Page 9 of Unicorn Unashamed

Curtis made a face. “I’m just saying. You should go for it. It’s been your dream to find someone you could really talk to along with kiss—”

“Curtis, come on.”

“Fine,” Curtis grumbled. “But let the record show that I’m not fucking happy about it. You deserve someone in your life. And he seemed like a good guy. Did I mention he was totally into you—”

“That is literally the opposite of laying off.”

Curtis blew out a breath. “Okay, okay, fine. I mean it this time. I’m done.”

“Thank you.”

“Now are you coming over or not?”

Raymond rolled his eyes. “You’re in town for a couple days, right? We can do something tomorrow too. I should go home and try to get some sleep. Besides, you probably don’t want to keep Simon waiting any longer.”

“We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you.”

“We’re not doing either,” Raymond snorted, “Because I’m going home and going to bed.”

Curtis chuckled. “It was good to see you in person, man.”

“Same to you,” Raymond said, pulling him in for a hug before turning to his car.

The drive home didn’t take very long, but in Raymond’s opinion, it was still too much time alone in his car with his thoughts. He kept circling back to the dinner, and Josh, and Curtis’s nudging and Josh’s laughter and the easy conversation and Josh—

He got home just as the sky opened up, fumbling with his key in his hurry to get inside without getting soaked.

He made it inside damp but not drenched, so he headed straight to his bedroom to shed his clothes, pull on some shorts, and go to brush his teeth.

Raymond was sliding into bed a few minutes later, but his body—usually well trained and able to fall asleep quickly—still thrummed with nervous energy. He tossed and turned in bed, unable to get Josh out of his head, and as the minutes ticked by and he was still unable to fall asleep, he started getting worried. The longer it took him to pass out, the harder it would be to start his day tomorrow.

Raymond bit his lip. Sometimes the only way to get his body to stop thrumming and calm down for the night was to jerk off, but as his hand crept underneath his waistband, only one person was on his mind.

It was harder to dismiss your wants late at night and all alone.

Once the image of Josh was behind his eyelids, Raymond couldn’t unsee it. He palmed himself to the thought of Josh’s long fingers and his perfect red mouth. And Raymond had the privilege of regularly seeing Josh out of breath and sheened with sweat… it wasn’t hard to imagine him affected like that for another reason—spread out and looking gorgeous, writhing against Raymond as they kissed, as Raymond roamed his hands over Josh’s body, as Josh touched him in turn—

He was hard and aching fast, stroking himself as he pictured Josh’s eyes, hazy with arousal, lips swollen from kisses, begging Raymond to touch him. And how could Raymond do anything but oblige, track his fingers down between Josh’s legs, stretch him open while Josh fell apart. Sinking into him, going slowly to savor it, or maybe Josh liked it a little rougher, telling Raymond to take him hard and fast, whatever Josh wanted—whatever gave him the most pleasure—

Raymond came hard, shuddering through the aftershocks, unable to help but fantasize what Josh might look like, what he might sound like—

The fantasy broke when Raymond tried to end it, tried to stop from thinking about what he wanted to happen after. Cleaning Josh up, curling around him to sleep. Making him food in the morning. Having him—having him. And then it lasting.

“Fuck,” he whispered in the quiet of his room, clean hand coming up to rub at his face.

Normalcy. He’d see Josh in a couple of days and everything would be fine, and Raymond would act normal, and nothing would change.

***

Even though Josh had had a great time Monday night, he woke up Tuesday feeling all out of sorts. Kind of sore and achy, with an unpleasant pounding behind his eyelids. It felt almost like being hungover, but that made no sense. He hadn’t had anything to drink last night at all. What the hell?

It clicked once he connected the simmering underneath his skin and the restless that made him want to pace his apartment. Virile period. Duh. He must just be feeling things a little harder than usual.

Knowing why he wasn’t feeling great actually helped a little bit. Made him remember to take all his meds, anyway, and to make sure to keep hydrated.

It was bad enough by late afternoon, though, that he put some serious consideration into going out and trying to find someone for the night. He wasn’t a stranger to one-night stands, after all. It wasn’t like there was any harm in it.

But he also didn’t exactly want to. Which was weird. Josh was cool with casual. He really was. He kind of had to be, what with his circumstances.

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