Chapter Ten
Cay
I knocked on Bryan’s door with one hand on the knob, and it was all I could do not to open it without giving him the chance to answer. He probably wouldn’t mind—we had basically said we were in a committed relationship—but then we’d had a busy week and had to cancel every plan we made. Except for the late-night phone sex.
My tired muscles relaxed when I thought about that, even the ones in my neck that had been stiff from bending over the soundboard for the past eighteen hours. My man gives good phone sex.
The door opened, pulling the knob from my hand and forcing me to stumble forward a step to keep from doing a faceplant.
“Didn’t you hear me say to come in?” Bryan didn’t wait for an answer; instead he grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside.
The door closed behind me, and I sagged against it, sighing.
“No, sorry. Too busy replaying our last phone call in my head.”
His breathless laugh startled me, my reflexes were so slow I hadn’t noticed him coming in for a kiss, but I recovered well, all things considered.
“You should’ve just come over,” he said when he pulled back seconds later. Bry kept talking as he brought me to the couch and sat down. “But I see why you wanted to collapse in the nearest bed. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Just tired.” I stretched my legs and my feet hit a box. A packing box. “Um…are you moving?”
Bryan grinned and his face tightened at the same time, like he was nervous. That expression had my heart knocking against my ribs so hard I felt like I’d pass out.
“Yes. But it’s a good thing. Can I get you something to drink while we talk about it?”
I shook my head and that didn’t help with the dizziness.
“Hey, it’s okay. Cay? Look at me instead of the boxes please?”
I did, but it wasn’t easy. The fact that I found out by seeing boxes in his living room didn’t exactly inspire the warm fuzzies.
“Thank you. I’m moving to Tigard. Well, technically, it’s outside of the city limits, but the address is—It’s a house. A big house, with a barn where the band could rehearse, or maybe we could get Mac a horse. That might be fun.”
Bry stopped with his mouth open and his ears turned red as he slowly closed it. I watched him take a deep breath, and my heart stopped stuttering from fear and went squishy from something else.
“What I meant to say is, BaxCo bought a house in the country—sort of in the country—and I’d planned to ask you to move into it with me. Rosie wanted us to buy it four years ago, but I wasn’t ready. It sounded like a lot of work to keep up a house all by myself—”
He stopped abruptly—again—and grabbed me into a hug. A crushing hug that for some reason made me laugh. My arms shook as I wrapped them around him, but that didn’t seem to bother him.
We laughed together, and I ended with a yawn. I was looking forward to helping him pack, and my man living closer to my new day job. Maybe the new house was close enough that I could go home for lunch.
I woke up on Bryan’s couch, my face pointing right at his adorable ass. So I reached out and grabbed it. He squeaked, which cracked me up, but only for a second. He shut me up fast with a kiss. A few seconds later, he pulled back and smiled.
“Do you want to drive, or should I?” he asked.
“The Merc isn’t dented.”
He grinned and hurried me off my ass and into the passenger seat of his car. Bryan played the local jazz station on the radio and occasionally hummed along in between talking about everything.
Once the dam broke, we couldn’t seem to shut up—he’d just told me about how he’d started collecting vintage jazz vinyl after stumbling onto a record fair where the DJ we were listening to on the radio had been selling records, when the highway slowed down. Finally, I felt awake, and realized it was morning and also that my man’s face was flushed with excitement—Bry looked like he did when he was horny, so he must have more than breakfast on his mind.
“Do you want me to cover my eyes?”
“No.”
He merged into the right lane.
We’re getting close. To whatever it is.
“You could rest your head in my lap. To block your view.”
If I hadn’t been in love, I would’ve fallen right then. Even before his nervous chuckles and adorable blush.
“I was only kidding.”
“I know, babe.”
The house was thirty minutes off the highway, which resembled the middle of nowhere. I wasn’t up on real estate terms, but it looked like a larger version of a little white cottage—a farmhouse from a movie shot in the Midwest, with a small barn off to the side. It even had a white picket fence around a square of weeds that would someday be a lawn again. Once I figured out how to do that. He gave me the nickel tour, and I kept trying to make comments about how cool it all was, but my mouth wasn’t cooperating. We stopped in a large bedroom overlooking a bunch of fruit trees and a field, and we gazed out an old paned window with slightly wavy glass.
“So…what do you think? It’s close to Mac and Val.”
“It’s nice.” I could barely get the words out, and if I hadn’t had my back to him I think I would’ve started bawling.
“Think about sharing it with me?”
“Shit. You already asked me that, didn’t you?” I turned and when our eyes met our breathing got louder. Not in a passionate way, more like a fighting not to cry like little children way. “Would it be creepy if I said I’ve wanted to wake up with you every morning since the first time?”
“No. It would be wonderful.”
What happened next, my back hitting the faded stripes-and-flowers patterned wallpaper beside the window, felt pretty wonderful.
“I’m sorry,” Bryan said, his mouth on my neck. He sucked gently and my answer turned into a low moan. I was afraid I’d hyperventilate when he pressed the length of his body against mine, his dick already hard. He pulled my shirt out of the way to suck on my collarbone, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d ripped it right off me. “I didn’t mean to slam you against the wall.”
“Y-your…nobody’s coming over, are they?”
“No.” Bryan rubbed his thigh against my cock and pushed my shoulders back against the wall at the same time he spoke. The commanding gesture sent a shiver through me, and I slid an inch or so down the wall. But I got the message: stand here.
Bryan scanned my face, and his smile before he kissed me said it all. It held love and gratitude and desire and a future in this house that I could only imagine—all in a few short seconds. And then it turned naughty. He gripped me through my jeans and slowly slid down my body until he was on his knees at my feet. Gentle pressure and the strongest wave of lust I’d felt yet started my hips rocking and my knees shaking. I hoped I could keep my feet long enough.
“You okay standing there? The bed isn’t made, but it’s new…”
I had to force my eyes from his lips to remember to answer. God, his mouth… “I’m—That’s new? You bought a bed already?”
“First thing.” He grinned and leaned back on his heels and I moved forward to maintain the contact.
No way is he getting away from me now.
“It’s a benefit of being a grown-up. Not having to fuck on the floor or in a car. It’s hot to give in to the moment, but my knees aren’t up for being on the floor as long as I’d like to suck your dick.”
“Well, in that case.” I gripped his shoulders and bent to kiss the top of his head. When he nuzzled my stomach, I hooked both hands under his arms and pulled him onto his feet, into my embrace. “Let’s christen that bed.”
I walked him backward as he ripped my shirt off over my head and opened my fly. The bedroom was larger than it had seemed at first glance—the bed too. We bounced onto the mattress, breathless and panting, and shed the rest of our clothes. After a leisurely few moments of kissing, he nipped my bottom lip and told me to stay where I was.
“Where are you going?”
“Not far.” Bryan grinned and turned so his mouth lined up with my dick, and mine with his. It was a perfect match, even with my longer legs. And nobody’s feet hung off the bed.
In the middle of wondering whether the bed was a king, or larger, Bryan closed his lips around the head of my cock and sucked, and all I could think of was him.