Page 82 of Diamond Ring
“Would it feel good?”
“Um, probably?” Though the most anyone’s tried is an old hookup who thought Jake’s issues were psychosomatic and got frustrated and quit after Jake’s body refused to cooperate. “You might be down there a while.”
“Oh, no”—Alex rolls his eyes in mock affront—“having to kneel.”
Jake laughs, then tilts his head back, enjoying the warmth of the water, the uncareful descent of Alex’s mouth, the scrape of his teeth against his belly. The drip off the overhang of Alex’s brow, and the dark line of his eyelashes. How he wraps Jake’s cock in his assured grip.
Alex sits back on his heels. “If you don’t like something...”
“I’ll be sure to file a complaint.”
Alex shakes his head, laughing, then takes Jake’s cock in his mouth. It’s wet, warm, different with no particular end goal in mind, with Alex on his knees like he’s content to stay there, with the bar of his arm across Jake’s hipbones. Alex sucks him, slightly, enough that it tickles. Jake lets out a noise, one that’s definitely not a giggle, sound bubbling out of him.
Alex pulls back, not stopping the motion of his hand. “You good?”
“Uh-huh.” Though Jake feels better than that, here, where it’s easy to pretend the world begins and ends with them. “How long would you do this for?”
“As long as you wanted.” Said shruggingly.
“It might not lead anywhere.”
“Not sure if you’ve heard, but the point of sex is to feel good.”
“That why you had that nipple ring?”
Alex laughs. “You been thinking about it this whole time?”
“Only the past ten years or so.” And how Alex seemed so different from anyone Jake grew up with, so sure of himself, even if they were both young and scared and impossibly hopeful.
“I could probably get it redone.”
“It’ll get caught on your gear.”
Alex rises. “Not if I retire.”
A thought too serious for right now, the steam evaporating all Jake’s worries. “I want to fuck.”
Alex eyes the stall around them. “Might get slippery.”
“Yeah, I don’t really want to explain a shower sex injury to the team.” Jake doesn’t addagain, because that’s something that happened six years ago, a slip that started out funny then made it so he couldn’t pitch for a month.
Alex cuts off the water, then gropes outside the curtain for a towel. Jake reaches for it, but Alex shakes his head. It shouldn’t be anything, him dragging a hotel towel over Jake’s skin, but it is. Alex kisses him a few times in between swipes, not seeming to mind that he’s still dripping wet. Kisses that intensify—a press of Alex’s lips to his jaw, to the beating pulse of his throat—and Alex pulls back only to dry himself off hastily, then tosses the towel onto the bathroom floor with a wet smack.
Back in the room, the bedspread is still gross, enough that Jake yanks it off and tosses it to the floor, about to reach for the lube, when Alex wraps a hand around his wrist. “Did you bring your necklace?” Asked quietly, with a faintly embarrassed look that transforms into something heated when Jake says, “It’s in the pocket of my suitcase.”
“Wait here.” Alex digs around for a second, coming back with Jake’s necklace box and the other thing Jake tossed in his bag on a whim—the toy he bought that he cleaned and charged but hasn’t yet brought himself to use.
“We don’t have to,” Alex adds.
Jake reaches for the jewelry case, which opens with a snap. “Did you want to do it?” Even in the hotel air-conditioning, with his skin still shower-damp, he goes hot when Alex nods.
Jake sits on the edge of the bed; Alex knee-walks over to him, taking the jewelry case. A push of his hand into the hair at the base of Jake’s neck, then the slither of his necklace chain, the familiar weight of his pendant.
“Can I see?” A whisper, like the city might overhear them, and Jake lies back on the bed. Alex studies him for a minute, and Jake expected him to go for his own cock, or for Jake’s. Instead he just looks.
“I want to make a mess of you,” Alex says. “Then I want to spend the night.”
“Yeah.” Jake’s voice is hoarse, the weight of his necklace like a palm at his throat. “I want that too.”
