Page 53 of Someone Like You

We settled onAlien, which Brody had shockingly never seen before. He got a plethora of snacks from his secret closet, and I learned that he had a super,supersweet tooth because half the stock of food was actually candy. We settled on the couch, drew the blanket over us, and turned out the lights. Draped over his body as I was, I felt every moment he tensed up, every shocked inhale, every clench of his fingers around my waist. It was the best way to watch a movie, wrapped up in Brody.

At one point, the whole house practically shook as the front door slammed, and I lifted my head to look at Brody. “That must’ve been Gavin leaving.”

“Good riddance,” was all he said.

Halfway through the movie, both of our phones went off. It was the school announcing that classes for the next day were canceled and to stand by regarding any further cancellations. The weather app was predicting the storm to hang around for two more days, which was crazy. It was mid-March, but I guess stranger things had happened. Wewerein northeast Pennsylvania.

When Ripley was running around looking for Jonesy, Brody’s grip on me was almost painful. He didn’t relax until the end credits, when I asked, “So what’d you think?”

“I think we should watch the next one.”

I patted his cheek. “Good. The next one is the best one.”

Brody grabbed my hand and laid his palm over it, holding me to his cheek. “I want you,” he said.

“I mean, I got that part,” I replied, rubbing down onto his erection. We’d both been half hard the entire movie.

He laughed and said, “No, I mean I want you for myself. I want todateyou, Isaac.” He licked his lips, watching my face carefully. “Go out with me.”

To say I was stunned would be an understatement. I was floored. I was falling so hard and fast through that ground that I was pretty sure I’d be melting into the earth’s core in no time. “W-what?”

He turned his face and kissed the center of my palm, and my heart started doing crazy gymnastics in my chest. “I really like you, Isaac. From the first day I met you, I’ve liked you. And I know our beginning wasn’t…ideal, but I just…I like being around you, I like your sense of humor, how smart you are, how even though you pretend to be hard and prickly on the outside you’re just a huge softie underneath all that. And I feel like maybe you like me too?” He’d started out confident as hell, but now there was doubt in those beautiful gray eyes, in the slight hitch of his voice. “I don’t know, if you don’t—don’t want something like that with me, that’s fine, too, I just thought?—”

I slid my palm over his mouth and put him out of his misery. That little ball of hope had inflated and burst, spreading warmth through every organ. “Yeah,” I breathed out. “Yes. I think—I like you, too, Brody. I just never—I didn’t think you’d want someone like me likethat.”

“What do you mean someone like you?” His words were a little muffled, and I moved my hand away.

“Just…you know. Someone as messed up as I am.”

His brows drew together and he looked back and forth between my eyes. “You think you’re messed up?”

I let my gaze fall to his throat and tugged my bottom lip between my teeth. “Yeah. Because I am. I have PTSD and even though I still go to therapy, it’s not the end-all, be-all for that kind of thing. I’ll always have issues. My therapist likes to say ‘There is no timestamp on trauma, Isaac,’ but I hate that because I wish there fuckingwas. I wish it had an expiration date. Ihatethat what he did to me has stayed with me every single day. I hate that even after eight years, I can’t escape him. It’s gotten a little better, and maybe it’ll continue to get better, especially knowing that he’s gonna go to prison, and—god, Brody, I just…” I trailed off, too many emotions and too many thoughts buzzing through me. Of course Brody knew this about me. Of course he’d taken it into consideration when he’d asked to date me. But I still felt like…like I was less of a person because of my trauma. Like there were so many better options for him out there.

“Isaac. Look at me,” he said, his fingers gently framing my chin and urging me to lift it. When our gazes collided, I was swept away by the calm gray, settled and back on solid ground. “You are an amazing human being. You are,” he said fiercely when I started to shake my head. “Not only for surviving what you did, butthriving. When I look at you, I don’t see your past. I don’t see someone who’s stuck in their own pain. I seeyou. I see the beautiful, kind, intelligent, mess of a person you are. You are not what happened to you, Isaac. You’re justyou. And when you have bad days, when you feel like you can’t even get out of bed, I want to be there for you. Just like I was yesterday. And I want to know more about you. I want to learn everything. You’ve got me so wrapped up in you, Isaac, I think I’d do anything for you. And I want you to give me a chance to prove to you that I can be someone you can depend on. Let me take care of you, sweetheart.”

Good god, this man was incredible. He would do anything for me? The feeling was mutual, I was pretty sure. I framed hisface with my hands, stroking my thumbs along his cheekbones. “You’ve already proved that. Again and again. I think I’m the one who needs to do a little reciprocating.”

Brody bit his lower lip and my eyes greedily watched. “Yeah, you’re kind of a selfish lover.”

I stared at his mouth for a moment longer, then gasped and sat up when his words registered. “How dare you! I’ve—” I closed my mouth when I realized he was right. Brody had given and given and given and I’d just sat there and taken it all, like a gluttonous asshole. “Well,” I backtracked, “maybe I could stand to be a little more generous. It’s just that you’re so—sogoodatgiving.”

He chuckled beneath me, sliding his hands up my thighs. “And I do love giving you whatever you want.”

“Let me suck your dick,” I said. I’d never done it before, but I could totally do this. I could. My palms were just sweating because it was hot down here.

His hands grasped my hips and he thrust his dick against my ass. “Will you go out with me, sweetheart? Let me take you on a date?”

I propped my hands on his pecs and squeezed. “Yes,” I gasped as he kept pumping his hips up and sliding his thick length along the crease of my jeans.

“Good. You’re so damn beautiful, Isaac. You’re gonna look so pretty with my cock in your mouth.” His voice had become huskier, his eyes a little hooded; his sexiness increased tenfold when he was aroused.

By me. I was the one making him like this.

And I fuckinglovedthat.

His eyes were full of so much heat as he watched me slide backwards down his body. He groaned when I grabbed the waistband of his sweatpants, lifting his hips to help me slide them down. When his cock was freed, I just stared at it. Atthe long, thick, gorgeous length of it. He was hard as steel, a vein running down one side. The head was a deep, dark red, the slit glistening with precum. I glanced up at him, and he was watching me with a hunger in his gaze that sent a flood of excitement down my spine.

“Will this be the first time you’ve done this, baby?” His words were soft, a murmur that drifted along the fine hairs on my body, raising them like electricity.