got you the gag for a reason.” Once he realized what he’d said, his face went bright red, and he glared at Maddox. “You’re a bad influence.”
“I was thinking the same thing earlier.” Sounding slightly sarcastic, Kevin came out of the bedroom, looking cleaned up and relaxed. Nothing like the sexy plugged man who’d just been humping me in the shower. “You guys finally done with your exams too?”
“Yup.” Bryan curled up next to Maddox and sank into him. “The exhaustion is finally settling in, but so is the guilt. I’m starting to think I should have taken some summer classes.”
Kevin leaned against the wall by the hallway and shifted like he couldn’t get comfortable. “I thought you were going to be working more hours for Dr. Sheppard?”
“I am, but it feels like I should be doing more.” He frowned and his head fell back to rest on the couch.
“I’ve already told him that focusing on his job this summer is the best idea, but he won’t believe me.” Maddox turned his head and gave Bryan a peck on the forehead. “Someone thinks he’s slacking off.”
“That’s crazy. Taking a break is good for everyone, and even if you want to look at it from a purely practical standpoint, having more you can put on your résumé and a better hands-on understanding of the profession can only help your studies as you get deeper into your major.” For some people, not taking summer classes would have been stupid, but for Bryan, it made sense.
Even Maddox thought so, and not just due to Bryan’s résumé. I’d given Maddox a ride home from campus last week when Bryan had their car, and he’d let it slip that he was hoping it would give Bryan a chance to talk to Dr. Sheppard more about the things that were still eating at him.
They hadn’t hidden the fact that Bryan was not only working for the therapist but that he’d wanted to actually be able to sort through some of his issues. Bryan just hadn’t made it a priority, and Maddox thought that having the summer off would give Bryan a chance to focus on himself.
Considering Kevin and I saw Dr. Sheppard on a regular basis, I thought it was a good idea. I’d been skeptical at first, but having someone to talk to who understood what we were going through, and who could relate to our lifestyle, helped tremendously. I don’t know where we would have been if we’d had to push through the last year completely alone.
Kevin sighed. “I’m the idiot who should have taken the summer off.”
Bryan laughed. “You need some sleep and you’ll feel differently.”
“Hey, he took a nap.” Just not that long, but I’d kind of worn him out afterward.
Bryan shook his head like I’d said something stupid. Maddox laughed, not willing to let the comment slide. “That totally didn’t count.”
Kevin might have blushed a little, but he looked more proud than embarrassed. “It was an interesting afternoon.”
Bryan was doing his best to ignore the sexual innuendo. “You guys still up for pizza and a movie?”
“Yes.” I glanced over at Kevin who still hadn’t sat down. “Someone who shall remain nameless decided that partying and going out didn’t sound like that good of an idea after all. And after I got so excited about seeing if the giggling girls had something fabulous going on.”
Kevin started laughing. But that must have jostled the plug, because he quickly tried to get control of himself and I heard a sharp inhale from him that everyone else tried to ignore. “They stopped me in the elevator the other day. Evidently, they’re heading back home for the summer and wanted to know if we wanted to go to their party. They honestly seemed confused when I told them we had plans.”
That was weird. “Was that before Wednesday or after?”
“After. Why?” He gave me a curious look.
“Because they’d already asked me, and I told them the same thing. What were they thinking?”
“Why would they do that? Keeping bugging you until you give in, maybe?” Maddox’s eyebrows pulled together and I could see the ideas turning over in his mind. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“I thought they’d given up after we went to that one party and turned every other invitation down, but it’s just gotten worse now that summer’s almost here.” Kevin shrugged then grinned. “It seems to get worse around major holidays. Like salesmen or those vacation calls about cruises.”
“They’re the used car salesmen of the building that’s for sure.” Bryan laughed. “We’ve gotten caught a few times but nothing like you guys. The mean-looking one completely ignores us like we’re bugs or something.”
“Weird.” Now that had me curious. “She’s the worst with us.”
“You guys are just hotter, I guess.” Maddox winked at Bryan. “We’re clearly the ugly ducklings of the building.”
“I’m not buying that.” I wasn’t going to keep pushing and sound like a conspiracy theorist, but something about those girls hadn’t felt right from the beginning. “But I’ll admit I’m not the best at figuring women out. I’m still trying to understand why that girl in the coffee shop got so mad.”
Kevin laughed. “Because she’d been trying to get your attention for like ten minutes. You totally missed it.”
“I couldn’t have missed it enough for her to have been that frustrated.” I hadn’t really missed all of it. Most of it, yes, but I’d thought if I ignored the flirting she’d get the hint or get bored. Clearly, I’d missed the signal that she was insane.
Kevin snorted but refused to fall down that rabbit hole of a conversation again. “What movie did you pick out? They got the pizza, and you said you’d find something for us to watch.”
We’d recently splurged and started paying monthly for more TV shows and movies. It wasn’t a full cable package, but it was good when the guys came over. However, picking out something had gotten a lot harder. That was how I’d ended up stuck with the job. Kevin had claimed to be too busy to deal with it.
“I looked forever, but there were too many choices.” They all started laughing and the general consensus was that I hadn’t looked for one at all. “So how about we binge-watch something? Like we do over at Bryan’s mom’s house.”
“Binge…shit. Your mom.” Maddox sat up, the excited words not making enough sense for anyone else to follow, even though we could see he was frustrated.
“Huh?” Bryan was looking at him, confused, so I didn’t feel bad about missing something.
Maddox slumped back against the couch. “Your mom called earlier and wanted to talk about plans for the summer. I was trying to finish up some stuff, and I forgot to write it down. I promised her I’d call her back later.”
He glanced over at the clock in the kitchen. “Later might have to be tomorrow. Shit.”
“Do you need to go call?” Kevin gestured toward the TV. “That’ll wait.”
“No, she’ll understand. I just hate doing that to her.”
“You’ve been crazy busy lately. She won’t be mad.” Bryan leaned closer to Maddox, clearly trying to ease some of his stress. “You’ve had three new clients this week, and you’re planning for that meeting. She’s not going to be upset.”
“What summer plans did she want to talk about?” I couldn’t remember him saying anything specific.
Maddox smiled. “She’s thinking of getting some of her girlfriends together and going on a cruise. She said something cheap and last minute, but it sounds great. I don’t think she’s done anything like that…well, since I’ve known Bryan.”
Everyone turned their focus on Bryan who shrugged. “She’s never gone somewhere by herself. A work conference when I was in high school maybe, but that was about it. I think it’d be fun.”
“Sounds like she’s earned a break then.” Kevin’s grin took a wicked turn. “Maybe she’ll do one of those nudist cruises or something ki—”
“Nope, you’re not doing that to me.” Bryan tossed a throw pillow in Kevin’s direction. “You’re not the only one who can plan a good revenge.”
Maddox broke in. Probably so it didn’t devolve into something that would embarrass Bryan. “She also talked about us heading back out to her house for the fourth. She talked about watching the fireworks over the lake.”
Bingo. Bryan completely forgot about finding a way to torture Kevin. “Yes! It’s always awesome. You have to get there early to get a good spot on the beach but it’s perfect.”
“Weren’t you guys there last summer?” I thought they said they’d spent the entire summer at his house.
Bryan started to blush. “We kind of got…distracted and fell asleep.”
“So basically, you guys need supervision so you don’t fuck like rabbits and miss real life?” Another pillow went sailing at Kevin—the teasing must have been too much for Bryan.
“Shut up or we’ll make you sit down.” Bryan frowned, giving Kevin a long look.
I laughed then tried to get the conversation back under control and looked at Maddox, ignoring the two guys who were fighting like five-year-olds. “That sounds like fun. You guys going?”
He nodded. “As long as Bryan doesn’t have any kind of work commitment that we can’t move around. It’s probably too early to know his schedule for that week, but Dr. Sheppard is good about that. Michelle said to invite you both. She said something about barbecuing if Bryan had enough supervision.”
“Hey!” Bryan sat up and gave Maddox an accusing look.
“You honestly don’t think she’s going to let you near fire without someone to make sure the grill doesn’t explode, right?” Maddox had to fight to hide his smile and wasn’t doing a very good job.
Bryan slouched back against the couch. “I’ve been doing great lately. Nothing crazy at all. I even made dinner the other night, and it turned out fine.”
“Yes, it did. Although I’m still not sure how you managed to bu—”
Bryan poked Maddox and gave him a frown. “It turned out fine.”
Mumbling something about naughty boys that I couldn’t quite hear, Maddox made him blush. It was clear they were going to have a good time later. I glanced over at Kevin. “I think it sounds great. What about you? Your classes are going to be done by then, right?”
“Yeah, that should be fine with my schedule.” He shrugged. “I like heading over there, and we didn’t have anything else planned.”
That wasn’t exactly true—there was just nothing planned that he knew about.
I had a surprise for him, but that wasn’t until later in the summer. Pushing my plans to the back of my head, I turned to Maddox. “You guys sure we wouldn’t be in the way?”
“Of course. And Michelle likes to have everyone there, so don’t worry about her. She wouldn’t have invited you if she wasn’t serious about you coming.” Maddox turned to glance over at the TV. “The pizza should be here in a few minutes. Do you want to pick out something now and then wait to start it, or do you want to pause it when the food gets here?”
“You’re assuming it will only take a little while to pick something.” Kevin smirked.
“Is there another season of the zombie show out yet? I think we get that now.” Bryan looked around at everyone.
“No, I don’t think so. Let’s start the book one about the dragons and shit where everyone’s always naked.” Maddox laughed when Bryan gave him a look. “Hey, it’s an accurate description. I saw a meme on the internet about two guys in a dungeon or something.”
“I’m game. I watched a few episodes of the first season, but then my mother canceled that channel. God forbid the neighbors find out I was ‘watching that kind of filth.’ ” If she’d given me some kind of moral lecture, I might have understood but she’d just been concerned about how it would look if her gay son was watching something like that. “Any objections?”
Everyone shrugged or shook their heads. Maybe picking something out would be easier this time. “Naked dungeon sex it is then.”
Bryan blushed but shook his head. Kevin started to open his mouth, but I broke in. “How about you come sit down instead of making him crazy from over there?”
Kevin was saved by the knock on the door. He grinned. Walking slowly, he went over and opened it. Maddox got up and went to pay for it. We’d had the same pizza guy for months—ever since our budgets had looked good enough to get real pizza and not the premade five-dollar cheap ones—so the new guy was a bit startling.
“Hey, man, thanks.” Maddox handed over some cash and took the pizza.
I couldn’t remember his name, but I thought he looked familiar, a junior or senior maybe. I didn’t think I had him in any of my classes, but something about him was nagging at the back of my head.
He grinned, and it came across slightly slimy. “Hey, it’s library guy. You finally finished all those exams you were studying for?”
Kevin was evidently library guy.
He nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to take it a little easier in the fall.”
“Are you taking summer classes?” Pizza-guy leaned against the doorframe and stretched his body out, clearly trying to get Kevin’s attention.
What the fuck?
Wedding ring. Married. He was off limits.
Kind of married but incredibly off limits. What the hell was the guy trying to do? I glanced down at Kevin’s hand. He was wearing the ring I’d picked out. He never took it off.
It’d taken us a while to save up for them, but after the night I slipped it on his hand, he’d never removed it. The guy was barking up the wrong tree. Kevin was mine in ways that ass would never understand.
“Yeah, just one the first session. It’s a history requirement that I want to get out of the way.”
“With Professor Hanson?”
“Yeah. It shouldn’t be too bad.”
Pizza-guy gave him another slimy grin. “Me too. We’ll have to study together.”
Kevin shrugged noncommittally. “Sure. Thanks for bringing the pizza.”
“No problem. Enjoy.” Then with a leering expression that made him look like he was in a bad seventies porno, he waved and headed toward the elevator.
As the door closed, Maddox started to laugh as he brought the pizza over to the coffee table. Kevin looked over at him, confused. “What?”
Locking the door, he walked into the kitchen to grab some paper towels and soda. Maddox just kept laughing and Bryan kept glancing between Kevin and me, ignoring Maddox’s hyena impression, clearly unsure what to say.
“What?”
“He’s a douche.”
Kevin looked down at the pizza then over to the door. My answer evidently wasn’t clear enough.
“The pizza guy?”
Oh, yeah. “Yes. What a dick.”
Kevin still couldn’t connect the dots as he started heading back toward the couch. “Did he do something to the pizza I didn’t see?”
“No.” Maddox gasped out the word as he tried to stop laughing. “He was flirting so bad it was like he was—”
I broke in, my frustration bursting out. “Was from a bad porno. All he needed was one of those big handlebar mustaches.”
Maddox nodded and lost the battle not to laugh again. Bryan just ignored him and looked at Kevin. “He was kind of obvious.”
“And you’re married! What an ass.” I couldn’t move past that part.
Kevin shook his head, not seeing it the same way, but he walked around the table and climbed onto my lap. Straddling my legs, his face got a pinched look, and he mumbled, disgruntled. “Shit, forgot.”
I wrapped my hands around him and palmed his ass, smiling. “I haven’t.”
Gripping my shoulders tight, he looked calm. His fingers were going to leave bruises, but at least the neighbors didn’t know how close he was to coming. He was going to kill me.
Kevin did his best to push away everything that was probably flooding through him and looked at me, smiling. “You have nothing to be jealous over.”
“I’m not jealous. He’s a moron.”
“Suuure.” Kevin dragged the word out and grinned. “He’s just some guy who’s said hi to me when I was studying a few times. He wasn’t even flirting.”
Pulling Kevin close, I gave him a kiss. If it caused the plug to move and nudge his prostate, that was just a happy accident. “You’re mine.”
“You gonna tattoo that on my forehead?”
Grumbling, I gave his ass a pat to punish him for the teasing. “That’s what the ring is for. Should have bought something flashier.”
Before Kevin could reply, Bryan spoke up. “No, you two aren’t starting that shit. Pizza and dragons. Dungeon sex, remember?”
The blush that flashed over his face was enough to distract both of us, and we laughed as Kevin climbed off me to grab the pizza. Shaking my head, I couldn’t resist poking at him. “I think you’re the bad influence here. All this talk about sex.”
“That’s what I keep saying.” Maddox sighed, but his grin ruined the serious, put-upon expression. “He keeps saying it’s me, but I think he’s in denial.”
Bryan looked like the pizza in his hand was going to go flying toward me at any minute, so I reached for the remote and a slice. When he started to relax as I turned the TV on, I couldn’t resist one more. “It’s always the quiet ones you have to worry about.”
Kevin leaned into me, a grin on his face. “I know. You were one of the quiet ones too.”