Page 72 of Just a Footnote

“Just fuck me!” Aiden finally orders him, lifting his hips to goad Liam on.

Pearly white teeth appear when Liam grins down at him. The sight makes Aiden swallow, just a little, afraid that maybe he’s played the game all wrong this time. Liam bends over, capturing Aiden’s wrists in an almost too painful grip, holding them over his head as his pace becomes frenzied. He’s almost oversensitive at this point, his orgasm having ebbed back and forth too many times.

But then Liam tucks his head between Aiden’s neck and shoulder, placing a bite there that borders between fierce pleasure and exquisite pain. He gasps, arching up off the bed, forcing Liam even deeper inside him. Fingers tighten on his right thigh to bring it up higher. The change in angle makes stars burst behind Aiden’s eyes at the same time his orgasm rips from him.

“Fuck.”

Aiden’s body goes boneless as his orgasm rushes through him. He feels Liam thrust a few more times before he lets out a long, satisfied moan against the sweaty skin of Aiden’s neck. Liam collapses on top of him. Aiden runs his hands over Liam’s sweat-slicked back as he presses his lips to Liam’s sweaty hair. This is familiar, this is what Aiden knows, what he’s been missing all this time. His body never really feels like his ownunless he’s with Liam like this. Before Liam, he never enjoyed touching after sex, but he’s actually come to like it with Liam. Makes him feel more connected, like it wasn’t just an act, like they said something to each other with their bodies.

Liam gently pulls out, but Aiden can’t hold back the wince. Liam disposes of the condom before returning to lay down beside Aiden on the destroyed bed. They lay silently for a long time, side by side in the bed, just their arms touching.

“When will I see you next?” Liam asks, voice soft and low in the way it is when he’s afraid of the answer he’ll get back.

“Maybe for the playoffs,” Aiden warily admits.

“That’snextyear,” Liam whines. “That’s so fucking far away.”

“Yeah.”

Liam turns over, propping himself up on his elbow to look down at Aiden. The look in his eyes is too much for Aiden so he looks away, unable to hold his gaze. He lets Liam look at him though, lets the feel of that gaze linger over his body like a touch. The moment is made even better when Liam’s fingers start to paint circles on his chest, bringing him back into his own body touch by gentle touch.

“Do you miss me when we’re apart?” Liam asks quietly. Aiden snaps his head towards Liam. The question is so unlike him, so unlike them, that it unsettles him a little.

“Like a lung,” Aiden answers honestly despite himself.

Liam makes a wounded noise before leaning down to kiss Aiden tenderly. It’s too soft. Too gentle. But Aiden reaches up to cup Liam’s jaw anyway, making it even softer somehow, too tender. Liam pulls away to bury his face in the crook of Aiden’s neck. Quiet settles over them like a warm blanket. Only the sound of their breaths echoes in the air. Aiden wishes he could bottle up this moment to live in forever. Liam sweet and satiated in his arms. Belonging to no one else. In this sweet moment, Liam belongs to him.

Liam pulls away with a mischievous smile. “I have an idea.”

“Your ideas are always bad.”

Liam rolls over to grab a hotel pen off the nightstand. His pink tongue darts out as he carefully grabs Aiden’s wrist. The tip of the pen pushes down on his skin for a brief moment. When Liam pulls away there is a small heart drawn on the lifelines of his wrist where his veins carry his blood.

“There. I’ll be with you for a few days if you’re careful when you wash it.”

Aiden’s heart fucking hurts. His heart is too many sizes too big, it’s going to explode out of his chest. He stares up at Liam, not caring how his face must look. Liam tilts his head at him. Aiden surges up to take Liam’s mouth in a punishing kiss. They burn the night away kissing between rounds of lazy sex. This time means more to Aiden than he knows it should. Liam shouldn’t mean everything to him but he somehow does.

He leaves in the early hours of morning with Liam’s soft snores following him out of the room. The city is still awake outside. He pauses in front of a twenty four hour tattoo shop, looking down at the sloppily drawn heart on his wrist. Seems like an easy decision to him.

“Want a tattoo?” A guy asks from the counter.

Aiden swallows against all his emotions. “Yeah. Do you have anyone available?”

“Sure, man. What do you want?”

Aiden holds his wrist out for inspection. “This.”

The guy smiles, eyes soft and knowing, then nods for Aiden to follow him into the back of the shop. It doesn’t take long for him to get set up. He has to sign a few forms, then grits his teeth when the guy presses the tattoo needle to his skin. It doesn’t actually hurt. The pressure is more irritating than anything else.

“She must be special,” the guy comments once he’s done.

“He.”

“My bad, dude. Still stands. You must love him a lot.”

Aiden’s heart hurts, he wants to scream, but instead he replies, “I do.”

An hour after he stepped into the shop, he leaves with care instructions and cellophane wrap over his new tattoo. The tattoo was reckless and wild and yet it calms Aiden in a way nothing ever has. Maybe it’ll remind him, someone, at one point, had cared enough about him to put their mark on him.

---